The novel of the century The extraordinary adventure of Les Misérables

THE EVANGELICALS: The Struggle to Shape America, by Frances FitzGerald. (Simon & Schuster, $35.) FitzGerald's fair-minded history focuses on the doctrinal and political issues that have concerned white conservative Protestants since they abandoned their traditional separation from the world and, led by Billy Graham and others, merged with the Republican Party. WHITE TEARS, by Hari Kunzru. (Knopf, $26.95.) Two white hipster record producers create a "classic" blues song as an internet hoax, but it turns out (perhaps) to be real. This dark, complex ghost story about racial privilege, cultural appropriation and (of course) the blues is written with Kunzru's customary eloquence and skill. SEX AND THE CONSTITUTION: Sex, Religion, and Law From America's Origins to the Twenty-First Century, by Geoffrey R. Stone. (Liveright, $35.) A professor's history takes off as it approaches the increasingly tolerant present; Stone can recognize a good anecdote or a colorful character when he sees one. JERZY, by Jerome Charyn. (Bellevue Literary, paper, $16.99.) This novel, based on the life of the celebrity fiction writer and fabulist Jerzy Kosinski, has a light touch but manages to lift heavy subjects. Charyn makes the real and the imagined sound equally plausible. BLITZED: Drugs in the Third Reich, by Norman Ohler. Translated by Shaun Whiteside. (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $28.) The Third Reich was literally an altered state, according to Ohler's provocative account: methamphetamines for the SS and the troops, along with factory workers and housewives; cocaine, steroids, sex hormones and an early form of OxyContin for the Führer. THE NOVEL OF THE CENTURY: The Extraordinary Adventure of "Les Misérables," by David Bellos. (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $27.) Rarely has a work of literature suffered so at the hands of publishers, translators, filmmakers and musical impresarios, as Bellos's impeccably researched and pithily written book demonstrates. It doubles as a fascinating partial biography of Victor Hugo. EVENINGLAND: Stories, by Michael Knight. (Atlantic Monthly, $25.) Knight pays careful writerly attention to the details of desperation among prosperous characters in his impressive story cycle set in and around Mobile Bay, Ala. The ghost of Walker Percy hovers. THE IDIOT, by El if Batuman. (Penguin Press, $27.) An innocent, language-intoxicated teenager, the daughter of Turkish immigrants, arrives at Harvard in the '90s to pursue love and (especially) literature in Batuman's hefty, gorgeous digressive slab of a novel. EARTHLY REMAINS, by Donna Leon. (Atlantic Monthly, $25.) The seemingly unstoppable polluting of Venice's great lagoon is at the heart of this new mystery. The 26 th of Leon's novels featuring Commissario Guido Brunetti, it is one of her best, and saddest. The full reviews of these and other recent books are on the web: nytimes.com/books.

To many individuals, Victor Hugo's Les Misérables evokes the Broadway musical or movie. Bellos (French & comparative literature, Princeton Univ.; Is That a Fish in Your Ear?) acknowledges these adaptations; however, his book elevates this great novel to its rightful place in the literary canon and pays it homage by providing details on how it came to life over the course of many decades-for 12 years, the Romantic French writer did not even work on the manuscript. Like the novel it describes, this "biography" is divided into five parts that address Hugo's life, significant political/historical events of the period, the story's character development, initial reception, and continued popularity. Interesting features include a discussion on "invisible history"-details of everyday life described by Hugo (such as the significance of wearing particular colors) that may not make sense to contemporary readers since these details have been overtaken by time. Also noteworthy is Bello's examination of language, including Hugo's use of Latin, the naming of characters, and the multiple meanings of the title. VERDICT This delightful narrative about a literary masterpiece will be particularly intriguing to readers of French literature and those individuals curious about the true origins of "Les Mis." [See Prepub Alert, 10/3/16.]-Erica Swenson Danowitz, Delaware Cty. Community Coll. Lib., Media, PA © Copyright 2017. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.