Fall is books' biggest season. Expect some long-awaited returns
[August 23, 2025]
By HILLEL ITALIE
NEW YORK (AP) — In the decade since she published her acclaimed debut
novel, “The Turner House,” Angela Flournoy has confronted a few delays,
welcome and otherwise, en route to completing her second book: her first
child, a pandemic, speaking engagements, the occasional essay and,
throughout, the challenges of creating a work of imagination.
“With nonfiction, you're usually doing it on a deadline, there's a
constraint of time, and when it's over, it's over,” says Flournoy, whose
novel “The Wilderness” is out this fall. “When you're working with
facts, they're not really malleable. But with novels I create the
reality. And the timing is up to me.”
The upcoming literary season will feature many books you might call
long- or eagerly awaited: It will be in part a story of comebacks,
completions and follow-ups, with some of the book world's biggest names
returning to fiction after absences of a decade or more.
Thomas Pynchon's “Shadow Ticket” is his first novel since 2013's
“Bleeding Edge.” Kiran Desai's “The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny” is
her first novel since her celebrated “The Inheritance of Loss” came out
20 years ago. Wendell Berry breaks a long absence from fiction with
“Marce Catlett,” narrated by his alter ego and fellow Kentuckian, Andy
Catlett. George Packer, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author and
journalist, will publish his first novel since the 1990s, “The
Emergency.”
“The Land of Sweet Forever” compiles stories and essays from the late
Harper Lee, who in 2015 stunned the world by authorizing the release of
“Go Set a Watchman,” a precursor to her classic “To Kill a Mockingbird.”
Fiction also is expected from Patricia Lockwood, Ian McEwan, Thomas
McGuane, Gish Jen, Ken Follett and John Irving, while two Booker Prize
winners will have memoirs out: Margaret Atwood has written “Book of
Lives: A Memoir of Sorts” and Arundhati Roy, best known for “The God of
Small Things,” will publish “Mother Mary Comes to Me.”
Some books arrive highly anticipated, even if the wait was relatively
short. R.F. Kuang's “Katabasis” is her first novel since the bestselling
satire “Yellowface,” which came out in 2023. Megha Majumdar follows her
acclaimed debut from 2020, “A Burning,” with “A Guardian and a Thief.”
Salman Rushdie’s story collection, “The Eleventh Hour,” is his first
book of fiction since he survived a stabbing attack in 2022.
“We Love You Bunny,” the follow-up to Mona Awad’s dark campus satire
from 2019, “Bunny,” is a meta-tale of a novelist gone viral.
“No book has stuck with me longer than ‘Bunny.’ I missed the
fever-dreamy world of it so much,” Awad wrote in an email. “I think part
of the reason had to do with the incredibly creative and rich reader
response, which I still can’t believe. It kept the story alive and
expanding in my head and I felt compelled to return.”
Thrills, chills, romance
“Gone Before Goodbye” pairs Oscar winner Reese Witherspoon with master
thriller writer Harlan Coben. “Da Vinci Code” author Dan Brown brings
back protagonist Robert Langdon in “The Secret of Secrets,” and “Exit
Strategy” is the latest Jack Reacher novel from brothers Lee and Andrew
Child. Richard Osman's “Thursday Murder Club” series continues with “The
Impossible Fortune” and Mick Herron has written his ninth “Slough House”
book, “Clown Town.”
Child-friendly tension will arrive in a new edition of “Hansel and
Gretel,” as written by Stephen King, with illustrations from the
archives of the late Maurice Sendak.
New romance and romantasy is expected from Tessa Bailey, Harley Laroux
and Ana Huang, whose “The Defender” is the second book in her “Gods of
the Game” series. Ali Hazelwood follows her paranormal hit “Bride” with
“Mate” and Brynne Weaver begins the “Seasons of Carnage” series with a
tale of serial killers in love, “Tourist Season.” Erin A. Craig, known
for such scary tales as “House of Salt and Sorrows,” has written “A Land
So Wide.”
Celebrities telling all
Priscilla Presley's “Softly, As I Leave You” continues her story from
the memoir “Elvis and Me,” which ended with their breakup and Elvis'
death, in 1977. (The book was completed before her current legal battle
with a former business partner). Michael J. Fox remembers the '80s in
“Future Boy,” Paul McCartney looks back on his post-Beatles work in
“Wings” and Patti Smith reflects on childhood, love and grief in “Bread
of Angels.”
Memoirs also are coming from Lionel Richie and Anthony Hopkins, Kenny
Chesney and Cameron Crowe. Charlie Sheen opens up about his scandalous
life in “The Book of Sheen” and Emmy-nominated actor Cheryl Hines, wife
of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., is
scheduled to release “Cheryl Hines Unscripted.”
