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Death in Summer
By William Trevor
Fiction
(09/25/98)

Ghost Town
By Robert Coover
Fiction
(09/24/98)

Apples
By Frank Browning
Nonfiction
(09/23/98)

We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families
By Philip Gourevitch
Nonfiction
(09/22/98)

Model Behavior
By Jay McInerney
Fiction
(09/21/98)

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Penguin Soup for the Soul
Tom Tomorrow's new book of cartoons
(09/25/98)

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S A L O N
E M P O R I U M
FREE! 12-ounce bag of Salon Blend with a purchase of $30 or more. While supplies last.

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?

Here are the October books that captured our fancies. 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.

O C T O B E R _ F I C T I O N :

Anderson, Scott: "Triage" (Scribner). First novel, about war photographer's recovery from severe head injury -- film rights sold to Paramount.

Baer, Will Christopher: "Kiss Me, Judas" (Viking). First novel, noir thriller about ex-cop just released from psych hospital.

Berry, Wendell: "The Selected Poems" (Counterpoint).

Boyd, William: "Armadillo" (Knopf). Dark comedy about British insurance adjuster whose life unravels, spectacularly.

Brown, Charles Brockden: "Three Gothic Novels" (Library of America/Viking).

Chang, Lan Samantha: "Hunger" (Norton). A novella and short stories, from heralded young writer, about Chinese immigrants in U.S.

Gilchrist, Ellen: "Flights of Angels" (Little, Brown). 18 eccentric stories, set mostly in the South.

Gunesekera, Romesh: "The Sandglass" (New Press). Feuding families in Sri Lanka, acclaimed in U.K.

Harrison, Jim: "The Road Home" (Atlantic Monthly). Continues story of "Dalva," spans three generations.

Heaney, Seamus: "Opened Ground: Poems 1966-1996" (FSG). From the Nobel laureate.

Haley, Alex: "Mama Flora's Family" (Scribner). Haley's last book, completed by a screenwriter. Will be CBS miniseries epic set in Tennessee.

Hawley, Ellen: "Trip Sheets" (Milkweed). Strong first novel about young female cab driver and her decision to stop sleeping with men.

Havazelet, Ehud: "Like Never Before" (FSG). Linked stories, three generations of Jews (some Orthodox); great advance word.

Hill, Mars: "The Moaner's Bench" (HarperFlamingo). African-American boy's coming of age in Depression-era South.

Houston, Pam: "Waltzing the Cat" (Norton). Author of "Cowboys Are My Weakness," on a woman who's prone to disaster.

Isaacs, Susan: "Red, White and Blue" (HarperCollins). "Strangers drawn together by ugly crime."

Kihn, Greg: "Big Rock Beat" (Forge). The former rocker's new novel is about a B-movie director who makes a rock film.

Kincaid, Nanci: "Balls" (Algonquin). Inside the mind of a college football coach.

Krysl, Marilyn: "How to Accommodate Men" (Coffee House). Stories.

Lehrer, Jim: "Purple Dots" (Random House). Political novel about CIA nominee, from PBS news reader.

Mantel, Hilary: "The Giant, O'Brien" (Holt). Giant in 18th century London.

Merwin, W.S.: "The Folding Cliffs: A Narrative in Verse" (Knopf). Epic about leprosy in 19th century Hawaii.

Minot, Susan: "Evening" (Knopf). Dying woman relives life and love affairs, from author of "Monkeys" and "Folly."

Modern Library: First installment of the "Best 100 Novels of the 20th Century" paperback series: Samuel Butler, "The Way of All Flesh"; Jack London, "The Call of the Wild"; Booth Tarkington, "The Magnificent Ambersons"; Joseph Conrad, "The Secret Agent"; Max Beerbohm, "Zuleka Dobson."

Mosely, Walter: "Blue Light" (Little, Brown). In a departure for Mosely, this is a sci-fi-ish novel about characters in 1960s San Francisco whose DNA "quickens."

O'Brien, Patrick: "The Hundred Days" (Norton). Nautical adventure; the title refers to Napoleon's escape from Elba and brief return to power.

Packer, George: "Central Square" (Graywolf). African man in Boston.

Parks, Tim: "Europa" (Arcade). Shortlisted for '97 Booker Prize, about a middle-aged academic and his grim romantic life.

Pietryzk, Leslie: "Pears on a Willow Tree" (Bard). Tangled relationships in Polish-American family.

Restrepo, Laura: "The Angel of Galilea" (Crown). Reporter delves into religious hallucinations; praise from Gárcia-Márquez.

Rettenmund, Matthew: "Blind Items" (St. Martin's). Travails of a gay magazine editor in NYC.

Rice, Anne: "The Vampire Armand" (Knopf). Revives character who died in "Memnoch the Devil."

Roth, Philip: "I Married a Communist" (Houghton Mifflin). Radio actor brought down during McCarthy era, with echoes of writer's relationship with actress Claire Bloom.

Robotham, Rosemarie: "Zacharey's Wings" (Scribner). From Essence magazine editor.

Salter, James: "The Arm of Flesh" (Counterpoint). Reissue of long out-of-print novel.

Schine, Cathleen: "The Evolution of Jane" (Houghton Mifflin). Lost friendship between two women, rekindled on trip to Galapagos.

Slim, Iceberg: "Doom Fox" (Grove). Ghetto farce from late author.

Solzhenitsyn, Aleksandr: "November 1916: The Second Knot of the Red Wheel" (FSG). First U.S. publication.

Stark, Marisa Kantor: "Bring Us the Old People" (Coffee House). From turn-of-century Poland to NYC nursing home; praise from Russell Banks.

Thompson, Hunter S.: "The Rum Diary" (Simon & Schuster). His long-buried novel, about a journalist in the tropics.

Tyree, Omar: "Single Mom" (Simon & Schuster). A self-made black businesswoman raises kids solo, meets new man.

Updike, John: "Bech at Bay" (Knopf). Return of Updike's Jewish alter-ego; includes funny sniping at critics.

Walker, Alice: "By the Light of My Father's Smile" (Random House).

Weldon, Fay: "Big Girls Don't Cry" (Atlantic Monthly). Early days of feminism, seen through lives of four Londoners in 1970s.

Welty, Eudora: "Stories, Essays, and Memoir" (Library of America/Viking). For people who don't know how the e-mail program got its name.

Welty, Eudora: "Complete Novels" (Library of America/Viking).

N E X T+P A G E+| The nonfiction report