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The Best Books to Read in September 2022
As we turn the corner into fall, heavyweights Ian McEwan, Fredrik Backman and Kate Atkinson are back, and we welcome the return of a perennial favourite, Miss Marple. / BY Nathalie Atkinson / September 2nd, 2022
As September arrives and we turn the corner into fall, heavyweights like Ian McEwan, Fredrik Backman and Kate Atkinson are back with big books. We’re relishing the breakout literary novels of the season, as well as the further adventures of favourite characters Vera Stanhope, Lucy Barton and Jane Marple.
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1The Rising TideJust as the latest season of Shetland debuts on BritBox, mystery writer Ann Cleeves’ other indelible creation, DCI Vera Stanhope, is back in the author’s 10th novel featuring the rumpled detective. Stanhope is as caustic as ever, spitefully playing her two loyal sergeants off one another as they investigate a suspicious death on Holy Island, which is connected to the mainland by a causeway only accessible during low tide. One of a group of school chums, now in their ’60s, has died during their 50th reunion. As Cleeves hinted to me in our chat last year, this novel is about characters looking back on what they’ve made of their lives and friendships. Cleeves goes from strength to strength with her Vera novels; the rueful quality strikes a chord and I couldn’t put it down. (Sept. 1)
Just as the latest season of Shetland debuts on BritBox, mystery writer Ann Cleeves’ other indelible creation, DCI Vera Stanhope, is back in the author’s 10th novel featuring the rumpled detective. Stanhope is as caustic as ever, spitefully playing her two loyal sergeants off one another as they investigate a suspicious death on Holy Island, which is connected to the mainland by a causeway only accessible during low tide. One of a group of school chums, now in their ’60s, has died during their 50th reunion. As Cleeves hinted to me in our chat last year, this novel is about characters looking back on what they’ve made of their lives and friendships. Cleeves goes from strength to strength with her Vera novels; the rueful quality strikes a chord and I couldn’t put it down. (Sept. 1)
2The Marriage PortraitBritish author O’Farrell follows her breakout award-winner Hamnet (about Shakespeare’s wife Anne Hathaway) with this dark Renaissance fable that tackles the life of the real Lucrezia de’ Medici. Her suspicious death at 16, within a year of her marriage to the Duke of Ferrara, inspired poet Robert Browning’s famous dramatic monologue, My Last Duchess. The simple but affecting story of a young woman, forced into marriage, who finds solace in painting the world around her is evoked through lush historical detail: vivid descriptions of 1560s Florence, ornamented rooms and rustling brocade. (Sept. 6)
British author O’Farrell follows her breakout award-winner Hamnet (about Shakespeare’s wife Anne Hathaway) with this dark Renaissance fable that tackles the life of the real Lucrezia de’ Medici. Her suspicious death at 16, within a year of her marriage to the Duke of Ferrara, inspired poet Robert Browning’s famous dramatic monologue, My Last Duchess. The simple but affecting story of a young woman, forced into marriage, who finds solace in painting the world around her is evoked through lush historical detail: vivid descriptions of 1560s Florence, ornamented rooms and rustling brocade. (Sept. 6)
3The Fortunes of Jaded WomenA family of estranged women of the Vietnamese diaspora – stubborn meddlesome mothers and daughters – populate this sparkling debut by Huynh, a Los Angeles-based writer who set the novel in Orange County’s Little Saigon, where she grew up. Local superstition has it a curse made its way down to the Duong sisters, but a psychic says their luck will finally turn around. (Sept. 6)
A family of estranged women of the Vietnamese diaspora – stubborn meddlesome mothers and daughters – populate this sparkling debut by Huynh, a Los Angeles-based writer who set the novel in Orange County’s Little Saigon, where she grew up. Local superstition has it a curse made its way down to the Duong sisters, but a psychic says their luck will finally turn around. (Sept. 6)
4If I Survive YouThis major literary debut by a PhD fellow at Stanford University, whose short fiction has won the Paris Review’s Plimpton Prize, is praised by acclaimed American writer Ann Patchett as “fiction written at the highest level…. like nothing you’ve read before.” A dozen interconnected short stories follow the challenges facing a Jamaican family in Miami, beginning with their arrival in the 1970s through to Hurricane Andrew and the 2008 recession, charting the fortunes of cousins and, later, sons, as they grapple with cultural identity. (Sept. 6)
