The Most Anticipated Books Of September 2022

Sept. 1

In this new novel from South Korean literary giant J.M. Lee., a famous artist’s wife mysteriously vanishes, leaving behind her unpublished manuscript — which seems to fictionalize his own salacious past. As he reads, he’s is drawn back into his memories of a deadly summer.

Sept. 6

From Speaking of Summer author Kalisha Buckhanon comes Running to Fall. Here, Tragedy and Victor Powell — a pair of married Black influencers — move to an affluent Chicago suburb, just before the neighborhood’s picture-perfect image is rocked by scandal. When a young Black woman’s body is found in a nearby river, it’s the last straw for Tragedy, who struggles to reconcile the secrets of her past with the glitz and glamour of the present.

Sept. 6

When her estranged parents die from supposed natural causes on the same night, Margot returns to the home she has not seen in more than a decade to claim her inheritance: the house, its vineyard, and the award-winning Gallows Hill Winery. Something foul befell Margot’s ancestor, the original owner of Gallows Hill, and as the 250th anniversary of his death approaches, supernatural forces begin crawling around the property once more.

Sept. 6

In 2017, after nearly 30 years of celebrated work on both sides of the pond, Edward Enninful became British Vogue’s first Black editor-in-chief. His debut memoir, A Visible Man, charts his path from his childhood as a Ghanaian refugee in the UK, to his modeling career, to his work highlighting marginalized creators in the glossy pages of fashion magazines.

Sept. 6

Twenty-five years after their classmates predicted they’d do great things, four longtime best friends make a pact to make their high-school superlatives come true. Moving between 1997 and 2022, The Most Likely Club paints a vivid portrait of Melissa, Priya, Tara, and Suki’s lives — past and present.

Sept. 6

In this magical new novel from debut author Carolyn Huynh, several generations of women in one Vietnamese American family face a curse that prevents them from finding happiness. When a psychic hints that the family spell may soon be broken, Mai Nguyen, her estranged younger sisters, and her adult daughters are reunited for the first time in many years. But will the curse be lifted, or is that just wishful thinking?

Sept. 6

Tiffany D. Jackson’s YA horror novel centers on Maddy Washington, a high schooler whose mixed-race ancestry is revealed when a video of her being bullied goes viral. In the aftermath, the school decides to host its first integrated prom, and some of Maddy’s white tormentors begin acting like would-be allies. But Maddy has more than one secret, and her classmates are about to find out exactly what it is...

Sept. 6

Talia Lakshmi Kolluri’s debut collection explores the lives of animals around the globe, from an Indian pigeon to vultures living in Central Asia. Through these animals’ perspectives, Kolluri ruminates on the state of the world — on its interconnected ecosystems, and our place within them.

Sept. 6

In her touching memoir, Teresa Lim takes readers on a journey to 19th-century China, Singapore, and Hong Kong, as the author uncovers the life of her great-aunt Fanny — a woman who was curiously absent from family stories.

Sept. 6

The 16th installment in Seanan McGuire’s October Daye series is out this month. In Be the Serpent, Toby Daye has just started settling into a peaceful, domestic life with her new husband, Tybalt. But when an ancient enemy resurfaces and threatens to endanger everyone Toby loves, she’s forced to take up her hero’s mantle once more.

Sept. 6

Anna-Marie McLemore’s Great Gatsby retelling centers on Nicolás Caraveo, a young trans man who rents a house from his cousin, Daisy, in swanky West Egg — and discovers that Daisy has built a life among New York’s white elite by hiding her Latine ancestry. When Nick meets another trans man named Jay Gatsby, and learns that Jay carries a torch for Daisy, he tries to help set them up — only to fall for Jay himself in the process.

Sept. 6

After Nicolás dies in a sanitarium for HIV-positive men in 1998, two of his closest confidantes — Nicolás’ lover and brother, respectively — search for answers about his past. As Pope John Paul II’s visit to Havana approaches, the duo uncover a dizzying secret their late loved one kept from them — one with the potential to change the way they view life in Cuba.

Sept. 6

Seventeen years after Odysseus set out for Troy, his young wife, Penelope, finds herself struggling to keep Ithaca from descending into chaos. Amid speculation that her husband has died in the Trojan War, Penelope gathers her allies close and prepares for the worst. Can these women keep Ithaca at peace, or are their efforts doomed from the start?

