Fall book preview: Authors deliver the goods with onslaught of political, fictional titles

Sales of hardcover novels are up. Same for ebooks and audiobooks. But what's really been selling during the coronavirus pandemic is nonfiction, as parents buy workbooks, activists read histories of racism and voters reach for tell-alls about the president.

Book sales for late last month were 8% higher overall for the same time last year and 5.5% for the year, according to the NPD BookScan. Recently, juvenile nonfiction sold a whopping 36% more as families ordered things like "Big Preschool Workbook" for homeschooling. 

Yet the fun really starts now, as scores of titles held in spring go on sale for a fall bonanza of books. The number of new books expected is about 30% more than the same time in 2019, Barnes & Noble CEO James Daunt told the Associated Press.

Pegged to the elections, more big books about President Donald Trump are coming, particularly from journalist Bob Woodward and former lawyer Michael Cohen (their works join more than 1,000 titles already published during the president's term).

Although Trump has his defenders writing, too, most of the big sellers are critical of him. He's been a boon for publishers. 

“Political books broadly have worked more or less in proportion to how polarizing the figure that they orbit is, and you don’t get more polarizing than Donald J. Trump,” Eamon Dolan, an executive editor at Simon & Schuster, recently told the New York Times.

As the November election reaches the homestretch, there may be no escaping politics. But for those who want to try, fiction lovers await novels by Marilynne Robinson, Alice Hoffman and Don DeLillo, along with a door-stopper by Ken Follett and many others. Some observers even worry that so many titles are being released at once that debut authors and others may get lost in the onslaught.

The rush of titles this fall doesn't mean every publisher or bookseller is reaping profits during the pandemic. And some publishers have warned that they are still adjusting on-sale dates. Nicholas Latimer, senior director of publicity for Knopf, said last month that "the book industry is facing severe capacity issues with our printing partners." 

So keep in mind that on-sale dates may change for these 20 fiction and 20 nonfiction titles, many predicted to be the big books of 2020. Titles are listed in order of on-sale date, and information is from publishers, wire services and Publishers Weekly.

The Italian author of “My Brilliant Friend” and its successful sequels now writes about a teenager who learns grown-ups don't always tell the truth. (Europa; Sept. 1) 

Reviewers say Gyasi's new novel about a Ghanaian-American scientist isn't as sweeping as her first, the family drama "Homegoing," but it's also no sophomore slump. (Knopf; Sept. 1) 

Backman, who is skilled at mixing warmth and humor, uses both as a bank robber holds a small group of anxious Swedes hostage. (Atria; Sept. 8) 

Nunez's follow-up to "The Friend" involves a woman visiting a dying friend; their conversations and those with others reveal insight into contemporary relationships. (Riverhead; Sept. 8) 

A locked-door mystery in a snowed-in chalet in the French Alps boasts a title that even seems to pay homage to Ware's muse, Agatha Christie. (Scout; Sept. 8) 

A 10th-century prequel to the hugely popular author's "The Pillars of the Earth." Only 900-plus pages. (Viking; Sept. 15) 

The award-winning playwright ("Disgraced") and novelist ("American Dervish") blends autobiography with fiction in a story of a Muslim man and his immigrant parents as "the other" in post-9/11 America. (Little, Brown; Sept. 15) 

Highly anticipated fantasy of a man who lives in a house with infinite rooms (and a resident ocean) by the author of "Jonathan Strange and Dr. Norvell." (Bloomsbury; Sept. 15) 

Another novel connected to the author's Pulitzer Prize-winning "Gilead," this one features a troubled son who has left Iowa for St. Louis, where he falls in love with a Black teacher. (Farrar, Straus & Giroux; Sept. 29) 

A veteran Chicago cop moves to remote Ireland, but crime still finds him when a teen goes missing in this novel by the author of "The Witch Elm." (Viking; Oct. 6) 

The prequel to "Practical Magic" begins when Maria Owens, abandoned as a baby, learns about spells and curses, one of which she invokes on a cad in Salem, Massachusetts, in the 1600s. (Simon & Schuster; Oct. 6) 

Novella is set on Super Bowl Sunday in 2022, when a digital failure shuts off communication as friends wait out a catastrophe. (Scribner; Oct. 20) 

Lee Child's name is still bigger on the book cover, but in this novel he teams up with his brother for a mystery set in Tennessee, where Jack Reacher meets a fired IT guy in a lot of danger. (Delacorte; Oct. 27) 

Set mostly in early 20th-century Spokane, Washington, the anticipated page-turner mixes strong fictional and historical characters in what Publishers Weekly calls a "superb tale of orphaned, train-hopping brothers." (Harper; Oct. 27) 

