Greek mythology’s concepts of fate and justice run through the South African-Canadian’s locked-room mystery, set aboard a luxury yacht. Nine unlikable passengers board an Aegean cruise, each with ulterior motives that are revealed after a catastrophic storm, shipwreck, and in a present-day documentary chronicling the events of the journey. It’s a page-turner in the vein of And Then There Were None, only set on a doomed vessel instead of a desolate island. (Sept. 1)

Having sold rights in over 30 countries since its wildly bestselling publication in France, this fictionalization of Paris during the city’s Occupation by Nazi Germany – as experienced by Frank Meier, the real-life affable barman of the Ritz Hotel – finally gets a release in English. The elegant bar that served as the inspiration to Meier’s IRL 1936 classic tome The Artistry of Mixing Drinks is the nexus of this riveting story, which is set against the backdrop of a war that tested allegiances, morals and loyalties. Real historical elites such as Woolworth heiress Barbara Hutton and Coco Chanel come and go throughout the novel, as senior German officers make the hotel their residence and headquarters. (Sept. 1)

The 2015 Booker Prize-winning author (for A Brief History of Seven Killings) returns with another novel that’s already made the Prize longlist. Once again, he takes us to Kingston, Jamaica (where the author grew up), for an exploration of queer life in 1988 – but this time, it’s in more straightforward prose, with only brief instances of the heavy patois of Seven Killings. A mob attacks a group of gay actors rehearsing Canadian playwright John Herbert’s pioneering 1967 work, Fortune and Men’s Eyes – killing one and blinding another. And through five main narrators, journal entries, letters and interviews, the novel tracks the years after the survivors have dispersed. Chronicling the fallout on the men’s lives in patriarchal Jamaica in the era of the global AIDS crisis, fear and violent homophobia, James hones in on the reality of their sex lives and encounters – in raw and casually explicit detail. Kirkus calls it “equal parts detective story and sociocultural history.” (Sept. 1)

“I swear I loved them all, and I did the best I could. And then I left them, left all of it.” One day, Abra abandons her comfortable suburban Toronto life, husband and children. She rejects societal expectation to instead enjoy perfect solitude in a remote cabin, to live by her wits and whims – not unlike the way Miranda July’s All Fours protagonist retreats to that motel. The twist is that this is not a new addition to the wave of fiction about maternal ambivalence but a rediscovered prescient Canadian gem from 1978. (Zed Books readers know, we love resurrected neglected books.) This forgotten debut  by Booker– and Giller-nominated Barfoot, now 80 – originally published as Abra – retrospectively chronicles the housewife’s inner journey to self-liberation after she gets a visit from now-grown daughter Katie. With her novel plucked from obscurity and reissued by Faber & Faber, Barfoot intends to “sit here and bask” in the glowing reviews: “thrillingly original”; “brilliantly unsettling”; and “the must-read of the summer.” Better late than never. (Sept. 8)

It’s hard to know what plot points to divulge from this speculative tale. Suffice it to say: the Station Eleven writer’s end-times novels have their own particular delicacy and humanity, making the characters’ fates more romantically philosophical than dystopian. Set in spring 2031 (after the collapse of a United States reshaped by civil war), the story offers up two richly imagined worlds – a Side A and Side B that divide the novel into two sections – while an antique painting by an artist in a previous novel acts as a sort of portal between them. Readers also meet two versions of the characters and follow the simultaneous ebb and flow of two future outcomes. Happiness and/or heartbreak await. (Sept. 15)

This dry comedy from The Sisters Brothers Governor General’s Award-winning virtuoso meanders tenderly as it follows Lee, a California draft dodger who, in 1967, makes his way across America to the Canadian border to deliver a new Jaguar. Along the way, he stops to visit – and attempt reconnection with – members of his broken, chaotic family (including his father, a Second World War veteran) while confronting various demons. It’s a brisk, lean read that contains many of the same winning ingredients as the two-time Giller finalist’s work, particularly his gift for the rhythms of conversational dialogue and the humour and absurdities of living. (Sept. 29)

The author of Pachinko (a New York Times “100 Best Books of the Century” and an award-winning Apple+ series) returns with a contemporary family saga both panoramic and intimate. The title utilizes the Korean word for private tutoring centres (or cram centres) and the novel follows three generations of the Kohs, a resilient family, and their friends through the 1997 Asian financial crisis and across continents to the Korean diaspora in Southern California. As they reckon with culture, family obligation, education, ambition and class, the social novel illuminates the values we hold as individuals and as a society. (Sept. 29)

A decade after her bestselling debut The Girls delved into the psychology of women attracted to a Charles Manson-like figure, Cline offers a glimpse into human consciousness in the midst of cognitive decline – from the inside. Mortality despite wealth and privilege is explored as David, a retired executive living with Alzheimer’s, makes his way to Zurich by private plane with assistant Cody in tow. He will soon voluntarily end his life but is making a couple of key stops and plunging into his past. The scrambled collage of this unreliable narrator’s memories compellingly flicker between reasoning and lucidity, frailty and reverie, identity and regret. (Sept. 29)

In this novel about the performance of self in the internet age, 40-something Katy’s husband leaves her for a younger model and, while tackling single parenthood, she inadvertently reinvents herself as a DIY influencer. The screeds and monologues she makes while filming her fix-its to the Ottawa condo she shares with her two daughters go viral and while the merch and sponsorships are welcome, the attention leads to sexual romps and scrutiny of a few things Katy would rather not deal with. It’s an entertaining and thought-provoking good time. (Sept. 15)

A book lover makes her way to a happier ending in this follow-up to 2020’s beloved Sorrow and Bliss. The poignant novel probes how the age of disconnection can feed into parasocial relationships. After her unexpected divorce unravels her comfortable life, a lonely literary festival tech worker obsessively fixates on a famous writer from her youth. The bibliophile’s day job is populated with author cameos (David Sedaris, George Saunders); meanwhile, how Sophie relates to certain literary protagonists (like social misfit Eleanor Oliphant) offers a poignant reflection on the important role that literary culture plays in readers’ lives. That said, the book celebrates real-life connections, too. (Sept. 29)