As in years past, our London Briefcase highlights top titles that publishers will be touting at this year's London Book Fair, set for March 12-14 at Olympia London. Here are the highlights.

Aevitas Creative Management

First Steps by Jeremy DeSilva

U.S. publisher: HarperCollins, fall 2020

A Dartmouth College paleoanthropologist tells the story of how our hominid ancestors began walking on two legs, which, he is convinced, happened at the same time humans became sociable.

How to Say Babylon: A Jamaican Memoir by Safiya Sinclair

U.S. publisher: Atria/37 Ink, fall 2020

A Whiting Award-winner for her debut poetry collection, Cannibal, turns to memoir to describe growing up poor in a rigid, Rastafarian family ruled by her father, an itinerant reggae musician.

Meet Me in Monaco by Hazel Gaynor and Heather Webb

U.S. publisher: Morrow, July

The co-authors of Last Christmas in Paris use Grace Kelly’s iconic wedding as the backdrop for their tale of the intersecting lives of the future princess, a French perfumer, and a British photographer.

Rhapsody by Jason King

U.S. publisher: Dey Street, Fall 2020

The agency calls this “the first in-depth, nuanced, and critical biography” of Freddie Mercury as a person, and musician.

Baror International

Couples That Work: How Two-Career Couples Can Find Fulfillment in Love and Work by Jennifer Petriglieri

U.S. publisher: Harvard Business Review, Sept.

Based on a five-year research project, this book contains real-life stories and analysis as well as exercises and activities to help couples combine love and work.

The Wedding Party by Jasmine Guillory

U.S. publisher: Berkley, July

After an “oops” night together, nemeses Maddie and Theo, who share responsibilities for Alexa’s wedding, keep thinking about each other in this new romance from the author of The Proposal, a Reese Witherspoon x Hello Sunshine Book Club Pick.

The Wife Upstairs by Rachel Hawkins

U.S. publisher: St. Martin’s, summer/fall 2020

The agency notes that this re-telling of Jane Eyre is “the next major project” of Alloy Entertainment.

Thomas Prescott Series: Book 1: Unforeseen; Book 2: Gray Matter by Nick Pirog

U.S. publisher: Blackstone, no put date yet

In this new series, retired homicide detective Thomas Prescott has to prevent serial killer Tristen Grayer from completing an encore string of murders.

The Cheney Agency

Doing Justice: A Prosecutor’s Thoughts on Crime, Punishment, and the Rule of Law by Preet Bharara

U.S. publisher: Knopf, Mar.

The former federal prosecutor for the Southern District of New York offers an overview of the way our justice system works, and why the rule of law is essential to our society.

The Falcons: The Untold Story of the Elite Iraqi Spy Unit That Helped Bring Down the Islamic State by Margaret Coker

U.S. publisher: Dey Street, Sept. 2020

A former New York Times Baghdad bureau chief tells the story of a little-known spy unit even within Iraq that had a big impact.

The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee: Native America from 1890 to Present by David Treuer

U.S. publisher: Riverhead, out now

This book examines Native American life and how the depredations of each era spawned new modes of survival.

The Uprising: How 16 Brilliant Women Sparked a Revolution for Equality in Science by Kate Zernike

U.S. publisher: Scribner, Feb. 2021

New York Times correspondent Zernike, who broke the story about the MIT16, when she was at the Boston Globe, portrays MIT and the tenured female professors who drew awareness to gender bias in science and academia.

The Clegg Agency

Bunny by Mona Awad

U.S. publisher: Viking, June

The author of 13 Ways of Looking at a Fat Girl, a finalist for the Scotiabank Giller Prize, tells the story of a woman, who is an outsider in her MFA program. Things change when she receives an invitation to join the “Bunnies,” a cliquish in-group, and takes part in their off-campus “workshop.”

Kin by Shawna Kay Rodenberg

U.S. publisher: Bloomsbury, no put date yet

This memoir of survival chronicles Rodenberg’s Appalachian girlhood in Seco, Ky., and offers what the agency describes as “a visceral mapping of the lives of women in isolated rural communities.”

Mr. Know-It-All by John Waters

U.S. publisher: FSG, May

Life lessons from the writer and artist the agency calls “the Pope of Trash and a national treasure.”

