Barker, Pat. The Silence of the Girls. Harper Element. Sept. 2018. 304p. ISBN 9780385544214. $27.95; ebk. ISBN 9780385544221. Downloadable.  LITERARY Booker Prize–winning Barker, who set her celebrated “Regeneration” trilogy during World War I, here reaches back in time to the Trojan War, when women served mainly as slaves or prostitutes or laid out the dead. At the heart of the narrative is not the battle between Greeks and Trojans but between Achilles and Agamemnon over Briseis, once queen of a kingdom neighboring Troy and now Achilles’ concubine after he murdered her husband and brothers. Beevor, Antony. The Battle of Arnhem: The Deadliest Airborne Operation of WWII. Viking. Sept. 2018. 496p. ISBN 9780525429821. $35; ebk. ISBN 9780698409408. Downloadable. HISTORY Internationally best-selling author Beevor claims Samuel Johnson and Wolfson History honors for his penetrating coverage of World War II, so don’t miss his study of Operation Market Garden, in which the American 101st and 82nd Airborne Divisions and the British 1st Airborne Division sought to end the war by capturing the bridges leading to the Lower Rhine. Alas, the gambit failed, and the Dutch suffered heavy reprisals after “The Last German Victory,” as defending German general Kurt Student called it. Edugyan, Esi. Washington Black. Knopf. Sept. 2018. 336p. ISBN 9780525521426. $26.95; ebk. ISBN 9780525521433. LITERARY/HISTORICAL Working in the sticky heat of the Barbados sugar plantation where he was born, 11-year-old field slave Washington Black is terrified when he’s made manservant to his master’s offbeat brother. But naturalist/explorer Wilde, or "Titch," eagerly introduces Wash to a brave new world and protects him when a bounty is placed on his head, as they flee north along America’s Atlantic coast to the chilly Arctic. From the author of the international best seller Half-Blood Blues, winner of the Scotiabank Giller Prize and short-listed for the Man Booker Prize. Eisenberg, Deborah. Your Duck Is My Duck: Stories. Ecco. Sept. 2018. 240p. ISBN 9780062688774. $26.99; ebk. ISBN 9780062688798. SHORT STORIES Though The Collected Stories of Deborah Eisenberg appeared in 2010, it’s been a long wait since 2006’s Twilight of the Superheroes for a new collection from MacArthur Fellow Eisenberg, master of the short form. Her characters, whether a politically aware puppeteer or a self-satisfied young man unaccountably in love with a human rights worker, find the earth shifting beneath their feed. With a 50,000-copy first printing. Goodwin, Doris Kearns. Leadership in Turbulent Times. S. & S. Sept. 2018. 352p. ISBN 9781476795928. $30; ebk. ISBN 9781476795942. CD. HISTORY The Pulitzer Prize–winning Goodwin has spent five decades studying presidential history, so you can bet she can offer insight into what makes a good leader, especially in the worst of times. Studying Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Lyndon B. Johnson (in the area of civil rights), she finds no common paths but common traits: ambition, resilience, and moral purpose. Jauhar, Sandeep. Heart: A History. Farrar. Sept. 2018. 288p. ISBN 9780374168650. $27; ebk. ISBN 9780374717001. MEDICAL/CARDIOLOGY A best-selling author (Doctored), New York Times contributor, and director of the Heart Failure Program at Long Island Jewish Medical Center, cardiologist Jauhar examines the history of heart treatment, e.g., the first open-heart surgery, performed in 1893 by African American doctor Daniel Hale Williams, while considering the limits of medical technology and the heart ailments of both family members and patients. Big promotion. Kubica, Mary. When the Lights Go Out. Mira: Harlequin. Sept. 2018. 384p. ISBN 9780778330783. $26.99; ebk. ISBN 9781488023576. THRILLER Remaking her life after her mother succumbs to cancer, Jessica uncovers a secret that undermines her sense of self even as she navigates a world made hazy by sleeplessness. Meanwhile, the heartbreak of Eden’s unmet wish to have a child brings on marital stress, emotional collapse, and, finally, some dangerous behavior. Top-drawer suspense author Kubica (The Good Girl, Every Last Lie) connects the dots; a 250,000-copy first printing. Lepore, Jill. These Truths: A History of the United States. Norton. Sept. 2018. 