NEW YORK ā Brandon Sanderson, whose epic āWind and Truthā is a highlight of the upcoming publishing season, sees nothing wrong with the idea of āescapism.ā
āIt's just the ability to go to another world and relate to other people's problems, problems that aren't our problems. It's a really valuable tool in our lives,ā the fantasy novelist told The Associated Press during a recent telephone interview. Sanderson's fans have waited four years for āWind and Truth,ā the 1,300-page fifth volume in his āStormlight Archiveā fantasy series.
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He acknowledges, with mixed feelings, that some will take relatively little time to finish it.
āThey will absolutely read it in two days, which feels both gratifying and a little horrifying,ā he says. āYou put your heart and soul into something for so long, knowing that fans are going to be done in a couple of days and say, āWhenās the next one?'ā
The presidential election is expected to dominate headlines this fall, but booksellers look to Sanderson and others to sustain the wave of fantasy and the hybrid romantasy novels that have been selling strongly over the past few years. āWind and Truthā is among numerous anticipated works that include Jeff VanderMeer's āAbsolution,ā Alan Moore's āThe Great When,ā Cecy Robsonās āBloodguardā and Kerri Maniscalcoās āThrone of Secrets,ā the second installment of her āPrince of Sinā series.
According to Circana, which tracks around 85% of the retail market, fantasy sales have been growing for the past five years and since last summer have jumped by nearly 75%, driven in part by the million-selling romantasy authors Sarah J. Maas and Rebecca Yarros.
āThe fantasy subject is the top growth segment of the total U.S. print book market," says Circana analyst Brenna Conner, who cites the reader-driven sales of #BookTok as a strong factor. "I also believe escapism is a component as more readers seek out stories with elements of escapism to counter daily stress and fatigue of the news cycle."
At Barnes & Noble, senior director of books Shannon DeVito notes that fantasy has expanded and diversified, blending horror and romance and mystery. She cites Maas and Yarros, and such upcoming releases as Frances White's gay-themed āVoyage of the Damned,ā John Gwynn's Norse-inspired āThe Fury of the Godsā and Ann Liang's mythical āA Song to Drown Rivers."
āIt's event-proof,ā DeVito says of fantasy and its offshoots. āIt doesn't depend on news of the day.ā
Election fallout
President Joe Biden's decision not to seek reelection may have little effect on the fantasy market, but it upended the fall campaign and left a void in the publishing schedule: No one had time to work up in-depth books on the Democrats' new nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris. The best chance for revelations likely comes from Bob Woodward's āWar," which centers on Biden's handling of the conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East, but also promises insights on Harris and the presidential race.
Publishers of anti-Biden books are proceeding with scheduled fall releases, including former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani ās āThe Biden Crime Family." Harris' Republican opponent, former President Donald Trump, has a book of photos and anecdotes coming, āSave America," which on its cover has the AP's image of him bloodied and raising his fist after the assassination attempt in July. His wife, former first lady Melania Trump, is releasing the memoir āMelania.ā Donald Trump's estranged niece and bestselling author, Mary Trump, returns with more family (horror) stories in āWho Could Ever Love You."
H.R. McMaster, who served briefly as national security adviser during the Trump administration, has written āAt War With Ourselves.ā Onetime Trump opponent Hillary Clinton reflects on marriage, faith and politics in the essay collection āSomething Lost, Something Gained.ā Project 2025 architect Kevin Roberts' āDawn's Early Light,ā for which GOP vice presidential nominee JD Vance wrote the foreword, has been postponed until just after the election amid Republican efforts to distance themselves from the controversial blueprint for a second Trump term. But pre-election readers can consider recommendations from Joel B. Pollak's āThe Agenda: What Trump Should Do in His First 50 Days,ā with a foreword from Trump ally Steve Bannon.
Prose and poetry
Sally Rooneyās āIntermezzoā is a story of grief and sibling rivalry from the author known for the best sellers āNormal Peopleā and āConversations With Friends.ā Nobel laureate Olga Tokarczuk 's āThe Empusium: A Health Resort Horror Storyā is the Polish's author variation of the Thomas Mann classic āThe Magic Mountain.ā Nobelist Annie Ernaux of France combines memoir and images in āThe Use of Photography" and perennial Nobel candidate Haruki Murakami expands on an early short story for āThe City and Its Uncertain Walls,ā which his Japanese publisher is calling āsoul-stirring, 100% pure Murakami world.ā
Pulitzer Prize winner Richard Powers ā āPlaygroundā touches upon everything from climate change to artificial intelligence, while another Pulitzer winner, Louise Erdrich, sets āThe Mighty Redā on a North Dakota beet farm during the economic crash of 2008. In āTell Me Everything,ā Pulitzer winner Elizabeth Strout returns to fictional Crosby, Maine, and such friends from āOlive Kitteridge" and āOlive, Again" as the elderly title character and the scribe Lucy Barton.
