21 Books We’re Excited to Read in September 2024

The fall season is the best time to publish a book, and it shows. In our biggest issue yet, we count down 21 books, including the return of literary heavyweights like Sally Rooney, Tony Tulathimutte, Coco Mellors, Garth Greenwell, and Chelsea Bieker.

Madwoman, Chelsea Bieker (September 3)

In Chelsea Bieker’s third book and first thriller, a woman named Clove attempts to live a normal life after a harrowing night as a child when she watched her mother protect herself against her father on the balcony of their Hawai’i apartment. Years later and with a husband and two children, she receives a letter from her mother — now in prison — and works both to help her and makes sure her secret stays put. A necessary and timely exploration of domestic abuse, Madwoman’s twisty plot grips the reader from the start.

Small Rain, Garth Greenwell (September 3)

The writer of achingly tender and sexual novels like Cleanness returns with Small Rain, where one poet’s pain sends him on a journey of bodily self-exploration and actualization. Paralyzed by the American healthcare system and stuck in his ICU bed, he has to explore the confines of his body after living so long in his mind, including the nature of his work, art, music, and care. Garth Greenwell continues to dazzle on a sentence level, gorgeous and meticulously formed. 

Under the Eye of the Big Bird, Hiromi Kawakami (September 3)

In her newest book to be translated into English, the Japanese writer Hiromi Kawakami (Strange Weather in Tokyo, People From My Neighborhood) takes her idiosyncratic and quirkily funny eye to science fiction. Humans are on the verge of extinction and have scattered across the earth in small tribes under “Mothers,” caring leaders. Children are now scientific feats; they’re made by factories, procreation, or stem-cell implants from animals like dolphins. With signature style, Kawakami writes a distinct and off-kilter epic of Earth on the brink of collapse across 14 distinct geological epochs.

Blue Sisters, Coco Mellors (September 3)

From the author of 2022’s sharp and hilarious Cleopatra and Frankenstein comes Blue Sisters, a family portrait with one person missing. The three Blue sisters are mourning Nicky — their fourth, who died unexpectedly — sending them on complicated and earth-shattering spirals, trying to accustom themselves to this new reality. Avery is a heroin addict turned lawyer, Bonnie is a Los Angeles bouncer, and Lucky lives as a model in Paris. But when they come home for the first time since Nicky’s passing, they realize they might not be as well-off as they assumed themselves to be. 

Colored Television, Danzy Senna (September 3)

From the acclaimed author of Caucasia, an aspiring novelist lands a gig house-sitting for a friend’s luxury Los Angeles home, serendipitously giving her time to finish her upcoming manuscript. However, in search of a more solid career (and income) she turns to Hollywood, where a streaming network tasks her to create new “diverse content.” She starts to make a plan to create the next Great Biracial Comedy, until she and her writer-in-tow realize that the industry is not all that it seems.

In Our Likeness, Bryan VanDyke (September 3)

When Graham Gooding discovers a hole in his coworker Nessie’s algorithm, reality breaks as he attempts to fix it, causing glitches in the system that only he can remember. He soon realizes that the algorithm can change the world to whatever he desires, but he doesn’t realize that his boss, the tech guru David Warcik, can see his edits. The algorithm could be influential, world-altering, but will David let it get that far?

Misinterpretation, Ledia Xhoga (September 3)

In Ledia Xhoga’s debut novel, an Albanian interpreter agrees to work with a Kosovo war survivor for his therapy sessions. As his nightmares and terrifying memories infiltrate the nameless narrator’s own past experiences, she impulsively decides to take a risk to help a Kurdish poet and travel home to reunite with her mother. But reality and imagination converge when she returns home and realizes mingling with another person’s past is dangerous work.

Sky Full of Elephants, Cebo Campbell (September 10)

In a world where white people cease to exist, can America truly transform into a “post-racial” society? Charlie Brunton, a wrongly convicted Black man, gets a call one day from his daughter, whom he wasn’t sure existed anymore due to her white mother. The pair finally meet to journey towards the Kingdom of Alabama, where they think some family still remain, but go on their path of self-actualization once they traverse a fractured, dystopian America.

Dear Dickhead, Virginie Despentes (September 10)

From the French author of King Kong Theory, Dear Dickhead tracks correspondence between a former novelist, at the crux of his cancellation, ranting about celebrities online. “I read the piece you posted on your Insta,” an actress he berated writes to him, “You’re like a pigeon shitting on my shoulder as you flap past.” Virginie Despentes’ characters argue about patriarchy, the city, pleasure and excess, all with humor and wit.

Olive Days, Jessica Elisheva Emerson (September 10)

In this steamy debut novel, an Orthodox Jewish woman in a suburb of Los Angeles discovers the true path her life should go in following a wife swap her husband initially suggests. Rina is strung-out with her two children and failing marriage, until she takes a painting class taught by the mysterious Will Ochoa. Their relationship hindered by Nina’s strict Judaic rules and customs, the two sneak away, take trips, and wonder if their love is great enough to upend both their lives (and religions).

Shame On You: How to Be a Woman in the Age of Mortification, Melissa Petro (September 10)

Jia Tolentino-minted journalist Melissa Petro offers a history and theory of how shame has infused itself in our culture and stifled millions of women, afraid to be less-than and unworthy. Shame can be weaponized, platformed, even celebrated — but liberation from it will take more than a quick therapy session. Blending science, investigative reporting, and her own stint as a New York Post cover star, Petro tells her own experience in being judged and how to use it in a better way than society expects of us.

