After enjoying all the spring standouts and better beach reads from this year, you may think you’ve seen the best novels that 2018 has to offer—but we’re just getting started. These are the 20 fiction titles we’re most looking forward to reading this fall.

The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker

Doubleday • September 4

First, Kamila Shamsie adapted Antigone in Home Fire; then, Madeline Miller put a feminist spin on the Odyssey in Circe. Now, the Booker Prize-winning author of the Regeneration trilogy takes on the Iliad through the perspective of a former queen who was captured by Achilles and kept as one of his prizes of battle. It’s an unflinching, important revision of an ancient tale.

The Mermaid and Mrs. Hancock by Imogen Hermes Gowar

Harper • September 11

The debut novel from Britain’s new literary darling was inspired by the stories she dreamed up about the artifacts on display when she worked at the British Museum in London. Shortlisted for the 2018 Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction, it’s a historical fantasy set in the Georgian era, with mermaids, madams and a level of detail that’s especially remarkable for a first novel.

The Labyrinth of the Spirits by Carlos Ruiz Zafón

Harper • September 18

It is a bittersweet return to Barcelona for fans of Zafón, as he concludes his internationally beloved, labyrinthine Cemetery of Forgotten Books series (The Shadow of the Wind, The Angel’s Game, The Prisoner of Heaven) with an operatic finale, drawing together all the threads as a rare book unveils a conspiracy that runs through Spanish history.

Lethal White by Robert Galbraith

Mulholland • September 18

The fourth Cormoran Strike and Robin Ellacott mystery from Galbraith (aka J.K. Rowling) finds the private eye and his assistant-turned-partner investigating a crime that takes them to the streets of London, into the secrets of Parliament and to the doorstep of an ominous manor home. Arguably, Rowling’s greatest strength is building characters that live and breathe, so as thrilling as the mystery may be, fans of this series will love to explore the growing complexities of the lead characters’ relationship.

Washington Black by Esi Edugyan

Knopf • September 18

The second novel from Edugyan (Half-Blood Blues) is already garnering comparisons to Colson Whitehead’s The Underground Railroad and was recently longlisted for the Man Booker Prize. But for all that buzz, the premise (and writing talent) stands on its own: An 11-year-old slave in Barbados takes off in a hot air balloon with an eccentric naturalist and abolitionist. It’s a must-read for lovers of history, science and even steampunk literature.

An Absolutely Remarkable Thing by Hank Green

Dutton • September 25

Snappy writing, the sudden appearance of robots (maybe?), a wild scavenger hunt and ruminations on the nature of fame—we’d expect nothing less of the debut novel from Green, brother to John Green and one of America’s most beloved science teachers. From VidCon, the world’s largest conference for the online video community, to the educational content of Complexly and the wide-reaching effect of DFTBA.com, which assists online creators, Green has earned a huge fan base. They won’t be disappointed here.

The Caregiver by Samuel Park

Simon & Schuster • September 25

The Caregiver comes with the tragedy of being published posthumously, as Park died of stomach cancer in April 2017 at the age of 41. But the terribly sad background of this book isn’t the reason why it’s on this list. We’ve been looking forward to a new novel from Park ever since reading This Burns My Heart, a heart-rending tale of postwar Korea. His second novel explores the story of a daughter who, after emigrating to California from Rio de Janeiro, learns some unexpected truth about her mother.

Transcription by Kate Atkinson

Little, Brown • September 25

The 10th book from Atkinson (Life After Life) journeys to 1940, where an 18-year-old woman named Juliet is recruited to a special department of MI5 that monitors the activities of British Nazi sympathizers. Ten years later, Juliet is working for the BBC, producing educational radio programs for children that skim over the surface of history’s true events. We love a good detective novel, and we really love anything Atkinson puts her mind to.

Virgil Wander by Leif Enger

Grove • October 2

With his previous works, Peace Like a River and So Brave, Young, and Handsome, Enger captured the world of rustic Midwestern living through family tales, love stories and sagas of hardship. His latest is just as gently humorous and meditative as these previous novels, as he explores a small town through the eponymous Virgil Wander, who must reinvent himself after a traumatic car accident. Prepare to be charmed.

