20 new books to read in September

With the end of summer comes the return of some of the biggest names in the literary world: Stephen King. Margaret Atwood. Ta-Nehisi Coates. Ann Patchett. And that only begins to cover it.

The perspectives of five women living through an Uruguayan dictatorship propel this searing novel by The Invisible Mountain author De Robertis. The author sensitively and singularly touches on themes of queerness, community, and perseverance. (Sept. 3)

Koepp is perhaps best known for writing the screenplay for Jurassic Park, and in his debut novel, he again delivers a story worthy of Michael Crichton, following three strangers who are called on to contain a deadly organism, and save humanity. (Sept. 3)

Swayed by the promises of an older man, a 15-year-old girl living in mid-’60s Dominican Republic gets married and immigrates to New York City in the hope that her family can eventually join her. In Cruz’s rendering, the inevitability of hardship and the excitement of new possibilities makes for an affectingly complex journey into adulthood. (Sept. 3)

Schine’s latest page-turning charmer is a warm, witty, and weird ode to sisterhood and language, which builds toward an unconventional rivalry between two identical adult twins in ’80s New York City. (Sept. 3)

This propulsive slice of historical fiction imagines the publication of Boris Pasternak’s subversive Doctor Zhivago as a covert Cold War drama, with Americans vying to see it through and Soviets working to prevent it from going public. On both sides of the conflict, women drive the narrative. Prescott combines Mad Men-esque period style with a spy story worthy of John le Carré. (Sept. 3)

If you’re among of the millions (no hyperbole!) who raced through Where the Crawdads Sing this year and are looking for another expansive, atmospheric American saga, look to the latest from Kreuger (Ordinary Grace), set in the Great Depression and centered on four young loners forced to set off on their own. (Sept. 3)

Last year, Tillie Walden won an Eisner Award for her searing graphic memoir, Spinning; she returns here with another bracing visual journey, inspired by the work of Miyazaki and tracking a young woman recovering from a severe trauma. (Sept. 10)

We’re saturated in Trump coverage and analysis these days, but Poniewozik has been offering consistently unique, informative, and whip-smart commentary in his post as New York Times TV critic. Here he expands on his newspaper work by dissecting the president through the lens of his favorite medium. (Sept. 10)

Yoon sparked one of 2018’s biggest bidding wars for this personal rom-com, which uniquely employs the genre’s “fake dating” trope: a Korean-American teenager, forced to hide his love life from his strict parents, meets a willing co-conspirator. Think John Green by way of To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before — with perhaps a dash of The Sun Is Also a Star, written by Yoon’s wife, Nicola. (Sept. 10)

Think of this novel as Stephen King’s take on X-Men‘s Xavier Institute for Higher Learning, but the kids get there because the school murdered their parents. (Sept. 10)

Thirty-four years after the publication of her startlingly prescient novel The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood delivers its potent sequel. The Testaments enters the world stage amidst a political environment that could be described as Atwoodian during its better days — and it also arrives as a fourth season of Hulu’s Handmaid’s adaptation is in the works. (Sept. 10)

The sequel in Locke’s award-winning Highway 59 mystery series finds Texas Ranger Darren Matthews tracking down a missing boy from a white supremacist family, forcing the officer to confront Texas’ history of racial turmoil. The series has been optioned by FX and it’s worth noting that Locke has Hollywood cred: She wrote for Ava DuVernay’s Emmy-nominated When They See Us and will co-executive produce Hulu’s Little Fires Everywhere adaptation. (Sept. 17)

Woodson moves seamlessly between children’s and adult literature; indeed, she’s received the most prestigious prizes for both. She returns to the latter field with this slim but potent book, which explores experiences of sexuality, race, and gender across decades, as members of a Brooklyn-dwelling family are forced into choices and lives that forever shape the next generation. (Sept. 17)

Moser’s epic portrait of the iconic writer and critic winds through American history, entwining its subject to pivotal points in our culture and reshaping her legacy in the process. (Sept. 17)

The prolific author returns to a familiar — and familial — motif in her 19th novel. Like much of Patchett’s work, the story of The Dutch House covers decades, beginning after World War II (when the Conroy family patriarch purchases the home in question) and traversing all the way to the present day, with the grown Conroy children still reeling from the aftermath of being expelled from the home by an (evil) stepmother. (Sept. 24)

Two books, two hit (and EW-endorsed) New York Times best-sellers — Jamison has emerged as a giant in the world of creative nonfiction. She returns with a beautifully compiled collection of previously published essays (including one for which she was named a National Magazine Award finalist) reflecting on obsession and longing. (Sept. 24)

The sweeping new novel from Maaza Mengiste fictionalizes a harrowing historical episode from her birth country of Ethiopia — namely, Mussolini’s 1935 invasion — by focusing on the female soldiers left out of the historical record.

The National Book Award winner has published a memoir, two books of essays, and the latest Black Panther graphic novels. Now he turns his sights onto literary fiction for the first time. The Water Dancer‘s hero, Hiram Walker, is born a slave but possesses a strange power that saves his life during an early drowning accident. The tome follows him through the fight against slavery. That’s about all that can be said without giving away too much of this powerful plot, but trust that it’s worth the wait to find out. (Sept. 24)

Rowell’s long-awaited sequel to Carry On — her No. 1 best-seller, centered on Chosen One Simon Snow and his roommate/enemy/love interest, Baz — rages through the American West in a vintage convertible, with the guys getting lost in a deserty landscape of vampires, dragons, and skunk-headed things with shotguns. Simon’s best friend, Penny, is also along for the trip. And so are we. (Sept. 24)

Does anything conjure an era more than Just Kids does the early 2010s? You could hardly move a muscle in New York City without knocking into a hipster gripping their well-worn copy of Patti Smith’s memoir, which recounts her relationship with Robert Mapplethorpe. This time the musician-turned-author takes readers through her year of solo travel and self-discovery, starting on the coast in Santa Cruz, Calif., and viewed through the lens of the lunar New Year (of the monkey, of course). (Sept. 24)