Twentieth-century history looms large in these new fiction releases by Bay Area authors. Anthony Marra’s “The Tsar of Love and Techno” takes a panoramic view of Russia in a set of linked stories; Isabel Allende’s new novel, “The Japanese Lover,” explores a clandestine, decadeslong love affair in San Francisco, and Jane Smiley’s “Golden Age” brings the final installment in the fictional saga of a 20th-century Iowa farm family. “Mendocino Fire,” an excellent new story collection by Elizabeth Tallent, completes the list.
