BOOKS TO FALL FOR
Looking for a crisp new read? Take a leaf from our list of the 15 best new releases
Forest Dark Nicole Krauss (fiction, Harper, Sept. 12)
Jules Epstein has retired from his law firm, divorced his wife of 30 years and has moved to Israel with a vague plan to do something to honor his parents’ memories. Meanwhile, a well-known young novelist has traveled to Tel Aviv on a truthseeking journey of her own. From the talented author of “The History of Love.”
Heather, the Totality Matthew Weiner (fiction, Little, Brown, Nov. 7)
The creator of “Mad Men” makes his first foray into the publishing world with a slim, beautifully eerie novel about a lovely Manhattan teen, the lustful, ominous leers of a worker outside her building and the girl’s father, who observes the looks and, becoming increasingly threatened by them, finally decides to act. The novel was, as Weiner said recently at a BookExpo lunch in New York, inspired by a real-life ogling he witnessed on the Upper East Side.
A Column of Fire Ken Follett (fiction, Viking, Sept. 12)
Fans of Follett’s epic sagas “The Pillars of the Earth” and “World Without End,” set in the Middle Ages in the fictional city of Kingsbridge, will be thrilled by this latest installment. It’s now 1558 and religious conflict is raging between Catholics and Protestants. As people are pitted against each other, protagonist Ned Willard just wants one thing: To marry Margery Fitzgerald, who is on the other side of the religious conflict tearing the country apart.
The Cuban Affair Nelson DeMille (fiction, Simon & Schuster, Sept. 19)
US Army combat veteran Daniel McCormick is a charter-fishing boat captain who has just been made an offer he can’t refuse: $2 million dollars to sail down to Cuba with a Cuban-American woman named Sara and an older Cuban exile named Eduardo. Turns out Sara’s grandfather hid $60 million — in cash — when he fled Castro’s revolution, and Sara knows it’s just a matter of time before someone finds it. There’s a big payoff for McCormick if he accepts the job — but there’s also the possibility he won’t return at all.
The Rules of Magic Alice Hoffman (fiction, Simon & Schuster, Oct. 10)
The prequel to the bestselling “Practical Magic,” this highly anticipated novel begins in 1620, when Maria Owens is charged with witchery for the crime of loving the wrong man. A few centuries later, the Owens family is still anything but ordinary. Mother Susanna sets down some ground rules for her kids: No cats, crows, books about marriage — and, most important of all, never fall in love. Whether or not they follow these rules remains to be seen.
The Golden House Salman Rushdie (fiction, Random House, Tuesday)
Rushdie’s latest book begins on the day that Barack Obama is inaugurated, a day when New York billionaire Nero Golden moves, with his three adult sons, into the Gardens, a close-knit community in the Village. Immediately, people start talking. Their neighbor Rene is drawn to them and involves himself in their daily dramas.
Manhattan Beach Jennifer Egan (fiction, Scribner, Oct. 3)
The author of “A Visit from the Goon Squad” tries her hand at a historical novel, which begins in Depression-era Brooklyn when a young girl named Anna Kerrigan and her father go to the house of Dexter Styles, a man who holds the fate of her family in his hands. Years later, during World War II, Anna works at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, becoming the first female diver. A chance meeting with Styles in a nightclub has her piecing together long-forgotten family secrets.
At the Strangers’ Gate: Arrivals in New York Adam Gopnik (memoir, Knopf, Tuesday)
A tale of love, New York in the ’80s and very small studio apartments from the longtime New Yorker staff writer, who recounts his first years in the city after moving from Montreal with his wife, Martha. Gopnik has a way of making daily domestic life both fascinating and moving, as with previous books “Paris to the Moon” and “Through the Children’s Gate,” and his latest is no exception.
Smile Roddy Doyle (fiction, Viking, Oct. 17)
Victor Forde is just trying to enjoy a pint at a nearby bar one night when his drink is interrupted by a talkative stranger. Except he insists they went to school together; his name is Fitzgerald. Victor would rather keep drinking alone: The memories Fitzgerald brings up are unpleasant and unwelcome, and Victor finds that he can’t shake them.
Bluebird, Bluebird Attica Locke (fiction, Mullholland, Sept. 12)
A writer/producer of the hit TV show “Empire,” Locke has written a thriller about race, crime and justice, set in East Texas and focusing on Darren Mathews, a black Texas Ranger called to the small town of Lark, where two murders have the town on edge. Darren is tasked with solving the crimes before the town’s racial fault lines erupt.
Sleeping Beauties Stephen King and Owen King (fiction, Scribner, Sept. 26)
What would happen if women disappeared from the world of men, leaving men to their own most primal instincts? In this father-son collaboration, all of the women have fallen asleep and have become shrouded in a cocoon of gauze; wake them up and they become feral and violent. Only one woman is immune to the sleeping disease.
Artemis Andy Weir (fiction, Nov. 14)
The bestselling author of “The Martian” is back, this time with a fastpaced sci-fi book that imagines Artemis, the first and only city on the moon. It’s a city meant mostly for billionaires and space tourists, less so for struggling porters like Jazz Bashara who can barely pay their bills. That’s when she decides to commit the perfect crime — and in doing so unwittingly steps into a struggle for the control of Artemis itself.
The World of Tomorrow Brendan Mathews (fiction, Tuesday)
It’s June 1939, and two Irish brothers are on a ship bound for New York, having just absconded with a small fortune from the IRA. They’re on their way to see their brother Martin, who lives in NYC. A crazy week ensues, spent in Harlem jazz joints to the Bowery to the Plaza Hotel, all while a hired assassin tracks them down.
The Revolution of Marina M. Janet Fitch (fiction, Little, Brown, Nov. 7)
This is an epic pageturner of a novel about the Russian Revolution, beginning on New Year’s Eve 1916. As seen through the eyes of a young privileged woman, Marina, who has to forge a new life for herself when she falls in love with a penniless poet. From the author of “White Oleander.”
In the Midst of Winter Isabel Allende (fiction, Atria Books, Oct. 31)
A minor traffic accident brings two people together at a point in their lives where they had given up on love. A novel from the bestselling author of “The House of Spirits,” the narrative moves from 1970s Chile and Brazil to present-day Guatemala and Brooklyn.