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NEW TITLES: FICTION OCTOBER


07.07.17 www.thebookseller.com


Alice O’Keeffe


from so many extraordinary writers I found it difficult to avoid them. For sheer reading pleasure, this is a very strong month. First up is Jennifer Egan, whose latest, and first historical novel, Manhattan Beach is my Book of the Month—and quite possibly my Book of the Year. One of the most anticipated launches of 2017, says Corsair, and I agree. Jeffrey Eugenides’ first collection of short


FICTION W


A heavyweight line-up of literary fiction and commercial giants will appease booksellers in October


arning: I’m slightly concerned about the quantity of superlatives in this preview, but with new books


stories, Fresh Complaint (4th Estate), is out this month. Although it can be quite tricky to give fiction as a gift—unless you know the receiver very well—I think any reader of literary fiction would love this. As for the biggest book of the month sales-wise, I would bet the farm on Dan Brown’s Origins (Bantam Press), the fifth thriller to feature Dr Robert Langdon. Bernard Cornwell’s latest, Fools and Mortals (HarperCollins), is set in Elizabethan England and follows the fortunes of Richard Shakespeare and his estranged brother, William. Lastly, do look out for the follow-up novels


to two bookseller favourites: The Accident on the A35 (Contraband) follows Graeme Macrae Burnet’s terrific Booker-longlisted His Bloody Project; and from Andrew Michael Hurley, author of The Loney, winner of the British Book Industry Awards’ Book of the Year in 2016, comes Devil’s Day (John Murray).


EDITOR’S CHOICE/BOOK OF THE MONTH Personal favourites TOP SELLER


Likely to be the biggest selling titles of the month based on an author’s sales history ONES TO WATCH


Titles with strong sales potential and publisher support, regardless of sales history of the author DÉBUT BOOKS


Indicated by the icon below


by the ico D


RATINGS based on previous sales in a similar format


BOOK OF TH E MONTH E DITOR’ S C HOIC E


LITERARY


JENNIFER EGAN MANHATTAN BEACH CORSAIR, 3RD, £20, HB, 978147215087 Egan, one of the most dazzling novelists writing today, won


the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction with her previous novel, A Visit from the Goon Squad. Manhattan Beach, her first historical novel, opens in Brooklyn during the Great Depression with young Anna Kerrigan and her father Eddie paying a visit to the wealthy and mysterious Mr Styles. Anna, an unusually perceptive child, divines that Mr Styles is somehow desperately important to her father.


The second chapter begins a few years


later. The Second World War is underway and Anna, now grown up but still living at home, has found work at the Brooklyn Naval Yard. Her salary supports her mother and her severely disabled sister, Lydia. Her father has disappeared. By chance Anna meets Mr Styles again, at a nightclub in Manhattan. Growing aware of his lifestyle and business associates, she starts to wonder if he may have had something to do with her father’s sudden disappearance. Manhattan Beach is essentially the


intertwined stories of Anna, Eddie and Mr Styles, and the solving of a mystery. But it is also a story about organised crime in New York, the US Merchant Marines and the effects of the war on the working class in America, even so far from the bombs. It is simply stunning; thrilling, heartbreaking and unputdownable.


LITERARY


JOHN BANVILLE MRS OSMOND VIKING, 5TH, £14.99, HB,


9780241260173 The latest novel from the Man Booker Prize-winning Banville is a “sort of”


sequel to Henry James’ The Portrait of a Lady, although it also works beautifully as a standalone. It opens in London, where spirited heiress Isabel has fled to from her husband’s house in Italy, following the discovery of a shocking year-long betrayal. As she meets old friends and former admirers, she must decide what to do: return to the palazzo and her old life in Rome, or strike out on her own. Banville’s gorgeous prose is as elegant and refined as his heroine. Mrs Osmond may be constrained by Victorian society and impeccable manners, but she is no fool. BookScan 


LITERARY


AMANDA COE EVERYTHING YOU DO IS WRONG FLEET, 19TH, £14.99, HB,


9780349005058 During a storm, the


body of a naked girl is washed up on a beach in the quiet northern town of Evensand. She turns out to be alive, but when taken to hospital is seemingly unable to speak. The girl becomes the focus of intense interest for ungainly, home-schooled teenager Harmony, her super-efficient aunt Mel, and rookie constable Mason. I’ve been a fan of Amanda Coe’s since her deeply disturbing début What They Do in the Dark. She is also a BAFTA- winning screenwriter, whose most recent TV credit was the terrific adaptation of Louise Doughty’s Apple Tree Yard for BBC1.


50,000+ | 25,000-49,999 | 10,000-24,999 5,000-9,999 | 3,000-4,999 Sales are from the Total Consumer Market (TCM) only, which excludes e-book, export, direct, library and other sales. Rankings are based on the physical format sales of the author’s most recent, previously published original work, in a similar format provided it has at least six months of sales registered through BookScan.


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