Sept. 6

Thirteen-year-old Lucrezia de Medici is unexpectedly married off to a duke 12 years her senior, after her older sister, to whom the duke was betrothed, died unexpectedly. As she struggles to navigate the web of intrigue cast over Renaissance Italy’s courts, Lucrezia slowly comes to realize that her place in this brave new world may be tenuous — at best.

Sept. 6

Four veteran assassins must band together when their former employer begins targeting them, having decided that they’ve aged out of the profession. They’ll have to employ all the tricks of the trade in order to survive — and teach their onetime bosses a lesson they won’t soon forget.

Sept. 6

Set in the 1950s, On the Rooftop follows The Salvations — a trio of singers on the brink of superstardom — and their mother, Vivian, as they navigate the cutthroat entertainment world and their gentrifying San Francisco neighborhood.

Sept. 6

From the author of Cemetery Boys comes The Sunbearer Trials, a YA fantasy about a group of demigods fighting in a tournament to the death. Once a decade, Sol chooses some of the gods’ most powerful teenage children to compete for a chance to recharge the Sun. The bird goddess’ 17-year-old son, Teo, and the god of bad luck’s 13-year-old child, Xio, are both chosen unexpectedly, and the two teens face insurmountable odds. They don’t have to win, just avoid coming in last place — but with each passing day, it looks more and more like Teo or Xio might be on the chopping block.

Sept. 6

Stacey Abrams (writing as Selena Montgomery) rereleases Rules of Engagement — a romantic suspense novel about two undercover agents trying to take down a terrorist group — this month. Abrams originally published the book about 20 years ago, and they’ve been out of print in recent years. (Read an excerpt of the book here.)

Sept. 6

After Victor Frankenstein successfully brings his creation to life, his younger sister and assistant, Angelika, hatches a plan to end to her romantic drought — by building herself a boyfriend. When Will wakes up on Angelika’s operating table, however, he’s more concerned with figuring out who he was in his past life than in courting his resurrector. He was made to be hers... but are they meant to be?

Sept. 6

Saving Ruby King author Catherine Adel West returns to store shelves this month with The Two Lives of Sara. Here, the eponymous, pregnant heroine flees Chicago for Memphis, where she finds shelter at a boarding house run by the matronly Mama Sugar. There, Sara gets swept up in the burgeoning Civil Rights Movement and finds new love. But when the skeletons in Mama Sugar’s closet come knocking, Sara realizes that her future is on the line.

Sept. 6

After a video of the spur-of-the-moment wedding she officiated goes viral, a divorce attorney becomes one of the most desirable wedding officiants in her area overnight. RJ leans into her new side hustle, but she soon butts heads with Lear — an uptight guy who’s recently made his own career shift from sporting events management to wedding planning. He’s nursing an old emotional wound and refuses to let anyone get that close to him again... though he just might give RJ a chance.

Sept. 13

The sequel to Her Name Is Knight, They Come at Knight once again finds assassin Nena Knight working for the Tribe: an influential corporation that has devoted itself to protecting Africa and its people. This time around, however, the Tribe has been compromised. As violence breaks out across the Tribe’s area of influence and creeps closer to Nena’s door, the intrepid assassin is called to action. But can she put an end to the violence before it’s too late?

Sept. 13

New Yorker staff writer Rachel Aviv examines the complex relationships between people diagnosed with mental illness and the medical professionals who care for them. From a woman struggling to repair broken ties to a man who wants vengeance on his former doctors, Aviv’s subjects emerge as multifaceted individuals, all profoundly impacted by their diagnoses.

Sept. 13

Kate Beaton — the cartoonist behind Step Aside, Pops and Hark! A Vagrant — returns this month with Ducks: a graphic memoir detailing the illustrator’s post-college tenure in Fort McMurray, Alberta, where she spent two years living and working in dangerous conditions to earn enough money to pay off her student loans. Looking back on the experience, Beaton examines the true cost of her labor.

