Take off on a book journey
Migrate into autumn with the season’s best reads
FICTION
Beautiful World, Where Are You Sally Rooney (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, out Tuesday) Alice has asked Felix to trav to Rome. Meanwhile, her best friend Eileen is getting over a breakup, and starts flirting with Simon, a man she has known since childhood. The four young adults break up, make up, slip in and out of relationships and worry about stuff in this much-anticipated new novel from the best-selling author of “Normal People.”
Fault Lines
Emily Itami (Custom House, out Tuesday) Mizuki is a Japanese housewife with two kids, a successful husban beautiful Tokyo apartment. So why is she always musing about jumping off her highrise balcony? One night she meets a restaurateur named Kiyoshi, and embarks on a new double life, in this debut that’s sharp and stunning.
The Magician
Colm Toibin (Scribner, out Tuesday) A well-researched, beautiful reimagining of author Thomas Mann’s life born in early 20th century Germany and marries into a wealthy Munich family — hiding his homosexuality while becoming the most successful novelist of his time. As Hitler gains power, Mann eventually flees Germany for Switzerland, France and, ultimately, America.
Nice Girls
Catherine Dang (William Morrow, out Tuesday) Known as “Ivy League Mary” in her hometown of Liberty Lake, Minn., Mary use be a nice girl known for good grades and her scholarship to Cornell. But three years later, she’s back in town, working at the grocery store — and refusing to tell anyone why she got kicked out of school. When Mary’s childhood best friend goes missing, Mary becomes obsessed with the case — and is convinced it’s connected to the disappearance of another young woman.
Martita, I Remember You
Sandra Cisneros (Vintage, out Tuesday) From the author of “The House on Mango Street” comes this dual-language book about Corina, who leaves Mexico behind to pursue a writer’s life in Par s. There, she is penniless and sleeping on floors — but befriends two amazing women, Martita and Paola. The years intervene and the women drift out of touch, separated on three continents — until a letter brings back all the memories.
My Sweet Girl
Amanda Jayatissa (Berkley, out Sept. 14) Paloma was adopted from a Sri Lankan orphanage as a girl, and grew up in the San Francisco area, where she attended the best schools and had every advantage. But recently her paren her off, and she has sublet the second bedroom in her apartment to a newly arrived Indian man named Arun. After she comes home one night to find him collapsed in a pool of blood, Paloma calls the police.But when they arrive, the body is no longer there — nor is any evidence that Arun even existed.
Harlem Shuffle Colson Whitehead (Doubleday, out Sept. 14) Ray Carney is a Harlem furniture salesman, doing his best to support his wife and kids. Business i , his cousin Freddie — a smalltime crook — sometimes drops off the odd bit of jewelry, no questions asked. But when Freddie teams up with a group planning to rob the Hotel Theresa and offers Ray’s services as a fence, the heist does not go as planned.
Apples Never Fall
Liane Moriarty (Henry Holt, out Sept. 14) Joy Delaney has gone missing — and her husband, Stan, seems like the mos us pect. Two of their grown children think he’s probably guilty, two think he’s innocent, and everyone seems to be squaring off against each other in this delicious family drama.
A Calling For Charlie Barnes Joshua Ferris (Little, Brown, out Sept. 28)
Life isn’t going well for Charlie Barnes. Divorced and walloped by both the Great Recession and a recent cancer scare, nothing is g had planned. But suddenly Charlie is granted a second act, with help from his son — and his narrative takes a turn for the better.
The Lincoln Highway Amor Towles (Viking, out Oct. 5)
From the author of “A Gentleman in Moscow” and “Rules of Civility” comes something completely different: An epic 1950s cross-country journey. E me a - son has served his time at a juvenile work farm and is ready to start fresh with his little brother Billy — leaving their Nebraska town and trying to make their way to the promised land of California. But it turns out two of Emmett’s fellow farm mates have stowed away in the warden’s car, and have a proposition for him: Only it involves going in the opposite direction, all the way to New York.
We Are Not Like Them
Christine Pride and Jo Piazza (Atria Books, out Oct. 5) Jen and Riley have been best friends since kindergarten. But their bond is tested when Jen‘s cop husband s nvolved in the shooting of a black teenager — and Riley, a prominent black journalist, has to cover the story.
No One Will Miss Her
Kat Rosenf ield (William Morrow, out Oct. 12) Lizzie Oullette is dead — and her nogood husband, Dwayne, is nowhere to be found. The case causes exc ement in the rural Maine town of Copper Falls and, at first glance, the culprit seems obvious. But detective Ian Bird’s inquiries lead him away from the hardscrabble village and into luxe city townhouses. It turns out that Adrienne Richards, a wealthy social media influencer, rented the Maine house from Lizzie, and that the two had a strange kind of friendship.
The Collective
Alison Gaylin (William Morrow, out Nov. 2) It’s been five years since her daughter’s death, but Camille Gardner isn’t moving on. The grieving mother is haunted by the young man she belie es sher daughter’s killer. She becomes involved with the Collective, a group of other moms with similar stories — and a desire for vengeance when the law has failed them. They communicate in secret on the dark web, but it’s not just talk.
Our Country Friends
Gary Shteyngart (Random House, out Nov. 2) It’s March 2020, and eight friends have gathered at one of their houses in upstate New York to wait out the pandemic: c , drinking a lot of wine, working on screenplays and reevaluating old relationships. Described as “Chekhov on the Hudson,” this novel from the author of the best-selling “Super Sad True Love Story” and “The Russian Debutante’s Handbook,” is a muchappreciated addition to the fall lineup.
Never
Ken Follett (Viking, out Nov. 9) Ken Follett is a master storyteller, thick tomes (this one clocks in at 816 pages). While he’s best known for his medieval Kingsbridge novels, “Never” is set in present day, as an escalating global crisis threatens to unleash a world war.