German writer Ferdinand von Schirach bases his short-story collection on actual crimes. His tightly wound nuggets aren’t for the squeamish. Case in point: a bit involving members of an eight-piece polka band accused of murder and hiding the body under their stage.

Available at amazon.com, $16.

Yeah, it’s a young-adult novel. So? We’re smitten with Daniel Handler’s lighthearted story (with art by Maira Kalman) that plants you in the middle of a teen breakup. A girl dumps her guy by leaving him a box filled with mundane items collected over the course of their relationship. Ouch.

Available at amazon.com, $12.

So transfixing are the details about a simple Ohio town where tensions rise after a ghastly accident, we read Amelia Gray’s moody little Gothic tale cover to cover one night. Even more compelling are the reflections on love and loss.

Available at amazon.com, $11.

Heidi Julavits takes you to places unknown (a.k.a. the afterlife) in her esoteric detective thriller. The story — about a student who locks horns with her mentor and is forced to reexamine her mother’s suicide — jags through time and space. And gets darker, stranger, and funnier by the page. 

Available at amazon.com, $15.

Chris Pavone mined his experience living abroad to imagine this page-turner about an American expat harboring a secret in Luxembourg. If we told you what happens when it all spirals into a case of international espionage, then we’d have to … you know.

Available at amazon.com, $16.

Italian author Niccolò Ammaniti does a lot in 160 pages, including surprise, humor, and frighten you — sometimes simultaneously. The book follows a 14-year-old boy who sneaks away from his family for a week only to have his estranged sister crash his hideaway. How they learn to get along is the real crux of the story.

Available at amazon.com, $11.

We wondered if Adam Levin could live up to the greatness of his 2010 book, The Instructions. He did. The author parcels ten eccentric and enthralling short stories in his follow-up release. Our favorite: “Relating,” a collection of microsnippets about the way we interact.

Available at amazon.com, $15.

Richard Mason’s protagonist, the drop-dead gorgeous Piet Barol, charmed his way into the hearts of everyone he met in Amsterdam at the turn of the last century. As he sweet-talked his way around the city, ultimately landing as a tutor to a troubled boy, our heart swelled, too.

Available at amazon.com, $16.

It’s not all Do-si-dos and Tagalongs in Tupelo Hassman’s eerily comic debut about a tough little cookie who pretends she’s a Girl Scout to cope with the downtrodden trailer park she lives in. You have to admire a lass who makes a God’s eye when the going gets rough.

Available at amazon.com, $16.

Cristina Alger yanks you back to fall 2008 when New York City was in financial crisis. She expertly laces several stories together to show how a high-society family, attorneys, and journalists scramble to get to the bottom of scandal — or cover it up. Quick! Somebody buy the movie rights.

Available at amazon.com, $17.

We felt like a kid in a candy shop while reading Charlotte Silver’s memoir about growing up in her mom’s Harvard Square restaurant. She shows all the sweetness — baked cakes, candied violets, sparkling conversation — through the eyes of a child. It is a pleasure — and pain once she admits to her inner loneliness.

Available at amazon.com, $17.

In the addictive, gritty novel, two kids from opposite sides of the tracks form an unlikely friendship. If you think you’ve read that plot before, not so fast. Author Amanda Coe adds struggling, dysfunctional adults, who emerge as far more than background characters, to the mix.

Available (March 19) at amazon.com, $16.

Growing up is tough. Just ask debut author Kris D’Agostino, who crafted a smart, funny novel about a disillusioned film school dropout forced to live at home with his knocked-up sister, overachieving older brother, ailing father, and in-debt mother. We wish every coming-of-age story was this mesmerizing.

Available (March 20) at amazon.com, $11.

Melanie Thorne shares a piece of her own personal history in her debut novel about a 14-year-old girl who gets separated from her sister because of her mother’s rocky romance. The emotions are raw and, ultimately, inspiring.

Available (April 12) at amazon.com, $17.

Jenny Lawson reveals painfully hilarious personal stories on her blog, The Bloggess, but the most bizarre and embarrassing are reserved for her book debut. Whether she’s talking about her mean pet turkey or exploits working in HR, she has us doubled over.

Available (April 17) at amazon.com, $14.