Bayard, Louis. The Wildes: A Novel in Five Acts. Algonquin. Sept. 2024. 304p. ISBN 9781643755304. $29. F

The latest from best-selling Bayard (author of Jackie and Me and the Netflix-adapted The Pale Blue Eye) is set against the backdrop of Victorian England and World War I as he considers the lives of Oscar Wilde’s family (his wife, Constance, and their two sons) after Wilde’s affair with Lord Alfred Douglas was exposed and he was imprisoned for homosexuality.

Dellaira, Ava. Exposure. Zibby. Sept. 2024. 368p. ISBN 9781958506677. $27.99. F

Dellaira’s best-selling debut, Love Letters to the Dead, was named a best teen book by NYPL and the Chicago Public Library. In Dellaira’s first adult novel, Noah has made it in Hollywood and started a family. Then an incident from years ago comes up and threatens his current life, as conflicting versions of the truth emerge.

Elkin, Lauren. Scaffolding. Farrar. Sept. 2024. 400p. ISBN 9780374615291. $28. F

A Paris apartment holds memories and houses two different couples—one in 2019 and another in 1972—as they each renovate the kitchen and wrestle with the challenges of marriage, fidelity, and pregnancy. Writer and translator Elkin (whose Flâneuse was an NYT Notable Book) makes her fiction debut.

Erdrich, Louise. The Mighty Red. Harper. Oct. 2024. 384p. ISBN 9780063277052. $32. F

Best-selling and award-winning Erdrich (The Sentence) writes a sequel to The Beet Queen that considers the lives of residents of Tabor, ND, amid larger economic and environmental issues. Two men are vying to marry Kismet Poe, while her mother, Crystal, hauls sugar beets, sees visions of guardian angels, and worries about the future. With a 150K-copy first printing.

Greenwell, Garth. Small Rain. Farrar. Sept. 2024. 320p. ISBN 9780374279547. $28. F

Greenwell (author of the multi-best-booked Cleanness) pens a story about a poet whose life is upended by an unexpected medical crisis. In the hospital, he wrestles with the uncertainty of what’s wrong with his body and the dysfunctional American healthcare system, but the situation also makes him more aware of the valuable things in life: art, poetry, music, care.

Kushner, Rachel. Creation Lake. Scribner. Sept. 2024. 416p. ISBN 9781982116521. $29.99. F

Award-winning Kushner (The Mars Room) writes a literary noir. An American secret agent, “Sadie Smith,” is sent to infiltrate an anarchist collective in France. She first targets member Lucien but soon becomes intrigued by the mysterious Bruno, whose ideas and own tragic story are beginning to seduce her.

Naudé, S.J. Fathers and Fugitives. Europa. Sept. 2024. 224p. ISBN 9798889660392. $27. F

Daniel, who lives in London, returns to South Africa to care for his ailing father. After his father’s death, Daniel learns that he’ll only receive his inheritance if he spends time with his cousin Theon, with whom he soon embarks on a life-changing trip. Award-winning Naudé (The Third Reel) tells a tale of family, loyalty, and redemption.

Powers, Richard. Playground. Norton. Sept. 2024. 400p. ISBN 9781324086031. $29.99. F

Award-winning and best-selling Powers (Bewilderment) considers technology and the environment, as potential sea-steaders meet on Makatea in French Polynesia. The island has been chosen as a candidate to send floating autonomous cities into the open sea, but first the residents must vote on whether to approve the project.

Quatro, Jamie. Two-Step Devil. Grove. Sept. 2024. 288p. ISBN 9780802163134. $27. F

Quatro, whose Fire Sermon was a B&N Discover Great New Writers and Indie Next pick, writes about an unlikely relationship between two strangers—a 70-year-old man convinced that he’s a prophet, and the teenage girl he rescues from being trafficked. The Prophet is sure that the girl is the key to getting his end-times warnings to the White House.

Rooney, Sally. Intermezzo. Farrar. Sept. 2024. 432p. ISBN 9780374602635. $29. F

Best-selling Rooney (Beautiful World, Where Are You), who has had two novels adapted for TV, writes a story about love, family, and grief. Brothers Peter and Ivan have little in common, but both are dealing with the death of their father and managing relationships with the women in their lives. With a 500K-copy first printing.

Tokarczuk, Olga. The Empusium: A Health Resort Horror Story. Riverhead. Sept. 2024. 320p. ISBN 9780593712948. $30. F

Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, Tokarczuk (The Books of Jacob) returns with a story set in a health resort in 1913. There, the residents drink the hallucinogenic local liqueur and debate politics and other philosophical questions. Meanwhile, someone—or something—sinister is watching and choosing its next target.

Tsabari, Ayelet. Songs for the Brokenhearted. Random. Sept. 2024. 352p. ISBN 9780812989007. $29. F

Tsabari, author of the award-winning story collection The Best Place on Earth, writes her first full-length novel. In 1950, thousands of Yemeni Jews are living in an immigrant camp in Israel, where married Saida falls in love with another man. In 1995, Saida’s daughter Zohara returns to Israel after her mother dies; there she learns shocking truths about her family.