Fiction
Helm by Sarah Hall
Faber, out now
Hall is best known for her glittering short stories: this is the novel she’s been working on for two decades. Set in Cumbria’s Eden valley, it tells the story of the Helm – the only wind in the UK to be given a name – from its creation at the dawn of time up to the current degradation of the climate. It’s a huge, millennia-spanning achievement, spotlighting characters from neolithic shamans to Victorian meteorologists to present-day pilots.
Katabasis by RF Kuang
HarperVoyager, out now
The follow-up to Yellowface takes its title from the Ancient Greek for a journey to the underworld. Two Cambridge postgrads in the field of analytic magick venture into hell to retrieve the soul of their academic supervisor in a big, bold fantasy romp.
Good and Evil and Other Stories by Samanta Schweblin, translated by Megan McDowell
Picador, out now
An eerie new collection from the three times International Booker-nominated Argentinian author. Set at the boundaries between our exterior and interior worlds, the stories examine moments of violence and revelation.
What We Can Know by Ian McEwan
Jonathan Cape, 18 September
A century from now, an academic in an impoverished Britain sinking under the seas pores over literary archives from the impossibly rich and fortunate early 21st century. He is on the trail of a poem that was read aloud once, and then wondered about for generations. What was its message, and does it still matter in the aftermath of catastrophe?
Will There Ever Be Another You by Patricia Lockwood
Bloomsbury, 23 September
No one else writes sentences as wild, clever and funny as Lockwood. Shortlisted for the Booker and Women’s prizes in 2021, No One Is Talking About This was a blazingly original take on social media and family tragedy. The follow-up continues Lockwood’s autofictional project, as an American woman struggles with a breakdown in the aftermath of the pandemic.
The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny by Kiran Desai
Hamish Hamilton, 25 September
Two decades on from Desai’s Booker winner The Inheritance of Loss comes a mighty love story, already longlisted for this year’s prize. An epic of modernity and tradition, generational hope and despair, it moves between India and the US as a couple are buffeted by the forces of fate, family and their own ambitions.
Cursed Daughters by Oyinkan Braithwaite
Atlantic, 25 September
My Sister, the Serial Killer was a critical and commercial smash. In the Nigerian-British author’s follow-up, Eniiyi is determined to break the family curse that condemns its women to heartbreak.
Shadow Ticket by Thomas Pynchon
Jonathan Cape, 7 October
Following 2013’s Bleeding Edge, the 88-year-old American great returns with another slice of antic noir. It’s the Great Depression, and private eye Hicks McTaggart takes on a routine case that turns out to be anything but: think spies, swing musicians, interplanetary languages and paranormal intrigue.
Big Kiss, Bye-Bye by Claire-Louise Bennett
Fitzcarraldo, 9 October
From the author of Pond and Checkout 19, a new novel about intimacy and connection in which a woman who has moved to the countryside turns over the ephemera of her past.
The Four Spent the Day Together by Chris Kraus
Scribe, 9 October
Kraus made her name with the autofictional cult classic I Love Dick. Now she investigates American poverty and division through the story of a murder committed by three teenagers, and the woman who becomes obsessed with it.
The Land of Sweet Forever by Harper Lee
Hutchinson Heinemann, 21 October
A decade on from the rediscovery of Go Set a Watchman, some early stories and later nonfiction from the author of To Kill a Mockingbird.
The Rose Field by Philip Pullman
Penguin, 23 October
It’s 30 years since we were first introduced to dust, daemons and Lyra Belacqua in Pullman’s groundbreaking YA novel Northern Lights: now, with the culmination of the Book of Dust trilogy, comes the conclusion of Lyra’s quest across worlds, and hopefully answers to many mysteries.
Vaim by Jon Fosse, translated by Damion Searls
Fitzcarraldo, 23 October
Named for a fictional Norwegian fishing village, Fosse’s first novel since receiving the Nobel prize in literature in 2023 follows a man who sails to the big city in search of a needle and thread and finds his long-lost love instead. Two more novels about Vaim are promised.
Tom’s Crossing by Mark Z Danielewski
Pantheon, 28 October
A new novel from the author of the twisty cult classic House of Leaves, pitched as his “most accessible yet”, features two friends in the American west on a mission to rescue horses set for slaughter.
The Eleventh Hour by Salman Rushdie
Jonathan Cape, 4 November
These five stories about old age, when the midnight of life is approaching, move between India, England and America, reckoning with public life and private tragedy, regret and mortality, experience and imagination.
The Silver Book by Olivia Laing
Hamish Hamilton, 6 November
Danilo Donati, designer for Fellini and Pasolini, meets a young English artist in Venice. Laing’s second novel is a queer love story and noir thriller set in the dreamlike world of Italian cinema, in the months leading up to the murder of Pasolini in 1975.
The Wax Child by Olga Ravn, translated by Martin Aitken
Viking, 6 November
Ravn’s International Booker-shortlisted The Employees was set on a 22nd-century spaceship; now the visionary Danish author goes back in time for a tale based on an infamous 17th-century witch trial, as a woman melts down beeswax and shapes it into human form.
