After a month of August that was traditionally a bit subdued – but still capable of offering some very interesting releases – publishers are approaching September with a ’90-load’. Among the various novels coming out in the coming weeks, red thread ideal is one that connects the idea of ​​love to all its declinations.

Jean Baptiste Andrea in Watch over her (La Nave di Teseo) puts the spotlight on an unusual love story, that between an apprentice sculptor affected by dwarfism and the young heiress of an important family, among the most powerful in Liguria. Edoardo Vitale in his The extraordinary (Mondadori) instead chooses to tell the story of a couple who overcame the years of crisis by holding on to love, who were successful and made a career, but who have to deal with a world of work that gives no respite and the constant nightmare of deadlines to meet. The end of love and shared life is at the center of Diego De Silvia’s new novel, The credits of a life togetherin which the author chooses to tell of hopes, disappointments, buried happiness and that complicated tangle of feelings that always accompany a sentimental separation.

It talks about friendship and female solidarity A cry of light by Abi Daré (North). The Nigerian writer places two strong protagonists, with exemplary courage, at the center of the narrative: it is a journey, theirs, on the importance of finding one’s own voice and giving it back to those who do not have one or do not yet know they have one. Much anticipated is Tell me about yourselfthe latest work by Chiara Gamberale published by Einaudi, in which the author becomes the spokesperson for our deepest secrets, orchestrating an investigation in the form of a novel into the awkward, tenacious and unconscious way in which we remain balanced between the dreams we had and the life we ​​actually lead.

Among the most anticipated titles is also the latest book by James McBride published by Fazi Editore: The Emporium of Heaven and Earthout on September 10, is the most important American novel of the year, among Barack Obama’s favorites and at the top of the overseas charts for more than thirty consecutive weeks. A work set in a neighborhood inhabited mainly by people of color and Jewish immigrants, focused on racism and justice, capable of combining the dramatic charge and irony of Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver and the narrative power of Colson Whitehead in The underground railway. Adelphi continues its commitment to spreading the work of Emmanuel Carrère by publishing Uchroniareleased in France in 1986: a sort of reflection on the science fiction literary genre that experienced its glories with the master of the genre Philip K. Dick.

Also worth mentioning are: TidesSara Freeman’s first work published by Elliot, a sober and visceral meditation on the nature of individuality, intimacy and the private narratives that shape our lives, and The hour of happiness by Cristina Frascà (Garzanti), the story of a precarious teacher with two defects: being nosy (to help others) and getting into complicated situations.

Watching Over Her (The Ship of Theseus)

(Jean-Baptiste Andrea; release date: September 3). In the great game of fate, Mimo seems to have been dealt the wrong cards. Affected by dwarfism, born into a very poor family, he becomes the apprentice of a mediocre stone sculptor who is more devoted to alcohol than to work. Mimo spends his days locked in the shop, but becomes increasingly aware of the potential and talent that are contained in his hands.

Viola Orsini, on the other hand, is the heir of an important family, among the most powerful in all of Liguria, and spends her childhood and adolescence in comfort and convenience, but she has too much ambition to be able to resign herself to living a life of idleness and boredom. At thirteen they meet, they touch each other, they recognize each other and solemnly swear never to leave each other. Over them, however, loom their own bodies and the differences in class, which seem to preclude any possibility for the two lovers.

A Cry of Light (North)

(Abi Daré; release date: September 3). It is not a night like all the others. Tomorrow, Adunni will go to school. Tia has fought for a long time to give that bright and courageous girl the chance to leave behind the poverty of Ikati, the Nigerian village where she was born and raised, to pursue her greatest dream: to study, to build a different future for herself and, one day, to teach it to other girls who, like her, would otherwise be relegated to the role of wife and mother, without prospects or education.

Yet now that she watches her mother sleep, all Tia can think about are the words she overheard a few days ago, while visiting her gravely ill mother. Because from those words, it is clear that her mother has been lying to her for twenty years, hiding a secret that could change her life forever.

Uchronia (Adelphi)

(Emmanuel Carrère; release date: September 3). Emmanuel Carrère dedicates a reflection to uchronia, a genre of fantastic narrative of which he retraces the salient stages – from the nineteenth century to Sarban and theMan in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick – and points out its disturbing implications: who can guarantee that the documents, however authentic and reliable, that form the basis of official history do not lie? Haven’t totalitarian regimes, after all, ruthlessly adopted the uchronic technique, to the point of imposing a counterfactual history?

