The 11 must-read books of autumn 2019
Our literary editor picks this season's essential new books, from Margaret Atwood's Handmaid's Tale sequel to Debbie Harry's autobiography
Doxology by Nell Zink
Zink was 50 when she published her first novel, The Wallcreeper, in 2014. Its taut, ironic prose, followed up in Mislaid and Nicotine, made this literary outsider a sensation. Her latest, Doxology, follows the fortunes of a comically terrible punk band in New York, on the eve of 9/11. Fourth Estate, Sept 5
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The Testaments by Margaret Atwood
Shortlisted for the Booker, the contents of this sequel to The Handmaid’s Tale are a closely guarded secret. All we know is that it has three female narrators, and picks up 15 years after the earlier novel left off, with the van door being slammed on Offred’s future. Chatto & Windus, Sept 10
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For the Record by David Cameron
When the former Prime Minister stepped down in 2016, he nipped straight into a shepherd’s hut in his garden to write his memoirs. Bought for a reputed £800,000 and now finally being published, what scores will they settle? William Collins, Sept 19
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Margaret Thatcher: The Authorized Biography, Vol 3: Herself Alone by Charles Moore
The first part of Moore’s definitive, authorised biography, Not For Turning, covered Margaret Thatcher’s life up to the Falklands War; the second, Everything She Wants, took in the overhauling of Britain’s economy, the Miners’ Strike and the Brighton bombing. This final volume, Herself Alone, starting with her 1987 election victory, investigates her last period in office and her legacy. Allen Lane, Oct 3
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Grand Union by Zadie Smith
A new volume of short stories by Smith, 11 of which have never been published before. Hamish Hamilton, Oct 3
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The Dutch House by Ann Patchett
Patchett’s novel Commonwealth, about a tangle of siblings and step-siblings, and adulterous parents, in suburban America, was one of the hits of 2016. Her new novel, set over five postwar decades, traces the fortunes of siblings who grow up in a grand Philadelphia mansion, The Dutch House. Bloomsbury, Sept 24
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Serotonin by Michel Houellebecq
Houellebecq anticipated the gilets jaunes movement with this novel, published in January in his native tongue, about rural French communities whose prospects have been made bleak by globalisation and the EU. William Heinemann, Sept 26
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Face It by Debbie Harry
The Blondie frontwoman’s memoir (the first, she hints, of several) recreates the grit and grime of Seventies New York. “I’m prepared for the best and the worst comments, much like when I have released an album,” she says. “I don’t have a thick skin, but I do have a pretty good sense of humour.” HarperCollins, Oct 1
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The Body: A Guide for Occupants by Bill Bryson
Bryson made his name with his comic travel books, but has had phenomenal subsequent success with popular history and science. The great communicator of our age now turns his omnivorous enthusiasm and light touch (so to speak) onto the subject of the human body. Doubleday, Oct 3
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Olive, Again by Elizabeth Strout
Strout is not just a great novelist – she has also mastered the strange art of the sequel. After Anything Is Possible, a wonderful, sideways examination of the characters we met in My Name Is Lucy Barton, Strout’s new novel, a triumph, picks up the story of Olive Kitteridge (2008). Viking, Oct 31
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The Topeka School by Ben Lerner
Lerner is arguably the hottest novelist writing in America today, in complete control of his ideas and his prose, and exhilaratingly ambitious with both. After Leaving the Atocha Station (2011) and 10.04 (2014), his third novel tells the story of a high-school senior in Midwestern America in the late nineties, tracing the forces that led, ultimately, to Trump. Granta, Nov 7