Fall 2023 Publishing Preview

20 new books to put on your radar for a fall full of literary heavyweights

While summer might be known in the publishing industry for the release of buzzy beach books, fall is marked as the season of literary heavy hitters. Starting with the first Tuesday of September, publishers start rolling out the books that they think will be critically acclaimed and up for prestigious prizes, ranging from short stories to literary to historical to speculative fiction. I’m sorry that summer is practically over, but I’m so excited for all of the books coming out this season.

As I did for summer releases, I am sharing 20 of my most anticipated fall releases, ordered by publication date. I tried to narrow this list down, but there are just too many good books coming out this fall. These are only a selection of books that I’m hoping to read in the months ahead in between classes, or at least keep on my radar for when I have some more free time. I have not yet read these books, but they each caught my attention because they’re written by a favorite author, published by an imprint that I trust, or received a positive advance review.

What are you most looking forward to reading this fall? Let me know in the comments below.

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September Releases

Wednesday’s Child - Yiyun Li - Fiction/Short Stories - Release Date: September 5

From the author of The Book of Goose, comes a new short story collection filled with stories about ordinary life and the forces that shape it. Many of the stories in Wednesday’s Child have previously appeared in publications such as The New Yorker over the course of the last decade, and this collection is a chance to observe the subtle shifts in Li’s delicate, detailed writing.

The Fraud - Zadie Smith - Historical Fiction - Release Date: September 5

I’m ashamed to say that I have never read anything written by Zadie Smith, the acclaimed author of White Teeth, On Beauty, and more. This book, set in 1870s London, centers around the Tichborne Trial, in which an Australian butcher claimed to be the heir of an English estate and title. The characters that comprise the novel - a Scottish housekeeper and a Jamaican immigrant to name a few - observe the trial and ponder the questions that it raises about deception, fraudulence, and hypocrisy.

Rogue - Mona Awad - Literary/Speculative/Horror Fiction - Release Date: September 12

After Belle’s mother mysteriously dies, Belle returns to Southern California to find answers and uncover secrets. If I learned anything from reading Bunny and All’s Well, nothing is as it seems in Mona Awad’s fiction. This appears to remain the case in Rogue, a “horror-tinted, gothic fairy tale” about a cultish spa, a skincare obsession, and the control that beauty standards have over one’s life.

The Vaster Wilds - Lauren Groff - Historical Fiction - Release Date: September 12

Lauren Groff is a two-time National Book Award Finalist, the winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award, and the author of numerous bestselling novels and short story collections. In short: she is beloved by many as a master of literary fiction. In The Vaster Wilds, a servant girl escapes from an American colonial settlement. In the wilderness on her own, the girl must learn to survive while also grappling with a larger understanding of the “civilization” of the American colonial project.

Normal Rules Don’t Apply - Kate Atkinson - Fiction/Short Stories - Release Date: September 12

I love Kate Atkinson. Anything that she writes, I will read, including my favorites Life After Life, A God in Ruins, and One Good Turn (all 10/10 reads). Normal Rules Don’t Apply is a collection of eleven interconnected inventive stories with fantastical, psychological, and emotional elements. I’m not entirely sure what to expect genre-wise, but Kate Atkinson is known for her range (including historical, speculative, and crime fiction), and I’m eager to see how she is able to experiment in the short story form.

Wellness - Nathan Hill - Literary Fiction - Release Date: September 19

Known for his runaway 2016 debut hit, The Nix, Nathan Hill is back with another family epic. Wellness follows the lives of Jack and Elizabeth, two artists who meet in college in the 1990s, marry, and have children together. Readers follow the couple over the course of 20-odd years, as they navigate their professional lives, marriage, and relationship.

This is Salvaged - Vauhini Vara - Fiction/Short Stories - Release Date: September 26

In this collection of short stories, Vauhini Vara writes about childhood, faith, and connections with others. In one story, two teenagers start working at a questionable call-center amidst the throws of grief. In another, an experimental artist attempts to build a life-size ark according to the specifications set out in the King James bible by employing a subset of Seattle’s homeless population. In another, a young girl serves as a companion to an aging woman in her apartment complex. Each of the stories tackles life’s challenges through the eyes of the rudderless and the searching.

Land of Milk and Honey - C Pam Zhang - Literary/Speculative Fiction - Release Date: September 26

In the midst of a dystopian world of pollution and food scarcity, a chef moves to a mountaintop colony removed from the world’s issues. The contrast between the regular world’s ills and the resources available to the elite couldn’t be starker, and the chef must grapple with the ethics of seeking personal indulgence while the rest of society suffers. C Pam Zhang was long-listed for the 2020 Booker Prize, and I am excited to read her newest piece of inventive fiction.

October Releases

Death Valley - Melissa Broder - Fiction/Magical Realism - Release Date: October 3

Looking to avoid a sick father and husband, a woman escapes to a motel in the California desert. While on a hike recommended by the motel’s receptionist, the woman encounters a massive cactus with a door, which the woman opens and enters, leading her on a journey into the unknown.

Brooklyn Crime Novel - Jonathan Lethem - Historical/Metafiction - Release Date: October 3

Brooklyn Crime Novel is the story of a Brooklyn neighborhood in the 1970s. The neighborhood is filled with money and transactions, an undercurrent of violence, and its inhabitants of families, landlords, and enforcers. I’m not exactly sure what the “crime” alluded to in the title is, but I know that Lethem has a reputation for writing complicated “kaleidoscopic” type stories with a larger message at stake.

