The source of self-regard : selected essays, speeches, and meditations
by Toni Morrison

An anthology of the Nobel Prize-winning writer’s essays, speeches and commentary on society, culture and art includes her powerful prayer for the dead of 9/11, her searching meditation on Martin Luther King, Jr. and her poignant eulogy for James Baldwin. (literary collections).

Elevation
by Stephen King

A timely tale about the power of finding common ground traces the story of Scott Carey, whose mysterious affliction unites the small community of Castle Rock, Maine

Taking the arrow out of the heart : poems
by Alice Walker

"The award-winning author of ""The Color Purple"" returns with a collection of nearly 70 works of poetic free verse, presented in both English and Spanish, that focus on issues of love, hope and gratitude in our troubled times."

Go set a watchman
by Harper Lee

A highly anticipated release of a newly discovered early work by the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of To Kill a Mockingbird continues the stories of iconic characters 20 years later during turbulent 1950s America. 2 million first printing.

Avenue of mysteries
by John Irving

Embarking on a trip to the Philippines, senior-aged Juan Diego reflects on dreams and memories of his childhood in Mexico before his past and present intersect in unexpected ways. By the award-winning author of A Prayer for Owen Meany. Simultaneous.

Zero K
by Don DeLillo

"Jeff's father, Ross, a billionaire in his sixties with a younger wife, Artis, with failing health, is the primary investor in a secret, remote compound where death is controlled and bodies are preserved until biomedical and technological advances can return them to a life of promise causing all three to examine their views on life and death"

Purity
by Jonathan Franzen

Struggling with identity issues and student loans as the daughter of a mother who hides a mysterious past, Pip takes an internship with an illicit activist group and falls for its charismatic fugitive leader. By the author of Freedom.

On earth we're briefly gorgeous : a novel
by Ocean Vuong

"Brilliant, heartbreaking, tender, and highly original - poet Ocean Vuong's debut novel is a sweeping and shattering portrait of a family, and a testament to the redemptive power of storytelling. On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous is a letter from a son to a mother who cannot read. Written when the speaker, Little Dog, is in his late twenties, the letter unearths a family's history that began before he was born--a history whose epicenter is rooted in Vietnam--and serves as a doorway into parts of his life his mother has never known, all of it leading to an unforgettable revelation. At once a witness to the fraught yet undeniable love between a single mother and her son, it is also a brutally honest exploration of race, class, and masculinity"

Moonglow : a novel
by Michael Chabon

A tale inspired by long-buried family history imparts the deathbed revelation of an ancestor's involvement in a mail-order novelty company famed for ads in mid-20th-century periodicals and the family's experiences around World War II and the space program in culturally divided regions of America. 350,000 first printing.

Lincoln in the Bardo : a novel
by George Saunders

A long-awaited first novel by the National Book Award-nominated, New York Times best-selling author of Tenth of December traces a night of solitary mourning and reflection as experienced by the 16th President after the death of his 11-year-old son at the dawn of the Civil War.

Redhead by the side of the road
by Anne Tyler

A tech expert and building superintendent finds his circumscribed routines upended by his significant other’s eviction and the appearance of teen at his doorstep who claims to be his son. By the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Breathing Lessons.

It's not all downhill from here : a novel
by Terry McMillan

Confident that her best days are still ahead, a successful businesswoman relies on close friends and her resourcefulness when an unexpected loss turns her world upside down. By the best-selling author of Waiting to Exhale.

Biloxi : a novel
by Mary Miller

A collection building on the critically acclaimed The Last Days of California and Always Happy Hour takes readers into the Biloxi home of an aimless, newly single 63-year-old retiree who makes the impulsive, life-changing decision to adopt a dog

Song for the unraveling of the world : stories
by Brian Evenson

A new short story collection from a modern master of the form that brilliantly walks the fine line between literary fiction, sci-fi and horror. Original.