Run Me to the Earth by Paul Yoon

U.S. publisher: Simon & Schuster, no put date yet

Three orphaned teens are drafted into service as motorcycle couriers and nurses by a doctor in war-torn Laos in 1969. Forced to scatter, the four spend decades trying to reunite in what the agency calls “a sweeping epic of war and immigration.”

DeFiore & Co.

Family of Origin by CJ Hauser

U.S. publisher: Doubleday, July

This novel, which the agency calls “exuberant and wise,” follows estranged half siblings yoked together on a Gulf Coast island after their biologist father’s drowning.

Gabriel’s Promise by Sylvain Reynard

U.S. publisher: Berkley, Dec.

Professor Gabriel Emerson’s wife, and newborn daughter are threatened by a force from his past in the fourth book in the Gabriel series.

Walking with the Moon: Uncovering the Secrets It Holds to Our Past and Our Future by Rebecca Boyle

U.S. publisher: Random House, no put date yet

Boyle traces the cultural history of our relationship with the Moon and explores scientific findings into what the Moon can now tell us about Earth’s origins and its future.

What It Means to Be Moral: Why Religion is Not Necessary for Living an Ethical Life by Phil Zuckerman

U.S. publisher: Counterpoint, Sept.

The author of Living the Secular Life deconstructs the arguments for a morality informed by religion.

Sandra Dijkstra Literary Agency

City of Windows by Robert Pobi

U.S. publisher: St. Martin’s, Aug.

When Manhattan is buried by a blizzard, university professor, and former FBI agent, Dr. Lucas Page is coaxed out of retirement to catch a sniper targeting law enforcement officers.

The Gilded Wolves by Roshani Chokshi

U.S. publisher: SMP/Wednesday Books, out now [the agency says March, but I see Jan. on Amazon]

In this YA New York Times bestseller, which is set in Paris in 1889, a wealthy hotelier is coerced to help hunt down an ancient artifact by the Order of Babel.

The Island of Sea Women by Lisa See

U.S. publisher: Scribner, Mar.

In a novel that the agency describes as “an epic story” from the Japanese occupation in Korea in the 1930s and ‘40s up to the present day, See writes about the female divers of Jeju Island.

The Winter Army: The WWII Odyssey of the 10th Mountain Division, America’s Elite Alpine Warriors by Maurice Isserman

U.S. publisher: HMH, Nov.

Based on newly opened archives, this book traces the story of the soldiers who broke German defenses in Italy’s mountains in 1945. After the war, many of the soldiers helped create the Sierra Club.

Dystel, Goderich & Bourret

Blood Water Paint by Joy McCullough

U.S. publisher: Dutton, out now

Longlisted for the National Book Award, this debut novel weaves the life of artist Artemisia Gentileschi together with the ancient heroines at the center of her paintings.

The Family Next Door: The Heartbreaking Imprisonment of the 13 Turpin Siblings and Their Extraordinary Rescue by John Glatt

U.S. publisher: St. Martin’s, Aug.

This true crime book looks at years of child abuse in a seemingly normal family.

Temper by Layne Fargo

U.S. publisher: Scout Press, July

The agency calls this psychological thriller a “fiendishly clever debut” about female ambition and what happens when fake violence draws real blood.

Verity by Colleen Hoover

U.S. publisher: self-published, out now

In this standalone thriller, a struggling writer is hired by the husband of an author to complete his wife’s bestselling series—and discovers an unfinished autobiography.

Fletcher & Company

Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead

U.S. Publisher, Knopf, 2020

A fictional female aviator and a disgraced actress cast to play her in a biopic decades later star in this historical fiction. Separated by time, but bound by ambition, neither will succumb to gravity or social convention.

The Moscow Rules: The Secret Tactics that Helped American Win the Cold War by Antonio & Jonna Mendez, with Matt Baglio

U.S. Publisher: Public Affairs, May

The recently deceased CIA operative and winner of the Intelligence Star for Valor for his work in the ARGO operation, the basis of his bestselling book and an Oscar winning film, teamed up with Mendez, also a CIA officer tell how a group of brilliant but under-supported CIA operatives developed breakthrough spy tactics that helped turn the tide of the Cold War.