Let Us Descend - Jesmyn Ward - Historical Fiction - Release Date: October 3

Jesmyn Ward is a MacArthur Genius and the author of Sing, Unburied, Sing and Salvage the Bones, both of which won the National Book Award. It is no surprise then that Let Us Descend, Ward’s first book in six years, is being released with much anticipation and fanfare. Let Us Descend, set in the American South in the years before the Civil War, follows Annis, a girl sold by her white enslaver father as she journeys to the next plantation accompanied by nurturing memories and spirits.

Roman Stories - Jhumpa Lahiri - Fiction/Short Stories - Release Date: October 10

Jhumpa Lahiri, a fellow Barnard alumna, won the 2000 Pulitzer Prize for her debut collection of short stories, Interpreter of Maladies. Although she now teaches at Barnard (I just missed her), she spent many years living in Rome teaching herself Italian, which is the language in which she wrote Roman Stories, her first short story collection since Unaccustomed Earth was published in 2008. Rome is at the heart of this collection, with the publisher advertising the city as the true protagonist of the stories. Truly, everything that Lahiri writes is worth reading, and I am confident that Roman Stories will be no different.

Family Meal - Bryan Washington - Literary Fiction - Release Date: October 10

Returning home to Houston after the love of his life dies, Cam attempts to fall back into comfortable rhythms while he mourns. Those that meet him, including his former best friend TJ, are unsure how to handle this changed person, relying on their old bonds of friendship to navigate the shifting landscape. Bryan Washington, author of Lot and Memorial, is known for vivid writing about food, love, and human interactions. I know that Family Meal is hotly looked forward to for these reasons.

West Heart Kill - Dann McDorman - Fiction/Mystery - Release Date: October 24

West Heart Kill is a locked-door murder mystery set in a remote hunting lodge that seems reminiscent of Knives Out. Everyone in the lodge is a suspect, including the detective who happens to be there on vacation, until the discovery of three corpses in four days calls him to action. The fact that this book is being published in October rather than during the summer indicates that there is more of a literary slant to the writing, which might be a refreshing addition to the locked-door genre.

America Fantastica - Tim O’Brien - Literary Fiction - Release Date: October 24

Readers will likely know Tim O’Brien for The Things They Carried, his famous linked-short story collection about American soldiers fighting in Vietnam. America Fantastica, his first novel in nearly two decades, attempts to complete a similar task as The Things They Carried: reflect the underbelly of a country unmoored from truth. America Fantastica follows Boyd Halverson and his hostage, Angie, as they travel across the country to settle a score with a man who he believes ruined his life. This is advertised as a story of misinformation within America’s reality of sensationalism.

November Releases

The Happy Couple - Naoise Dolan - Literary Fiction - Release Date: November 7

The Happy Couple is the story of five interconnected friends, drawn together by the impending wedding of Celine and Luke. Each of these people has a reason to want the wedding to not take place, not least of all Celine and Luke who are both not fully committed to their relationship. The Happy Couple presents a modern version of the marriage plot trope by a young Irish writer already making a name for herself in the literary community.

The Future - Naomi Alderman - Speculative Fiction - Release Date: November 7

Set in a (not so) parallel dystopian universe where tech giants and mega-rich companies abound, The Future is narrated in part by Martha Einkorn, a young woman fleeing her father’s cult-like compound in Oregon to take a job at a cult-like social media company. Amidst Martha’s misgivings about her new career, she meets Lai Zhen, a Singaporean survivalist fleeing an assassin. The two join forces to explore the issues of power, corruption, and the cataclysmic impact of world domination.

Baumgartner - Paul Auster - Fiction - Release Date: November 7

I first fell in love with Paul Auster’s writing through 4 3 2 1, a massive Booker-shortlisted novel about family and identity. Baumgartner is his first novel in 6 years, about a 71-year-old man living in mourning for his wife, Anna. As he grieves, he also remembers their life together, stretching back to 1968 when they first met. Baumgartner is a book about memory, connection, and the beauty of life’s ordinary details.

Day - Michael Cunningham - Literary Fiction - Release Date: November 14

Michael Cunningham won the 1998 Pulitzer Prize for his beautiful novel, The Hours, centered around Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway. Day is a novel covering 2019 to 2021, as a couple with pre-existing marital troubles is tested by the stresses and dangers of the pandemic. Taking place in three parts on April 5 of each year, Cunningham explores the changes and evolution of the members of this family as they struggle to adapt and evolve to the uncertainty around them.

So Late in the Day - Claire Keegan - Fiction/Short Stories - Release Date: November 14

So Late in the Day is a compilation of three previously published stories that examine the dynamics between men and women in situations of expectation and cruelty. Claire Keegan, known for her beautiful novellas Small Things Like These and Foster, is an expert at packing a masterful amount of substance into a limited number of pages and for exploring the human condition through a microscopic lens.

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• Every book I wrote about here is available and compiled on this Bookshop page and available for pre-order.

• I frequently review ARCs outside of my normal monthly round-ups. If you want to stay up to date on what’s being published and what I thought of these books, you can find all of my reviews as they are posted here.