06 Oct Reading List: Fall 2015
Claire Fallon and Maddie Crum, books and cultural writers for the Huffington Post, compiled the following list (and rationale) of can’t-miss new reads for Fall 2015.
Setting aside Jonathan Franzen’s ubiquitously discussed new novel Purity, fall 2015 is an embarrassment of literary riches. Intriguing fiction debuts, humorous essays from masters of the form and new offerings from some of the greatest novelists of our time number among the treats in store for avid readers starting Sept. 1.
We’ve rounded up 33 of the enticing books we can’t wait to see hit the shelves this fall:
Sept. 1
The Wake by Paul Kingsnorth
Not for the faint of heart, The Wake draws the reader into post-Norman Invasion England and its horrors through adapted Old English — just adapted enough that we can understand it without special classes, not adapted enough that it isn’t a rigorous challenge.
First sentence: “the night was clere though i slept i seen it.”
The Story of the Lost Child by Elena Ferrante
Ferrante’s stunning series comes to a close, as Lila and Elena bicker and support one another through motherhood, neighborhood tumult and personal tragedies. The author’s perfectly paced homage to female friendship is well worth picking up from the beginning.
First sentence: “From October 1976 until 1979, when I returned to Naples to live, I avoided resuming a steady relationship with Lila.”
Paulina & Fran by Rachel B. Glaser
Art school kids Paulina and Fran take a magical school trip to Norway, but things between them sour upon return. The ebbs and flows of friendship are brought to life in quick, funny prose.
First sentence: “Paulina was dissatisfied with her lover.”
Wilberforce by H.S. Cross
For fans of Evelyn Waugh or Kingsley Amis, a wry take on priggish, midcentury boarding schools. It’s a dark take on the coming-of-age stories that’ve populated the book world as of late.
First sentence: “Something was pressing the life out of him.”
Sept. 8
Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights by Salman Rushdie
Rushdie’s intoxicating brand of magical realism returns full force in this tale of the unwitting human descendants of an otherworldly jinn and a 1,001-night battle between the forces of light and darkness that throw the world into chaos.
First sentence: “Very little is known, though much has been written, about the true nature of the jinn, the creatures made of smokeless fire.”
Bream Gives Me Hiccups by Jesse Eisenberg
Yes, that Jesse Eisenberg. And if the hilarious short stories he published in McSweeney’s are any indicator, his fiction might live up to his charming acting abilities.
First sentence: “Last night, mom took me to Sushi Nozawa, near Matt’s house.”
Sept. 15
The Story of My Teeth by Valeria Luiselli, translated by Christina MacSweeney
Luiselli’s second novel — her first, Faces in the Crowd, published in English last year, won a National Book Foundation “5 Under 35” Award — is hotly anticipated and promises to be playful, sharp, profound and utterly unusual.
First sentence: “I’m the best auctioneer in the world, but no one knows it because I’m a discreet sort of man.”
Why Not Me? by Mindy Kaling
If, like most Americans, you’ve read Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? or her counterparts’ Bossypants (Tina Fey) and Yes Please (Amy Poehler), you will know there’s no reason to miss out on Kaling’s infectious humor.
First sentence: “In seventh grade, I started at a new school.”
Undermajordomo Minor by Patrick DeWitt
The back cover of Patrick DeWitt’s novel calls it “a fable without a moral.” It’s an appealing and believable tagline for a book by the author of The Sister Brothers, an adventurous, Coen Brothers-esque Western.
First sentence: “Lucien Minor’s mother had not wept, had not come close to weeping at their parting.”
The Double Life of Liliane by Lily Tuck
An almost autobiographical story of a life divided, Lily Tuck’s novel blurs the lines between memoir and fiction. The imaginative heroine at its center splits her time between her mother’s home in New York City and her filmmaker father’s lavish Italian lifestyle.
First sentence: “Liliane’s double life begins at New York’s Idlewild Airport when she boards a Trans World Airlines L-749 Constellation.”
The Art of Memoir by Mary Karr
Memoirs, sometimes, get a bad rap. No thanks to the particular breed of the form that spawns schmaltzy self-help, it can be easy to overlook nuanced approaches to personal writing. Mary Karr examines what can make the form work, and, naturally, examines herself in the process…
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