Notable Books of 2006  

"The Emperor's Children" by Claire Messud is about three thirty-year-old people who live in New York City. They have been friends since college. They are well educated and intelligent but are not successful.

Julian Clarke and Danielle Minkoff have jobs that are not satisfying. Marina Thwaite has been writing a book she cannot seem to finish.

The young people respect Marina's father who is a famous intellectual, journalist and social activist. He gives advice about life and work but privately violates these ideas. At the end of the book, all of the characters are affected by the terrorist attack on New York City on September eleventh, two thousand one.

Another widely praised book from last year is "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy. It describes the end of the world as we know it. A father and his young son try to survive in a land destroyed by a nuclear disaster. They are two of the last survivors on Earth. They must continue walking along the road so they do not become victims of attacks by other survivors. They must also search for food and safe places to rest.

One critic said this frightening book takes readers to places they do not want to go. It forces them to ask questions they do not want to ask. Others praise the descriptions of the relationship between the boy and the father, and the sights and sounds of their horrible world.

A third best book from two thousand six is "What Is The What" by Dave Eggers. It is a fictional story about a real person, Valentino Achak Deng. He was a refugee from the Sudanese civil war. The book tells his story from the age of seven when soldiers destroy his village and he is separated from his family. He joins the other "Lost Boys" who walk through refugee camps in Ethiopia and Kenya on their way to what they hope will be new lives. Valentino finally reaches the United States as a young man. But he finds life there in some ways more difficult than it was in Africa.