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BY DWIGHT GARNER | Fall is the book industry's busiest, craziest season -- the time when publishers come muscling in, sharp elbows at the ready, with their biggest, most ambitious titles. Thousands of books are released almost simultaneously; most of them will die quickly without the oxygen that reviews, press attention and word-of-mouth provide. Each fall (and spring) for the past three years, as Salon's senior editor in charge of book reviews, I've helped the magazine plan our book coverage by plowing through a high heap of publishers' catalogs to compile a list of some of the most interesting forthcoming titles -- a picky, whimsical, wildly subjective list that I forward to the rest of Salon's editorial staff. This year we thought: Why not share this raw data with our readers? What better way to provide a quick, opinionated preview of some of this season's best books? We begin with books scheduled for publication in September (the Garner Report will be a monthly Salon feature). Before you dig in, keep in mind that publication dates are notoriously shifty -- a book that's promised in September often doesn't arrive until December, or sometimes until the following March. Titles, too, often change in the months prior to publication. S E P T E M B E R _ F I C T I O N : Abraham, Pearl: "Giving Up America" (Riverhead). Orthodox Jews confront U.S. culture, from author of good first novel, "The Romance Reader." Adair, Gilbert: "Love and Death on Long Island" (Grove). Novel that inspired the movie; paperback original Alexie, Sherman: "Smoke Signals: A Screenplay" (Miramax). Talented novelist turned talented screenwriter (and Table Talk habitué). Alexis, Andre: "Childhood" (Holt). First novel, acclaimed Trinidadian writer. Andahazi, Federico: "The Anatomist" (Doubleday). Saga of the man who "discovered" the clitoris; translated from the Spanish. Barrett, Andrea: "The Voyage of the Narwhal" (Norton). Set in 1855, naturalist on expedition. Barrett's first book since winning 1996 National Book Award. Bail, Murray: "Eucalyptus" (FSG). Australian love story, involving "a museum of trees." Begley, Louis: "Mistler's Exit" (Knopf). Saga about a dying mogul. Borges, Jorge Luis: "Collected Fictions" (Viking). Campion, Jane (with Anna Campion): "Holy Smoke" (Miramax). Novel -- soon to be a film -- by the director of "The Piano" about young woman who travels to India and falls under spell of a cult. Canin, Ethan: "For Kings and Planets" (Random House). A novel, from the acclaimed San Francisco short-story writer (and, in his spare time, doctor), about two young men, from different worlds, who become friends at Columbia University. Carver, Raymond: "All of Us: The Collected Poems" (Knopf). Chekhov, Anton: "Collected Short Stories" (Modern Library). Choi, Susan: "The Foreign Student" (HarperFlamingo). Love between war-scarred Korean man and wealthy Southern woman. Clark, Robert: "Mr. White's Confession" (Picador USA). High-brow thriller. Cooley, Nicole: "Judy Garland, Ginger Love" (ReganBooks). Protagonist's mother is obsessed with Judy Garland. Coover, Robert: "Ghost Town" (Holt). Postmodern Western. Cose, Ellis: "The Best Defense" (HarperCollins). Newsweek's racial-issues correspondent writes legal thriller. Danticat, Edwidge: "The Farming of Bones" (Soho). Latest from much-hyped young author of "Breath, Eyes, Memory." Dickey, James: "The Selected Poems" (Wesleyan). Follows on heels of son Christopher's memoir; film version of Dickey's "To the White Sea" is on the way. Evans, Nicholas: "The Loop" (Delacourt). Wolves attack town in Rockies, from author of mega-seller "Horse Whisperer." Yikes. Flagg, Fannie: "Welcome to the World, Baby Girl!" (Random House). "Fried Green Tomatoes" auteur returns, this time with a tale set largely in NYC media world. Folsom, Allan: "Day of Confession" (Little, Brown). Commercial thriller. Friedman, Kinky: "Blast from the Past" (Simon & Schuster). Southern-fried mystery from the Texas Jew Boy. Gass, William H.: "Cartesian Sonata: