(NPR)This week’s lineup of new books boasts a couple of headliners in Ian McEwan and Patricia Lockwood. Whatever their differences as writers — and there certainly are a few — both are recognizable by their unrepentant glee in keeping readers off balance. Then there’s the novel whose biggest twist is that it finally exists at all, after Kiran Desai devoted 20 years to writing it. It’s an ironically long, unwieldy name for books that have been noted for their deft grace and, frankly, their tendency to be quite short. “This is science fiction without the science,” the venerable British author told NPR’s Weekend Edition about his new novel.