two more books to look out for...

courtesy of the Bookseller.

Ian McEwan
Saturday
Jonathan Cape, 3rd February 2005, h/b
Sure to be huge, naturally. The novel is set within a single day in February 2003, as war in Iraq looms. A successful neurosurgeon unwittingly offends a small-time thug in the course of the day; that evening, the thug appears at his luxury home, bent on revenge.

John Updike
Villages
Hamish Hamilton, 3rd February 2005, h/b
A massive literary star, though without the same sales profile as McEwan; the American master returns; telling the life story of Owen Mackenzie, which takes place in villages in Pennsylvania and Massachusetts, and involves many romantic and other relationships wit the female inhabitants of those villages.

The former looks good. The latter - well, we all know Updike is good. But anyone else look at that synopsis and think, oh right. female inhabitants. surprise surprise.