Books to Look Out For in September 2026: Part One

The first part of September’s preview includes several titles I’ve already read beginning with Patrick deWitt’s Dodge City. Set in 1967, it follows Lee who takes to the road after his draft notice is served. He’s set himself up with a drive-away, ostensibly delivering an E-Type Jaguar to New Jersey, which will take him across the country, calling in on various scattered members of his family who all think Lee should knuckle down and serve his country, before heading for Canada. Every day he calls Cal, the woman he’s almost been living with, who finally picks up on the last day of his journey. There’s a touch of Wes Anderson about Lee’s story which is delivered with an entertaining wit rather than the more outlandish humour of French Exit or the slapstick of The Sisters Brothers. Review shortly…

I was a huge fan of Louise Kennedy’s short story collection, The End of the World is a Cul de Sac, and even more impressed by her debut novel, Trespasses, beautifully adapted by the BBC last year. Stations follows Roísín who meets Red when they’re teenagers in 1982 beginning an unlikely, unexpected friendship. When Roísín wants more from their relationship, Red rebuffs her, spiralling downwards until her funny, knowledgeable Dickens-quoting friend becomes withdrawn into a drug fuelled daze. Their friendship fades into the background for Roísín until, in 2007, Red’s mother asks her to find him, forcing her to re-examine her own past. Very disappointed not to see this one on the Booker longlist. Review soon…

Emma Cline’s immersive new novel, Switzy, was one of two of my Booker wishes to be fulfilled. It follows a successful businessman in his seventies as he travels to Zurich via London, where his estranged daughter and her family live, accompanied by his young assistant. David has another goodbye to make just over the border from Zurich. He’s not seen or spoken to Tom since the sadistic hazing his best friend endured in their last days at boarding school watched by David. The following day, Cody accompanies David to his final destination, returning to the States alone. David’s journey unfolds in an interior monologue made up of short episodic paragraphs, his mind already severely frayed, unravelling further as he travels. Cline’s writing is strikingly polished, peppered with occasional flashes of dry black humour. Review to follow…

I enjoyed Hernan Diaz’s cleverly structured Trust a few years back making me keen to read Ply which sounds very different. Set several centuries into the future, it follows an orphan who grew up adrift in an American city and now steals electricity to fuel the vibrant music scene with which she’s become involved. When she follows a trail which leads her to a scientific experiment, she begins to question both the nature of reality and her own identity. ‘Set in a future filled with both uncertainty and promise, Ply is a powerfully humane novel that interrogates the role of technology in a deeply changed society’ says the blurb promisingly.

Sebastian Barry’s The Newer World is set in the aftermath of the American Civil War when freed man and veteran, Tennyson Bouguereau, is struggling to find meaning and a place to belong. He’s offered the chance of a new life in Nashville, leaving his Tennessee home and his sister Rosalee, then a surprise visit to Victorian England changes everything. ‘Exquisitely rendered, and with a rich cast of characters, The Newer World is a lyrical, visceral novel about what it is to survive, and what might be lost along the way’ says the blurb which sounds very different from his last novel, Old God’s Time, which I loved.

Colm Tóibín’s brief novella The Bridge picks up the story of Miquel and his father from The Long Winter, still living together in the family home from which Miquel’s mother walked out into the snow, never to return. A bridge is being built that will link two valleys, ending their isolation, which his father sees as an opportunity, but Miquel envisages disaster. ‘With meticulous precision and an unerring eye Tóibín captures lives caught between the past and the present, and the journey of a young man seeking connection, haunted by loss’ says the blurb.

That’s it for September’s first batch of new fiction. As ever, a click on a title will take you to a more detailed synopsis for any that take you fancy. Part two soon…