Fu, Mike. Masquerade. Tin House. Oct. 2024. ISBN 9781959030843. pbk. 352p. $17.95. LITERARY FICTION

Fu debuts with a queer coming-of-age story set in 1930s Shanghai and contemporary New York. Meadow Liu is house-sitting for a friend when he finds a translated novel about a masked ball in Shanghai, written by someone with Meadow’s own name in Chinese. From there, all kinds of questions of identity, reality, and possibility unfold.

Greathead, Kate. The Book of George. Holt. Oct. 2024. ISBN 9781250351029. 272p. $28.99. LITERARY FICTION

Greathead (Laura & Emma) invents the idea of “George,” the kind of man who has lots of potential but no follow-through, won’t commit, and can be moody. This George is dating Jenny and is both cynical and self-aware. Greathead charts his course with humor and astute observation.

Herrera, Yuri. Season of the Swamp. tr. from Spanish by Lisa Dillman. Graywolf. Oct. 2024. ISBN 9781644453070. 160p. $26. LITERARY FICTION

Herrera, who was a finalist for the Ursula K. Le Guin Prize, sets his newest, a work of speculative historical fiction, in 19th-century New Orleans where Benito Juárez, who will become the first Indigenous head of state in the postcolonial Americas, steps off a ship into the swamp of the city.

Hollinghurst, Alan. Our Evenings. Random. Oct. 2024. ISBN 9780593243060. 560p. $30. LITERARY FICTION

Hollinghurst, the Somerset Maugham Award–, James Tait Black Memorial Prize–, and Booker Prize–winning author, follows Dave and Giles across 50 years, as they meet in boarding school and come of age. Dave succeeds as an actor, and Giles grows into a dangerous force in politics. This is Hollinghurst’s first novel since The Sparsholt Affair.

Kracht, Christian. Eurotrash. tr. from German by Daniel Bowles. Liveright. Oct. 2024. ISBN 9781324094562. 192p. $25.99. LITERARY FICTION

The winner of the Wilhelm Raabe Literature Prize returns to his autofictional narrator “Christian,” from his bestselling 1995 debut, Faserland. Christian is in Zurich to care for his mother and is thinking of his family’s history. He and his mother decide to go on a road trip to Switzerland to give away the family fortune.

Lerner, Betsy. Shred Sisters. Grove. Oct. 2024. ISBN 9780802163707. 304p. $28. LITERARY FICTION

Lerner, author of The Forest for the Trees and coauthor with Temple Grandin of a series of New York Times bestsellers, writes the story of two sisters, the shining Ollie and the younger Amy, over the course of 20 years. Amy hopes to become a researcher, while Ollie develops bipolar disorder and slips in and out of contact with her sister.

Lobato, Bruna Dantas. Blue Light Hours. Black Cat. Oct. 2024. ISBN 9780802163776. pbk. 192p. $17. LITERARY FICTION

National Book Award–winning translator Lobato debuts with a novel listed on Electric Literature’s “75 Books by Women of Color To Read in 2024.” At a liberal arts college in Vermont, an international student from Brazil calls her mother on Skype, and they talk and experience change bathed in the blue light from their computers. Expanded from a story that first ran in the New Yorker.

Messina, Laura Imai. The Heartbeat Library. Overlook. Oct. 2024. ISBN 9781419772498. 400p. $27. LITERARY FICTION

Messina, internationally bestselling author of The Phone Booth at the Edge of the World, sets her sophomore novel on an island in Japan that holds a library of the heartbeats of visitors, living and dead, from around the world. Miles away, 40-year-old Shuichi and eight-year-old Kenta meet, bond, and journey to the library.

Minot, Susan. Don’t Be a Stranger. Knopf. Oct. 2024. ISBN 9780593802441. 320p. $28. LITERARY FICTION

Henry Prize and Pushcart Prize winner Minot returns to novels after 2014’s Thirty Girls. The story follows Ivy Cooper, 52 years old and launching a love affair with Ansel Fleming, a thirtysomething musician recently released from prison. One part of Ivy’s mind is on her long list of responsibilities, while the other is consumed by her desire for Ansel.

Miura, Shion. Run with the Wind. tr. from Japanese by Yui Kajita. HarperVia. Oct. 2024. ISBN 9780063330894. 448p. $30. LITERARY FICTION

A bestseller in Japan, Naoki Prize winner Miura’s newest (after Kamusari Tales Told at Night) traces a group of students living in a run-down dorm, all part of a 10-man running team preparing to race in the Hakone Ekiden, a famous college-level marathon relay.

Ove Knausgaard, Karl. The Third Realm. tr. from Norwegian by Martin Aitken. Penguin Pr. Oct. 2024. ISBN 9780593655214. 512p. $30. LITERARY FICTION

Bestselling author and International Dublin Literary Award winner Knausgaard (My Struggle) offers a murder, shapeshifting visitors, metal bands, and a bank of dreams in this third novel, which continues from The Morning Star and The Wolves of Eternity.

Palahniuk, Chuck. Shock Induction. S&S. Oct. 2024. ISBN 9781668021446. 240p. $26.99. LITERARY FICTION

Palahniuk (Not Forever, but for Now) imagines a high school where kids have been surveilled since birth by billionaires who plan to harvest their intellectual labor, to be sold off at a high-stakes auction. Students start disappearing, lost to apparent suicide, raising the question of what say they have in their own futures.

Sy, Cherry Lou. Love Can’t Feed You. Dutton. Oct. 2024. ISBN 9780593474549. 336p. $28. LITERARY FICTION

Born in the Philippines of Chinese and Filipino heritage, Sy is the co-artistic director of the International Minor Feelings Trading Company. She debuts with a coming-of-age novel about a woman who immigrates from the Philippines to the U.S. and navigates between family expectations and personal desire.

Trabucco Zerán, Alia. Clean. tr. from Spanish by Sophie Hughes. Riverhead. Oct. 2024. ISBN 9780593850510. 272p. $29. LITERARY FICTION

International Booker Prize finalist Trabucco Zerán (The Remainder) offers a novel about Estela, who kept house for señor and señora when their daughter was born and for seven years afterward. Now the rebellious daughter is dead, and Estela, who is being interrogated, tells the full story.

Wideman, John Edgar. Slaveroad. Scribner. Oct. 2024. ISBN 9781668057216. 192p. $26.99. LITERARY FICTION

Winner of the PEN/Faulkner and PEN/Malamud awards (among many others), a finalist for the National Book Award, and a MacArthur Fellow, Wideman (The Homewood Trilogy) writes a novel of stories that confront American history through the metaphor of a “slaveroad,” a combination of history, psychology, literature, and more.