Sept. 13

Cyril Pennington’s five children — that he knows about — met once, 16 years ago, when he drove them around town in his gold Jeep. Thirty-year-old Dimple, born right in the middle of the pack, hardly remembers her half-siblings, but now needs them to come through for her. You see, Dimple has just killed her boyfriend, and the middling influencer needs all the help she can get to weather the coming storm.

Sept. 13

As the only son of a powerful duke, Remy has a lot to live up to. Unfortunately, he’s ostracized by his fellow vampire-hunters because of his mother’s affair with a vampire — and the subsequent rumors that Remy may be half-vampire himself. When he befriends a pair of betrothed bloodsuckers during a hunt, Remy is forced to examine his priorities — and his loyalties — in this queer, gothic fantasy.

Sept. 13

In this new novel from Dominicana author Angie Cruz, a middle-aged woman named Cara struggles to find employment after losing her job during the Great Recession. Told through 12 conversations between Cara and her job counselor, How Not to Drown in a Glass of Water is unlike anything you’ve read this year.

Sept. 13

With transphobic rhetoric on the rise, and hundreds of anti-trans bills introduced throughout the United States in 2022, it’s more important than ever to protect trans kids and those who provide them with gender-affirming care and support. Carolyn Hays’ A Girlhood, written as a letter to the author’s transgender daughter, is both a breath of fresh air and a powerful call to action.

Sept. 13

Amid the Syrian civil war, 17-year-old Salama — a former pharmacy student whose life has been turned upside-down in only a few short months — spends her days volunteering as a surgeon at an understaffed hospital in Homs. With her mother dead and her father and older brother imprisoned, Salama’s also saddled with caring for her pregnant sister-in-law, who wants to leave Syria. As pressure mounts, Salama develops PTSD and a coping mechanism: an imaginary friend named Khawf, whose job is to keep her safe.

Sept. 13

Addie was reluctant to accompany her mother on her honeymoon to Eulalie Island. Now, the island’s reluctant to let Addie leave. Plagued by fits of sleepwalking, and haunted by the ghosts of girls who died there in the 19th century, Addie finds herself drawn deeper into the sanctuary’s secrets. Can she escape before it’s too late?

Sept. 13

Ky wanted her younger brother to have a normal teenage experience — a post-graduation party, one last hurrah with his high-school friends. Now, Denny’s been brutally murdered, and no one in the room full of witnesses claims to have seen what happened. With the local police force ready to wash its hands of the case, grief-stricken Ky launches her own investigation into Denny’s death, with surprising — and horrifying — results.

Sept. 13

Severance author Ling Ma’s second book is a collection of nine short stories that examine collective delusion. Ruminating on love, friendship, optimism, and desperation, the stories in Bliss Montage expose the unsightly truths of their characters’ lives.

Sept. 13

It’s the Roaring ‘20s, and Kansas City is a booming, dangerous place. Passing for white affords some safety to Rose, a Latine flapper who aspires to run her own speakeasy. But Rose has more than mere ancestry to hide: She’s also a bruja, and must keep her powers in check to avoid arousing suspicion. As her business grows, though, so too does the attention she attracts, and soon Rose will be pressured to use her magic — or lose everything.

Sept. 13

Picking up where Harrow the Ninth left off, Nona the Ninth centers on its eponymous heroine, who is occupying girl’s body. Three powerful allies have spent the last year rehabilitating Nona and trying to figure out who she really is. But with a rebellion brewing against the God-Emperor and his necromancers, and alliances shifting every day, Nona’s little family needs to work fast to solve her puzzle before they’re found out.

Sept. 13

In her American debut, Omolola Ijeoma Ogunyemi introduces readers to Aisha, Nonso, Remi, and Solape: four students at an elite boarding school whose lives veer in wildly different directions after graduation. Narrated by those closest to them, the young women’s stories offer an insightful look at the lives of Nigerians and Nigerian Americans.

Sept. 13

Billed as “[a] spiritual successor to... Sadie,” Courtney Summers’ I’m the Girl centers on 16-year-old Georgia, who teams up with another teenager, Nora, after she discovers Nora’s sister’s dead body. As the two girls work to unravel the mystery of the murder, however, Georgia can’t help but be struck by the sisters’ lives — which are both very privileged and very different from her own.

