September, incredibly, is nearing its end. But if the month feels like it’s rushing by, you can always slow down with a new bit of literary wonder to curl up with, and today is an especially bounteous day for book-lovers. Below, you’ll find no less than twenty-seven new books out today in fiction, nonfiction, and poetry, featuring an astonishing array of award-winning writers, exciting up-and-comers, and unexpected projects.
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You’ll find new fiction from Richard Powers, Sally Rooney, Olga Tokarczuk, Jesse Ball, Jami Attenberg, the acclaimed director Pedro Almodóvar, and many others, as well as poetry from Matthew Zapruder, August Kleinzahler, and Farnoosh Fathi. Charles Burns, whose striking graphic novel Black Hole has stayed with many readers—myself included!—is here with a new, atmospheric comic. And, in nonfiction, you’ll find stirring tales of scholars and librarians who worked as spies during World War II; an account of the rise and fall of the Disney Channel; Isabella Hammad with a Saidian exploration of Othering, Palestine, and the politics of narrative; and much, much more.
If you’ve been in search of something new, look no further. It’s a great day to be a bibliophile.
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Olga Tokarczuk, The Empusium: A Health Resort Horror Story (trans. Antonia Lloyd-Jones)
(Riverhead)
“This rich gothic novel set in 1913 is certainly haunted, but also rife with social commentary on gender dysphoria, inequality, and prejudice. Readers will come for the eerie atmosphere but stay for the searing critique of society’s tendency to discard its most vulnerable if it means maintaining a semblance of safety.”
–Booklist
Sally Rooney, Intermezzo
(FSG)
“Bestseller Rooney returns with a boldly experimental and emotionally devastating story of estrangement….The novel’s deliberate pacing veers from the propulsiveness of Normal People and the deep character work contrasts with the topicality of Beautiful World, but in many ways this feels like Rooney’s most fully realized work, especially as she channels the modernist styles of James Joyce and Virginia Woolf….Even the author’s skeptics are liable to be swept away by this novel’s forceful currents of feeling.”
–Publishers Weekly
Jesse Ball, The Repeat Room
(Catapult)
“I recently found myself hoping that one day Yorgos Lanthimos will find his next directorial project in the work of Jesse Ball–two visionaries who combine uncompromising bleakness and the sharpest of dark wit to create absurd depictions of human desire. Perhaps the best place to start would be with The Repeat Room, a novel set in a speculative future where a single juror is selected to inhabit the defendant’s lived experience through their own eyes.”
–The Chicago Review of Books
Stephen Bruno, Building Material: The Memoir of a Park Avenue Doorman
(Harper)
“A literary feat of astonishing power…braided into Bruno’s no-holds-barred truth-telling is an unforgettable meditation on the weight of belonging and the true cost of becoming. Bruno has crafted a bildungsroman mirror where NYC, where our country, can see itself. Prepare to be dazzled.”
–Junot Díaz
Elyse Graham, Book and Dagger: How Scholars and Librarians Became the Unlikely Spies of World War II
(Ecco Press)
“Book and Dagger brings to light a spellbinding, untold aspect of World War II history….Graham takes readers all over the world to show that as the Nazis burned books, book lovers were defending the freedom of ideas, with relish.”
–BookPage
Isabella Hammad, Recognizing the Stranger: On Palestine and Narrative
(Grove Press/Black Cat)
“An urgent work for a devastating time, Recognizing the Stranger proves that Isabella Hammad is as fine a critic as she is a novelist. Following in the tradition of Edward Said, she demands an ethical, political, and artistic confrontation with the text, the world, and the other. It is hardly a surprise that she is one of our most astute writers when it comes to Palestine.”
–Viet Thanh Nguyen
Matthew Zapruder, I Love Hearing Your Dreams: Poems
(Scribner)
“Have you ever held a book, but knew secretly you were holding a mountain? Or maybe your heart felt like the future galloping in your chest after reading a passage so visceral and full of magic, or so faithfully human it was like you wanted all the words in the world to go home and to leave these poems forever ringing in your ear? That was me when I first encountered, I Love Hearing Your Dreams, a startling book, a resuscitating vision.”
