What a month for new books! It’s another Tuesday, which means, as ever, that a number of new books are on the shelves, and this is especially true this September. If you’ve been in search of something new to curl up with in comfort or to challenge your preconceptions or simply for that indescribable pleasure of discovering a new writer you know you’ll love, look no further: you’ll almost certainly find something exciting amongst the twenty-eight new books below. And what a mesmerizing myriad we have: fiction from literary giants and powerful new voices alike, innovative poetry, calls to action, revised histories, poignant memoirs, and more. September can be a whirlwind of a month, especially in the publishing world, but in the moments of calm, I hope you’ll find some delight in one (or many more!) of the literary offerings below.
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Karl Ove Knausgaard, The Wolves of Eternity (trans. Martin Aitkin)
(Penguin)
“Inspired….Knausgaard’s book doesn’t shy away from big questions about the substance of his characters’ inner lives…[he] captures the spirit of a Russian novel.”
–Publishers Weekly
Daniel Mason, North Woods
(Random House)
“North Woods is a monumental achievement of polyphony and humanity. Relating the narrative of an entire country via a single plot of land, it sweeps the reader through hundreds of years and an array of protagonists with a deft, heartbreaking, idiosyncratic zeal. I loved it.”
–Maggie O’Farrell
Jayne Anne Phillips, Night Watch
(Knopf)
“A profound meditation on identity, empathy, sanity, daughter-love, nature, and the Civil War, Night Watch will leave you shook and sustained….Weaving photographs and fragments of non-fiction prose into an intimate family story, Night Watch is at once shatteringly particular and audaciously universal. Jayne Anne Phillips arrives at the crowning achievement of an extraordinary career.”
–Alice Randall
Alicia Roth Weigel, Inverse Cowgirl: A Memoir
(HarperOne)
“In a society that continually reduces intersex existence to a theory or a metaphor, Inverse Cowgirl is a powerful intervention that affirms the dignity and full humanity of intersex people. With equal measure of heart and humor, Alicia Roth Weigel takes us on a trip from the personal to the political, establishing herself as an essential voice for autonomy and democracy.”
–Alok Vaid-Menon
Aparna Nancherla, Unreliable Narrator: Me, Myself, and Impostor Syndrome
(Viking)
“Comedian Nancherla debuts with an intimate essay collection reflecting on the mental health challenges she’s navigated while building a career in comedy….The sardonic humor and candid meditations on mental health resonate. It’s a surprisingly funny take on longing to feel comfortable in one’s own skin.”
–Publishers Weekly
Ross Gay, The Book of (More) Delights: Essays
(Algonquin)
“In this follow-up toThe Book of Delights, the esteemed poet catalogs more quiet pleasures and causes for gratitude. Gay adheres to the same guidelines he followed in the previous volume: ‘write them daily, write them quickly, and write them by hand’….Keenly observed and delivered with deftness, these essays are a testament to the artfulness of attention and everyday joy.”
–Kirkus Reviews
Sam Sax, Pig: Poems
(Scribner)
“In this deeply lyrical and experimental tour de force, Sax smashes and inspects every interchangeable lens of the pig, literal and figurative, to unflinchingly examine sexuality, grief, xenotransplantation, and the nature of language itself. Biblical and humorous, provocative and tragic, these poems evoke an absolute and necessary understanding of the very boundaries of our humanity.”
–Richard Blanco
Lawrence Wright, Mr. Texas
(Knopf)
“Smart, biting, wickedly funny, and really good company: If Mr. Texas had a Tinder profile, that might be it. Lawrence Wright, whose nonfiction journalism is exemplary, proves he can hit from both sides of the plate with this brilliant work of fiction. His skewering of politics is pitch perfect. Mr. Texas is required reading in these politically turbulent times.”
–Susan Orlean
Rachel Harrison, Black Sheep
(Berkley)
“Think The Princess Diaries meets Dante’s Inferno. That’s Black Sheep. Only Rachel Harrison could write something with such fiery playfulness and such stunning acerbic wit. Undoubtedly the most enjoyable and compelling horror novel you’ll read this year.”
