The Book You Have To Read (2008)

Robert J. Sawyer, whose 2002 sci-fi novel,''Hominids'' -- about an alternative Earth where Neanderthals survived to the present -- just won the Hugo award, recommends Terence M. Green's Shadow of Ashland (Forge, $13.95).

This novel reminds me of W.P. Kinsella's Shoeless Joe -- it's got that same sense of wonder, gentle implausibility, and deep insight into the human condition. Leo Nolan's mother wants to see her long-lost brother, Jack, one last time before she dies. Jack too seems to desire a connection across time: Letters he posted half a century ago are only now arriving in the mail. I gasped when, years ago, I first read Shadow's final, emotionally charged paragraph, and I find myself gasping again every time I think about it. A true gem.