And Other Novellas" (Knopf). Gilchrist, Ellen: "Flights of Angels" (Little, Brown). Short stories. Hart, Josephine: "The Stillest Day" (Overlook). "Damage" author. Hillerman, Tony: "The First Eagle" (HarperCollins). More suspense from the bard of the Southwest. Hood, Ann: "Ruby" (Picador). Teen and grief-stricken woman, set in NYC. Jhabvala, Ruth Prawer: "East into Upper East: Plain Tales from New York and New Dehli" (Counterpoint). Short stories. King, Stephen: "Bag of Bones" (Scribner). Novelist suffers harrowing writer's block after the death of his wife. See profile of King in this week's New Yorker, which argues he deserves more critical esteem as our greatest living storyteller. Koepf, Michael: "The Fisherman's Son" (Broadway). The story of a Northern California fisherman, which has drawn comparisons to Pat Conroy's novels, for good or ill. Leonard, Elmore: "The Tonto Woman and Other Stories" (Delacourt). The crime auteur's collected stories from 1950s-80s, many from pulp mags. Marciano, Francesca: "Rules of the Wild" (Pantheon). Young European woman in Kenya. Marks, John: "The Wall" (Riverhead). American spy defects just before Berlin Wall falls, from U.S. News & World Report's former man in Berlin. Matthews, William: "After All" (Houghton Mifflin). Last poems. McInerney, Jay: "Model Behavior: A Novel and Stories" (Knopf). Guy who dates model, padded with stories that span McInerney's career. Mehta, Ved: "A Ved Mehta Reader" (Yale) For Mehta fans wanting more after reading his New Yorker memoir. Mitchell, Stephen A.: "Meetings with the Archangel" (HarperFlamingo). First novel from noted translator, on spiritual growth. Moore, Lorrie: "Birds of America" (Knopf). Stories. Mootoo, Shani: "Cereus Blooms at Night" (Grove). A prize-winner in Canada, the tale of a family on a Caribbean island. O'Brien, Tim: "Tomcat in Love" (Broadway) Erotic novel by one of Vietnam War's best storytellers; desperate man tries to win back wife, while generally whoring around. Parks, Tim: "Europa" (Arcade/Little, Brown). Academics in Europe engaged in endless debates. Short-listed for U.K.'s Booker Prize. Powell, Patricia: "The Pagoda" (Knopf). Tale by young Jamaican novelist about an immigrant who flees China for Jamaica in 1890s. Purdy, James: "Gertrude of Stony Island Avenue" (Morrow). Reardon, Lisa: "Billy Dead" (Viking). First novel by Yale Drama grad, set in Michigan, about a murdered brother. Saramago, Jose: "Blindess" (Harcourt Brace). Translated from Portuguese, story of a city hit by epidemic of "white blindness." Author often mentioned as Nobel Prize contender. Sarris, Greg: "Watermelon Nights" (Hyperion). Multi-generational novel, from Native American writer. Schulman, Helen: "The Revisionist" (Crown). Neurologist, son of Holocaust expert, is drawn into Holocaust revisionism battle. Schwartz, John Burnham: "Reservation Road" (Knopf). Hit-and-run accident in small Connecticut town; literary thriller. Thomson, Rupert: "Soft!" (Knopf). Spiky comedy, about soft-drink biz. Trevor, William: "Death in Summer" (Viking). Wife dies, leaving man with their child. Weldon, Fay: "Big Girls Don't Cry" (Atlantic Monthly). Jilted women (again!) start their own publishing house. Welsh, Irvine: "Filth" (Norton). From the writer who made "Trainspotting" a global buzzword. Scottish detective runs amok. Bonus: part of story narrated by tapeworm in his intestines. Wideman, John Edgar: "Two Cities" (Houghton Mifflin). Violent streets of two communities -- Philly and Pittsburgh. Wiggins, Marianne: "Almost Heaven" (Crown). Foreign correspondent moves back to Virginia -- violent weather as plot element. By Salman Rushdie's ex. Wilcox, James: "Plain and Normal" (Little, Brown). Middle-aged gay man, recently out of closet; from author of "Modern Baptists." Wolf, William: "Whacking Jimmy" (Villard). Comic novel about Jimmy Hoffa's death. Wozencraft, Kim: "The Catch" (Doubleday). Drug dealer's wife wants to clean up family life. By author of "Rush." N E X T+P A G E+| Nonfiction |
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