–Eric LaRocca
Gay Talese, Bartleby and Me: Reflections of an Old Scrivener
(Mariner)
“A smooth and enchanting wordsmith, Talese delivers a lovely testament to the ‘unobtrusive if not kindred Bartleby personalities’ of New York City. It’s a delight.”
–Publishers Weekly
Elisa Gonzalez, Grand Tour: Poems
(FSG)
“A mesmerizing book, deeply original, one of the most profound reading experiences I’ve had in years. There is in Gonzalez’s nature something volcanic, a sense of fire originating at a very great depth….Here are wild elegies to lost selves; here, too, poems of eerie delicacy and strangeness….But I love best the long incautious poems: here one feels most urgently her extraordinary force, her dignity, her savage hunger, her sweetness. These poems make me feel as if poems have never before been written.”
–Louise Glück
Minna Dubin, Mom Rage: The Everyday Crisis of Modern Motherhood
(Seal Press)
“Mom Rage is a critical addition to the literature of mothering, compassionately exploring the ugly, rageful moments that haunt many of us even as we struggle to do right by our kids. Dubin invites us to consider our rage in the full context of a perverse, broken, contradictory, and cruel American system that fails families at every turn. I needed the compassion of this book, as well as its expansive look of what parenting can and should be.”
–Lydia Kiesling
Tara Sidhoo Fraser, When My Ghost Sings: A Memoir of Stroke, Recovery, and Transformation
(Arsenal Pulp Press)
“Tara Sidhoo Fraser has authored one of a very few existing memoirs about amnesia. This is not a mere redemption story; Sidhoo Fraser does not position recovery as a tangible adversity to overcome. When My Ghost Sings is a lyrical exploration as much as it is a narrative. It is allegory, and it is sharply candid, an unhurried and nuanced journey of both uncertainty and love.”
–Amber Dawn
Melissa Lozada-Oliva, Candelaria
(Astra House)
“Buckle up—Candelaria is a literary ride unlike any other. A wild journey through generational trauma, untold truths, sibling rivalry and intimacy via backroads lined with cinema, cult fitness and the supernatural. Fear not, though the landscape Lozada-Oliva creates is utterly original and chaotic at times, she is a masterful guide….Heartbreaking, hilarious and absurd in the very best way, Candelaria sticks to your soul and leaves you seeing the world and the people in it a bit differently.”
–Xochitl Gonzalez
Jonathan Raban, Father and Son: A Memoir
(Knopf)
“A world war fought on three fronts by a young artillery officer; a courtship, marriage, and forced separation in a hesitant, old-fashioned English style; a sudden, devastating upheaval in the author’s own life—Jonathan Raban deploys the skills of an accomplished novelist to braid these elements into a beautiful, compelling memoir drawn from his parents’ wartime love letters….This, Raban’s final work, is a gorgeous achievement.”
–Ian McEwan
John Sargent, Turning Pages: The Adventures and Misadventures of a Publisher
(Arcade Publishing)
“A remarkable and absorbing memoir–funny, poignant, and rich with insights about books, authors, the publishing business, and life. An extraordinary cast of characters has trooped through John Sargent’s life, and they’re all here, finely drawn, page after page.”
–Rick Atkinson
Shane Hawk, Theodore C. Van Alst, Never Whistle at Night: An Indigenous Dark Fiction Anthology
(Vintage)
“This groundbreaking anthology showcases to the world that Indigenous horror has many faces, and these powerful stories are a horror lover’s dream: each one singular and heartfelt, carving new storytelling pathways that feel both unique and universal, haunting and healing. It’s impossible to guess what’s coming next, and that unpredictability is so central to why horror is such a powerful genre as we all confront life’s terrors.”
–Tananarive Due
Maria Smilios, The Black Angels: The Untold Story of the Nurses Who Helped Cure Tuberculosis
(Putnam)
“Immensely rewarding….[A] confluence of histories, encompassing public health, urban development, race, class, and social upheaval….[Smilios] blends all of the threads she followed into a big blistering narrative that takes readers into the lives of an exceptional group of individuals whose personal stories are as compelling as the disease they confronted was deadly. Informative, enthralling, and sometimes appalling, this is American history at its best.”
