"In a book that is as humorous as it is learned, author Sutherland tells you how to read fiction better than you do now. He reminds readers how the delicate charms of fiction can be at once wonderful and inspired and infuriating. On one level this is about novels: how they work, what they're about, what makes them good or bad, and how to talk about them. At a deeper level, this book describes what happens when a reader meets a novel. Will a great love affair begin? Will the rendezvous end in disappointment? Taking his readers to the bookshop, Sutherland helps them judge a book by its cover, wondering aloud what genre might be best, even going so far as to analyze one of the latest American bestsellers, all to help the reader choose the novel that is right for him or her." -- From publisher description.