“With humor, wisdom, and unflinching honesty, Cheryl navigates the highs
and lows of fame, family, and an unexpected foray into politics —
complete with twists no one saw coming,” the publisher, Skyhorse,
describes her book.
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This combination of images shows book cover art for "107 Days" by
Kamala Harris, top row from left, "The Look" by Michelle Obama, "The
Secret of Secrets" by Dan Brown, "Queen Esther" by John Irving, "Katabasis"
by R. F. Kuang, bottom row from left, "The Book of Sheen" by Charlie
Sheen, "Heart Life Music" by Kenny Chesney, "Truly" by Lionel
Richie, "The Eleventh Hour" by Salman Rushdie, and "The Wilderness"
by Angela Flournoy. (Simon & Schuster, Crown, Doubleday, Anne Tate
Pearce-S&S, William Morrow, Gallery Books, William Morrow, HarperOne,
Random House and Mariner via AP)
 A break from Washington
Publishers have said that they didn't expect books on President
Donald Trump to have the same appeal as they did during his first
term; apart from Jonathan Karl’s election chronicle “Retribution”
and Scott Jennings' “A Revolution of Common Sense,” few fall titles
center on him and few so far are in the pipeline for 2026.
“Readers are looking more for books on the economy and geopolitical
landscape than they are on anything more current in politics,” says
Barnes & Noble's director of books, Shannon DeVito, citing Andrew
Ross Sorkin's “1929,” about the stock market crash; and Joyce
Vance's “Giving Up Is Unforgivable: A Manual for Keeping a
Democracy.”
Some prior administrations will be heard from. Former Vice President
Kamala Harris has completed “107 Days,” about her hurried 2024
campaign. “Independent: A Look Inside a Broken White House, Outside
the Party Lines” is a memoir from a White House press secretary
under President Joe Biden, Karine Jean-Pierre, who has since
announced her departure from the Democratic Party. Former first lady
Michelle Obama's latest looks back on her life — or at least what
she has worn — in the illustrated fashion memoir “The Look.”
A handful of books anticipate next year's 250th anniversary of U.S.
independence. “The American Revolution: An Intimate History,” by Ken
Burns and Geoffrey Ward, is a companion to Burns' upcoming
documentary. Walter Isaacson's “The Greatest Sentence Ever Written”
looks in depth at the Declaration of Independence. Donald Sassoon's
“Revolutions: A New History” documents the worldwide impact of
America's break from Britain. Joseph Ellis' “The Great
Contradiction” probes the flaws and virtues of Thomas Jefferson and
other founders.
Other works will reflect on the war in Gaza, which nears its second
anniversary, with releases ranging from former Hamas captive Eli
Sharabi's “Hostage” to diary excerpts from Palestinian Plestia
Alaqad, “The Eyes of Gaza.”
Poetry old and new
“The New Book” compiles final words from poet Nikki Giovanni, who
died last year. Ada Limón's “Startlement” is her first collection
since her term as U.S. poet laureate ended last spring, while former
laureate Billy Collins is releasing “Dog Show,” which features
watercolor drawings by Pamela Sztybel.
“The Poems of Seamus Heaney” collects all of the work by the late
Nobel laureate and “Only Sing” features more than 100 unpublished
works by the late John Berryman. Harryette Mullen, Anne Waldman,
Leila Chatti, Roque Raquel Salas Rivera and Chet’la Sebree are among
the contemporary poets with books out this fall.
Visions of the future
You could fill a shelf, or an e-reader, this fall just with notable
books on climate change, from Neil Shea's “Frostlines” to Elizabeth
Kolbert's “Life on a Little-Known Planet: Dispatches from a Changing
World.”
In “The Long Heat: Climate Politics When It’s Too Late,” authors
Andreas Malm and Wim Carton examine our failure so far to prevent
rising temperatures and what, if anything, is possible now, while
warning of a “rough ride over the coming decades.” Environmentalist
Bill McKibben, a self-described “hard realist” who has been writing
about climate change for decades, has completed “Here Comes the Sun:
A Last Chance for the Climate and a Fresh Chance for Civilization,”
in which he challenges both climate deniers and those who say
catastrophe is inevitable.
“We're not going to stop global warming, that's no longer on the
menu, but we can still talk about whether we can stop it from
cutting off civilization,” McKibben told The Associated Press,
citing the dramatic reduction in costs for solar power and other
forms of energy he believes no longer should be called
“alternative.”
“People are used to thinking of solar and wind as the Whole Foods of
energy — nice, but pricey. Now it's the Costco of energy — it's
available in bulk and on the shelf.”
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