NEW YORK -- At a time when millions cannot turn away from the news, fiction and nonfiction authors have similar reasons for why books matter more than ever.
"I think that people need stories to help us understand our place in the world and remember that we're part of something bigger," says Barbara Kingsolver, whose novel Unsheltered (due Oct. 16) is one of the leading literary releases this fall.
"Stories from the past, history, give you a sense of empowerment and make you feel like you can make a difference," says Doris Kearns Goodwin, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian whose Leadership: In Turbulent Times (Sept. 18) reflects on Abraham Lincoln, Lyndon B. Johnson and other presidents. "History isn't just about what people did before, but what we can take from that and use today."
Many fall releases will come within weeks, even days, of the most suspenseful midterm elections in memory. They will compete for attention not just with campaign news, but with nonfiction releases that may affect the results, such as Bob Woodward's Fear: Trump in the White House (Sept. 11) and Michael Lewis' investigation of the Commerce Department under Trump, The Fifth Risk (Oct. 2).
Other timely works include Contempt: A Memoir of the Clinton Investigation (Sept. 11), by former special prosecutor Kenneth Starr, as one of his former underlings, Brett Kavanaugh, seeks confirmation to replace Anthony Kennedy on the Supreme Court.
Memoirs also are coming from former first lady Michelle Obama, whose Becoming (Nov. 13) is one of the year's most anticipated nonfiction books, and former Secretary of State John Kerry's Every Day Is Extra (Tuesday).
Andrew Roberts' Churchill: Walking With Destiny (Nov. 6) and David W. Blight's Frederick Douglass : Prophet of Freedom (Oct. 16) tell of historical figures who remain influential. Jill Lepore's 900-page U.S. history These Truths (Sept. 18) has a running theme of the role of facts and reason in a democracy. Lepore began writing her book years ago, well before terms such as "alternative facts" and "fake news," which dates to the 1930s, became part of contemporary political debate.
"That's what the study of history remedies: The past remains," Lepore wrote. "What's a book that chronicles the past good for? It requires stopping, squinting, casting your mind back -- thinking, and wondering. History teaches, it comforts, it stirs."
Literary fiction includes Haruki Murakami's Killing Commendatore (Oct. 9), Eugenia Kim's The Kinship of Secrets (Nov. 6), Gary Shteyngart's Lake Success (Tuesday) and the 2,000-page Anniversaries: From a Year in the Life of Gesine Cresspahl (Oct. 16), a novel by the late German author Uwe Johnson.
New releases also are coming from John Grisham (The Reckoning, Oct. 23), Mitch Albom (The Next Person You Meet in Heaven, Oct. 9) and Sara Paretsky (Shell Game, Oct. 16). James Bond lives on in Anthony Horowitz's Forever and a Day (Nov. 6), while Prince Lestat returns in Anne Rice's Blood Communion (Oct.2). J.K. Rowling continues her detective writing with the Robert Galbraith novel Lethal White (Sept. 18). Alice Walker (Taking the Arrow Out of the Heart, Oct. 2) and Natasha Trethewey (Monument: Poems New and Selected, Nov. 6) have new poetry books, and a posthumous collection, So Far, So Good, is expected from Ursula K. Le Guin (Nov. 6). Essay collections are coming from a handful of writers better known for fiction -- Jonathan Franzen, Colm Toibin and Ben Fountain -- and from a nonfiction master, John McPhee, whose The Patch is due Nov. 13.
Athletes and celebrities have stories to share. Joe Namath looks back in All the Way: Football, Fame, and Redemption (Nov. 7). Tina Turner, whose best-selling memoir I, Tina, came out in the 1980s, follows with My Love Story (Oct. 16). The Who's Roger Daltrey has written Thanks a Lot Mr. Kibblewhite: My Story (Oct. 23). Oscar-winner Sally Field has written In Pieces (Sept. 18) and Eric Idle's memoir urges Monty Python fans, once again, to Always Look at the Bright Side of Life (Oct. 2).
Release dates are subject to change.
Style on 09/02/2018