This major literary debut by a PhD fellow at Stanford University, whose short fiction has won the Paris Review’s Plimpton Prize, is praised by acclaimed American writer Ann Patchett as “fiction written at the highest level…. like nothing you’ve read before.” A dozen interconnected short stories follow the challenges facing a Jamaican family in Miami, beginning with their arrival in the 1970s through to Hurricane Andrew and the 2008 recession, charting the fortunes of cousins and, later, sons, as they grapple with cultural identity. (Sept. 6)
5IthacaThis reimagining of an ancient Greek myth tells the story of Penelope (wife of Odysseus, the sailor made famous by Homer) and other women who were left behind on Ithaca when the men of the island go off to war. The brutal story of defending themselves against pirates and suitors makes for a great yarn because it’s acidly recounted by Hera, queen of the gods, who peppers it with asides. As the London-based author (The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August, soon to be adapted by The Maze Runner filmmaker) puts it: “This book is the secret history of the women the poets ignored, as they plotted, schemed and waged war.” (Sept. 6)
This reimagining of an ancient Greek myth tells the story of Penelope (wife of Odysseus, the sailor made famous by Homer) and other women who were left behind on Ithaca when the men of the island go off to war. The brutal story of defending themselves against pirates and suitors makes for a great yarn because it’s acidly recounted by Hera, queen of the gods, who peppers it with asides. As the London-based author (The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August, soon to be adapted by The Maze Runner filmmaker) puts it: “This book is the secret history of the women the poets ignored, as they plotted, schemed and waged war.” (Sept. 6)
6LessonsAs a boy, Roland was sent off to boarding school because of the attentions of his piano teacher. Like his protagonist, McEwan (Atonement, Amsterdam) was born in 1948 in Hampshire, and the author weaves fiction with his own life’s experience in this novel that spans a half-century, from Suez Crisis to COVID-19. With psychological acuity and turns of phrase, McEwan, 74, a Booker Prize winner and one of Britain’s leading literary novelists, writes of Roland as a man taking stock, with a gradual coming to terms with youthful events. (Sept. 13)
As a boy, Roland was sent off to boarding school because of the attentions of his piano teacher. Like his protagonist, McEwan (Atonement, Amsterdam) was born in 1948 in Hampshire, and the author weaves fiction with his own life’s experience in this novel that spans a half-century, from Suez Crisis to COVID-19. With psychological acuity and turns of phrase, McEwan, 74, a Booker Prize winner and one of Britain’s leading literary novelists, writes of Roland as a man taking stock, with a gradual coming to terms with youthful events. (Sept. 13)
7Marple: Twelve New Mysteries Ruth Ware’s novels The Woman in Cabin 10 and One By One proudly proclaim the author’s debt to Agatha Christie, so it makes sense that she contributes to the first new Marple stories authorized by the Queen of Crime’s estate since Christie’s posthumous 1976 offering, Sleeping Murder. Among the contemporary reimaginings by top female psychological suspense writers like Lucy Foley, Val McDermid and Jean Kwok, the undisputed star is the amateur sleuth from St. Mary Mead. First introduced in 1927, Jane Marple is the original perennially underestimated elderly spinster. Whether your mental image of the gimlet-eyed sleuth is Julia McKenzie, Geraldine McEwan or my personal favourite, Joan Hickson, from adaptations in the Marple Cinematic Universe, these short stories will delight. (Sept. 13)
Ruth Ware’s novels The Woman in Cabin 10 and One By One proudly proclaim the author’s debt to Agatha Christie, so it makes sense that she contributes to the first new Marple stories authorized by the Queen of Crime’s estate since Christie’s posthumous 1976 offering, Sleeping Murder. Among the contemporary reimaginings by top female psychological suspense writers like Lucy Foley, Val McDermid and Jean Kwok, the undisputed star is the amateur sleuth from St. Mary Mead. First introduced in 1927, Jane Marple is the original perennially underestimated elderly spinster. Whether your mental image of the gimlet-eyed sleuth is Julia McKenzie, Geraldine McEwan or my personal favourite, Joan Hickson, from adaptations in the Marple Cinematic Universe, these short stories will delight. (Sept. 13)
8Lucy By the SeaOn the heels of last fall’s Oh, William! (currently on the Booker Prize long list), the Pulitzer-winning American author of Olive Kitteridge and My Name is Lucy Barton returns with more adventures of her newest inimitable heroine. Asthmatic Lucy Barton leaves a panicked New York to spend what she thinks will be a brief pandemic lockdown (didn’t we all!) at a cliff-side house in Maine, with her ex-husband William. As readers of the previous books know, theirs is a complicated history. The novel chronicles Lucy’s anxiety, loss and dislocation with an authentic voice that captures the experience of many. (Sept. 20)
