Autumn is traditionally the time of year when the publishing industry gets serious, when high street bookshops gird their collective loins and reinforce their shelves. In other words, the big hitters are coming: the Christmas bestsellers; the celebrity memoirs; the hidden treasures. Amongst this deluge may well be titles not quite worth everybody’s focus and attention, but the following most certainly are.

The Bridge by Colm Tóibín

Ireland’s greatest living writer returns with a new 128-page novella mere months after a fine short story collection, confirming that alongside “greatest”, we can now add “most prolific”. Tóibín is a master, because with just a few economic brushstrokes he tells the kind of profound tale of family connection and dislocation that other writers would struggle to tell in 500 pages.

Out now, published by Picador, £9.99

The Golden Hours by Louisa Young

It takes a writer of no little confidence to revive Elizabeth Jane Howard’s beloved Cazalet Chronicles, but Louisa Young does a very convincing job. In , she brings the extended Cazalet clan up into the 1960s, where they face both personal and societal upheaval. The result offers rich characterisation, and fascinating historical insight into the era. Elizabeth Jane Howard, you feel, would approve.

Out now, published by Mantle, £20

Taipei Story by Rebecca F Kuang

Kuang’s 2023 global sensation was an unsettling novel about literary envy and success that went on to sell over three million copies. Her new, highly personal novel is about an American Yale student who returns to her native Taiwan for a funeral, and there finds love amid the complicated tangle of her familial roots.

Published by The Borough Press, 8 September, £22

We Chase Shadows by Richard Osman

If there’s a sense, by now, that Osman is simply going through the motions, then that’s because his books are such well-oiled machines. is the follow-up to , reconvening his mismatched detective trio to the Italian hills in pursuit of a ruthless killer. Osman has said that he isn’t particularly taken with the term “cosy crime”, but rarely does a plot involving criminals conjure up this many smiles.

Published by Viking, 10 September, £25

The Great Dictator: A Life of Barbara Cartland by Matthew Sweet

Barbara Cartland, late titan of the romantic novel, liked to dictate her books directly into a cassette recorder for others to transcribe, and she did this no fewer than 723 times. That’s a lot of books, and levels of bosomy swoon. Matthew Sweet’s loving, and winningly wry, biography of this bewitchingly strange literary sensation – The scandals! The séances! The lapdogs! – is completely fascinating, and enormous fun.

Published by Hodder and Stoughton, 10 September, £25

Exit Party by Emily St John Mandel

Over the course of seven novels, Mandel has established herself as one of the most fascinating writers of speculative fiction. Her visions of the future are always bleak (, ), and yet somehow hopeful, too. is set in 2031. America is at war with itself. There are curfews, and mass surveillance. But art and love survive regardless. What is it to be human, she asks, in a world quite so heavily controlled? An amazing book by an amazing writer.

Published by Picador, 17 September, £18.99

Swan Song: Diana, my sister by Charles Spencer

Almost 30 years since her death, the allure and appeal of Diana, Princess of Wales remains not merely intact, but positively buoyant. If so many royal watchers get to exercise their opinion of her, why not her younger brother? Here, Charles tells of their childhood together, the cursed fairy tale she went on to take a leading role in, and her untimely death. This could well prove one of the biggest books of the year.

Published by Michael Joseph, 22 September, £28

Ply by Hernan Diaz

Diaz’s previous novel, , concerned itself with power and money, and won the 2022 Pulitzer Prize. represents a significant genre pivot, and lands in the world of sci-fi. Centuries from now, a young woman finds herself adrift in an American city where she survives by stealing electricity from the grid in order to power the downtown music scene that thrives in the shadows. An edgy, compelling novel by a writer full of invention.

Published by Picador, 24 September, £20

Mestra by Madeline Miller

This new novella from the author of The Song of Achilles and tells the story of Mestra, daughter of the King of Thessaly, who can metamorphosise into any being she likes. Her father, meanwhile, is cursed. With apologies due to Christopher Nolan, nobody quite brings Greek myth back to vivid life like Madeline Miller.

Published by Bloomsbury, 29 September, £9.99

The Steps by Sylvester Stallone

Stallone made for an unlikely big screen hero, someone who endured a difficult birth, a complicated childhood, and unhappy school years. But, like all successful actors, he possessed a dogged determination to succeed, and duly did so as an all-American action man. His journey is sufficiently inspiring to make this memoir almost resemble a self-help guide on how you too can achieve your dreams.

Published by Seven Dials, 29 September, £25

Partita by Barbara Kingsolver

Few North American writers are experiencing quite such a purple patch as Barbara Kingsolver, and with good reason. She’s peerless. Following her epic, award-winning , is a tender coming-of-age tale about love, longing and the unifying power of music. Understated and reflective, it confirms that no one conveys emotion on the page quite like her.

Published by Faber & Faber 6 October, £20

Devil on My Shoulder by Alice Cooper

Heavy metal often resembles a kind of satanic panto, and legendary US rocker Alice Cooper at least laughs about what he does. Here, he unpacks everything a rock star memoir should, replete with a manic cackle running throughout. There is drink, drugs, near-death experiences, and a great many slaughtered chickens. It’s the kind of life the rest of us might have sought, if we didn’t have to be in bed by 10.30 due to an early start the following day.

Published by Ebury Spotlight, 8 October, £25

Peck & Peck by Bonnie Garmus

Lessons in Chemistry was not just the breakout debut novel of 2022, but a literary phenomenon for the 65-year-old Garmus, selling eight million copies. Her follow-up, , takes us into the improbably competitive world of 1980s poetry in New York, where her protagonist, the fabulously named Batter Gray, lands a job at the “most prestigious poetry quarterly in the world”. Funny, quirky and cute, this is destined to be another word-of-mouth hit.

Published by Manilla Press, 13 October, £22

Life Out of Order by Audrey Niffenegger

The much anticipated follow-up to The Time Traveller’s Wife returns Audrey Niffenegger to her central literary thesis: in order to love fully, one must first work out the jigsaw of life. The fact that her two heartsore protagonists, Alba and Zach, do this while travelling through time complicates matters somewhat. The easier it is to describe a book as a page turner, the harder it must have been to write, but the author’s efforts have paid off handsomely.

Published by Jonathan Cape, 13 October, £22

Is It Too Late to Make a Run for it? by Judi Dench

The beloved actor here recounts her life story, from humble beginnings to conquering the London stage and, later, Hollywood. Judi Dench is someone about whom a producer once said “had everything wrong” with her face, while a theatre director advised her against doing sitcom. Consequently, this memoir makes a powerful argument to never listen to anyone’s opinion but your own.

Published by Penguin, 22 October, £25

Lessons in Harmony by Jonathan Coe

Is there a more reliably crowd-pleasing British author currently at work today than Jonathan Coe? His latest tells of the unlikely friendship between two composers, France’s Maurice Ravel and England’s Ralph Vaughan Williams, in the early 20th century. As Britain slowly recovers from the trials of the First World War while Paris delves headfirst into its Belle Epoque, these two men form an indelible bond.

Published by Penguin, 12 November, £20