20 new books to read in August

Summer is winding down, so don’t miss these hot new titles before your last lazy beach day of the season.

Saunders’ ambitious, decades-spanning debut runs the gamut in its depiction of a postwar American family, tackling themes of sibling rivalry, sexuality, failure, and much more. (Aug. 7)

A sensitively written and rigorously reported book on the opoid epidemic, Macy (Factory Man) combines intimate portraits of real addicts with detailed history of a burgeoning American crisis. (Aug. 7)

Kim’s first novel juxtaposes the horrors of war with the love of family, building into a timely portrait of refugee life. It traces the saga of two “ill-fated” lovers who make difficult choices and face devastating consequences as they live through the Korean civil war. (Aug. 7)

A companion piece to his Man Booker-longlisted Reservoir 13, McGregor’s latest works perfectly well as a standalone, offering an alternately sweet and suspensful depiction of a community as it reacts, person by person, to the disappearance of a teenage girl. (Aug. 7)

The pained sequel to the author’s acclaimed novel The Dust that Falls from Dreams goes in-depth into the lives and struggles of a British family in the early 20th century. (Aug. 7)

The nightmarishly vivid second novel by van den Berg (Find Me) explores grief, marriage, and travel, following one widow’s journey across Cuba and what happens when she locks eyes with her supposedly late husband. (Aug. 7)

Lapena fans should know what to expect here: The Couple Next Door author writes another nail-biter perfect for an all-nighter. Here’s the hook for her latest: “A weekend retreat at a cozy mountain lodge is supposed to be the perfect getaway . . . but when the storm hits, no one is getting away.” (Aug. 7)

Joshua Cohen, named one of Granta’s Best of Young American Novelists and with multiple novels under his belt, moves into nonfiction with this prescient book of essays. Attention reveals a fresh, vital literary voice as it covers seemingly every imaginable topic relating to modern life, both at home and abroad. (Aug. 14)

One of the summer’s most exciting literary breakthroughs, Cherry is a profane, raw, and harrowingly timely account of the effects of war and the perils of addiction, a novel written in the first-person by a man currently serving an 11-year prison sentence. (Aug. 14) 

Translated from the Polish by Jennifer Croft, this elliptical novel requires a certain mental commitment, tracing from page to page various figures’ experiences with time and space. But profundity lurks for those who stick with it. Don’t just take our word for it: Flights won the 2018 International Man Booker Prize. (Aug. 14)

Celeste Ng and Emma Cline are just two of the authors who have already sung the praises of this powerful debut. It centers on a pregnant woman who emigrates from China with an eye toward the American dream, and traces her determined journey to manifest it for herself. (Aug. 14)

Reminiscent of of Barbara Kingsolver, this Southern-set period novel unfurls a whodunit against a typical coming-of-age tale, when a mysterious “Marsh Girl” becomes the primary suspect of a grisly crime. (Aug. 14)

Pitched as a deeply felt mash-up of Twin Peaks, The Handmaid’s Tale, and Stranger Things, this ’80s-set novel centers on a young woman’s troubled relationship with her mother, and is told from three perspectives: a daughter, a murderous dog, and a teenage boy named Supernatural. (Aug. 21)

How Are You Going to Save Yourself follows the lives of four friends as they drift apart and come back together, navigating adulthood as black men living with traumatic legacies who have been offered very different fortunes as they come of age. Holmes’ searing study in masculinity is offset by irresistible heart and biting humor. (Aug. 21)

The ever-popular crime novelist is back with another pulse-pounding standalone, this one considering the twisted relationship between a mother and a daughter after the latter realizes she may not know the woman who gave birth to her at all. The book is currently in development to be adapted as a TV series. (Aug. 21)

In the wake of Hulu’s Handmaid’s Tale adaptation — and the volatile political climate that helped popularize it — urgent feminist dystopian fiction is all over publishing right now. Vox presents a vision of a near-future America in which women are allowed to speak a maximum of just 100 words per day. (Aug. 21)

Larison’s neo-Western, about a young woman who heads West while disguised as a boy, is already generating plenty of buzz: film and TV rights have already been acquired by the team behind the Planet of the Apes reboot. (Aug. 21)

White-collar crime is the milleu of choice for this outrageous family romp. A caustic older woman and her adult son — oh, and his slowly-dying cat — are forced to flee New York for Paris and escape scandal, only for things to get (hilariously) worse. (Aug. 28)

McFadden, writer of great, imaginative novels for years now (including Sugar and Gathering of Waters), is back with one of her best yet. Exploring ritual sacrifice in contemporary West Africa, Praise Song offers a fascinating, painful glimpse into a world beyond America’s shores, filled with tragedy and love and hope. (Aug. 28)

The final installment of the fantasy mastermind’s “Lost Tales” Middle-Earth trilogy, The Fall of Gondolin is a must-read for any Tolkien fan. J.R.R.’s son Christopher compiled the book, which features gorgeous original illustrations by Alan Lee. (Aug. 30)