On the heels of last fall’s Oh, William! (currently on the Booker Prize long list), the Pulitzer-winning American author of Olive Kitteridge and My Name is Lucy Barton returns with more adventures of her newest inimitable heroine. Asthmatic Lucy Barton leaves a panicked New York to spend what she thinks will be a brief pandemic lockdown (didn’t we all!) at a cliff-side house in Maine, with her ex-husband William. As readers of the previous books know, theirs is a complicated history. The novel chronicles Lucy’s anxiety, loss and dislocation with an authentic voice that captures the experience of many. (Sept. 20)
9Black DoveA grieving writer and his son escape their real-life sorrows by conjuring tales about the magical flower that lends the book its name. It’s a shape-shifting novel that explores identity and genetic editing, as well as the transformative power of storytelling and childhood friendship, from the Chelsea, Que.-based author whose 2013 novel A Beautiful Truth won the Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize. (Sept. 27)
A grieving writer and his son escape their real-life sorrows by conjuring tales about the magical flower that lends the book its name. It’s a shape-shifting novel that explores identity and genetic editing, as well as the transformative power of storytelling and childhood friendship, from the Chelsea, Que.-based author whose 2013 novel A Beautiful Truth won the Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize. (Sept. 27)
10Shrines of GaietyWhether it’s one of the books from her Jackson Brodie detective series or a stand-alone historical novel like this one, a new book from the No. 1 internationally bestselling writer of Life After Life is an event. The shrines of the title are the seedy nightclubs owned by 1920 Soho queenpin Nellie Coker (based on a real post-Great War Londoner), and if she can defend her territory from corrupt cops and interlopers, the success will enable her six children to get ahead. Part cat-and-mouse, part family saga, the overlapping characters’ stories are told through multiple points of view. It’s another dazzler, Dickensian in scope, from the Edinburgh-based English writer. (Sept. 27)
Whether it’s one of the books from her Jackson Brodie detective series or a stand-alone historical novel like this one, a new book from the No. 1 internationally bestselling writer of Life After Life is an event. The shrines of the title are the seedy nightclubs owned by 1920 Soho queenpin Nellie Coker (based on a real post-Great War Londoner), and if she can defend her territory from corrupt cops and interlopers, the success will enable her six children to get ahead. Part cat-and-mouse, part family saga, the overlapping characters’ stories are told through multiple points of view. It’s another dazzler, Dickensian in scope, from the Edinburgh-based English writer. (Sept. 27)
11We SpreadAfter her long-term partner dies, Penny, an aging artist, is no longer self-sufficient and is relegated to a small, remote retirement home in seemingly idyllic woods. But soon the unreliable narrator’s growing suspicion, disorientation and unease at her circumstance has readers second-guessing what’s happening to her. This work of philosophical suspense by the Kingston, Ont.-based writer (I’m Thinking of Ending Things) questions whether malevolent forces or simply mortality are at work – and neither option is particularly comforting. (Sept. 27)
After her long-term partner dies, Penny, an aging artist, is no longer self-sufficient and is relegated to a small, remote retirement home in seemingly idyllic woods. But soon the unreliable narrator’s growing suspicion, disorientation and unease at her circumstance has readers second-guessing what’s happening to her. This work of philosophical suspense by the Kingston, Ont.-based writer (I’m Thinking of Ending Things) questions whether malevolent forces or simply mortality are at work – and neither option is particularly comforting. (Sept. 27)
12The WinnersInternational bestselling Swedish author Backman completes his Beartown trilogy with this hefty novel set during a life-changing rural storm. (Another Backman book, A Man Called Ove, is out as a movie this Christmas with Tom Hanks playing the infamously cranky retiree.) The novel, about how the fates of villagers from two rival hockey-loving Swedish towns hang in the balance, is both sprawling and intimate, and told in Backman’s richly atmospheric prose. (Sept. 27)
International bestselling Swedish author Backman completes his Beartown trilogy with this hefty novel set during a life-changing rural storm. (Another Backman book, A Man Called Ove, is out as a movie this Christmas with Tom Hanks playing the infamously cranky retiree.) The novel, about how the fates of villagers from two rival hockey-loving Swedish towns hang in the balance, is both sprawling and intimate, and told in Backman’s richly atmospheric prose. (Sept. 27)