Ah, welcome back. In our previous look at some of the major books of the year, I highlighted titles that went on to be acclaimed bestsellers and the most talked-about volumes of the past twelve months, as well — inevitably — as a few that failed to live up to the high expectations that we’d placed upon them. It is interesting that, just as Prince Harry’s Spare was indeed the most discussed book of last year, another hotly tipped memoir is undoubtedly the major release of 2024. Salman Rushdie’s Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder (April, Random House) is a meditation on the near-fatal attack that he suffered in the summer of 2022 at an event in Chautauqua, New York, as well, inevitably, as a reflection on the twenty-five years that have ensued since the publication of his most controversial book, The Satanic Verses, and the subsequent fatwa that was declared upon him.
Talking of literary greats, there are a couple of examples of major authors returning this year, even from beyond the grave. The legendary Gabriel García Márquez may have died in 2014, but his final novel, Until August (March, Knopf), is being published worldwide a decade later, although whether his publisher’s optimistic description of it as a “re-discovered masterpiece” proves wholly accurate will be proved correct, or false, in a matter of a few months now. And on the other end of the spectrum, it might have been expected that John le Carré’s death would have concluded the exploits of his most famous character, laconic spymaster George Smiley, but his son Nick Harkaway has written a semi-prequel that explores the antics of Smiley between the events of The Spy Who Came in from the Cold and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. The as-yet untitled novel will be released in the fall by Viking, and it will be fascinating to see whether Harkaway can assume the mantle of his father.
The great Michael Cunningham returns after a decade away with Day (January, Random House), a novel exploring love in the time of Covid, and the bestselling author Kiley Reid hopes to emulate the success of Such A Fun Age with her sophomore novel Come And Get It (January, Penguin). Chroniclers of witty social history will be delighted by the new Armistead Maupin, Mona of the Manor (March, HarperCollins). And the British author David Nicholls, perhaps the premier purveyor of rom-coms with a college degree, returns with a new novel, You Are Here (June, HarperCollins), to complement the new Netflix adaptation of the book he remains best known for, One Day.
There is an abundance of biography and other non-fiction to look forward to, including Roger Lewis’s highly acclaimed joint life of Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, Erotic Vagrancy (January, Mobius), filmmaker Ed Zwick’s at times jaw-droppingly candid account of his career in television and the movies, Hits, Flops and Other Illusions (February, Gallery) and RuPaul’s “most personal and revealing” memoir to date, The House of Hidden Meanings (March, HarperCollins). James Patterson moves away from mega-selling fiction to tell the story of The Secret Lives of Booksellers and Librarians (April, Little Brown) and perennially bestselling author of fascinating blockbuster tales Erik Larson returns with his Civil War epic The Demon of Unrest (April, Crown).
Of course, Spectator World contributors have been busy, too, whether it’s Francesca Peacock’s much-acclaimed Margaret Cavendish biography Pure Wit seeing US publication (January, Pegasus), Philip Womack’s excellent children’s novel Ghostlord (February, hoping to achieve the same acclaim in the US (February, Little Island) or Lisa Hilton’s highly anticipated account of Aphra Behn, The Scandal of the Century finally arriving in bookstores (May, Penguin). And finally, it might be remiss of me to mention the publication of the conclusion to my Windsors trilogy, Power and Glory (April, St Martin’s Press), but our critic certainly enjoyed the previous instalment.
Publishing may be going through something of an existential crisis at the moment, but excellent, thought-provoking books are never short on the ground. And, apparently, we’re promised a new Britney Spears memoir, after the revelations and controversies of the previous one. So whatever your tastes, there’ll be something to read. Happy 2024, everyone.
