Six noteworthy books coming out this month
Book clubs, start your engines. Fall is the season for heavy hitters, and this month’s offerings contain stellar choices: midcentury historical fiction, a riveting Western, an intense mystery, moving autofiction, a long-awaited fantasy release and quirky scientific nonfiction by a beloved author.
Buckeye
by Patrick Ryan (Random House; out now)
Ryan’s heartfelt historical novel follows two couples living in a small town in northwestern Ohio from the end of World War II through America’s Bicentennial. Margaret, raised in an orphanage, hopes to keep the story of her past from her new husband, Felix, who has been shipped off to fight in the Pacific, where he is grappling with troubles of his own. Cal, ineligible for military service, works in his father-in-law’s hardware store and isn’t sure what to make of his wife’s ability to communicate with dead people. As the couples’ lives intersect, the choices they make and the secrets they keep will have repercussions on them and their children. Ryan’s quiet drama conjures moral complexities behind the facade of carefully crafted midcentury lives.
Amity
by Nathan Harris (Little, Brown; out now)
Though the Civil War has ended, sister and brother June and Coleman still find themselves under the thumb of their enslavers, the Harpers. To keep her brother safe, June agrees to travel from Louisiana to Mexico with Mr. Harper, encountering along the way a harsh landscape filled with outlaws, soldiers and renegade fighters allied with Seminole Indian tribes. Two years later, Coleman accompanies Mrs. Harper and her demanding daughter, Florence, along the same route, hoping to be reunited with June, but the travelers encounter complications. Coleman, an empathetic soul, is the heart of Harris’ character-driven Western, giving this harrowing tale sweetness, while June manifests the fortitude to survive as a recently emancipated Black woman in the nascent American Southwest.
Boy From the North Country
by Sam Sussman (Penguin Press; Sept. 16)
Sussman’s debut novel is based on facets of his life he detailed in the 2021 Harper’s essay “The silent type: On (possibly) being Bob Dylan’s son.” His fictional account follows 26-year-old Evan Klausner as he returns home from overseas to care for his mother while she undergoes chemotherapy. Evan has never known the identity of his biological father but is routinely told that he has an uncanny resemblance to Bob Dylan. Reconnecting with his mother as an adult offers Evan a chance to ask questions and learn things he had never known, including that his mother was once Dylan’s lover. More vitally, though, he listens as she shares the story of her life, allowing him to appreciate the complexity of who she is and the choices she made. The truth underlying the characters’ stories brings power to this tender tribute to love between a mother and her son.
The Vanishing Place
by Zoë Rankin(Berkley; Sept. 16)
Emerging from the dense New Zealand bush and collapsing inside the only grocery store in the small town of Koraha, Anya, an emaciated, blood-smeared girl with red hair and green eyes, evokes memories among townsfolk of another child, Effie, who vanished decades earlier. Knowing the truth about her disappearance and suspecting a connection, Effie’s childhood friend Lewis, now Koraha’s only law enforcement officer, asks Effie to return to southwestern New Zealand for the first time in almost 20 years to help investigate what happened. With timelines alternating between the modern-day search for answers about Anya’s mysterious origins and Effie’s hardscrabble childhood living in the unforgiving wilderness, Rankin’s knockout debut unfurls at a brisk clip.
Replaceable You
by Mary Roach (W.W. Norton; Sept. 16)
Roach’s approachable book about regenerative medicine explores techniques for replacing body parts for both health-driven and aesthetic purposes. A scientific explicator whose bestsellers include “Stiff” and “Fuzz,” Roach brings her characteristic frankness to chapters that each zero in on a specific area of anatomy, juxtaposing modern developments with historical ones. Her discussions are often accompanied by fascinating asides: An anesthesiologist tells her that Mitch McConnell’s chin would make intubation difficult; vendors at a prosthetic limb convention reveal that when purchasing artificial legs, feet are sold separately. Despite the descriptions of incredible scientific feats, she maintains an appreciation for the everyday functions of the body and its organs, considering nature the true miracle.
Alchemised
by SenLinYu (Del Rey; Sept. 23)
While her fellow captured fighters were viciously executed, accomplished alchemist and healer Helena Marino was spared, though she remains imprisoned. With no memory of the events leading to her arrest, her enemies are convinced the secrets trapped in her mind might reveal an 11th-hour ploy to overthrow the High Necromancer and his undying army. Kaine Ferron, one of the most brutal commanders of the new regime, is assigned to attempt a painful memory transference, and as Helena fights to fend off his mental invasion, she finds that more than just her own secrets are hidden. SenLinYu’s dark fantasy excels at world-building with a sweeping tale of resilience that considers the complications of finding love amid the violence of wartime.