Faster by Neal Bascomb

U.S. Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Oct. 2020

Award-winning author tells the adventure-filled story of the golden erof race car driving and how French Jewish driver Rene Dreyfus faced the Third Reich head on and won the Grand Prix against all odds.

The Cartiers: The Untold Story of a Jewelry Dynasty by Francesca Cartier Brickell

A descendant of the Cartiers with exclusive access to a long-lost trove of family archives traces the family business from its humble founding in revolutionary Paris to global prominence.

Foundry Literary + Media

American Gun by Cameron McWhirter and Zusha Elinson

U.S. publisher: FSG, 2021

Two Wall Street Journal reporters detail the history of the AR-15, the assault rifle that has become synonymous with America’s culture wars.

Hide Your Fires by Christopher Swann

U.S. publisher: on submission

In this new thriller from the author of Shadow of the Lions, Ethan Faulkner lives a relatively normal adult life—until he becomes a suspect in a murder and goes on the run.

The Hidden Power of F*cking Up by The Try Guys

U.S. publisher: Dey Street, June

Ned Fulmer, Keith Habersberger, Zach Kornfeld, and Eugene Lee Yang, creators of the Try Guys online comedy series, offer a guide to, in the words of the agency, “becoming the best, most fucked-up version of yourself you can be.”

The Program: Inside the Mind of Keith Raniere and the Rise and Fall of NXIVM by Toni Natalie with Chet Hardin

U.S. publisher: Grand Central, fall

Natalie, the former girlfriend of Keith Raniere, the founder of the group known as Nxivm, which is accused of sex slavery, describes his methods of manipulation and his slide into instability.

Francis Goldin Literary Agency

The Importance of Floating by Linda Rui Feng

U.S. Publisher: S&S, spring 2020

In this debut novel set against China’s Cultural Revolution, multigenerational voices: a couple who immigrate to the U.S., a precocious daughter left behind in rural China, and a violinist forced into exile, tell this story of hope, grief and love.

The Longing for Less: Living with Minimalism by Kyle Chayka

U.S. Publisher: Bloomsbury, Jan. 2020

A cultural critic and veteran writer about minimalism seeks the causes of our enduring love affair with austerity.

These Violent Delights by Micah Nemerever

U.S. Publisher: HarperCollins, pub date not available at press time

In the tradition of Patricia Highsmith, this debut follows two freshman boys at a university in Pittsburgh, circa 1970s, whose obsession with each other leads them to acts of violence and the revelation of shattering truths.

Unions Matter by Jane McAlevey

U.S. Publishers: Ecco, Jan. 2020

McAlevey argues that despite the fact that unions are at historic lows in the private sector, they are the only force capable of resisting worsening income inequality and fighting a right-wing drift in politics.

The Gernert Company

The Economist’s Hour: How the False Prophets of Free Markets Undermined Democracy by Binyamin Appelbaum

U.S. publisher: Little, Brown, Sept.

A Washington correspondent for the New York Times describes the period between 1969 and 2008 and how economists who believed in free markets cleared the way for globalization.

How To: Absurd Scientific Advice for Common Real-World Problems by Randall Munroe

U.S. publisher: Riverhead, Sept.

The author of What If? and the web comic Xkcd offers what the publisher calls a useless self-help guide.

Inland: A Novel by Téa Obreht

U.S. publisher: Random House, Aug.

The new novel by the author of The Tiger's Wife is set in the Arizona Territory in 1983.

Long Bright River by Liz Moore

U.S. publisher: Riverhead, Jan. 2020

Set against the opioid crisis in Philadelphia and a string of murders, this suspense novel tells the story of sisters, addiction, and the ties between place, history, family, and fate.

Sanford J. Greenburger Associates

Backlash by Brad Thor

U.S. Publisher: Atria/Bestler, June

For his 19th entry in the Scot Horvath series, Thor turns to ancient tales of men who lived in the shadows, seemingly beyond the reach of death—part angels, part demons.

The Body in the Wake: A Faith Fairchild Mystery by Katherine Hall Page

U.S. Publisher: Morrow, May

In the 25th entry in Page’s popular mystery series, amateur detective and caterer Faith Fairchild is at her Penobscot Bay, Maine, cottage, preparing for a summer wedding and some down time, when she stumbles across yet another body.

