September Preview: The Millions Most Anticipated (This Month)

September 5

The Fraud by Zadie Smith [F]

Smith returns with her first novel since 2016’s Swing Time. Her first work of historical fiction, The Fraud, is set against a real legal trial over the inheritance of a sizable estate that divided Victorian England and, in the story, captivates the Scottish housekeeper of a famous novelist. Smith probes questions of truth and self-deception, fraudulence and authenticity, and what it means for something to be “real.” —LF

Coleman Hill by Kim Coleman Foote [F]

Foote’s debut traces the entwined fates of two families during the Great Migration in a work of “biomythography,” a term coined by Audre Lorde. Andrew Sean Greer calls this, the inaugural title published by Sarah Jessica Parker‘s imprint, a “masterpiece” and Jacqueline Woodson says, “Once in a while, a writer comes along with a brilliance that stops the breath—Kim Coleman Foote is that writer.”

Wednesday’s Child by Yiyun Li [F]

Li’s been the sort of fiction writer other writers talk about over a few rounds with not-so-hushed awe since her first story collection hit shelves in 2005 and The New Yorker figured out that pretty much any piece she turned in was worth printing. She’s mostly known as a top-notch novelist now, but this return to short fiction—her first collection in 13 years!—should remind those not already passing copies of The Vagrants along to their friends like they’re introductory leaflets to some secret society why they fell in love with Li in the first place. —Allen Charles

I’m a Fan by Sheena Patel [F]

Patel’s debut is one of the first great social media novels (along, perhaps, with ‘s ). A bold, electric, and ruthless tale of sex, class, status, obsession, self-destruction, and the worst parts of being online, all told from the perspective of a beguiling calls “a scathing ode to the psychos and shitheads.” —SMS