What's new: March fiction and nonfiction

LEAVING BERLIN, by Joseph Kanon. Kanon, the author of first-rate historical espionage thrillers ("The Good German," "Istanbul Passage") sets his latest in the atmospheric Berlin of 1949, where a young German-Jewish writer who fled the Nazis before the war finds himself spying on the Soviets for the CIA. Count on plenty of double-crosses, betrayals, kidnappings, killings -- and a doomed love affair, of course. (Atria, $27)

THE IRISH BROTHERHOOD: John F. Kennedy, His Inner Circle, and the Improbable Rise to the Presidency, by Helen O'Donnell with Kevin O'Donnell Sr. In the age of Barack Obama, it's easy to forget what a big deal it was for an Irish Catholic to be elected president. This intimate portrait of JFK's inner circle during his senate and presidential races draws on the tape-recorded recollections of top adviser Kenny O'Donnell. It's written by O'Donnell's daughter. (Counterpoint, $30)

JUST KIDS FROM THE BRONX: Telling It the Way It Was -- An Oral History, by Arlene Alda. The wife of actor Alan Alda, who was born and raised in the Bronx (and now splits her time between New York City and Long Island), collects reminiscences from other children of the Bronx -- including Al Pacino, Regis Philbin, Mary Higgins Clark, Colin Powell and Neil deGrasse Tyson. Together they form a rich portrait of life in the outer boroughs across six decades. (Henry Holt, $28)