Devotion by Madeline Stevens

U.S. Publisher: Ecco, Aug.

Stevens’s debut features a woman who falls into an overwhelming mutual obsession with the Upper East Side mother who hires her as a nanny.

Empires Of Grass: (Last King of Osten Ard Trilogy #2) by Tad Williams

U.S. Publisher: DAW, May

In his follow up to international bestseller Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn, Williams takes readers back to the magical land of Osten Ard.

ICM Partners (handled by Curtis Brown)

Fleishman is in Trouble by Taffy Brodesser Akner

U.S. Publisher: Random House, June

The New York Times Magazine staffer’s debut fiction is a searing anatomy of marriage, divorce, and the bewildering dynamics of gender, power and sanity.

On All Fronts: The Education of a Journalist by Clarissa Ward

U.S. Publisher: Penguin Press, spring 2020

Ward, a journalist and CNN’s chief international correspondent, tells the story of her journey from her privileged childhood to her work reporting from war zones.

The World That We Knew by Alice Hoffman

U.S. Publisher: Simon & Schuster, Sept.

Hoffman’s newest novel is a darkly magical story set in a heartbreaking time of war when men became monsters, children navigated a world without parents, and women were willing to sacrifice everything for those they loved.

Untitled nonfiction on leadership by Robert Iger

U.S. Publisher: Random House, Oct.

The CEO of Disney explores the ideas, values, and growth strategies he has developed that have quadrupled the company’s stock price and made him one of the most powerful people in Hollywood.

Inkwell Management

The Butterfly Girl by Rene Denfeld

U.S. Publisher: HarperCollins, Sept.

In her new novel, Denfield, a licensed investigator and the author of The Child Finder and The Enchanted, tells the story of an investigator with an uncanny ability for finding missing children who decides to take no new cases until she finds her younger sister, who has been missing for years.

(It’s Great To) Suck At Something by Karen Rinaldi

U.S. Publisher: Atria, May

According to Rinaldi, we live in a time of “aspirational psychoses,” where we prioritize productivity over play and are trapped in a futile quest for perfection. She offers an antidote by urging readers to find something to suck at.

Running With Sherman by Christopher McDougall

U.S. Publisher: Knopf, Oct.

A foreign correspondent for the Associated Press, McDougall offers his heartwarming story of taking in Sherman, a badly damaged rescue donkey, into his home in Pennsylvania’s Amish country. In order to heal the donkey, McDougall trains him to run in burro racing that hails from the old west’s mining days in which humans and donkeys race together.

The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern

U.S. Publisher: Doubleday, Nov.

In this sophomore novel from the author of The Night Circus, grad student Zachary Ezra Rawlins stumbles upon a strange book hidden among the stacks in his school’s library and is transported to a secret underground world of pirates, lovers, liars, and ships that sail upon a starless sea.

Janklow & Nesbit

(handled by Cullen Stanley International)

Heavy by Kiese Laymon

Scribner, out now

Essayist and novelist Laymon chronicles what a lifetime of secrets, lies, and deception do to a black body, a black family, and a black community.

On the Come Up by Angie Thomas

U.S. publisher: Balzer + Bray, out now

The author of The Hate U Give returns to the world of Garden Heights with a tale of an aspiring teen rapper and what happens when you get everything you thought you wanted.

The Winter of the Witch by Katherine Arden

U.S. publisher: Del Rey, out now

The conclusion to the Winternight trilogy follows Vasya and Morozko battling enemies moral and magical to save both Russias, the seen and the unseen.

A Wonderful Stroke of Luck by Ann Beattie

U.S. publisher: Viking, Apr.

In her latest novel, Beattie writes about the relationship between a charismatic teacher and his students, and the secrets we keep from those we love.

JVLNA Agency

Blow Your House Down by Gina Frangello

U.S. Publisher: Counterpoint, winter 2021

The acclaimed author of A Life in Men and Every Kind of Wanting, makes her nonfiction debut with this interrogation of the complexities of contemporary womanhood through the lens of the dissolution of the author’s long-term marriage, caregiving her dying father, a passionate extramarital affair, and navigating breast cancer and radical bodily changes.

The Clergyman’s Wife by Molly Greeley

U.S. Publisher: Morrow, Dec.