Sept. 13

The Chinese government disappeared Uyghur author Perhat Tursun in 2018, just when the Uyghur genocide began to garner international attention. The Backstreets — which follows an unnamed Uyghur worker as he searches for long-term employment in Xinjiang, only to have doors continually shut to him — is the author’s first book to receive and English translation.

Sept. 20

Malaka Gharib’s graphic memoir explores how the author — an American of Filipino and Egyptian heritage — saw her relationships with her Egyptian father, her stepmother, and her step-siblings evolve over the course of 15 summer vacations. Tender, funny, and evocative, It Won’t Always Be Like This is a must-read this fall.

Sept. 20

After a one-night stand, Margot, a Napa Valley winery operator, wakes up to learn that she’s accidentally slept with her new employee. For his part, Luke knows a woman as successful and sexy as Margot would never want to get serious with a Silicon Valley washout like himself. But there’s something between them that cannot be ignored, and Luke’s nights in Napa are bound to heat up sooner or later.

Sept. 20

A teenager looking for community in North Carolina’s early-2000s punk scene gets more than she bargained for when a photojournalist propels her to stardom as a punk-rock groupie. Now popular — and famous! — Kat has the community she’s always wanted. But fame comes at a price, and as she tries to be the Kat people want, she loses more and more of herself.

Sept. 20

From Dread Nation author Justina Ireland comes Rust in the Root, a fantastical new novel set in an alternate version of 1930s America. Years after a disastrous series of events, the nation has decided to pursue technology in lieu of traditional magic. Against this backdrop, an aspiring mage takes a job at a U.S. agency that’s working to restore an arcane, mystical force.

Sept. 20

Years ago, Fabienne and Agnès were just two young girls writing stories about their lives in postwar France. But when the stories became publishing’s next big thing, Agnès found fame and fortune in America, while Fabienne remained at home on her family’s farm. After she learns of Fabienne’s death, Agnès decides she’s ready to tell the story of their friendship — but wonders if story really hers to tell.

Sept. 20

Naina resists the societal pressure to live out the rest of her life in mourning after becoming unexpectedly widowed in her 50s. Naina’s conservative son is less enthusiastic about this plan, though, and when she begins dating a Muslim man, tensions reach a breaking point.

Sept. 20

Micah Summers, aka the “Prince of Chicago,” has built a loyal Instagram following by posting illustrations of his paramours — but in truth, he’s never actually had a boyfriend. He’s determined to finally ask one of his crushes out on a real date, so when a hot guy leaves before Micah can approach him — and leaves behind his jacket — Micah sets off across Chicago to find him.

Sept. 20

This follow-up to The Ex Hex centers on Gwyn, a Graves Glen resident who gives back to the town’s witchcraft scene by running a witchcraft shop and mentoring up-and-coming magic users in her spare time. Everything’s going fine... until Wells comes to town and opens a competing business right across the street.

Sept. 20

Elizabeth Strout continues the story she began in My Name Is Lucy Barton in this September release. Set in the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic, Lucy by the Sea revolves around a divorced couple as they quarantine together in a small house along the coast of Maine. While her ex’s concern is for Lucy, who’s at risk for serious Covid-19 complications, Lucy herself is busy sorting out her own feelings: about her life, her daughters’ lives, and her marriages.

Sept. 27

From the author of Life After Life and A God in Ruins comes Shrines of Gaiety, a novel set in Roaring ‘20s London. Nightclub owner Nellie Coker has just recently been released from prison, and she already has her hands full: She’s busy protecting her business interests, trying to remain a free woman, and ensuring that her six children move up in the world. But as her story collides with the others’, Nellie’s already tenuous security becomes even more strained.

Sept. 27

The mermaid Simi was once responsible for ferrying the souls of the drowned to the afterlife, but she lost everything when she chose to save a living child from drowning. Now a penitent in the service of a water god, Olokun, Simi spends her days at the bottom of the sea. But when Olokun imprisons another god, the trickster Esu, which leaves the world vulnerable to an onslaught of bloodthirsty demons, Simi and Esu are forced to work together to save the mortal realm.

