Review: These 5 must-read books drop in September

By gqlshare on August 31, 2024

Chris Hewitt | The Minnesota Star Tribune (TNS)

Summer is the season for blockbuster movies, but autumn is when the publishing world unleashes one title after another from some of the biggest, and biggest selling, authors.

We'll see new books from "The Overstory" writer Richard Powers and "Leave the World Behind" novelist Rumaan Alam, for instance. Here are five others we can't wait to dive into, all due in September:

Creation Lake, Rachel Kushner

Booker Prize and National Book Award finalist Kushner's latest is about a woman who is lying to everyone about everything. Sadie (not her real name, of course) is a secret agent, sent to France to infiltrate a group of anarchists. She has a lover, whom she's surveilling, and friends, whom she's using, and everything works well until she becomes fascinated by a man who may be even more duplicitous than she is.

Sept. 3, Simon & Schuster, $29.99.

Devils Kill Devils, Johnny Compton

Guardian angels are supposed to be a good thing, but Sarita isn't so sure when, on her wedding night, her angel, Angelo, who has repeatedly saved her from disaster, kills her husband. Compton's followup to last year's "The Spite House" is said to be a super-violent tale of horror that casts vampires in a whole new light.

Sept. 10, Macmillan, $28.99.

Final Cut, Charles Burns

This graphic novel (very graphic — it's definitely not for kids) is a tale of romantic obsession that's also about identity and nostalgia. Brian and Jimmy, who used to make goofy science-fiction short films when they were in middle school, reunite as adults to create a more ambitious feature film. Inspired by their beloved "Invasion of the Body Snatchers," it drives them and their collaborators, including muse and lead actor Laura, into a remote forest where things take a dark turn.

Sept. 24, Pantheon, $34.

The Siege, Ben Macintyre

The prolific British writer's nonfiction accounts of spycraft — including "Agent Zigzag," "Colditz" and "Operation Mincemeat" — generally take him to World War II and the heroes who worked in the shadows to bring it to a close. But the events of "The Siege" happened in 1980, during America's Iran Hostage Crisis. It's a minute-by-minute account of the six days after armed gunmen stormed the Iranian embassy in London, taking 26 hostages.

Sept. 10, Crown, $32.

The Small and the Mighty, Sharon McMahon

Duluth-based social media influencer, podcaster and "America's government teacher" McMahon— whose popularity has zoomed as the country has become more divided and confusing — unveils 12 witty portraits of average Americans who made enormous contributions but didn't get into the history books, like the guy who was at Alexander Hamilton's deathbed and who wrote the preamble to the Constitution.

Sept. 24, Thesis, $32.