Thomas Pynchon, Marisa Meltzer, Chris Kraus, and more: 24 new books out today!

The clock struck October, and with it, we welcomed in a slew of meaty, fascinating, and binge-worthy books. At long last, Thomas Pynchon’s Shadow Ticket, a much-anticipated work by the 88-year-old author is released. In other fiction news, there’s a radically new take on the murder-in-a-small-town genre by Chris Kraus, fresh, unusual stories by Katherine Dunn, and a tear-jerker by Mitch Albom, among many others.

And there’s no shortage of options for our nonfiction readers: there are biographies, autobiographies, and analyses on Gertrude Stein, Taylor Swift, Yusuf/Cat Stevens, and Joy Harjo. There are a couple incisive books that take on the dismal state of our digital age, by Cory Doctorow and Paul Leonardi. And in true, spooky October fashion, there’s a new work of nonfiction by Coltan Scrivener that explains the culture’s fascination with all things horror.

For me, Chris Kraus, Daniel H. Wilson, and Brenda Lozano are calling my name. Happy October, and happy reading!

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Thomas Pynchon, Shadow Ticket
(Penguin Press)

“Rollicking, genially silly and ultimately sweet … Pynchon’s prose is…balletically dazzling.”
—Washington Post

Marisa Meltzer, It Girl: The Life and Legacy of Jane Birkin
(Atria)

“Captures the rawness of Birkin’s life and the contradictions of a woman who was making things up as she went along.”
—W Magazine

Chris Kraus, The Four Spent the Day Together
(Scribner)

“This is an entirely new kind of novel, one that shows how helplessly connected we are to our time and to each other. It’s rich, heartbreaking and powerful.”
—Eileen Myles

Cory Doctorow, Enshittification
(MCD)

“A razor-sharp yet subtly optimistic look at the soul-sucking state of the internet.”
—Publishers Weekly

Katherine Dunn, Near Flesh: Stories
(MCD)

“Delightfully offbeat … Dunn vividly captures her protagonists’ attempts to cope with the turbulence of their lives.”
—Publishers Weekly

Yusuf/Cat Stevens, Cat on the Road to Find Out
(Genesis)

“An extraordinary journey.”
—Irish Times

Daniel H. Wilson, Hole in the Sky
(Doubleday)

“Not only a thrilling, brilliant page-turner, its pages also turned me into the kind of reader I always want to be … The kind of reader who can’t stop reading, who dreads the book coming to an end even while I can’t stop making my way toward it.”
—Tommy Orange

John Banville, Venetian Vespers
(Knopf)

“Banville is at his Jamesian finest in this beguiling novel of diabolical gambits.”
—Booklist

Stephanie Burt, Taylor’s Version
(Basic Books)

“Burt not only articulates the force of Swift’s songwriting genius, but—perhaps more importantly—makes the case for her place in the literary tradition. A provocative, sharp, well-argued book for any Taylor Swift fan—or skeptic.”
—Carmen Maria Machado

Jon Fosse, trans. by Damion Searls, Vaim
(Transit)

“Fosse centers this spectacular story of loneliness, love, and death on three linked characters living in small-town Norway … This is unforgettable.”
—Publishers Weekly

Jenny Erpenbeck, Things That Disappear
(New Directions)

“An ethereal collection of memories, delicately rendered before their inevitable crumbling away … A wistful record of memory and loss. Ephemeral musings, both peculiar and poetic.”
—Kirkus

Beth Macy, Paper Girl: A Memoir of Home and Family in a Fractured America
(Penguin Press)

“Both wide-ranging and strikingly intimate, Paper Girl is an affirmation of faith in human­ity, and Macy lights the way ahead, even as the darkness stretched before us threatens to swallow our conviction.”
—BookPage

Paul Leonardi, Digital Exhaustion: Simple Rules for Reclaiming Your Life
(Riverhead)

“An invitation to think more deeply about the ways in which we interact with our devices.”
—Kirkus

Mitch Albom, Twice
(Harper)

“Albom writes in a warm, easy style that transports the reader to a world of second chances and what-ifs, where spirituality lies close to the surface but never intrudes on the story … Have tissues ready as you read this.”
—Kirkus

Sam Kass, The Last Supper: How to Overcome the Coming Food Crisis
(Crown)

“Smart, timely, and full of purpose.”
—Michelle Obama

A M Sosa, And I’ll Take Out Your Eyes
(Algonquin)

“An insultingly good debut from a writer I’ll follow forever. And I’ll Take Out Your Eyes is a poetic gut punch that heals just as much as it haunts.”
—Ruth Madievsky

Jon Cohen, Planning Miracles: How to Prevent Future Pandemics
(Knopf)

“Compelling and timely … A sobering but ultimately empowering read providing a clear-eyed look on recent history and a call to plan wisely for the pandemics of tomorrow.”
—Library Journal

Donika Kelly, The Natural Order of Things: Poems
(Graywolf)

“Donika Kelly sings this love to us in languages—rom her family’s Southern vernacular to the ecstatic compression of the sonnet‚that close the distance between grief and joy.”
—Evie Shockley

Jake Tapper, Race Against Terror
(Atria)

“A riveting story with a master’s sublime command. There are moments when this work of non-fiction seems more like a novel. It is taut, suspenseful, and true. I couldn’t put it down.”
—Ken Burns

Coltan Scrivner, Morbidly Curious: A Scientist Explains Why We Can’t Look Away
(Penguin Books)

“A remarkable journey that delves into why humans can’t seem to look away from the things that some would refer to as unhealthy, shocking, or fearsome.”
—Library Journal

Brenda Lozano, trans. by Heather Cleary, Mothers
(Catapult)

“Brenda Lozano has written a powerful and haunting tale, full of twists and surprises, but also incisive observations on what it means to be a woman and a mother—both in 1940s Mexico and in the world today.”
—Miriam Toews

Francesca Wade, Gertrude Stein: An Afterlife
(Scribner)

“Wade on Stein is a perfect miracle. I feel like I have been waiting for this book my entire life.”
—Sheila Heti

Caren Beilin, Sea, Poison
(New Directions)

“This rewarding and uncompromising novel is distinguished by its deliriously wild writing. It’s impossible not to be swept up in Beilin’s wake.”
—Publishers Weekly

Joy Harjo, Girl Warrior: On Coming of Age
(W. W. Norton)

“More than about having waded through tumultuous waters and survived to not only tell the story but thrive inside the people we become on the other side. This book is simply a balm.”
—Jacqueline Woodson