30 of the hottest books for fall

Robert Harris (Doubleday)The author of “Conclave” and “The Cicero Trilogy” returns to Ancient Rome with a book focusing on Emperor Augustus’ right-hand man, Agrippa.Out nowMarlon James (Riverhead Books)The recipient of breathless reviews and long-listed for the Booker Prize, this crime story is set in Kingston, Jamaica, in the late 1980s.

Eight gay men rehearsing for a play are brutally beaten and one is killed.In the wake of the attack, each of the survivors grapples differently with what they’ve been through.

Out nowAriel Lawhon (Doubleday)Ireland’s Pirate Queen, Grace O’Malley, is the subject of this new historical novel from the author of the 2023 bestseller “The Frozen River.” Born of noble blood but desiring a life of adventure in 16th century Ireland, O’Malley ditched her husband and took to the seas to command a fleet and fight the English.Out nowEmma Cline (Random House)Also long-listed for the Booker, the latest from the celebrated writer of “The Girls” features an aging, dementia-addled executive reflecting on his life as he makes a final journey to Switzerland to die by assisted suicide.

Along the way, he stops to meet up with his semi-estranged daughter and an old friend from boarding school he treated regrettably.Out nowChloe Benjamin (G.P.

Putnam’s Sons)After losing a child and watching her marriage fall apart, a scientist flees to Antarctica to work as a dishwasher at a research station.When her physicist ex-husband ends up on the continent, they began experimenting with time travel and an alternate universe to save the son they lost.

Out nowEmily St.John Mandel (Knopf)The author of “Station Eleven” is back with another futuristic tale, this time set in the year 2031, just after the fall of the United States.

In Los Angeles, there’s celebration as a curfew is lifted and spring dawns, but then the host of the party vanishes mysteriously and a shadow world emerges.Sept.

15Jodi Picoult (Ballantine Books)After los...