Sept. 27

Two rival teenage witches competing for a full-ride scholarship forge an unlikely friendship when they’re cast as the co-leads in their private high school’s upcoming play in How to Succeed in Witchcraft. Shay only agreed to audition because her school’s drama teacher, Mr. B, is the head of the scholarship committee. Now, she’s forced to play nice with her academic rival, Ana, who’s sharing the spotlight with her. Although Ana turns out to be far less detestable than Shay initially thought, she can’t say the same for Mr. B, who’s begun acting inappropriately toward Shay. Can she mount a protest with Ana at her back, or will she stay quiet for a shot at her scholarship dreams?

Sept. 27

The sequel to 2021’s Lakesedge, Forestfall finds Leta living with the Lord Under — the god of death, who once bound her beloved Rowan to his service — to avoid her own demise. But when Leta learns that she and Rowan still have a magical connection, she’ll put everything she has on the line to be with him again.

Sept. 27

A doctor is assigned to care for a noble family, after the previous clinician died. When he arrives, though, he finds himself tasked with solving a seemingly impossible riddle involving a missing body. Working from the cold halls of a château in a remote corner of the Arctic, the doctor discovers a terrible threat lurking in the home.

Sept. 27

The first book in a new duology by These Violent Delights author Chloe Gong, Foul Lady Fortune centers on Rosalind, a woman whose brush with death has rendered her immortal and unsleeping. Now working for the Chinese government in 1930s Shanghai, Rosalind must team up with a fellow spy, the womanizing Orion, to investigate a string of killings in the city.

Sept. 27

Marion, born in the grimy gutters of a southern city, finds new pleasures and delights while working as a bloodmaid in the palatial home of the vampiric Countess Lisavet. But when someone begins stealing her fellow bloodmaids away, night after night, that Marion begins to realize just how much danger she’s in.

Sept. 27

South Korean author Kim Hye-jin’s Concerning My Daughter centers on an aging care worker forced to examine her own biases when her adult daughter returns home accompanied by her girlfriend, and her employer asks her to neglect an elderly ex-diplomat in her care.

Sept. 27

Everyone wants to be Laney and Nico, the popular It Couple of Holy Family High School. Everyone, including Rafi, who has slowly wormed her way into the lives of Laney, Nico, and their respective families. They think she’s just a friend... but when Nico and Laney threaten to break up, Rafi reveals the extreme lengths she’s prepared to go to in order to keep them together.

Sept. 27

From Live with Kelly and Ryan co-host Kelly Ripa comes Live Wire, a memoir in stories. Touching on the author’s professional and private lives, this laugh-out-loud book is a must-read for Ripa’s legions of fans.

Sept. 27

When C was 12 years old, her 7-year-old brother, Wayne, vanished. His disappearance broke their family apart, leaving their father to start over with a new wife, their mother to devote her life to reconnecting lost children with their families, and C to shoulder the blame for their loss. Over the years, C swears she sees Wayne’s face in myriad crowds. Now, standing face-to-face with a man who looks very much like the boy who disappeared all those years ago, C must wrestle with her grief and guilt in new ways.

Sept. 27

As children, best friends Zahra and Maryam weathered the upheaval in Karachi that followed General Zia-ul-Haq’s death; as adults, they’ve built disparate lives for themselves in London. Their differences have never come between them before, but when their past lives in Pakistan come back to haunt them, Zahra and Maryam will be forced to talk about the things they’ve never discussed... and their friendship may not survive the fallout.

Sept. 27

Sharlot’s mom takes her on a surprise trip to her native Indonesia, after deciding things are moving too fast between Sharlot and her boyfriend. Meanwhile, in Jakarta, George has just been caught masturbating, and his wealthy family decide to find him a girlfriend to fix the “problem.” When Sharlot and George’s parents set them up on a date neither of them asked for, the two teens are forced to fake-date. They try to make the best of things — but what if the best is admitting that their relatives made a good match?

Sept. 27

A chorus of women, connected through their relationships to a womanizing jazz trumpeter, narrate this stunning debut from Bread Loaf alum Laura Warrell.

Sept. 27

Only saints have the power to meld and shape holystone. Saints... and those with a terminal mental illness, called “voidmadness.” Misery’s mother died from her voidmadness, and though they’ve managed to keep their powers hidden for years, a major conflict on the horizon — and a voice in their head drawing them into the action — will force them to confront the truth.