Autumn is always a happy time for book lovers, and judging by this September’s new releases, this one will be no different. This month, Ian McEwan returns with a new novel, characteristically forensic in its gaze. Oyinkan Braithwaite, whose debut My Sister, the Serial Killer became a global hit, offers her long-awaited follow-up. Alongside them come two very different memoirs: Elizabeth Gilbert reflecting candidly on love and loss, and Lionel Richie recounting a life lived under the brightest of spotlights. And that’s not all. Here’s our pick of September’s best new books…
The Two Roberts by Damian Barr
In this unforgettable novel, Barr resurrects two forgotten Scottish painters, Robert MacBryde and Robert Colquhoun, and charts their rise, fall and legacy in a world built for those with wealth, not talent.
Canongate, £18.99
The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny by Kiran Desai
Already longlisted for this year’s Booker, Desai’s first novel in 20 years is a sweeping, 700-page exploration of the collision of tradition and desire that begins with a chance encounter.
Hamish Hamilton, £25
Cursed Daughters by Oyinkan Braithwaite
Eniiyi’s life mirrors that of her dead aunt – so much so that the family think she has been reincarnated. So when she falls in love, her main priority is to escape the generational curse that stalks the women in her family.
Atlantic, £18.99
Mother Mary Comes to Me by Arundhati Roy
The Booker-winning novelist turns inward in this raw memoir. A tribute to her bold, uncompromising mother, it is also a portrait of grief, resilience and the forces that forged her as a writer.
Hamish Hamilton, £20
What We Can Know by Ian McEwan
In 2119, with Britain an archipelago after its lowlands were flooded, an academic searches for a vanished poem. A profound novel weaving together climate fiction, love story, mystery and philosophical inquiry.
Jonathan Cape, £22
All the Way to the River by Elizabeth Gilbert
In this heart-wrenching memoir, the author of Eat, Pray, Love lays bare a love story unravelled by addiction and obsession. A book about the patterns that must break before healing begins.
Bloomsbury, £22
Truly by Lionel Richie
From Tuskegee, Alabama to global fame, Richie tells the story behind the hits. This long-awaited memoir is a backstage pass to the music, madness and resilience that shaped one of pop’s most enduring voices.
William Collins, £25
Alchemised by SenLinYu
Once a gifted alchemist, Helena is now a prisoner of the regime she fought to resist. Her memories are fractured, her powers suppressed and her allies dead. A dark fantasy of lost memory, forbidden magic and survival.
Michael Joseph, £25
Will There Ever Be Another You by Patricia Lockwood
Amid a pandemic, a woman’s mind begins to slip – into grief, madness and then something new entirely. A wild, genre-blurring exploration of memory, family and fractured identity.
Bloomsbury Circus, £16.99
We Love You, Bunny by Mona Awad
In 2019, Awad became a literary sensation for her brilliant fever dream of a dark academia novel, Bunny. In this prequel/sequel, Sam is kidnapped mid-book tour by the very clique she once escaped. Unhinged in the best way.
Scribner, £16.99
Fires Which Burned Brightly by Sebastian Faulks
In this vivid memoir, Faulks captures the making of a writer – from school escapes and Fleet Street chaos to Birdsong and beyond. Wry and reflective, it is a soulful look at a life in words.
Hutchinson Heinemann, £20
Femonomics by Corinne Low
Why do so many working women feel like they’re doing everything – and still falling behind? Economist Low delivers a clear-eyed, evidence-based look at the forces holding women back, and how to outsmart them.
Hodder & Stoughton, £22
Love’s Labour by Stephen Grosz
Drawing on four decades of client therapy sessions, psychoanalyst Grosz explores how to love in the same wise, inimitable way he showed us how to live in his bestselling 2013 book The Examined Life.
Chatto & Windus, £18.99
The Traitors Circle by Jonathan Freedland
Berlin, 1943. A secret network of aristocrats, diplomats and educators is quietly defying Hitler – until one betrays the rest to the Gestapo. A true story of German resistance that is as gripping as any spy novel.
John Murray, £25
