WASHINGTON, D.C.

The novel is alive and well, thank you very much, no matter what form it might take.

	Caleb Jones, Associated Press John Updike speaking at the BookExpo Saturday. Click photo for larger image. Related journal Updates from BookExpo America

Despite the recent official hand-wringing about fiction-reading being "at risk" in America, that fact was abundantly clear at this year's edition of BookExpo America, the three-day trade show that ended Sunday.

The only question was: What would the novel look like at the 2016 BEA? Would it still be expensively printed on heavy paper behind a colorful cover, or would it take a digital shape waiting to be captured in a computer?

That question has been kicked around since the personal computer became as essential as the refrigerator in American homes. It began to come into clearer focus at the show this year when the successful Internet search engine Google proved to be as large a presence as the nation's biggest publisher, Random House.

Its new Book Search operation is a kind of digital bookstore browsing. The service indexes books, then offers glimpses of their content online, a version of flipping pages and viewing pictures, to let possible buyers decide if they want to buy it.

Google's larger plan is to create a digital library of all books, and it has started working on the collections of several university libraries.

Amazon, the online bookseller, was pushing its own version of a sneak peek, Amazon Upgrade, at the same time and just as lavishly. Purchase of the traditional book will bring the digital version as well.

In a well-meaning attempt to stick a finger in the digital dike (no pun intended) was one of America's finest novelists, John Updike.

Speaking Saturday, the Pennsylvania native eschewed the opportunity to plug his new book, "Terrorist," and instead railed against the rising tide of placing text, including mainstream books, on the Internet.

Drawing on a recent article by Wired magazine's Kevin Kelly, who touted the advent of a vast digital library on the scale of the ancient one at Alexandria, then the repository of all books, Updike warned of a "grisly scenario" if Kelly's prediction came true.

Kelly foresees that "snippets" of various authors' books would be downloaded to make a "literary mix," the way songs from various musicians are assembled.

Updike insisted that novels must be experienced in their entirety, read as the author intended. "Books are intrinsic to our identity" both as readers and writers, he said.

Plus, books have various kinds of finished edges, he pointed out, "rough-cut, smooth and stained," that physically define their individuality, unlike the Internet, where there appear to be no boundaries.

"Defend your lonely forts; keep your edges dry," he advised the many booksellers in the audience.

Regardless of the fate of the traditional book, the fact remains that authors must exist to write them. There appears to be a steady supply of novelists still pounding away, as the list of fall fiction attests.

The top candidates include "The Lay of the Land" by Richard Ford (Knopf, October). This is the third and last volume in the saga of Frank Bascombe, started in 1986 with "The Sportswriter" and continued with the 1996 "Independence Day."

On Sunday, Ford said he set his story in November 2000, in the days between the disputed presidential vote in Florida and the U.S. Supreme Court ruling legitimizing George Bush's election because it symbolized a "major turning point in America."

Sure to give Ford strong competition on the best-seller list is Charles Frazier, who signed an $8 million deal with Random House after Scribner enjoyed the success of "Cold Mountain," his 1997 debut novel.

"Thirteen Moons" is the result, an October release set in Cherokee country. Frazier signed a preliminary version of the book at the show Saturday, but made no public pronouncements about it.

Another big-name male writer, Cormac McCarthy, returns with "The Road," a year after his somewhat disappointing "No Country for Old Men."

Mitch Albom, surviving a rough year as a Detroit Free Press sports columnist, delivers with "One More Day" (September), a fantasy in the style of his smash debut novel, "The Five People You Meet in Heaven."

Jane Hamilton ("The Book of Ruth") now offers "When Madeline Was Young" (September), a musing on the long-term effects of too-tolerant parents.

Former Pittsburgh resident Alice McDermott, a National Book Award winner with "Charming Billy," has written her vision of family life in the 1960s in "After This" (September).

Ward Just, a septuagenarian novelist, continues to pound away, coming up with "Forgetfulness," his 15th novel, a September release that's a CIA-flavored adventure.

Finally, coming in late winter will be the first 1,000-page popular mystery novel, "Sacred Games." It's by Indian writer Vikram Chandra, who's been billed as the Gabriel Garcia Marquez of the subcontinent.