–Booklist
Luis Felipe Fabre, Recital of the Dark Verses (trans. Heather Cleary)
(Deep Vellum)
“Absurd, philosophical, playful and episodic, Recital of the Dark Verses is a revelation. The theft of a saint’s body creates the occasion for a hilarious road trip through provincial Spain. A cousin to Quixote, Fabre’s historical novel takes history and religion and manages to shape it into something entirely new. By turns brilliant, wise, entertaining, and profound. Cervantes would be proud.”
–Mark Haber
Nathan Hill, Wellness
(Knopf)
“A love story of dislodged chronology, Nathan Hill’s brilliant interrogation of a single relationship spiderwebs out into almost every facet of our contemporary anxieties. Few writers working today have dissected, with such a sharp scalpel, the fundamental paradox of modern American life: this hopelessly broken need to fix what may not need fixing, to reach with utter desperation for a version of better that may not be better at all. Read Wellness with caution: it lays so much of our little self-deceptions bare.”
–Omar El Akkad
Hannah Stowe, Move Like Water: My Story of the Sea
(Tin House)
“Let Hannah’s captivating prose transport you on a journey across the waves, feeling the wind and salt on your skin, and always watching out for the tantalising glimpse of a whale. You will be enthralled by her personal story, invigorated by her energy and determination, and persuaded to think deeply about the ocean, its living treasures and the human troubles they face.”
–Helen Scales
Florian Illies, Love in a Time of Hate: Art and Passion in the Shadow of War
(Riverhead Books)
“Love in a Time of Hate invites us to consider that history is as much an accretion of small gestures as it is a catalogue of battles and speeches. At once intimate and epic, this dazzling book illuminates the human desire to seek connection and coherence as the world descends into chaos. A brilliant and imaginative tour de force.”
–Rebecca Donner
Michael Harriot, Black AF History: The Un-Whitewashed Story of America
(Dey Street Books)
“A stirring correction of U.S. history….Emphasizing Black survival and resistance, Harriot simplifies complex issues into easily understandable, digestible bites….With blunt, entertaining, irreverent, sarcastic, and sometimes laugh-out-loud statements, Harriot provocatively explains how the United States came to be and how money-focused, self-serving intentions made it what it is today.”
–Library Journal
Shilpi Suneja, House of Caravans
(Milkweed)
“House of Caravans is an astonishing debut–the work of a master writer. Through finely wrought details and clever plotting, Shilpi Suneja illustrates how the reverberations of the 1947 Partition are felt across multiple generations. With her deft writing and her penetrating imagination, Suneja gifts us with a beautiful testament to the power of storytelling.”
–Shawna Yang Ryan
Ismail Kadare, A Dictator Calls (John Hodgson)
(Counterpoint)
“This multifaceted examination amounts to a fascinating consideration of the relationship between totalitarianism and freedom of expression. Admirers of Kadare’s previous meldings of fact and fiction will be mesmerized.”
–Publishers Weekly
Mandy-Suzanne Wong, The Box
(Graywolf)
“If one of César Aira’s sly, sophisticated fictions took a detour through Jane Bennett’s theory of vibrant matter, the result might look something like The Box. At once a detective story, a meditation on art in the Anthropocene, and a speculative encounter with the liveliness of things, Mandy-Suzanne Wong’s startling novel is literature for our times.”
–Sofia Samatar
Katherine Spillar, 50 Years of Ms.: The Best of the Pathfinding Magazine That Ignited a Revolution
“In this day of information overload, Ms. Magazine aggregates all the news feminists need to navigate and improve the world for women. It keeps us informed of important events we need to understand and act on to end discrimination against women. 50 Years of Ms. is a must-read for all feminists.”
–Loretta Ross
Kat Calvin, American Identity in Crisis: Notes from an Accidental Activist
(Amistad HarperCollins)
“Kat Calvin has been doing the work. Like, really doing the work—the backbreaking, administratively maddening work of helping individuals without ID get the documentation they need to live, work, and vote. Now she has produced a tremendous, invigorating chronicle of how her life as an ID activist took shape. For all those who look at this broken and unjust world and ask, ‘What can I do?’ Calvin offers a resonant, moving, historically grounded answer.”
–Rebecca Traister