The tradition
by Jericho Brown

WINNER OF THE 2020 PULITZER PRIZE FOR POETRY
Finalist for the 2019 National Book Award
"100 Notable Books of the Year," The NYT Book Review
"By some literary magic--no, it's precision, and honesty--Brown manages to bestow upon even the most public of subjects the most intimate and personal stakes."--Craig Morgan Teicher,
"'I Reject Walls': A 2019 Poetry Preview" for NPR
"A relentless dismantling of identity, a difficult jewel of a poem."--Rita Dove,

So much blue : a novel
by Percival Everett

"Kevin Pace's latest painting, like so much of his past, remains a secret. Ten years ago, he had an affair with a young watercolorist in Paris. And in the late 1970s, he traveled to El Salvador to search for his best friend's brother, a minor drug dealer gone missing in a country on the verge of war. When the past begins to resurface, Kevin struggles to justify the sacrifices he's made for his art and the secrets he's kept from his wife and family" -- Page [4] of cover

The argonauts
by Maggie Nelson

A poet, critic and nonfiction author explores the possibilities and limitations of romance, love, desire and sexual identity by exploring her own relationship with a fluidly-gendered artist, Harry Dodge.

The mare
by Mary Gaitskill

Taken in by a heavily drinking artist and a jaded academic, a young Dominican girl in Brooklyn's Fresh Air Fund program explores the contrasts between her inner-city life and her hosts' privileged world and finds her realities powerfully shaped by her relationship with a horse. Reading-group guide available. By the author of Veronica.

Beautiful days : stories
by Joyce Carol Oates

A new collection of 13 stories by the National Book Award-winning author of We Were the Mulvaneys includes her Pushcart Prize-winning "Undocumented Alien" and features protagonists who harbor secret inner lives and assert their independence through bold, often irrevocable acts of defiance. 20,000 first printing.

South and West : from a notebook
by Joan Didion

Two excerpts from never-before-seen notebooks by the National Book Award-winning author of The Year of Magical Thinking offer insights into her literary mind and process and includes notes on her Sacramento upbringing, her life in the Gulf states, her views on prominent locals and her experiences during a formative Rolling Stone assignment.

The Dutch house : a novel
by Ann Patchett

A tale set over the course of five decades traces a young man’s rise from poverty to wealth and back again as his prospects center around his family’s lavish Philadelphia estate. By the award-winning author of Commonwealth. (general fiction). (This book was listed in a previous issue of Forecast.) 250,000 first printing. Tour.

Hitting a straight lick with a crooked stick : stories from the Harlem Renaissance
by Zora Neale Hurston

Featuring eight lesser-known stories, a collection of Harlem Renaissance tales by the revered folklorist and author of Their Eyes Were Watching God explores subjects ranging from class and migration to racism and sexism. 100,000 first printing.

The overstory : a novel
by Richard Powers

The National Book Award-winning author of The Overstory presents an impassioned novel of activism and natural-world power that is comprised of interlocking fables about nine remarkable strangers who are summoned in different ways by trees for an ultimate, brutal stand to save the continent's few remaining acres of virgin forest.

Sea prayer
by Khaled Hosseini

The #1 New York Times best-selling author of The Kite Runner presents an evocatively illustrated tribute to the tragic human realities of today's refugee crisis in the form of a father's letter to his young son on the eve of a dangerous journey

The water dancer : a novel
by Ta-Nehisi Coates

A Virginia slave narrowly escapes a drowning death through the intervention of a mysterious force that compels his escape and personal underground war against slavery. By the National Book Award-winning author of Between the World and Me. (historical fiction). (This book was listed in a previous issue of Forecast.) Tour.

The night watchman : a novel
by Louise Erdrich

Traces the experiences of a Chippewa Council night watchman in mid-nineteenth-century rural North Dakota who fights Congress to enforce Native American treaty rights, as well as a young woman desperate to leave her reservation for the big city of Minneapolis