The Japanese author’s first full-length novel in seven years traces two separate adventures. One involves the Oedipal tale of Kafka Tamura, a teenage runaway whose father had predicted Kafka would kill him and sleep with his mother and older sister. The other tale follows Mr. Nakata, an innocent old man who lost his memory and literacy in a spooky wartime accident but gained supernatural powers. Their stories are full of dreamlike sequences where fish fall from the sky and grown men talk to cats, surreal in a way that makes the fast-paced tale all the more engrossing. Japan: September.
THE JOY OF SEX 2002 “If people want to swing from chandeliers that’s fine, [but] this is not about Olympic-quality sex,” warns Nicholas Comfort, content editor of “The Joy of Sex’s” 30th-anniversary edition. The original book sold more than 8 million copies worldwide and was translated into more than 20 languages. This time around, the drawings have been updated (no more beards or bangle bracelets) and there’s information on AIDS and other STDs, as well as hormone-replacement therapy and, of course, Viagra. Only the sex tips have remained the same. Says Comfort, “I knew this book still had a lot of life left in it.” One hopes its readers do, too. U.K.: September; U.S.: October; France: February; Spain: March; Italy: April.
THE LITTLE FRIEND, Donna Tartt
In her new book, as in her debut novel published a decade ago, Tartt’s subject is murder, but this time the story is set in the author’s native Mississippi, and the victim is a 9-year-old boy. The detective is a 12-year-old girl, the dead boy’s sister, who was just a baby when he was found hanged in a tree. Tartt has already proved that she knows how to mix high art with a good thriller, so there’s every reason to suspect that the new book is a page turner with class. U.K. and U.S.: October.
YOU SHALL KNOW OUR VELOCITY, Dave Eggers
“A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius” made Eggers a respected literary memoirist, not to mention rich and famous. But can he write a novel? We’ll find out as soon as his own publishing company, McSweeney’s, brings out his first crack at book-length fiction later this month. And because McSweeney’s is sending out no advance copies, we know what you know: the name of the book. Frankly, that’s enough for us. U.S.: September.
THE AUTOGRAPH MAN, Zadie Smith
Smith was only 24 when she published her first novel, the ebulliently comic “White Teeth,” in 2000. That means she’s only 26 and publishing her second novel. Which would be highly productive, even for a hack. But Smith is both fast and talented. Like its predecessor, this novel is concerned with ethnicity: the hero is a Chinese-English Jew. And because he makes his living buying and selling the autographs of the rich and famous, it’s also a meditation on celebrity. And because Zadie Smith is the author, it’s also achingly funny. U.K.: September. U.S.: October.
ALSO CHECK OUT: The Lives of the Muses, by novelist Francine Prose, adroitly profiles women throughout history who have inspired artists ranging from Rodin (Camille Claudel) to John Lennon. U.S.: September. And in From a Buick 8, Stephen King, the man we pay to scare our pants off, takes a fresh stab at a malevolent-car novel. U.S.: Sept. 24.
title: “Fall Arts Preview Books” ShowToc: true date: “2023-01-28” author: “Jake Simonson”
My Losing Season, Pat Conroy The author of “The Prince of Tides” went to college on a basketball scholarship–and not just any college but the Citadel, in South Carolina. Sifting through the rocky experience of his senior year, the former point guard produces a memoir with all the Conroy trademarks–the South, the military, authority figures of dubious qualification and how the past haunts the present. Here’s ample proof that losers always tell the best stories. Doubleday, Oct. 14.
You Shall Know Our Velocity, Dave Eggers “A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius” made Eggers a respected literary memoirist, not to mention rich and famous. But can he write a novel? We’ll find out as soon as his own publishing company, McSweeney’s, brings out his first crack at book-length fiction later this month. And because McSweeney’s is sending out no advance copies, we know what you know: the name of the book. Frankly, that’s enough for us. McSweeney’s, Sept. 20.
Live From New York, Tom Shales and James Andrew Miller To produce this oral history of “Saturday Night Live,” Shales and Miller interviewed almost everyone who ever had anything to do with the show that forever redefined television comedy and launched a thousand careers. The result is a patchwork of backbiting, humor, intelligence, backbiting, gossip, backbiting and backbiting. Little, Brown, Sept. 18.
The Autograph Man, Zadie Smith Smith was only 24 when she published her first novel, the ebulliently comic “White Teeth,” in 2000. That means she’s only 26 and publishing her second novel. Which would be highly productive, even for a hack. But Smith is both fast and talented. Like its predecessor, this novel is concerned with ethnicity: the hero is a Chinese-English Jew. And because he makes his living buying and selling the autographs of the rich and famous, it’s also a meditation on celebrity. And because Zadie Smith is the author, it’s also achingly funny. Random House, Oct. 1.
Also Check Out: The Lives of the Muses, by novelist Francine Prose, adroitly profiles women throughout history who have inspired artists ranging from Rodin (Camille Claudel) to John Lennon. HarperCollins, Sept. 17.
In Blue Latitudes, Tony Horwitz, author of “Confederates in the Attic,” follows the globe-girdling voyages of Capt. James Cook, the 18th-century seafarer who explored more of the earth’s surface than anyone in history. Holt, Sept. 30.
Michael Chabon spins a baroque baseball fantasy in Summerland, and if anyone can make good on his publisher’s claim that this is fun for the whole family, it’s the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of “The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay.” Miramax, Sept 30.
And in From a Buick 8, Stephen King, the man we pay to scare our pants off, takes a fresh stab at a malevolent car novel. Scribner, Sept. 24.