āI never intended to write about them again. I think I keep bringing them back because they are so very well known to me,ā Strout says. āThey feel almost as real as actual people. I know they're not real people, but they feel like real people.ā
John Edgar Wideman blends fiction, history and memoir in āSlaveroad,ā and Rebecca Godfrey's āPeggyā is a fictional take on the heiress-art collector Peggy Guggenheim that was completed by Leslie Jamison after Godfrey's death in 2022. New fiction is also coming from Richard Price, Lee Child, Michael Connelly, Kate Atkinson, Janet Evanovich, Rachel Kushner, Richard Osman, Tova Reich, Paula Hawkins, Jami Attenberg and Rumaan Alam.
Margaret Atwood began her career as a poet and her verse is collected in āPaper Boat: New and Selected Poems: 1961-2023," while āBlues in Stereoā features early work from the late Langston Hughes. Prize winners Paul Muldoon, Kimiko Hahn and Matthew Zapruder all have collections coming out, along with new books from Billy Collins, Ben Okri, Frank X Walker and E. Hughes.
āDear Yusefā is a tribute to the celebrated poet Yusef Komunyakaa that includes contributions from Terrance Hayes, Major Jackson and Sharon Olds. āLatino Poetry: The Library of America Anthologyā compiles verse from the 17th century to the present.
Taylor-ed
Like all pop culture phenomena, from the Beatles to āStar Wars,ā Taylor Swift 's appeal isn't confined to a single art form. Her songs and her life have inspired young adult novels, children's books and biographies and the wave continues.
Katie Cotugno's āHeavy Hitterā is an athlete/pop star romance based in part on Swift and NFL great Travis Kelce, while āThe 13 Days of Swiftnessā is a picture story for holiday shoppers who can chant such lines as ā12 strings for strummingā and ā11 bracelets beaded.ā
The anthology āPoems for Tortured Soulsā includes verse from Emily Dickinson, Edna St. Vincent Millay and other alleged kindred souls of Swift's. Biographies/critical studies include the picture book āTaylor Swift: Wildest Dreams,ā by Erica Wainer and Joanie Stone, and Rolling Stone writer Rob Sheffield's āHeartbreak Is the National Anthem: How Taylor Swift Reinvented Pop Music.ā
The famous and near famous
Lisa Marie Presley's āFrom Here to the Great Unknownā was nearly done before she died in 2023 and was completed by daughter Riley Keough. In āDidion and Babitz,ā Lili Anolik draws upon newly discovered letters as she contrasts the California bards Joan Didion and Eve Babitz, who died within days of each other in 2021 and whose lives, Anolik documents, were more entwined than previously known.
Celebrity books also will include Cher's āThe Memoir, Part One,āAl Pacino 's āSonny Boy,ā Josh Brolin's āFrom Under the Truck,ā Kelly Bishop's āThe Third Gilmore Girlā and Connie Chung's āConnie." Pedro AlmodĆ³var shares stories-allegories-musings in āThe Last Dreamā and Neneh Cherry looks back on her life and music in āA Thousand Threads.ā
Past and present
āPatriotā is a posthumous memoir from imprisoned Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny. Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson has written āLovely One: A Memoir,ā Malcolm Gladwell returns to famous territory in āRevenge of the Tipping Point,ā and Ta-Nehisi Coates explores the power of stories, and misinformation, in āThe Message.ā
Numerous books draw upon racism in U.S. history and those who fought against it. David Greenberg's āJohn Lewisā is a biography of the late civil rights activist and congressman, while Wright Thompson's āThe Barn" promises new information on the murder of Emmett Till. Russell Cobb's āGhosts of Crook County,ā like David Grann's āKillers of the Flower Moon,ā tells of a white oil man in Oklahoma who seeks to steal Native property. In āThe Black Utopians,ā Aaron Robertson tracks a century of planned communities and asks, āWhat does utopia look like in black?ā
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This story has corrected āThe Black Utopiansā authorās name from Aaron Robinson to Aaron Robertson.