September’s Best New Fiction

Little Fires Everywhere, by Celeste Ng
Fans of Anne Tyler’s Digging to America and Liane Moriarty’s Big Little Lies will devour bestselling Ng’s compelling new drama. When free-spirited artist and single mother Mia gives up her wanderlust and puts down roots in the affluent, tight-knit Cleveland suburb of Shaker Heights, she quickly befriends her landlord Elena’s family. Mia’s dismissal of the town’s social norms causes friction, however, and when she opposes another family’s well-meaning but controversial custody battle for a Chinese American baby, Elena turns against her, determined to dig up Mia’s closely guarded secrets. 

A Column of Fire, by Ken Follett
The third installment in his beloved Kingsbridge series (The Pillars of the Earth and World Without End) revolves around star-crossed lovers Ned Willard and Margery Fitzgerald, whose travails take place two hundred years after the previous book. Ned and Margery’s Protestant and Catholic upbringings, respectively, pit them against each other in 1558 England. Ned’s decision to join Princess Elizabeth’s secret service and Margery’s decision to proselytize on behalf of her Protestant faith puts both their lives in danger. 

To Be Where You Are, by Jan Karon
Readers who wish they lived in the small town of Mitford, North Carolina, with the Kavanagh family will be delighted by this 14th outing in the series. Though Karon briefly ended her popular inspirational saga in 2005, she resurrected it in 2014 and shows no signs of stopping. In this newest offering, Episcopal Priest Father Tim (who is perpetually attempting to retire) finds a new calling, and over at nearby Meadowgate farm, his former ward Dooley faces a marital crisis. Expect a heartwarming comedy of errors, plenty of love, and maybe even a miracle or two.

Love and Other Consolation Prizes, by Jamie Ford
Set in Seattle during the 1909 World’s Fair as well as the fair’s “sequel,” the Century 21 Exposition of 1962, this historical novel by the bestselling author of Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet promises to be an immersive experience. When half-Chinese, half-white orphan Ernest Young is raffled off to a brothel owner, his work as a “houseboy” brings him into contact with two young women—one from his past—who capture his heart. A lifetime later, his own daughters are determined to learn about their father’s mysterious upbringing. He is equally determined to prevent them from doing so.

The Ninth Hour, by Alice McDermott
Tended to by an elderly nun after her husband commits suicide, a young widowed mother and her newborn baby are brought into the fold of the Little Nursing Sisters of the Sick Poor. Brooklyn in the 1940s and ’50s wasn’t forgiving toward families overcoming scandal, and the young mother discovers that the worst moment of her life is best not mentioned. The consequences of her husband’s act will affect many generations to come, but so will the loving friendships she makes with the nuns’ help. McDermott is a National Book Award and American Book Award recipient (for Charming Billy), and a multiple Pulitzer Prize finalist. 

Sing, Unburied, Sing, by Jesmyn Ward
Magical realism and poetic lyricism combine in this paean to road trip novels by a talented author whose creativity brings emotionally devastating truths to the surface. Ward’s previous novel, Salvage the Bones, won the National Book Award in 2011 for its vital depiction of Hurricane Katrina. Here, drug-addicted and poverty-stricken matriarch Leonie, a black woman living on the Gulf Coast of Mississippi, is desperate to be a better mom but struggles with what that means and how to achieve it. She drags her two children (13-year-old Jojo and toddler Kayla) across Mississippi to the State Penitentiary, where their white father is set to be released. Jojo prefers the company of his grandparents over his parents, and is deeply reluctant to make the trip. His feelings on the subject are compounded when he’s visited by a spirit close to him in age, who died during his grandfather’s youth. Jojo’s ability was inherited from his mother, who is regularly haunted (and at times, comforted) by the ghost of her murdered brother. 

The Golden House, by Salman Rushdie
With his latest, Rushdie attempts to make sense of our recent and current climate, political, emotional, and material. The Golden House begins on the day of President Obama’s inauguration, the same day the magnetic, perplexing, wildly unpredictable Golden family arrives from India to forge a new life in Greenwich Village. Patriarch Nero, who’s in his 70s and appears to have oligarch levels of wealth, settles into his new community with his three adult sons, all of whom capture the interest of their neighbors. Readers may experience the timeframe of the book, which contains a version of the 2016 election, as though through a satirical looking glass.

The Vengeance of Mothers: The Journals of Margaret Kelly & Molly McGill, by Jim Fergus
A follow-up to One Thousand White Woman: The Journals of May Dodd, Mothers arrives nearly twenty years after its sensitively portrayed, fascinating predecessor was published. Both novels depict what might have happened in 1875 if the U.S. government under Ulysses S. Grant had agreed to a “Brides For Indians” program for the purpose of “blending cultures” and forging peace between the Cheyenne Indians and the white settlers. The “fallen” or otherwise “unspeakable” women sent to marry people of a starkly different culture find love, friendship, intense heartbreak, and adventure awaiting them.

The Best Kind of People, by Zoe Whittall
George Woodbury is Teacher of the Year at Avalon Hills Prep School. His wife Joan is an ER nurse, his daughter Sadie is smart and popular, and his son Andrew is an accomplished lawyer. But their picture-perfect family image is destroyed when George is accused of sexual misconduct with a minor. Those left in his wake drift, unmoored, from anger to denial, as they question everything they’ve ever known about George. The townspeople surrounding them all have a stake in the outcome in this timely, provocative story that examines the effects of a crime on the perpetrator’s family.

Dinner at the Center of the Earth, by Nathan Englander
This thrilling spy novel is centered on an unnamed Israeli prisoner and the man who has been guarding him for the past twelve years. Their relationship is but one of many explored in the book, which spans timeframes, countries, and cultures, from Paris and Berlin to Tel Aviv and the Negev Desert. How their tales intertwine may leave you breathless.