Recalling Pride and Prejudice, this debut stars Charlotte Lucas who at 27 married the only man who had ever asked her, thinking she could be content. But then she falls in love with an unsuitable man.

A Conspiracy of Wolves: An Owen Archer Book by Candace Robb

U.S. Publisher: Severn House, Apr.

Robb has answered her fans’ demands with this return to her bestselling medieval mystery series. This stand-alone novel will satisfy Owen Archer aficionados and introduce new readers to Robb’s world of treachery and intrique.

For the Love of Birds by Misha Maynerick Blaise

U.S. Publisher: Penguin, spring 2020

The author and illustrator of This Phenomenal Life returns with a book about birds and their relationship with humans. Filled with fun facts, humorous anecdotes, and appealing artwork, Blaise shares an underlying message of interconnectedness.

Massie & McQuilkin Literary Agents

The Cape Doctor by E.J. Levy

US Publisher: Little Brown, no put date yet

Pushcart, Lambda, and Flannery O’Connor award–winning author Levy offers, per the publisher, a gender-bending novel that tells the true story of James Miranda Barry (1795–1865), a flamboyant, brilliant, 19th-century Irish physician who rose to the rank of inspector general of military hospitals in the British colonies—performing the first successful cesarian in Africa—and was discovered on his deathbed to have been a woman.

How to Make Friends with the Dark by Kathleen Glasgow

U.S. Publisher: Delacorte, Apr.

The author of the bestselling debut Girl in Pieces returns with a new YA novel about love and loss, in which a girl must persevere through dark times after losing her mother.

The Humanity Lab: How a Circle of Renegade Anthropologists Reinvented Race, Sex, and Gender in the Twentieth Century by Charles King

U.S. Publisher: Doubleday, Aug.

In his eighth book, this Georgetown University professor offers a portrait of Franz Boas, the founder of cultural anthropology, and his circle of women who upended American notions of race, gender, and sexuality in the 1920s and 1930s.

A Particular Kind of Black Man by Tope Folarin

U.S. Publisher: S&S, Aug.

Folarin, a Nigerian-American writer, Rhodes Scholar, and winner of the 2013 Caine Prize for African Writing, makes his fiction debut with this story of a Nigerian family living in Utah and their uncomfortable assimilation to American life.

Jean V. Naggar Literary Agency

Blow Your House Down by Gina Frangello

U.S. publisher: Counterpoint, winter 2021

Frangello makes her nonfiction debut with what the publisher says is an interrogation of the complexities of contemporary womanhood through the lens of the dissolution of the author’s long-term marriage, caring for her dying father, a passionate extramarital affair, and navigating breast cancer and radical bodily changes.

The Clergyman’s Wife by Molly Greeley

U.S. publisher: Morrow, Dec.

Recalling Pride and Prejudice, this debut stars Charlotte Lucas who, at 27, married the only man who had ever asked her, thinking she could be content. But then she falls in love with an unsuitable man.

A Conspiracy of Wolves: An Owen Archer Book by Candace Robb

U.S. publisher: Severn House, Apr.

This standalone story within the Owen Archer series, the publisher says, will satisfy Archer aficionados and introduce new readers to Robb’s world of treachery and intrigue.

For the Love of Birds by Misha Maynerick Blaise

U.S. publisher: Penguin, spring 2020

The author and illustrator of This Phenomenal Life returns with a book about birds and their relationship with humans. According to the publisher, Blaise shares an underlying message of interconnectedness with fun facts, humorous anecdotes, and appealing artwork.

Jane Rotrosen Agency

The Boy by Tami Hoag

U.S. Publisher: Dutton, Dec.

In this twisty new thriller from #1 bestselling Hoag, a boy is murdered by an intruder but his mother is left alive and well. While the detectives are trying to understand who would kill a child and leave the only witness behind, the boy’s babysitter goes missing.

The Fifty Words for Rain by Asha Lemmie

U.S. Publisher: on submission

This debut from a young writer who the agency says “is already in complete command of her powerful voice,” features the illegitimate daughter of an imperial aristocrat and a black American soldier is Post-WWII Japan who is kept locked away.

The Shape of Night by Tess Gerritsen

U.S. Publisher: Ballantine, Oct.

