Livia, once a musical prodigy and now a piano teacher settled into rural Tennessee farm life, is drawn back into reveries of her past while cleaning out her late mother’s hoarder house. A call from Sigurd, the long-ago fiery lover who abandoned Livia for a life of activism, adds to the midlife crisis. A partita is an instrumental composition made up of contrasting movements, and the novel is similarly divided into sections, interpolations alternating past and near-present until the melodies finally converge. After the 2023 Pulitzer-winning Demon Copperhead, a retelling of David Copperfield in poverty and opioid-addled Appalachia, Kingsolver’s portrait of the choices and melodrama of a single life might seem like a smaller canvas but, even told in miniature, it is no less sprawling and Dickensian. (Oct. 6)

The bestselling young adult novelist (writing as Riley Redgate) makes a striking adult debut with this sharply-drawn enemies-to-lovers romance. It’s a slow burn for, and about, bibliophiles. A review, in fact a withering pan, kicks off the literary feud between Parker, an author in need of a hit, and Selina, a ruthless critic. While they navigate that awkward dynamic over the course of escalating professional and personal encounters, the story offers thought-provoking, pointed and insightful (and not always affectionate) commentary on book culture. Think: a witty and deeply romantic You’ve Got Mail for the era of digital connection (and disconnection) – which explains why no less than contemporary rom-com queen Emily Henry is gushing about it the most. (Oct. 6)

In thinking about how to explore the complexity of loss, sorrow and atonement, the Cameroonian expat author draws on an incident from her teens – a fight she was involved in that left a young man wounded and scarred for life. On the cusp of new beginnings, Wolo’s pregnant wife is hit by a motorist and dies. The driver, Victoria, seeks his forgiveness and, in her regret and quest to atone, reaches across the cultural and emotional divide into the indignant, tight-knit community who all profoundly feel the loss. A decade after her celebrated debut (Behold the Dreamers), the Oprah’s Book Club favourite has delivered another stunner. (Oct.6)

Arriving for spooky season, The Gods of Gotham trilogy writer’s haunting gothic is steeped in atmosphere, alchemy and witchcraft. And it’s written in the slow, deliberate manner of 19th-century novels. Inspired by Edgar Allan Poe, Faye weaves Poe’s sensibilities and influence into a book that’s both a supernatural suspense and queer romance. After heroine Raven’s family falls on hard times, she finds employment as a lady’s companion, moving into the dilapidated mansion of her new employer, whose live-in cousin has an interest in the occult. Raven tells her story from beyond the grave and entrusts the reader to uncover her murderer. (Oct. 6)

This much-anticipated follow-up to Garmus’s bestselling global debut Lessons in Chemistry – which was all the more impressive considering the author released it at 65 after a career as a medical copywriter and recipient of many publishing world rejections – avoids the sophomore slump. In this poignant charmer, Garmus follows hapless college grad Batter Gray (named for his mother’s dog, about whom there are many anecdotes) through 1982 literary New York. He’s landed his dream job at the titular prestigious poetry journal – populated by quirky eccentrics, horrible bosses and snobby editors. It’s a gem of detail and depth, with mystery, a little romance and canine shenanigans. (Oct. 13)

For his first standalone thriller in more than two decades, the Scottish gritty crime guru ventures to the European capital of wealth and power – much like the upcoming Only Murders in the Building: London excursion. Instead of Rebus in Edinburgh, we are in an exclusive luxury London high-rise overlooking Hyde Park – a frictionless existence populated by the famous and obscenely rich. After the night concierge is found murdered in the lobby, DS Gillian Gish (who’s tending to a mother with dementia) and her boss DCI Jack Milton investigate, allowing Rankin to probe the corruption of wealth and fame. Could this satisfying procedural be kicking off a new series? (Oct. 8)

With members of the billionaire class looking for ways to biohack longevity and live forever, this timely speculative novel (by the screenwriter of DC’s forthcoming Dynamic Duo) explores the possible fallout should they succeed. It’s 2070 and Boomer trillionaire Paul Whitmore has lived to 122 by following the strict routine of a proprietary “Method” he now hopes to commercialize. When his estranged son Max, now 85, becomes the target of a vigilante group keen to prevent the anti-aging and longevity revolution, Paul contends with the reality of his joyless lifestyle, confronting his fear of death and the cost of immortality. Actor Glen Powell is already attached to the movie adaptation. (Oct. 27)

A curator who reconstructs historical settings is commissioned to conjure the private quarters of a medieval palace. And while working on the minute details with an archivist, they become absorbed in the story of the forgotten monarch who lived there. It’s deeply immersive in both the gossipy goings-on at court and the decadent royal lifestyle (with mouthwatering lyrical descriptions of meals, in particular). The Observer was canny to anoint Perry one of the best debut novelists of the year: her meditation on history just made the Booker Prize shortlist and had its publication date pushed forward. “You can’t read it,” the judges say, “without reflecting on the fragile boundary between the present and the past.” (out now; originally Oct. 30)