"Zorro" by Isabel Allende - The story of "Zorro" has enthralled
readers and moviegoers alike for almost a century.  Isabel Allende now
tells how Diego de la Vega became Zorro.  In her telling, he was born
in California to a Spanish landowner and Shoshone mother.  His mother
and grandmother taught him Indian virtues and with his test of manhood
comes his totem, the fox (zorro in Spanish). At 16, his father sent
Diego to Barcelona to teach him fencing and educate him in the
European traditions.  He learned swordplay from a master, fell in love
with a woman, and joined a secret society that protected the poor and
innocent.  Upon returning to America, he wass captured and educated
further by Jean Lafitte.  By the time he comes home to California, he
has become a noble savage with cape, mask, cabellero hat, and sword,
out to avenge the injustices of the Spanish dons.  "Zorro" has
received positive reviews with the Miami Herald saying, "This is a
big, sprawling story, superbly told. Allende, who was asked to write
this book by Zorro licensors, succeeds in breathing new life into this
decades-old character so that he may indeed ride again."
Excerpt and all reviews are at:
http://www.reviewsofbooks.com/zorro

"A Long Way Down" by Nick Hornby - At the beginning of "A Long Way
Down," four people gather on a tower block roof nicknamed Toppers
House.  They've each come to jump to their death, but find that
without being alone, none of them are able to complete the act of
suicide.  The novel is told from the perpective of each of the four.
Jess is the daughter of a government minister mourning a sibling's
death and rebelling against a boring bourgeois life.  Martin is a
former TV star disgraced by an affair with an underage girl.  Maureen
is a middle-aged single mother with a severely disabled son.  J. J. is
an American musician whose recently split with both his band and his
girlfriend.  Their common despair provides themselves an instant
support group, but each of them must still deal with the underlying
causes of their suicidal tendencies.  Nick Hornby's book has received
mixed reviews with the Sunday Times saying, "Although 'A Long Way
Down' is not an evenly successful novel, it justifies Hornby's
decision to write about that misery which we have no need to beg or
borrow, and which makes such strong, strange connections between one
desperate soul and the next."
Excerpt and all reviews are at:
http://www.reviewsofbooks.com/long_way_down