The Economist's "Pick of the Pile" - 7

Here is the seventh and last section of The Economist’s best of 2008.

Fiction and memoirs

Sea of Poppies: A Novel. By Amitav Ghosh. Farrar, Straus and Giroux; 528 pages; $26. John Murray; ₤18.99.

Breath: A Novel. By Tim Winton. Farrar, Straus and Giroux; 224 pages; $23. Picador; ₤14.99.

Lush Life. By Richard Price. Farrar, Straus and Giroux; 464 pages; $26. Bloomsbury; ₤12.99.

The Secret Scripture. By Sebastian Barry. Viking; 304 pages; $24.95. Faber & Faber; ₤16.99.

Fishing in Utopia: Sweden and the Future That Disappeared. By Andrew Brown. Granta Bookes; 352 pages; ₤16.99.

The Ayatollah Begs to Differ: The Paradox of Modern Iran. By Hooman Majd. Doubleday; 288 pages; $24.95.

Palestinian Walks: Forays into a Vanishing Landscape. By Raja Shehadeh. Scribner; 200 pages; $15. Profile Books; $7.99.

The Three of Us: A Family Story. By Julia Blackburn. Pantheon; 313 pages; $26. Jonathan Cape; ₤16.99.