The Clockmaker’s Daughter by Kate Morton

Atria • October 9

Morton’s latest novel treads well-loved terrain—a mystery stretched across generations, hewn into the history of a British manor house—and her ardent fans will enjoy the complicated connections, steadily rising tension and immersive setting. It’s a slow build, filled to the brim with ghosts both real and metaphysical.

Killing Commendatore by Haruki Murakami

Knopf • October 9

Again and again, the author of 1Q84 has delivered vast, complicated and engrossing narratives that bind together in unpredictable ways that are absolutely worth the wait. True to form, his latest comes in at just over 700 pages. The story of a painter’s discovery of a lost work of art builds to a superb puzzle of monumental philosophical and emotional depth.

The Witch Elm by Tana French

Viking • October 9

With the six installments of her exceptional, award-winning Dublin Murder Squad mysteries, French has established herself as one of the finest crime writers working today. She continues to dazzle with her first standalone novel, about a young Irishman who is used to being lucky—until he is attacked and left for dead. He seeks sanctuary and healing at his family’s home, Ivy House, but finds only secrets and (literal) long-forgotten skeletons.

Melmoth by Sarah Perry

Custom House • October 16

On the heels of her lush 2017 gothic novel, The Essex Serpent, Perry returns with a new haunting tale about a British translator working in Prague whose friend discovers a strange letter in the library, illuminating the story of a creeping legend known as Melmoth the Witness—and then the friend goes missing.

Unsheltered by Barbara Kingsolver

Harper • October 16

The epigraph of Kingsolver’s much-anticipated new novel is a Wallace Stevens quote that immediately made me cry: “After the final no there comes a yes / And on that yes the future world depends.” We give this story—about a former magazine editor who investigates the history of her dilapidated house and discovers the story of a science teacher in the 1880s—a resounding yes.

A Well-Behaved Woman by Therese Anne Fowler

St Martin’s • October 16

With her debut, Z, Fowler revealed a Zelda Fitzerald who is ambitious, complex, a little lost and a little naive—so different from the myth she has become through time. With her second novel, Fowler trains her sights on Alva Vanderbilt and her family for a Gilded Age epic of astounding wealth and tremendous depth of character.

Friday Black by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah

Mariner • October 23

Adjei-Brenyah announces himself to the literary world with a collection of surrealist, visceral stories on the level of Carmen Maria Machado’s Her Body and Other Parties. Adjei-Brenyah earned his MFA at Syracuse, and there’s a distinctive George Saundersian vibe, but with a wholly original, aching exploration of race and power.

Little by Edward Carey

Riverhead • October 23

British author Carey (he now lives in Austin) is the author of the popular YA Iremonger Trilogy, and his first adult novel in many years is an utterly delightful, whimsical tale of the woman who would become Madame Tussaud. Filled with charmingly grotesque illustrations of body parts, it’s a wonderfully weird exploration of spectacles, from wax heads to revolutions, that will delight lovers of the macabre.

The Feral Detective by Jonathan Lethem

Ecco • November 6

It is with much fanfare that Lethem returns to detective fiction with The Feral Detective, his first contribution to the genre since Motherless Brooklyn (1999). In this searing page-turner, delivered in darkly humorous prose, a woman named Phoebe comes to Charles Heist in search of her friend’s missing daughter, and the two set off into the desert together.

Nine Perfect Strangers by Liane Moriarty

Flatiron • November 6

The bestselling author of Big Little Lies is back with another juicy tale of intriguing, secretive people and their tenuous relationships. In Nine Perfect Strangers, a remote health resort provides the backdrop for nine people to begin to ask some dangerous questions, spurred by the inquiries of a formerly bestselling romance writer.

Kingdom of the Blind by Louise Penny

Minotaur • November 27

We’re gifted a new Chief Inspector Gamache novel every year, but it’s still always worth the excitement. This time, the former head of the Sûreté du Québec discovers that a stranger has named him as an executor of her will. And then, of course, a body is found.

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