Preview of the 10 best books of the fall

A Marriage Portrait by Maggie O’Farrell. The author of “Hamnet” presents the fictional story of another real person – Lucrezia de’ Medici, a Renaissance teenager who married at 15 and died a year later. From putrid fever? Or about murder? Hamnet, a reimagining of the life and death of Shakespeare’s son, won the Women’s Fiction Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award.

Ski Jumpers by Peter Gaye. In his new novel, Minnesota Book Award winner Geier writes about a ski jumper with a terrible diagnosis—and a secret past. Geyer’s earlier novels include the North Shore series about the Eide family.

“Painting Behind the Walls” by David Rhodes. Set in drifting Wisconsin, Painting Behind the Walls is the story of Augustus, who leaves his job in Chicago to return home, where he finds everything still the same—and also profoundly changed. Rhodes is the author of Driftless, Jewelweed, and other novels set in the Driftless Area.

“The Bullet That Missed” by Richard Osman. The beloved Thursday Murder Club is back, investigating a cold case with no body. Until dear Elizabeth is faced with a terrible choice – kill or be killed. Packed with Osman’s signature humor and plenty of twists.

“The Book of Geese” by Yun Li. The story of the friendship between two inseparable — and, it must be said, treacherous — French girls after the war, told years later by one survivor. In a starred review, trade journal Publishers Weekly called it “a powerful Cinderella tale with memorable characters.”

Temples of Fun by Kate Atkinson. The action takes place in London immediately after the First World War. Newly released from prison, club owner Nellie Coker works hard to protect her turf in the face of a host of sad characters and challenging challenges. A standalone novel, not one of Jackson Brody’s great mysteries, but a fascinating read nonetheless.

“Furrow”, Namvali Serpel. From the author of Old Drift, a story about two siblings, one of whom disappears, the other searches for him for years – until one day, years later, she meets a man who is also looking for someone. Born in Zambia, Serpel is the recipient of numerous literary awards, including the Annisfield-Wolf Book Award for Fiction, the Arthur C. Clarke Award, and others. She teaches at Harvard University.

“Swamp, Swamp, and Swamp” by Annie Brooks. Pulitzer Prize winner Praul (Shipping News, Barskin’s) turns to science fiction to write about climate change, the history of wetlands, and what their destruction means for the planet.

Ominous Tombs by Marcy Rendon. Cash Blackbear’s Last Mystery: Cash returns to the White Earth Reservation to uncover the truth about the missing Native women and their babies. Rendon was named a 2020 McKnight Artist of the Year. Her previous novels Cash Blackbear will be republished this year by Soho Press; “Murder on the Red River” was selected last year as One Book/One Minnesota. (October 11)

“The Sky Watched: Poems of Ojibwe Lives,” by Linda LeGard Grover. In this new and updated collection, Grover writes in English and sometimes in Ojibwe about family life and history, including the trauma of residential schools and the Wounded Knee massacre. Grover is a novelist and memoirist who won the Minnesota Book Award for Onigamiising: Seasons of an Ojibwe Year. (October 25)