Sunday in The Baltimore Sun, get a look at a couple of novelits poised to break out in 2009. Some excerpts:

Stacey D’Erasmo’s third novel, The Sky Below, has its roots in journalism; its protagonist is an obituary writer for a paper in Manhattan. "You’ve seen me," the book opens. "I’m the guy opposite you on the subway or the bus, I’ve passed you on the street a million times." Her story is not about dissolution but redemption. The Sky Below ... moves back and forth between the real world and the elaborate layers of its characters’ inner life.

Jonathan Littell would be a face to watch even if his second novel, The Kindly Ones, weren’t coming out in the United States. It’s just that kind of book, and he appears to be that kind of writer, ambitious and controversial, unafraid to stir it up. Published in France in 2006, The Kindly Ones is constructed as a memoir, the story of Max Aue, a French intellectual who also happens to be a former Nazi officer. Sprawling, graphic and unrelenting, the book won two of France’s most prestigious literary awards — and HarperCollins reportedly paid $1 million for the American rights. 

Photo of Stacey D'Erasmo by Nina Subin