A woman trying to outrun her past is drawn to a quiet coastal town in Maine—and to a string of unsolved murders in this haunting tale of romantic suspense from this internationally bestseller author.

Smokescreen by Iris Johansen

U.S. publisher: Grand Central, July

In what the agency calls a “heart-pounding thriller” from a #1 bestselling author, a forensic sculptor places herself in grave danger when she journeys to Africa to help families torn apart by a violent attack deep in the jungle.

SKLA

The Art Thief by Mike Finkel

U.S. Publisher: Knopf, summer, 2021

From the author of Stranger in the Woods comes a character study in what the agency calls “a riveting page turner” about a real-life, prolific art thief who evaded detection by never selling a single work. He stole because irresistibly drawn to the beauty of art.

Ever Upward: The Lives of Stan Lee by Abraham Riesman

U.S. Publisher: Crown Archetype, Fall, 2020

Based on extensive new interviews and research, Riesman pens a biography of the legendary Marvel Comics creator and impresario.

No One Man Should Have All That Power: How Rasputins Manipulate the World by Amos Barshad

U.S. Publisher: Abrams, Apr.

Barshad investigates powerful scheming advisors – the dark figures who wield power in the shadows – from Grigori Rasputin himself to the Sinaloa drug cartel, from international film studios to the inner workings of Korean politics.

Small Silent Things by Robin Page

U.S. Publisher: Harper Perennial, Sept.

Making her debut, Page offers a haunting novel that explores the power of parenthood, identity, lust, and the legacy of trauma. The lives of two Los Angeles neighbors—a wealthy African American housewife and a Rwandan refugee—are upended by ghosts from their past lives.

Trident

The Girl Beneath the Sea by Andrew Mayne

U.S. Publisher: Thomas & Mercer, May, 2020

The first in his Mayne’s Underwater Investigative Unit thriller series introduces off-duty police diver Sloan McPherson who finds the body of a murdered young woman floating in a canal and finds her own life is now on the line.

Lampedusa by Steven Price

U.S. Publisher: FSG, Sept.

From Giller Prize–nominee Price comes a novel set amid the decadent Italian aristocracy of the late 1950s, centered on the real-life last prince of Lampedusa, Giuseppe Tomasi, as he struggles to complete his only novel, The Leopard.

Master the Writing Process: From Idea to Novel by Elizabeth George

U.S. Publisher: Viking, 2020

The bestselling author of the Detective Lynley series of mysteries delivers a practical 12-step guide to putting together a novel.

Vagablonde by Anna Dorn

U.S. Publisher: Unnamed Press, spring, 2020

From a former criminal defense attorney comes a literary debut novel about a young L.A. woman's whirlwind journey from a bored government lawyer to an unhinged viral rapper, exploring themes of ephemeral fame, millennial malaise, and cultural voyeurism.

William Morris Endeavor

Quantum Girl Theory by Erin Kate Ryan

U.S. Publisher: Random House, no pub date yet

In December 1946, young, rich and beautiful Paula Jean Welden disappeared without a trace. In her fiction debut, Ryan imagines the many possible fates that befell the real-life Welden.

Red at the Bone Red at the Bone by Jacqueline Woodson

U.S. Publisher: Riverhead, Sept.

From multiple award-winning author of both YA and adult books comes a new novel for adults that explores a family that is forever changed by a teen pregnancy and the child it produces.

Shape by Jordan Ellenberg

U.S. Publisher: Penguin Press, spring, 2021

The mathematics professor and author of the bestselling How Not To Be Wrong, returns to show us that geometry doesn’t just measure the world—it explains it.

Talking to Strangers by Malcolm Gladwell

U.S. Publisher: Little, Brown, Sept.

Gladwell’s first book since 2013 examines our interactions with strangers and why those exchanges often go wrong.

Victoria Sanders

Cantoras by Carolina De Robertis

U.S. Publisher: Knopf, Sept.

Five cantoras, women who sing, defy their ruthless government where homosexuality is a dangerous transgression and discover the isolated Cabo Polonio, which they claim as their secret sanctuary. The novel follows the women over 35 years as they move back in forth between the cape and home fighting to live authentic lives.