–Major Jackson
Farnoosh Fathi, Granny Cloud
(NYRB)
“Poetry, like the humours, like the soul, can be grasped only when its exuberance exceeds the body. Granny Cloud is that exuberance, thus illustrating the impossibility of finding form. This book is the Tower of Babel for our generation! The poems wander off the page, and walk, as Saint Francis did, to call to birds.”
–Darcie Dennigan
August Kleinzahler, A History of Western Music: Poems
(FSG)
“Much like the best music, Kleinzahler’s poems are both personal and communal…these poems are electric and moving.”
–Publishers Weekly
Jami Attenberg, A Reason to See You Again
(Ecco Press)
“I loved leaping through time with the four Cohen women—Frieda, Nancy, Shelly, and Jess. Each woman is intelligent and self-sabotaging—the way we all can be—and they love each other fiercely, often from a careful distance. Attenberg’s writing is sharp and incisive—it’s a pleasure to watch the patterns she created unfold over forty years of these women’s lives.”
–Ann Napolitano
Richard Powers, Playground
(Norton)
“An epic drama of AI, neocolonialism, and oceanography…dazzling….[T]he elegance of [Powers’] prose, the scope of his ambition, and the exacting reverence with which he writes about the imperiled world serve as reminders of why he ranks among America’s foremost novelists….Readers will be awed.”
–Publishers Weekly
Charles Burns, Final Cut
(Pantheon Books)
“Charles Burns [Black Hole] delivers his much-anticipated new graphic novel Final Cut. You don’t need to have seen The Blair Witch Project to know that when some aspiring filmmakers head into the woods to film their creepy homage to Invasion of the Body Snatchers that things might not go as planned. Toss in unrequited love and a hodgepodge of references to classic sci-fi and horror movie tropes and you’ve got the ingredients for a disturbing spin on artistic control and a demand for final cut.”
–Parade
Jackie Wullschläger, Monet: The Restless Vision
(Knopf)
“A writer of radiant energy and exhilarating insights, Wullschläger matches each phase in Monet’s long, ardent, precarious, and momentously creative and productive life with the evolution of his radically in-the-moment paintings. Her biography, like his work, profoundly alters our perceptions, revealing how, from portraits to seascapes to water lilies, Monet painted out of love and endless fascination with what it feels like to be alive.”
–Booklist
Ashley Spencer, Disney High: The Untold Story of the Rise and Fall of Disney Channel’s Tween Empire
(St. Martin’s Press)
“With deep reporting and sharp prose, Spencer takes us inside the stunning rise and fall of Disney Channel. You’ll come for the stories behind Miley and Raven–and, wow, will you get them–but it’s the merciless grinding of the cable TV machine that will stay with you long after you’ve finished.”
–Zac Bissonnette
Ana Elena Correa, Margaret Atwood (afterword), What Happened to Belén: The Unjust Imprisonment That Sparked a Women’s Rights Movement (trans. Julia Sanches)
(HarperOne)
“What Happened to Belén is a harrowing and revelatory account of how one woman’s life was turned upside down and how she never stopped fighting for her innocence. Ana Correa poignantly recounts how so many systems failed Belén, the movement that sprung to action to free her…an essential read detailing the harms created by police in healthcare settings, abortion stigma, and the criminalization of pregnancy outcomes whether it’s in Argentina or the United States of America.”
–Renee Bracey Sherman
Pedro Almodóvar, The Last Dream
(Harpervia)
“The Last Dream is an inspiring testament to one of cinema’s great creative forces. These stories/ allegories/ dreams/ philosophical riffs and intense personal sketches shimmer with all of the vibrance, humor, provocation and humanity of Almodóvar’s entire body of work. A true delight.”
–Sam Lipsyte
Jebediah Berry, The Naming Song
(TOR Books)
“With The Naming Song, Jedediah Berry offers a Genesis wrapped up in a Revelation–a mysterious, poetic, and invigorating post-apocalyptic adventure saga about how things can be reborn, and in some cases remade, after they have been undone. It’s rare that a novel this substantial is also this strange and this fun.”