On the Calculation of Volume 3 by Solvej Balle, translated by Sophia Hersi Smith and Jennifer Russell
Faber, 20 November
The first two volumes of this Danish timeloop series in which a woman must live the 18th of November over and over again caused a sensation. In the third, after 1,143 repeated days, something changes: she meets a man who has also fallen through the cracks of time.
Nonfiction
All the Way to the River: Love, Loss and Liberation by Elizabeth Gilbert
Bloomsbury, 9 September
A very different kind of memoir from the author of Eat Pray Love: Gilbert’s portrait of a compelling but destructive relationship encompasses terminal illness, addiction and the hard work of recovery.
Fly, Wild Swans: by My Mother, Myself and China by Jung Chang
William Collins, 16 September
Jung Chang’s 1991 account of “three daughters of China”, Wild Swans, did more than any other book to shape western popular understanding of Mao’s rule. More than 30 years later she returns with a sequel – bringing her distinctive blend of memoir and social history to bear on the era of Xi Jinping.
If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies: The Case Against Superintelligent AI by Eliezer Yudkowsky and Nate Soares
Bodley Head, 18 September
Should you worry about superintelligent AI? The answer from one of the tech world’s most influential doomsayers, Eliezer Yudkowsky, is emphatically yes. The good news? We aren’t there yet, and there are still steps we can take to avert disaster.
When Everyone Knows That Everyone Knows …Common Knowledge and the Science of Harmony, Hypocrisy and Outrage by Steven Pinker
Allen Lane, 23 September
Human societies can’t operate without common knowledge – the shared assumptions about how we think and ought to conduct ourselves. Cognitive scientist and occasional controversialist Pinker looks at how that knowledge is structured – and how it can lead us astray.
107 Days by Kamala Harris
Simon & Schuster, 23 September
Once Joe Biden decided to end his bid for a second term in the White House, Kamala Harris had about 15 weeks – or 107 days to be precise – to turn the Democrats’ fortunes around and save the world from another Trump presidency. She failed, of course, but not for want of trying – a story laid bare in this account of the punishing campaign.
The Boundless Deep: Young Tennyson, Science and the Crisis of Belief by Richard Holmes
William Collins, 25 September
Holmes’s prize-winning 2009 book, Age of Wonder, demonstrated how the scientific discoveries of the 18th and 19th centuries suffused the literature of the time, from Keats’s poetry to Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. His new biography of Tennyson places the poet in the context of the broader clash between faith and the emerging theory of evolution.
On Friendship by Andrew O’Hagan
Faber, 9 October
This delightful collection of short essays explores friendship and loyalty in all its many forms – from relationships with work colleagues to the bonds we form with members of the animal kingdom – incorporating plenty of literary detours along the way.
The Big Payback: The Case for Reparations for Slavery and How They Would Work by Lenny Henry and Marcus Ryder
Faber, 9 October
“How is it that owners were paid compensation from our taxes, yet the enslaved and their families were not,” ask author and comedian Lenny Henry and media executive Marcus Ryder in this searching book about what it would really take to right the historic wrongs of the slave trade.
The Chain by Bradley Wiggins
HarperCollins, 23 October
The Tour de France and Olympic gold medal-winning cyclist explores “the darkest parts” of his life for the first time in this revealing memoir of depression and addiction.
The Uncool: A Memoir by Cameron Crowe
4th Estate, 28 October
We all know how Crowe got into writing – as an unfeasibly young music journalist he covered some of the greatest bands of the 70s – a coming of age immortalised in his autobiographical film Almost Famous. But his subsequent career, making films such as Fast Times at Ridgemont High and Vanilla Sky, was just as glamorous. Uncool tells the story of a life at the cutting edge of popular culture.
The Seven Rules of Trust: Why It Is Today’s Most Essential Superpower by Jimmy Wales
Bloomsbury, 28 October
The founder of Wikipedia could have monetised his creation and become a billionaire, like his near contemporaries Peter Thiel and Elon Musk. Instead, he has jealously protected its status as a public good, free for everyone and trusted by billions. Here he shares his formula for a better internet – and in turn, better politics and institutions.
Dead and Alive by Zadie Smith
Hamish Hamilton, 30 October
The latest essay collection from the author of White Teeth and The Fraud moves magpie-like across popular culture and politics: from Tár to Stormzy, Trump to Starmer and Martin Amis to Hilary Mantel.
We Did OK, Kid by Anthony Hopkins
Simon & Schuster, 4 November
In 1948, a 10-year-old boy from Port Talbot watched Laurence Olivier’s Hamlet on the big screen. It was a turning point in Hopkins’s life, setting him on a course that would eventually lead to six Oscar nominations and two wins. Aged 87, he looks back on humble beginnings and a glittering career.
