REVIEWS BY JULIE HALE

Any Human Heart
Presenting the story of a fictional character named Logan Mountstuart through a series of diaries, Boyd's lively novel covers a great deal of territory, all of it unforgettable. A writer whose eventful life spans eight decades, starting in 1906, Mountstuart engages in youthful hijinks during prep school, struggles to find himself at Oxford, drinks too much, marries and remarries and fights to maintain his standing as a gentleman in the midst of a declining empire. His extraordinary adventures take him all over Europe, where he serves as a spy for British Naval Intelligence, fights in the Spanish Civil War and hobnobs with a host of historical figures, including Picasso and Hemingway. Mountstuart's remarkable experiences are vividly and believably rendered by Boyd, who has written a book that's clever, witty, broad in scope and very, very British. A reading group guide is available in print and online at www.randomhouse.com/vintage/read.

Any Human Heart
By William Boyd
Vintage, $512 pages
512 pages, ISBN 1400031001



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Hell at the Breech
Based on true events that took place near the author's childhood home in Alabama, this spirited historical novel, set in the 1890s, follows a group of poor white sharecroppers who wage war on upperclass landowners. The accidental shooting of politician Arch Bedsole causes his cousin Quincy, a poor cotton farmer, to seek revenge. Taking justice into his own hands, Quincy establishes the Hell-at-the-Breech gang and proceeds to harass the county, victimizing those he believes committed the murder and demanding money from dishonest landowners. The gang's violent crusade results in an all-out massacre, affecting everyone in the county—especially Sheriff Billy Waite, who struggles to uphold the law. Recounting this unforgettable chapter in the annals of Alabama history, Franklin mixes fact and fiction to create a provocative and distinctly Southern tale. A reading group guide is available in print and online at www. harpercollins.com/readers.

Hell at the Breech
By Tom Franklin
HarperPerennial, $12.95
336 pages, ISBN 0060566760



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Reading Lolita in Tehran
This poignant memoir from Nafisi, a professor of literature who teaches at Johns Hopkins University, is sure to resonate with readers. A native of Iran, Nafisi left the country to attend university, then returned to become a teacher in Tehran. When she resigned from her school because of its repressive atmosphere, she formed a group with some of her best female students, and they began a secret study of Western literature. The meetings quickly became an outlet for political and personal debate, as the women shared stories of love, marriage and persecution under the Iranian government. Blending their personal anecdotes with wonderful evaluations of the work of Vladimir Nabokov, Jane Austen and F. Scott Fitzgerald, among others, Nafisi's book is a fascinating portrait of the female experience in modern-day Iran and a testament to the redemptive power of literature—a luxury most of us take for granted. A reading group guide is included in the book.

Reading Lolita in Tehran
By Azar Nafisi
Random House, $13.95
368 pages, ISBN 081297106X



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