PRIVATE EMPIRE: ExxonMobil and American Power, by Steve Coll. Penguin, $18. Bookended by two man-made disasters - the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska in 1989, and the BP Deepwater Horizon blowout in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010 - Coll's mammoth portrait of Exxon Mobil reveals the corporation's inner workings and vast influence, and abounds in empire-size figures. If revenue were counted as gross domestic product, Exxon Mobil would rank among the top 30 countries. Translated by Edith Grossman. Working as a British emissary, the Irish nationalist Roger Casement (1864-1916) documented brutality in Congo and Amazonia. Campaigning for Ireland's independence, he was hanged as a traitor in London. Vargas Llosa, the Peruvian Nobel laureate, reimagines Casement's life, unearthing the achievements of this complicated man of conscience. SUPERMAN: The High-Flying History of America's Most Enduring Hero, by Larry Tye. Random House, $17. Seventy-five years after he sprang to life, Superman is still going strong. In this exhaustive history Tye, whose previous books include a biography of Satchel Paige, recounts the Man of Steel's creation; the fantastical evolution of his powers; the television series and blockbuster movies; and the gritty reboots of the comic book over the years. SILVER: Return to Treasure Island, by Andrew Motion. Broadway, $16. This rollicking sequel, set almost 40 years after Jim Hawkins's fateful journey aboard the Hispaniola, introduces his son, Jim Jr. Neglected but sheltered, young Jim is persuaded by the mysterious Natty (the daughter of his father's foe, Long John Silver) to sail to Treasure Island in search of the trove their fathers left behind. YES, CHEF: A Memoir, by Marcus Samuelsson with Veronica Chambers. Random House, $16. In 1995, while cooking for the Scandinavian restaurant Aquavit, Samuelsson became the youngest chef to receive a three-star rating from The New York Times. This evocative memoir traces his journey from Ethiopia, where he and his sister were born into poverty; to his adoptive family in the Swedish city of Goteborg; to some of the most demanding restaurants in Switzerland, France and New York. Translated by John Fletcher. Vintage, $15. In loosely linked narratives, three women from Senegal struggle with fathers and husbands in France. NDiaye's subtle, hypnotic novel won the Prix Goncourt in 2009; our reviewer, Fernanda Eberstadt, called it "the poised creation of a novelist unafraid to explore the extremes of human suffering." Metropolitan/Holt, $22. As with his extraordinary "Footnotes in Gaza," Sacco's method in this collection of comics reportage is to venture into trouble spots (Hebron, the Caucasus, Kushinagar), talk to everyone he can, and assemble those stories into panoramic examinations of conflict. Ballantine, $15. The third novel to feature Begley's prickly, introspective protagonist finds Albert Schmidt in January of 2009, at the age of 78, still coping with family strife and ready for the next thing - that old perennial, love.