Wings: The Story of a Band on the Run by Paul McCartney
Allen Lane, 4 November
How did McCartney, who turned 83 this year, manage to squeeze in writing a book alongside the 79 dates of his Got Back tour? Well, he had some help – this nearly 600-page tome is compiled from 500,000 words of interviews and edited by a former speechwriter to the Clinton White House. In any case, it promises fresh insights into the frenetically creative period that followed the Beatles’ breakup.
Book of Lives: A Memoir of Sorts by Margaret Atwood
Chatto & Windus, 4 November
Fans of one of the most famous living writers have waited in vain for a memoir – until now. Atwood goes back to the beginning, writing about her childhood as well as the inspiration behind many of the 18 novels that made her a household name.
Bread of Angels by Patti Smith
Bloomsbury, 4 November
The singer and poet’s first memoir, Just Kids, focused on her tumultuous relationship with the maverick photographer Robert Mapplethorpe, evoking a now disappeared New York of dirt-cheap rentals and avant-garde performance. This new instalment focuses on her life as an artist in her own right – from childhood inspirations to adult acclaim.
One Aladdin Two Lamps by Jeanette Winterson
Jonathan Cape, 13 November
Winterson takes the Arabic folk tale 1001 Nights as her starting point, using the image of Scheherazade, a woman spinning a tale every night to fend off death, to explore the value and future of storytelling.
Crime
Spies, lies and the return of the Da Vinci codebreaker
Each September, bookshops are invaded by a charge of the big beasts in crime and thrillers. Leading the pack as ever is Richard Osman, returning to his Thursday Murder Club franchise of retiree armchair detectives with The Impossible Fortune (Viking, 25 September), featuring a wedding guest in fear for their life. Cormoran Strike and his detective agency partner Robin are still struggling with their feelings for each other in the eighth outing from Robert Galbraith (The Hallmarked Man, Sphere, out now), while Mick Herron serves up another helping of spies and lies in the ninth of his Slow Horses series: Clown Town (Baskerville, 11 September), which has its roots in a Northern Ireland cover-up.
Janice Hallett’s latest cosy puzzler, The Killer Question, is based around pub quizzes (Viper, out now), while William Boyd offers The Predicament (Viking, out now), a swinging 60s espionage thriller featuring “accidental spy” Gabriel Dax, first seen in 2024’s Gabriel’s Moon. And The Da Vinci Code author Dan Brown is back after eight years’ absence with the thumpingly titled The Secret of Secrets (Bantam, 9 September), another race-against-time conspiracy fest for his Harvard symbologist hero Robert Langdon.
October promises a James Bond spin-off in Vaseem Khan’s Quantum of Menace (Zaffre, 23 October), the first in a cosy mystery series featuring Q, now ousted from MI6 and running his own investigation into the death of a quantum computer scientist. Meanwhile, Shetland detective Jimmy Perez returns in a new standalone novel from Ann Cleeves: in The Killing Stones (Macmillan, 7 October) Perez has moved to Orkney, where he sets out on a mission to discover the truth behind the murder of a childhood friend. Expect more dark secrets and simmering community tensions against a new ruggedly beautiful landscape.
Memoir
From Hollywood to Harvey Nicks… more life stories
If the end of the year is a time for looking back at life, that’s not been lost on celebrities (I’m sure it has nothing to do with Christmas sales). Musicians are to the fore. Scooby Snacks singer Huey Morgan tells tales of 90s excess in The Fun Lovin’ Criminal (Quercus, 11 September). For a grungier vibe try Rumours of My Demise (Faber, 6 November) by Evan Dando of indie darlings the Lemonheads. Slightly eclipsing them both in star power – sorry, guys – is Lionel Richie, whose autobiography Truly (William Collins, 30 September) is a sure-fire bestseller, given the man has shifted more than 125m albums globally. Yusuf/Cat Stevens tells us about his wild world in Cat on the Road to Findout (Constable, 18 September), and from the clubs, drag DJ Jodie Harsh dishes the dirt on London’s 00s scene in You Had to Be There (Faber, 25 September).
From Hollywood comes Charlie Sheen’s tell‑all The Book of Sheen (Gallery, 9 September), a tome he “shouldn’t be alive” to write after what are euphemistically described as a “vortex of extracurricular activities”. And Michael J Fox offers not a full-blown memoir but a slice of acting life in Future Boy (Headline, 14 October), the story of his 80s smash hits Family Ties and Back to the Future. Rocky Horror Show star Tim Curry looks back on a wayward career in Vagabond (Century, 14 October).
It’s not just actors: “queen of shops” Mary Portas tells us how she got her break at Harvey Nicks in I Shop, Therefore I Am (Canongate, 2 October) while comedian and writer Ben Elton asks What Have I Done? (Pan Macmillan, 9 October), a question that may also be relevant to tennis star Boris Becker, whose Inside (HarperCollins, 25 September) tells us how he went from Wimbledon to Wandsworth prison. Malala Yousafzai returns with the story of life after becoming a human rights icon, Finding My Way (W&N, 21 October), and The Orchid Thief author Susan Orlean, promises to enchant with Joyride (Atlantic, 6 November), her memoir of chasing down stories for the New Yorker.