Next Stop, Benjamin Resnick (September 10)

In this debut novel from Rabbi Benjamin Resnick, a black hole consumes the state of Israel, leading to a dystopian future where Jewish people around the world are considered victims or perpetrators. Ethan and Ella attempt to simulate regular life and raise a child together, which is pretty hard to do when Jews are sectioned off and hundreds make the pilgrimage into the black hole every day. For fans of Leave the World Behind and history, Next Stop asks if the past is able to loop back around to itself and bring about horrifying conditions.

The Extinction of Experience: Being Human in a Disembodied World, Christine Rosen (September 10)

Commentary Magazine editor and essayist Christene Rosen’s latest book takes a dagger to Instagram, TikTok, emojis, and Venmo, saying that the ‘new normal’ of our lives spread out on digital platforms is anything but regular. In interesting and well-researched vignettes of our online life, she tracks how the experience of waiting, knowledge, emotion, and pleasure are upended by screens — a thought-provoking and timely book.

Vivienne, Emmalea Russo (September 10)

The debut novel from poet and astrologist Emmalea Russo, Vivienne is a cancel-culture murder mystery whose week-long play-by-play asks what art is worth and if we can escape from personal narrativization. Vivienne Volker might have escaped the press in the 70s after a woman she was at odds with jumped to her death, but the case is back open after her work is selected for a new feminist collection at a well-respected museum. After rumors circulate and internet commenters look into her history, Vivienne might pay the price for her art once and for all. 

A Scarab Where the Heart Should Be, Marieke Bigg (September 12)

Dr. Marieke Bigg’s second novel follows Jacky, ‘The Beetle,’ a reactionary architect whose radical beliefs inspire Twitter outrage and journalistic probing. In a university building, for example, she omits breastfeeding rooms so as to normalize the action in public, defending it by creating a utopia through uncomfortable but necessary situations. All the while, she’s supported by a husband and girlfriend, who manage and calm The Beetle before her façade erupts in splendor. A Scarab Where the Heart Should Be is a striking, exploratory novel from a rising star.

Scaffolding, Lauren Elkin (September 17)

Lauren Elkin’s newest novel sees two tenants inhabiting the same Parisian apartment 52 years apart. 2019: Anna is a psychologist whose husband works in London, leaving her to mourn her recent miscarriage alone. 1972: Florence and Henry are a young couple, trying to get pregnant, but Henry isn’t sure he’s ready for the demands of fatherhood. The specters of both women move around each other, unaware of the other’s presence in this exciting work about communality and memory. 

A Sunny Place for Shady People, Mariana Enríquez (September 17)

A horrific and fantastical new collection of short stories from the author of Our Share of Night and The Dangers of Smoking in Bed, Argentina is rendered spellbinding, surreal, and hypnotizing. Enríquez has found her niche in the surreal horrors and twists on reality — stories include a family with melted-off faces, a neighborhood of ghosts, and pulling from real life, a hotel who is haunted by a girl who melted in the water tank on the roof. Dizzying, frightening, and not to miss. 

Us Fools, Nora Lange (September 17)

In this tragicomic coming of age novel set along the Midwestern 1980s, Joanne and Bernadette Fareown would desperately like to escape their rural farm. Bolstered by Greek mythology and Virginia Woolf, trying to ignore their parents’ fighting and financial struggles, they eventually move to Chicago, where Joanne acts out in increasingly rambunctious ways and ends up in, of all places, Alaska. As Bernie navigates her new world alone, she takes what she’s learned from her sister in this heartfelt and imaginative debut from Nora Lange.

Rejection: Fiction, Tony Tulathimutte (September 17)

Tony Tulathimutte’s sprawling sophomore novel/story collection takes “internet literature” to its limit. Stretching the realms of fiction to include canonical and often-discussed forum posts, internet group chats, Twitter, emails to porn stars, and an imagined response from a publisher re: all of the above, Tulathimutte’s easy portrayal of what happens to seemingly normal people after a harsh rejection goes above and beyond typical behavior. Absurd, ridiculous, and shockingly funny, Rejection never eschews poking fun at itself alongside the feminists, narcissists, and internet lurkers it so effortlessly satirizes. It’s a shocking, silly, and brilliant book.

The Repeat Room, Jesse Ball (September 24)

In the newest novel from visionary writer Jesse Ball, a mysterious and highly selective judicial system reinvents the idea behind “a jury of one’s peers.” After a shocking and transgressive case revolving around the fate of one boy, the ‘repeat room’ is a technologically advanced machine where one juror can see through the eyes of the defendant, replaying the night of the event from a newfound perspective. Thought-provoking and critical of the judicial system and the nature of judgment, Ball is a deft stylist and exquisite thinker.

Intermezzo, Sally Rooney (September 24)

The newest from the Irish literary star Sally Rooney (Normal People, Conversations With Friends), Intermezzo follows five people in love and at odds with each other (surprise!). Two brothers — Peter and Ivan — are as different as they could be personality-wise, and in response to their father’s death. A successful lawyer, Peter self-medicates and alternates between two women, and Ivan, a competitive chess player, meets an older woman who he becomes intertwined with. Rooney’s latest is sure to excite, aggravate, and elicit all the proper feelings, though that’s not a huge surprise.