960p. ISBN 9780393635249. $39.95. HISTORY America may be grounded in basic truths—political equality, natural rights, and the sovereignty of the people—but as Harvard historian and National Book Award finalist Lepore notes, “A nation born in contradiction, liberty in a land of slavery, sovereignty in a land of conquest, will fight, forever, over the meaning of its history.” Her weighty one-volume history finds meaning in the contradictions. Montgomery, Sy (text) & Rebecca Green (illus.). How To Be a Good Creature: A Memoir in Thirteen Animals. Houghton Harcourt. Sept. 2018. 208p. ISBN 9780544938328. $20; ebk. ISBN 9781328528230. SCIENCE From tarantulas to tigers to tree kangaroos, National Book Award finalist Montgomery (The Soul of an Octopus) knows her animals, and she believes that understanding the furred, hoofed, finned, and feathered creatures with whom we share this earth can transform our lives. The 13 animal friends she cites here teach us empathy, passion, purpose, and how to build a family, among other values, and we also get insight into her work as a naturalist. Morris, Heather. The Tattooist of Auschwitz. Harper. Sept. 2018. 256p. ISBN 9780062870674. $26.99; Harper Paperbacks. pap. ISBN 9780062797155. $16.95; ebk. ISBN 9780062797162. lrg. prnt. HISTORICAL FICTION Fifteen years ago, Australia-based writer Morris was introduced to Holocaust survivor Ludwig (Lale) Sokolov, a Slovakian Jew who was forced to tattoo his fellow prisoners at Auschwitz-Birkenau. This novel builds on interviews she conducted with Sokolov, portraying his efforts to help others though surrounded by horrific brutality and his vow to help a young woman named Gita survive the camps and marry her. Already an international best seller; with a 20,000-copy hardcover and 100,000-copy paperback first printing. Ruiz Zafón, Carlos. The Labyrinth of the Spirits. Harper. Sept. 2018. 848p. ISBN 9780062668691. $35; ebk. ISBN 9780062668714. lrg. prnt. LITERARY THRILLER Now 29, Alicia was orphaned when the Nacionales bombed Barcelona during the Spanish Civil War and works for Spain’s secret police. She’s agreed to one last job: find the vanished minister of culture, Mauricio Valls. A rare book leads her to two authors imprisoned in Barcelona’s notorious Montjuic Prison, which Valls directed, and to kidnapping and murder during the Franco regime. Readers get one last chance to wander through the Cemetery of Forgotten Books, first introduced in Ruiz Zafón’s The Shadow of the Wind. With a 50,000-copy first printing. Taneja, Preti. We That Are Young. Knopf. Sept. 2018. 496p. ISBN 9780525521525. $27.95; ebk. ISBN 9780525521532. Downloadable. LITERARY When the Devraj family patriarch decides to step down as head of the flourishing industry and entertainment conglomerate he founded, chaos follows: youngest daughter Sita disappears, rejecting the man chosen for her to marry, and her older sisters Radha and Garg battle for control of the company. Meanwhile, family bastard Jivan Singh returns to New Delhi with his own plans. A debut echoing King Lear while examining contemporary India and human emotions in extremis; no wonder there’s big in-house enthusiasm. Torday, Daniel. Boomer1. St. Martin’s. Sept. 2018. 352p. ISBN 9781250191793. $27.99; ebk. ISBN 9781250191809. CD. LITERARY Torday, who took off with the Sami Rohr Choice Award–winning The Last Flight of Poxl West, returns with the story of Mark Brumfeld, a bluegrass musician and newly minted English PhD. With no prospects, he retreats to the basement of his childhood home when his punk bassist girlfriend rejects his marriage proposal. From there, he launches a series of acidulous online video monologs blasting Baby Boomers for their grip on available jobs.