As I write this, New York City is just emerging from a blazing summer heat wave, yet Kirkus’ Fall Preview serves to remind us that a change of season is just around the corner. Books got me through the long hot days (among them Angela Flournoy’s absolutely stunning second novel, The Wilderness, out from Mariner on September 16), and I’m already making lists of books to occupy me as the days grow shorter and chillier. If you, too, are a list maker, then this issue’s for you: a handy cheat sheet to the most promising fiction, nonfiction, children’s books, and young adult titles of the fall, 150 recommendations in all.
Where to start? At the top of my personal list is Ian McEwan’s latest, What We Can Know (Doubleday, September 23). A new novel by the Booker Prize–winning author of Atonement, Saturday, and Lessons is always an occasion, and our starred review confirms that this one—a “gravely post-apocalyptic tale that blends mystery with the academic novel”—does not disappoint, calling it a “philosophically charged tour de force by one of the best living novelists in English.”
Similarly, I wait for each new book from Joan Silber with delicious anticipation. The National Book Critics Circle Award winner returns this fall with Mercy (Counterpoint, September 2), another of her novels fashioned from a series of linked stories following a handful of interconnected characters (Ideas of Heaven, Improvement). This one—tracing, in part, the aftereffects of a heroin overdose in 1970s New York—earned a starred review: “Once again, Silber has served up her unique flavor of reading joy.”
On the nonfiction side, I’m eager for the release of the latest book from the author of Will in the World and The Swerve. Harvard professor Stephen Greenblatt revisits 16th-century England in Dark Renaissance: The Dangerous Times and Fatal Genius of Shakespeare’s Greatest Rival (Norton, September 9); our starred review calls it a “scintillating biography of Christopher Marlowe by one of America’s leading humanities scholars.” Was this contemporary of the Bard, who was killed in a bar fight at the age of 29, possibly the greater playwright? Greenblatt is sure to mount a persuasive argument.
This season, we at Kirkus are undergoing a transition as well. Our publisher and CEO, Meg LaBorde Kuehn, has moved on to pursue other projects. When a publisher is doing the job well, they’re invisible to readers, but their influence is felt everywhere. That’s certainly the case with Meg, who, in her 14 years at the company, oversaw the creation of the Kirkus Prize, the relaunch of the website, and the redesign of the print magazine. “After years of visionary leadership and unwavering dedication, our beloved CEO is stepping down, leaving behind a legacy that will inspire us for years to come,” said co-chairman Herb Simon in a release announcing her departure. Co-chairman Marc Winkelman underlined the sentiment: “Kirkus wouldn’t be the company it is today without Meg.” We’ll all miss her and look forward to working with interim CEO Judy Hottensen, who steps aboard with this issue. It’s a new chapter.
Tom Beer is the editor-in-chief.
