20 new books to read in August

By David Canfield
July 31, 2019 at 12:01 PM EDT
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Heating Up 

August's best new books, ranging from bracing novels to shattering memoirs, offer plenty good distraction from the month's sweaty, humid days. Any one of these 20 should do just the trick.

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Hollow Kingdom, by Kira Jane Buxton

Credit: Grand Central Publishing

Literary debuts don't get much more high-concept than this. Buxton's wild first novel centers on a crow who fights to save humanity from the brink of extinction in the midst of a zombie-environmental apocalypse. And that's only the start (Aug. 6)

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In the Country of Women, by Susan Straight

Credit: Catapult

Lauded fiction writer Straight turns to memoir in this innovative and emotional exploration of the women in her and her husband's lives, addressed to her daughters so they can know the stories of who came before them. (Aug. 6)

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A Particular Kind of Black Man, by Tope Folarin

Credit: Simon & Schuster

A young first-generation Nigerian-American man living in Utah confronts questions of belonging and identity when his mother plans to take him away from the only home he's ever known.

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The Right Swipe, by Alisha Rai

Credit: Avon

One of the very brightest romance writers working right now develops sizzling romantic tension between two dating app creators who find themselves in professional conflict despite their budding personal connection. (Aug. 6)

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Trick Mirror, by Jia Tolentino

Credit: Random House

This deft collection by The New Yorker writer Tolentino examines millennial identity from both critical and personal perspectives, with its essays ranging from scathing (particularly, on scamming) to revelatory. (Aug. 6)

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The Turn of the Key, by Ruth Ware

Credit: Gallery/Scout Press

This appropriately twisty Turn of the Screw update finds the Woman in Cabin 10 author in her most menacing mode, unfurling a shocking saga of murder and deception that begins with the acceptance of a luxurious live-in nanny post that seems — and proves to be — too good to be true. (Aug. 6)

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Ziggy, Stardust & Me, by James Brandon

Credit: G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers

Brandon’s period-piece is set in 1973, at the height of the Watergate hearings and Vietnam War, and a time when homosexuality was still considered a mental illness in the U.S. Enter anxiety-ridden Jonathan and fearlessly out Web, two boys who fall in love and defy the odds. (Aug. 6)

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The Dearly Beloved, by Cara Wall

Credit: Simon & Schuster

This debut novel follows the lives of two ministers and their wives over decades, exploring themes of faith and family as dramatic societal change occurs around them. (Aug. 13)

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Inland, by Téa Obreht

Credit: Random House

Obreht’s novels are capital-E Events — big, ambitious, provocative reading experiences. But it’s been a long wait since her lauded 2011 debut, The Tiger’s Wife. At last we have Inland, a bracingly epic and imaginatively mythic journey across the American West in 1893, in which the lives of a former outlaw and a frontierswoman collide and intertwine. (Aug. 13)

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Miami Midnight, by Alex Segura

Credit: Polis Books

Looking for a new mystery series to fall into this summer? Segura wraps up his hit Pete Fernandez saga in style with this twisty, surprising conclusion. (Aug. 13)

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The Swallows, by Lisa Lutz

Credit: Ballantine Books

The latest campus novel teetering between thriller and satire, Lutz's book throws readers into the drama of a New England prep school, where one inscrutable new teacher brings about ideas that ignite a deadly gender-war. (Aug. 13)

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The Yellow House, by Sarah M. Broom

Credit: Grove Press

In her anticipated memoir, Broom offers a vitally personal story of New Orleans. Set largely in the house that she and her 11 siblings grew up in — and that her mother bought when she was 19 years old — the book wraps an intimate family story in a much larger meditation on the American dream. (Aug. 13)

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Going Dutch, by James Gregor

Credit: Simon + Schuster

Call this a comedy of manners for the (very) modern age. Set in the isolating vastness of New York City, Going Dutch develops a complex, unusual love triangle between a struggling young gay writer and graduate student, the female classmate who yearns for his company, and an attractive but mysterious lawyer. (Aug. 20)

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Tidelands, by Philippa Gregory

Credit: Atria Books

The no. 1 best-selling author is back with a new series, immersing readers in 17th-century politics and glamour in its portrait of Alinor, a young woman who rejects the life of conformity laid out for her. (Aug. 20)

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The Warehouse, by Rob Hart

Credit: Crown

Rob Hart, the author behind the Ash McKenna crime books, is poised for a breakout with The Warehouse. His new dystopian tale, which explores capitalism run amok, was acquired at auction in April 2018 by Ron Howard’s Imagine Entertainment; Howard is expected to direct the film. (Aug. 20)

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The Whisper Man, by Alex North

Credit: Celadon Books

The Russo Brothers (Avengers: Endgame) have already put into development an adaptation of this alternately poignant and terrifying tale of a traumatized father, his 4-year-old son, and the serial killer preying on their new town’s residents. Take a deep breath before diving into this one. (Aug. 20)

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The World Doesn't Require You, by Rion Amilcar Scott

Credit: Liveright

Scott's interweaving story collection covers generations and defies genre restrictions in a series of wry, magically tinged character studies. The book affirms Scott, who won awards for his first collection Insurrection, as a major unique literary talent. (Aug. 20)

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A Door in the Earth, by Amy Waldman

Credit: Little, Brown and Company

Veteran journalist Waldman's first novel, The Submission, was EW's favorite book of 2011. We've got high hopes for her long-anticipated fictional follow-up, which traces a young Afghan-American woman's troubled journey to the remote village of her birth. (Aug. 27)

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Doxology, by Nell Zink 

Credit: Ecco

The prolific and cult-beloved Zink could find a broader audience with this engaging family chronicle, which depicts two generations of an American clan, pre- and post-9/11. (Aug. 27)

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Who Are You, Calvin Bledsoe? by Brock Clarke

Credit: Algonquin Books

The poignant latest from Clarke whisks a middle-aged man who's just lost his mother to Europe. Extraordinary and scary things start happening to him (kidnapping, house burning down), but it's all in service of him coming to terms with who he really is. (Aug. 27)

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