Toni Morrison tackles race in post-Korean War America. A young literary star shows what happens when two people who've never met in person and have only spoken on the Internet get married. Anne Lamott describes the joy of being a grandmother. The sequel to The Passage finally arrives. Michael Chabon releases his first novel in four years.
There are a lot of reasons to be excited about the year ahead in literature, as writers new and old release books that reflect on marriage, birth, death, love, desire, God, and more. Here are 15 titles to look out for in the months to come:
by Joshilyn Jackson
The author ofGods in AlabamaandBackseat Saints, Joshilyn Jackson is the queen of Southern chick lit. Her latest novel, about three generations of Mississippi women and the secrets they hold, is not going to win any major awards. But it's a deeply felt, engaging story that's an ideal companion during the literary drought that is January.
Release date:January 25
by Natalie Babbitt
Like every good young adult author, Natalie Babbitt doesn't condescend to her readers. Her classicsTuck EverlastingandKnee Knock Riseengage questions of mortality, ethics, and the presence of the divine in a way that assumes her young readers are almost-grown-ups rather than little kids. Her next book follows in the same tradition, as it focuses on a man making a pivotal life decision and how he chooses whose advice to take.
Release date:March 1
by Jonathan Safran Foer, new translation by Nathan Englander
The Haggadah is a set of prayers and songs recited every year around the Seder table to recount the story of the Israelites leaving Egypt. This volume offers a new way to approach these sacred texts, and includes commentary from a range of American Jewish writers, including Michael Pollan, Lemony Snicket, Judith Shulevitz, Tony Kushner, and more.
Release date:March 5
by Marilynne Robinson
When Marylinne Robinson writes a book, she takes her time: There was an almost 25-year gap between her first and second novel. When she publishes something new, then, it's a big deal, and this spring'sWhen I Was a Child ...is no exception. This collection of essays on faith, learning, the modern life is worth getting excited about, even if you've never read one of Robinson's books.
Release date:March 13
by Anne Lamott with Sam Lamott
Novelist and religious writer Anne Lamott tackles a new subject with her next book: being a grandmother. Her son, Sam, who cowrite the book with her, became a first-time father at age 19, and Lamott decided to chronicle the baby's first year of life. The result is a book that's both funny and poignant but most importantly, full of Lamott's signature frankness.
Release date:March 20
by Lionel Shriver
The next few months are going to be big for Lionel Shriver: First, the film adaptation of her 2003 novel,We Need to Talk About Kevin, enters wide release after a successful tour of the festival circuit. Then her latest book, a comedy about terrorism in an imaginary region of Portugal, comes out in March. Its a novel she wrote before she became famous with the success ofWe Need to Talk About Kevin, so its release is particularly exciting.
Release date:March 27
by Anne Tyler
The Pulitzer Prize-winning author ofBreathing LessonsandThe Accidental Touristcomes out with her 19th novel this spring. It's about a middle-aged man grieving the death of his wife and the comfort he finds in encountering her ghost. Tyler knows the disorienting pain of losing a spouse: Her husband of more than 30 years died a decade ago.
Release date:April 3
by Nell Freudenberger
One of theNew Yorker's acclaimed "30 Under 40," Nell Freudenberger is a startlingly talented writer whose work focuses on cultural encounters between Asia and the West. Her latest novel tells the story of a Muslim woman who moves from Bangladesh to Rochester, New York to marry an American man she met on the Internet, and then must decide if this relationship—old-fashioned in its similarity to an arranged marriage; modern in its reliance on technology—is actually a mistake.
Release date:May 1
by Peter Carey
The two-time Booker Prize-winner's latest novel is about a woman who must grieve privately after her married lover dies. To help process her sorrow, she throws herself into her work: rehabilitating a 19th-century robot. As she becomes more and more absorbed in her project, she begins reading the diaries of the robot's creator, finding comfort in the words of a long-dead kindred spirit.
Release date:May 15
by Toni Morrison
The Nobel Prize-winning writer comes out with her first novel in four years this spring, about a black man who returns from the Korean War angry and excluded from a still-racist society. But he cannot dwell on his frustrations for long, as he must care for a sick sister and return home to the small Georgia hometown he hates. Like all of Morrison's novels,Homeportrays suffering, trauma, frustration—and ultimately redemption.
Release date:May 8
by John Irving
John Irving has never shied away from controversial subjects before: HisCider House Rulesis about a drug-addicted abortionist, whileA Prayer for Owen Meanywrestles with hypocrisy in organized religion. His latest novel also embraces hot-button issues, as bisexual man in his 60s reflects on his youth.
Release date:May 8
by Justin Cronin
What happens when the world's population is decimated by a swarm of government-engineered zombies and the fate of the human race rests in a shy, strange little girl? Justin Cronin's best-selling, critically acclaimed 2010 novelThe Passagebegan to answer that question; 2012'sThe Twelve, the next in a planned trilogy, will continue the story.
Release date:May 10
by Hilary Mantel
Another highly anticipated follow-up to a well-loved recent book isBring Up the Bodies, the sequel to 2009's Booker Prize-winningWolf Hall.Bring Up the Bodiescontinues the story of King Henry VIII of England's advisor Thomas Cromwell, picking up in 1535 and continuing to his dramatic fall in 1540.
Release date:May 19
by Richard Ford
Richard Ford's novels center on the darkness that can creep in when a man reaches midlife. His next novel,Canada, also focuses on men in crisis: two Americans who flee to Canada to escape tragedy and failure. The subject matter may not be uplifting, but the pleasure that comes from reading Ford's prose makes up for the novel's sadness.
Release date:May 22
Telegraph Avenue
by Michael Chabon
Michael Chabon, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of beloved booksThe Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & ClayandWonder Boys, described his upcoming novel in aofon TheAtlantic.com earlier this year: set in California, where he lives with his family, the book explores what it means to be from a place, and draws deeply on music for inspiration. Not much else is known aboutTelegraph Avenue, but expect its publication to be one of the bigger literary events of the year, akin to the release ofThe Marriage Plotthis year orFreedomin 2010.
Release date:Some time this fall