–Kevin Brockmeier
Jason Pargin, I’m Starting to Worry About This Black Box of Doom
(St. Martin’s Press)
“Strident and timely, the dark humor of this wild standalone adventure from Pargin evokes satirists like Kurt Vonnegut and Douglas Adams for a new age….It’s a raucous roller-coaster ride.”
–Publishers Weekly
Vanessa Chakour, Earthly Bodies: Embracing Animal Nature
(Penguin Life)
“Part memoir, part modern-day bestiary, Earthly Bodies is a must-read for humans who have become estranged from their animal selves. Vanessa Chakour draws surprising connections that will make you look at the natural world around with fresh eyes—whether you’re coexisting with wolves in the wild or bats in the city. A thoughtful reminder of all that is wild within each of us.”
–Amy Shearn
Leigh Ann Henion, Night Magic: Adventures Among Glowworms, Moon Gardens, and Other Marvels of the Dark
(Algonquin)
“Brilliant. Leigh Ann Henion is an inspiring and wise guide not only to the biological marvels of night, but also to the communities of people who celebrate and protect the rich life of the dark. Beyond fear of the dark is wonder, vividly evoked in these page.”
–David George Haskell
Sunil Amrith, The Burning Earth: A History
(Norton)
“A marvelously erudite and wide-ranging account of the steadily accelerating ecological transformation of the planet since the twelfth century. An indispensable contribution to both environmental and global history.”
–Amitav Ghosh
Hans Fallada, Every Man Dies Alone (trans. Michael Hofmann)
(Melville House)
“Hans Fallada’s Every Man Dies Alone is one of the most extraordinary and compelling novels ever written about World War II. Ever. Fallada lived through the Nazi hell, so every word rings true-this is who they really were: the Gestapo monsters, the petty informers, the few who dared to resist. Please, do not miss this.”
–Alan Furst
Margaret Killjoy, The Sapling Cage
(Feminist Press)
“A cracking, first-rate, epic coming-of-age fantasy novel. The crisis of gender identity only heightens the stakes (and suspense) of this propulsive, page-turning tale.”
–Cory Doctorow
Afabwaje Kurian, Before the Mango Ripens
(Dzanc Books)
“A beautifully rendered debut novel by a novelist who writes well beyond her years. Afabwaje Kurian’s lyrical prose, original characters and uncompromising storytelling will keep you hooked from start to finish.”
–Regina Porter
John MacNeill Miller, The Ecological Plot: How Stories Gave Rise to Science
(University of Virginia Press)
“A strong book distinguished by the originality of its argument, the portability of its concepts and coinages, and the clarity of its writing and reasoning. The ‘ecological plot’ is an elegant term that should prove influential in future scholarship. If the environmental humanities are to be a truly interdisciplinary field, we need more books like this.”
–Elizabeth Carolyn Miller
Ben Yagoda, Gobsmacked: The British Invasion of American English
(Princeton University Press)
“Ben Yagoda is one of our most insightful and entertaining commentators on language and culture. In Gobsmacked!, he focuses his formidable talents on an original and fascinating story: Britain’s growing influence on U.S. speech. If you’ve ever wondered why you have suddenly started saying things like cheeky, dodgy, or twee, you’d be bonkers not to devour this wonderful book.”
–Fred R. Shapiro
Roberta Mazza, Stolen Fragments: Black Markets, Bad Faith, and the Illicit Trade in Ancient Artefacts
(Redwood Press)
“Stolen Fragments is at once scrupulously researched and cinematic, reading like a proper detective story but with a renowned scholar as the lead investigator and our guide to the murky world of papyrus hunters…the definitive book on the multifaceted mummy-liquefying soap opera, starring the Museum of the Bible and a Dickensian cast of always quirky and often shady characters. Roberta Mazza is a rock star of this field, and her book sings with brilliance.”
–Noah Charney
