9. William Kennedy, Changó’s Beads and Two-Tone Shoes (fiction)
The noted novelist’s latest book takes his main character Quinn to Cuba and back. As the NYT observes, it is “his his most musical work of fiction: a polyrhythmic contemplation of time and its effects on passion set in three different eras, a jazz piece unafraid to luxuriate in its roots as blues or popular ballad or to spin out into less melodic territory.”