A young gay couple in Houston grapples with family and relationship issues as one leaves for Japan to visit his ill father. (Riverhead; Oct. 27) 

Publishers Weekly calls this a "triumphant" first collection of stories by Krauss — "10 ambitious stories written over two decades that wrestle with sexuality, desire, and human connection." (Harper; Nov. 3) 

Lethem fans will be interested in this near-future story in which technology stops working (the echo of DeLillo's book is no doubt quite different). (Ecco; Nov. 10) 

The author of "The Feast of Love" features a family whose adult son seems to have disappeared and a mother involved with an activist group that discusses "microviolence" against suburbanites. (Pantheon; Nov. 17) 

Sequel to Cline's lively science fiction bestseller about a teen living in a dystopian future. (Ballantine; Nov. 24)

An upbeat tale by the St. Louis-born author about a talking racehorse who makes friends during a Paris walkabout at Christmastime. (Knopf; Dec. 1)

Although the disbarred lawyer, convicted of tax and bank fraud, has his own dirty laundry, many readers will be interested in Cohen's memoir as Trump's fixer and his accusations of racist rants and lies by the president. (Skyhorse; Sept. 8) 

During the centennial anniversary of U.S. women gaining the right to vote, historian Jones recounts 200 years of Black women's work against racism and sexism. (Basic Books; Sept. 8) 

Political discord has always existed, writes Morone, who traces the current escalation of party differences and changing positions to Lyndon Johnson's defeat of Barry Goldwater. (Basic; Sept. 8) 

As she did with her famous "Citizen," Rankine breaks genre standards by combining poetry, essays and images to discuss racism and culture. (Graywolf; Sept. 8) 

The former chief of staff to Wayne LaPierre, longtime head of the National Rifle Association, recounts his experiences with "the NRA's plan to 'pour gasoline' on the fire in the fight against gun control," according to the publisher. (Twelve; Sept. 8) 

Even though he granted interviews to the famous Watergate reporter, President Trump is already proclaiming Woodward's next book about his presidency a "fake." It's one that will go right up the bestseller list. (Simon & Schuster; Sept. 15) 

The Fox Business host counters critics of the president, who Dobbs says has set a new agenda for the country that will continue. (Broadside; Sept. 22) 

A Moroccan immigrant who became a U.S. citizen recounts her journey, pointing out that citizenship doesn't mean equality. Lalami is the author of four novels, including "The Moor's Account." (Pantheon; Sept. 22) 

A Berlin journalist writes of her German and French grandparents, considered "ordinary citizens" during World War II but whom she later learns may have had more complex roles. (Scribner; Sept. 22) 

Collins, the former poet laureate who remains a popular, accessible and humorous poet, offers more than 50 new works in this collection. (Random House; Sept. 29) 

In this biography of cookbook author James Beard, the author highlights how Beard kept his homosexuality hidden from mainstream readers while championing fresh food as opposed to the trendy canned items after World War II. (Norton; Oct. 6) 

It may be too early to predict all the consequences of the coronavirus pandemic, but the CNN host and Washington Post columnist looks at what may lie ahead on the international front. (Norton; Oct. 6) 

A new biography of writer John Steinbeck shows him to be a difficult man who drank and yet rose to greatness by revealing social injustice at the time of the Dust Bowl. (Norton; Oct. 13) 

Instead of focusing only on politics, the author of "Bowling Alone" provides a wider view of economic and social trends over the last 125 years. Despite the subtitle, though, the authors may not have a detailed solution for bitter polarization. (Simon & Schuster; Oct. 13) 

Using new materials and psychiatric records, biographer Clark writes that she aims to present a more accurate and "less pathological portrait" of the poet's short life. (Knopf; Oct. 20) 

Newsday columnist and editor Les Payne died in 2018, but his daughter finished the biography of Malcolm X that Payne had researched for decades. (Liveright; Oct. 20) 

A history of Shawnee resistance against white settlers, the dual biography of Tecumseh and his younger brother, Tenskwatawa, tells of their efforts, too, to build a pan-Indian alliance. (Knopf; Oct. 27) 

The professional soccer star and Olympian writes about her childhood and her support for LGBTQ rights and social justice. (Penguin Press; Nov. 10) 

The Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist goes back to the ancient world and re-reads Greek and Roman classics to see what really shaped the founders' thinking. (Harper; Nov. 10) 

An anthology by poets reflecting on the coronavirus pandemic, including work by Carl Phillips, Jane Hirshfield, Li-Young Lee and Major Jackson. (Knopf; Nov. 17)