10 Most Criminally Underrated Books

Letters to Felice, Franz Kafka

Kafka was a total stalker. His missives here are riveting and inadvertently hilarious.

Happy All the Time, Laurie Colwin

In this Manhattan comedy of manners, Colwin wrings magic from ordinary lives.

The Patrick Melrose Novels, Edward St. Aubyn

Sharply serrated portraits of dysfunction in an aristocratic British family so depraved, they make the Lannisters look like the Brady Bunch.

Revolution in the Head, Ian MacDonald

An off-the-charts brilliant book that deconstructs the Beatles song by song.

Catherwood, Marly Youmans

A heart-stopping novel about a mother lost in the woods with her 1-year-old. It's insanity that no one's made a movie out of this.

Actual Air, David Berman

He's an indie musician — frontman for the Silver Jews — and an indie poet, too, with offbeat verse that snaps and sparks with life.

Pobby and Dingan, Ben Rice

A seriously moving novel about an Australian girl who can't find her imaginary friends.

Winner of the National Book Award, Jincy Willett

All of Willett's novels are sardonic and bitingly funny, but this one — about twin sisters, relationships, and books — is the best.

The Interrogative Mood, Padgett Powell

Why is every sentence in this odd little book a question? And how did Powell make it a genuinely great read?

Marbles, Ellen Forney

This graphic memoir — a chronicle of Forney's bipolar disorder — vividly explores the line between creativity and mental illness.

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