Lit Hub Editors Pick 34 Books for Fall Reading
The weather has turned unreliable. Leaves stay green while rain pours down. But the farmer’s market tells a different story: watermelons on one side, pumpkins on the other. Fall is coming, and with it comes publishing’s biggest season.
Lit Hub’s staff editors have read through the early releases and picked the books they love most. Their list, 34 Books You Need to Read This Fall, covers everything from queer historical epics to speculative fiction about time running backward. Here is what they recommend.
Marlon James Returns With a Queer Epic
Marlon James has written a doorstop of a novel. It’s called The Disappearers, and it lands from Riverhead on September 1. James is the author behind A Brief History of Seven Killings, and this new work arrives with heavy anticipation.
The Hype is real, according to Brittany Allen, a staff writer at the Hub. Award nominations and breathless reviews are coming in hot. So is the contrarian backlash. Allen says all of it is justified.
“This is so annoying, friends? But I am here to tell you: it’s all true,” Allen writes.
The novel opens in 1980s Kingston. A group of queer men gathers to rehearse a play. Horrific violence befalls them. The survivors scatter, and the back half of the book moves back and forth in time, jumping between narrators as they contemplate revenge.
Allen describes the book as a maximalist, polyphonic, unabashedly gay historical epic on national themes. It drags you through the rank heart of humanity, she says. James is brutal about violence and forensic about sex and desire.
“I also can’t explain the magic trick of its propulsion,” Allen writes. “600 pages went over like a wave.”
Emily Skaja Turns Grief Into Poetry
Emily Skaja’s second collection, Black Lake, comes from Graywolf Press on September 1. Emily Temple, the Hub’s managing editor, was transfixed by it.
The titular black lake is a bottomless pit of grief. It grows larger as the speaker suffers miscarriage after miscarriage. The world around her turns ever crueler.
This is a grief book, Temple says, and accordingly it is darkly funny. She quotes a line about being given the wrong food at a restaurant and eating it politely. Another line describes a feral dog that the speaker will own.
The collection is frequently surreal. Temple quotes a billionaire who explains that the weather does not belong to you, chewing his cud of regurgitated fifties. It is also painful.
“Was it an absence or a presence? / It was a black circle, like a lake with a drain,” the book reads.
Temple says there is much to remind readers of Plath. But this is a Plath for the vibrant, unholy, unsustainable present. The result is a collection that thrums with blood and desire and derangement and clear-headed horror.
Chloe Benjamin Sends Laurel Backward Through Time
Chloe Benjamin’s new speculative epic, Under Story, arrives from Putnam on September 1. It is 516 pages, which may look daunting at first. Julia Hass, a Book Marks associate editor, says that feeling turns to awe once you read it.
The protagonist is Laurel. She lives at a research base in Antarctica. The reasons unspool slowly: the end of a marriage, the death of a child.
Laurel wants to feel better. What she really wants is to turn back time and redo everything that came before. In Antarctica she finds a portal. Through it, she reenters her life, or a life that is a close mirror to hers. The difference: time works in reverse there.
“This backwards time experience is brain-breaking and mindset-altering,” Hass writes. “Everything you believe in about life, its expectations, its triumphs, its losses, happen in reverse here.”
Benjamin took almost a decade to write the book. That is not the impressive part, Hass says. The core of the novel is grief and the unwavering march of time. It is about the constant, devastating nature of life itself, and allowing yourself to love even when you know how the story ends.
Hass felt lines from Mary Oliver reverberating in her head while reading. The poem speaks of loving what is mortal, holding it against your bones, and letting it go when the time comes.
Scott Hawkins Finally Returns After a Decade
Some authors make waiting part of the legend. Donna Tartt is the most famous example. For those in the know, Scott Hawkins is up there too.
Ten years after The Library at Mount Char, Hawkins is back with his sophomore effort. The new novel is called Blacktail, from Crown on September 1. It is the story of the titular wolf.
The Hub editors describe it as spectacular. The full review continues in their list, but the early word is strong. Hawkins has a loyal readership that has waited a long time for this.
| Book | Author | Publisher | Release Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Disappearers | Marlon James | Riverhead | September 1 |
| Black Lake | Emily Skaja | Graywolf Press | September 1 |
| Under Story | Chloe Benjamin | Putnam | September 1 |
| Blacktail | Scott Hawkins | Crown | September 1 |
The Full List Spans Many Genres
The Hub editors have read and loved all 34 books on their list. Their selections cover a wide range of styles and subjects. The four books detailed here are just a selection.
The list reflects the season’s publishing calendar. Fall is famously the biggest season for new releases. The intro writer notes that they field the most recommendation requests from friends and neighbors during this time, anecdotally.
Maybe it is back-to-school muscle memory, the editors suggest. Buy new books in September for 20-odd years and you will want to do it forever. Or maybe it is the subtle shift in emotional energy, attention turning from summer’s immediacy to a more speculative view toward the end of the year.
Either way, there are plenty of good books being published this season. The Hub staff have read them and would like to recommend them.
- The Disappearers by Marlon James — a queer historical epic set in 1980s Kingston
- Black Lake by Emily Skaja — a poetry collection about grief and miscarriage
- Under Story by Chloe Benjamin — a speculative novel about time running in reverse
- Blacktail by Scott Hawkins — the long-awaited follow-up to The Library at Mount Char
Why This Season Matters
Fall is famously publishing’s biggest season. The Hub editors note this with confidence. The farmer’s market proves the season is turning, even if the leaves have not caught up yet.
The list is personal. Each editor recommends books they have read and loved. These are not abstract picks from a corporate algorithm. They are individual voices with specific tastes.
Brittany Allen brought the queer epic. Emily Temple brought the grief poetry. Julia Hass brought the backward-time saga. Each recommendation carries the editor’s own reading experience.
The result is a list that feels human. It has hype and backlash and magic tricks. It has bottomless pits of grief and billionaires chewing regurgitated fifties. It has portals in Antarctica and wolves with their own titles.
What to Read First
The Hub editors do not rank their picks. They present them as a selection, not a hierarchy. But the four books detailed here offer distinct entry points.
For readers who want scale and intensity, The Disappearers delivers 600 pages of consuming, vivid reading. For those who want poetry, Black Lake offers dark humor and surreal horror in short lines. For speculative fiction fans, Under Story builds an enormous project of reverse-time world-building. For those who have waited ten years, Blacktail is finally here.
The weather outside may be untrustworthy. The leaves may stay stubbornly green. But the fall publishing season is arriving on schedule, and the Hub editors have done the reading.
Their list of 34 Books You Need to Read This Fall is a starting point. The books themselves are the destination.
Source: lithub.com