Selected by the staff of the Fiction Department from books received in 1997.
- The Price of Land in Shelby · Alberts, Laurie
- The Mercy Seat · Askew, Rilla
- The Black Flower · Bahr, Howard
- Lives of the Monster Dogs · Bakis, Kirsten
- Excession · Banks, Iain M. (SF/F)
- The Untouchable · Banville, John
- The Evening Class · Binchy, Maeve * †
- Midwives · Bohjalian, Chris
- Girls · Busch, Frederick
- Exiles · Caputo, Philip (SS)
- The Reconstruction · Casper, Claudia
- The Conquest · Chadwick, Elizabeth
- Heat Lightning · Cohen, Leah Hager
- Where You Are · Constable, George
- Lost Highway · Currey, Richard
- The Diary of Mattie Spenser · Dallas, Sandra
- The Bone Collector · Deaver, Jeffery †
- Love Warps the Mind a Little · Dufresne, John *
- Hallucinating Foucault · Duncker, Patricia
- When the Sons of Heaven Meet the Daughters of the Earth · Eberstadt, Fernanda
- The Blue Flower · Fitzgerald, Penelope
- Women with Men · Ford, Richard (SS)
- The Mirror · Freed, Lynn
- Neverwhere · Gaiman, Neil (S)
- Pilgrims · Gilbert, Elizabeth (SS)
- The Ordinary Seaman · Goldman, Francisco
- Moonchasers and Other Stories · Gorman, Ed (SS)
- The Deer Mouse · Grant, Ken
- Snow in August · Hamill, Pete
- Let Me Be the One · Harvor, Elisabeth (SS)
- Do the Windows Open · Hecht, Julie (SS)
- Assassin’s Quest · Hobb, Robin (SF/F)
- Bronte · Hughes, Glyn
- A Firing Offense · Ignatius, David *
- A Child Out of Alcatraz · Ison, Tara
- Already Dead · Johnson, Denis
- Le Divorce · Johnson, Diane
- Nashville 1864 · Jones, Madison
- Los Alamos · Kanon, Joseph
- Esau · Kerr, Philip *
- Silver City · Li Rui
- The Falling Boy · Long, David
- Asylum · McGrath, Patrick *
- The Summer House · McLeay, Alison
- Sharpshooter: a Novel of the Civil War · Madden, David
- The Conversations at Curlow Creek · Malouf, David *
- Brandenburg · Meade, Glenn
- The Tenth Justice · Meltzer, Brad
- Fugitive Pieces · Michaels, Anne *
- Ingenious Pain · Miller, Andrew
- Renaissance Moon · Nevins, Linda
- The Dogs of Winter · Nunn, Kem
- The Yellow Admiral · O’Brian, Patrick * †
- The Magician’s Assistant · Patchett, Ann
- Beyond Recognition · Pearson, Ridley
- The Wishbones · Perrotta, Tom
- A Booke of Days: A Novel of the Crusades · Rivele, Stephen J.
- The Devil in Music · Ross, Kate (M)
- Perfidia · Rossner, Judith
- American Pastoral · Roth, Philip †
- The God of Small Things · Roy, Arundhati
- Straight Man · Russo, Richard
- Larry’s party · Shields, Carol
- Her Father’s House · Sinclair, Emma
- Sacrifice · Smith, Mitchell
- The Rose Cottage · Stewart, Mary
- Bear and His Daughter · Stone, Robert (SS)
- West of Venus · Troy, Judy
- Willy Slater’s Lane · Wieland, Mitch
- Leaning Towards Infinity · Woolfe, Sue