The 8 Best New Books to Read This Fall, by Emma Cline, Lucy Foley, and More

Not just any author would be granted the privilege to continue Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple series. Lucy Foley has taken on that legacy with a fast-paced mystery set high in the Swiss Alps, where Miss Marple is meant to be enjoying a holiday—but there has been a murder on one of the ski lifts, and there will be another unless the killer can be found. Cue a fun and dramatic whodunit.

Dua Lipa chose Diaz’s 2022 book Trust—which won a Pulitzer Prize for Fiction—for her Service95 Book Club and said it made her “head spin” (in a good way!). His follow-up, PLY, might just do the same. It tells the futuristic story of an orphan working in an American city centuries from now. The unnamed protagonist works as a “pincher,” stealing electricity to power a vibrant underground music scene, but when she’s invited to take part in an experiment, everything feels like it could be at risk. This is a fiercely intelligent look at the future of technology, climate, and capitalism that will have you gripped—and while no one is judging, it might just be our favorite cover of the autumn.

Out September 29.

There was a time when you couldn’t commute without seeing the cover of Yellowface everywhere. And for good reason: the story about a white writer plagiarizing her Asian-American peer after watching her choke to death won a British Book Award and was named Foyles Book of the Year, which makes us all the more excited about Taipei Story. Said to be Kuang’s most personal work yet, it’s a coming-of-age story that deals with identity, language, love, and grief and is inspired by Kuang’s own experience of studying Mandarin in Taipei in the wake of her grandfather’s death.

From the author of the much-loved Demon Copperhead (who doesn’t have this in their top 10 list?) comes a new book that feels like both a continuation and a departure. Back in rural Appalachia, we follow pianist Livia Bohusz, who is unmoored by her brother’s suicide and her parents’ silence. Her talents take her away from home and into a world of academia and symphony halls where questions arise about class and art, alongside flashes of midlife hopes and regrets. The story was born out of Kingsolver’s love of both language and classical music; Partita weaves the two together with her usual grace and expert touch with words.

Out October 6.