Fake Like Me by Barbara Bourland

U.S. Publisher: Grand Central, June

When a young, unknown artist loses her home and her seven billboard-sized paintings in a fire, she wangles her way into a glamorous artist retreat where the mysterious death of a brilliant young artist shadows her every move.

Whatever Our Souls Are Made Of by Monica Rodden

U.S. Publisher: Crown Books for Young Readers, Winter 2020

In this YA novel, a young woman home on break from college represses the memory of a horrible night on campus. But when a 12-year-old girl for whom she babysat is murdered everything begins to unravel.

The Book of Answers by Carol Bolt

U.S. Publisher: Hachette, Oct. 2018

This is an updated, repackaged edition of the divination tool and party favorite that has sold more than one million copies and been in print for two decades.

Writers House

Cemetery Road by Greg Iles

U.S. Publisher: Morrow, Mar.

In his first standalone thriller in over a decade, Iles serves up what the publisher is calling a sweeping tale of friendship, betrayal, and long-buried secrets that threaten to destroy a small Mississippi.

The Ghosts Of Eden Park: The Bootleg King, The Women Who Pursued Him, And The Murder That Rocked Jazz-Age America by Karen Abbott

U.S. Publisher: Crown, 2020

Abbott, author of Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy, tells the true crime rags-to-riches story of George Remus, a German immigrant who became America’s most successful bootlegger.

Give Me Your Hand by Megan Abbott

U.S. Publisher: Little Brown, July 2018

A New York Times Editor’s Choice Selection last summer, Abbott’s latest psychological thriller tells the tale of two women bound together by a terrible secret. AMC is developing it for television.

Miracle Creek by Angie Kim

U.S. Publisher: FSG/Crichton, Apr.

This debut novel is a literary courtroom drama about a Korean immigrant family and a young, single mother accused of murdering her autistic son.

The Wylie Agency

Gingerbread by Helen Oyeyemi

U.S. Publisher, Riverhead, Mar.

Influenced by the mysterious place gingerbread holds in classic children’s stories, award-winning novelist Helen Oyeyemi (Boy, Snow, Bird) invites readers into a tale of a surprising family legacy, in which the inheritance is a recipe.

Quichotte by Salman Rushdie

U.S. Publisher: Random House, Sept.

Quichotte, an aging traveling salesman, obsessed with the ‘unreal real’ of TV, falls in love with a TV queen of the screen and sets off on a picaresque quest to prove himself worthy of her hand. The story of a deranged time, it deals with father-son relationships, sibling quarrels, unforgivable things, racism, the opioid crisis, cyber-spies, science fiction, and the end of the world.

Spring by Ali Smith

U.S. Publisher: Pantheon, Apr.

The third installment of Smith’s Seasonal Quartet series riffs on Shakespeare’s Pericles and, per the agency, “tells the impossible tale of an impossible time.”

Zucked: Waking Up to the Facebook Catastrophe by Roger McNamee

U.S. Publisher: Penguin Press, Feb. 2019

In this work of bestselling nonfiction, McNamee, the tech venture capitalist, early mentor to Mark Zuckerman and investor in Facebook, recounts how he woke up to the serious damage Facebook was doing to our society and set out to try and stop it.

Zoe Pagnamenta Agency

Shorter: How Companies are Redesigning the Workday and Reinventing the Future of Work by Alex Soojung-Kim Pang

U.S. Publisher: PublicAffairs, Mar. 2020

A Silicon Valley-based futurist whose clients include Disney, Samsung and the CIA, explains how reducing hours cab create better, happier, more productive and creative workplaces.

User Friendly: How the Hidden Rules of Design Shape Our Lives and Define the Future by Cliff Kuang with Robert Fabricant

U.S. Publisher MCD/FSG, Nov.

The authors show how the assumption that machines should anticipate what we need and defer to what we want, rules our modern lives. They also reveal how user-friendliness was invented and reveal the design principles that will have staying power.

The Weather Machine: A Journey Inside the Forecast by Andrew Blum

U.S. Publisher: Ecco, June

From the acclaimed author of Tubes, a tour through the global network that predicts our weather, from satellites circling the Earth, to weather stations far out in the ocean, through some of the most ingenious minds and advanced algorithms at work today.

London Book Fair 2019: Keeping the Momentum Going

Correction: A previous version of this article misspelled the Massie & McQuilkin agency's name.