The Extraordinary (Mondadori)

(Edoardo Vitale; release date: September 10). Nico and Elsa met during their university years, in Rome. While the country was paralyzed by the economic crisis and their peers went abroad to look for work or to find themselves, they fell shamelessly in love and clung to that love like a lifeboat during a storm. After a few years of shared apartments and precarious jobs, they were hired by pANGEA, a multinational that deals with sustainable development and ecological transition: in practice, helping brands appear more ethical and green.

Today they are thirty-six years old and thanks to their talent and some very successful ideas. They are creative directors of the Digital Innovation department, they win awards, they have bought and furnished with devotion their first home, they can afford zero-mile food, intercontinental travel, slow fashion clothing. But they work tirelessly, they are constantly connected and they have the feeling of never being able to stop, not even at night, when projects and deadlines turn into nightmares.

The Emporium of Heaven and Earth (Fazi)

(James McBride; release date: September 10). The 1930s. We are in the Chicken Hill neighborhood of Pottstown, Pennsylvania, inhabited mainly by black people and Jewish immigrants, including the spouses Moshe and Chona. He is the owner of a club that he decides to open to black people, she runs a convenience store. The couple is deeply connected to the neighborhood community, which they always help in any way they can. In particular, the two decide to help Nate and Addie, who have taken in their nephew Dodo after his mother’s death.

Dodo is a twelve-year-old boy who has been left deaf by a domestic accident, and after his mother’s death a letter arrives: he will be taken by the State to be sent to a special institution for troubled boys. Moshe and Chona decide to hide him in their house. But, following a tip-off, Doc Roberts, a white and racist doctor, goes to the place and ends up attacking the woman and raping her, while Dodo, the only witness, is taken away by the police who arrive on the scene.

The Hour of Happiness (Garzanti)

(Cristina Frascà; release date: September 10). This year, the first bell of September has a sweeter sound for Anna Tosetti. It seems that, for once in her life, everything is going swimmingly. Or at least that’s how it is until everything goes to pieces. She is not yet a tenured teacher. But after years spent doing very short-term substitute teaching and always with practically no notice, she is now returning to what she can truly consider her class.

Anna, however, has a terrible problem: she can’t mind her own business. She wants to help everyone, but she’s also a real trouble magnet. And so, while trying to get one of her students out of trouble after he’s gotten involved in some shady business, she finds herself facing terrible realities that she’s not really prepared for. When she’s given a particularly problematic boy, she can’t leave her work at home and, in order to help him, she complicates her life.

The closing credits of a life together (Einaudi)

(Diego De Silva; release date: September 10). Fosco and Alice have entrusted their respective lawyers with the words they cannot say to each other, breaking up. Alice aspires to a dramatic conclusion, as if a great love is measured by wounds, by the harm that can be done. She wants emphasis, conflict, a stage. Fosco is softer, almost passive, inclined to accept any condition. And in the end, as in all separations, their positions will translate into mortifying documents, which say nothing because they know nothing of a life together.

To rewrite the credits of their story with a different dignity, they then decide to retire to a beloved house, among the ghosts of the past and of what has been betrayed, whether they are the happy years of childhood, that beautiful time in which one learns the world, lifelong friends or their own bond.

Tides (Elliot)

(Sara Freeman; release date: September). A young stranger wanders between the beach and the main street of a wealthy seaside town, with no apparent purpose, without a home. She arrived there a few days ago after a journey that took her away from her family and from a loss for which she feels responsible. The presence of the sea, with its irrepressible life force, acts as an element of disturbance but also as a push to move forward, like the perpetual motion of the tide that brings up waste and then recedes.

Thus, following a survival instinct contrary to the will to annihilate herself, the protagonist finds work in a local wine and cheese shop, whose amiable and solitary owner has recently been abandoned by his wife. The two become friends and Mara, encouraged by this new bond, begins to come to terms with the mistakes of the past and the desires of the present, torn between recreating and undoing herself.

Tell me about yourself (Einaudi)

(Chiara Gamberale; release date: September 24). There are moments in life that resemble a swamp: moving forward seems impossible, we can only let ourselves sink. It happens to Chiara, when she finds herself a mother almost by chance and moves with her daughter to a neighborhood of normal families, faithful to rules that she has always rejected. Accustomed to living like an eternal teenager and hungry for emotions, she cannot stand that fictitious quiet and soon she is no longer able to work, to love, to trust in the future.

But a chance meeting with a friend she hasn’t seen since high school gives her an idea: to reconnect with the people she used to idolize when she was a teenager. To ask: and you? Can you stand the swamp? Have you managed to grow up without giving up who you are? Can you explain to me how? So she goes to find the most desired girl in school, the revolutionary school representative, the good boy who could perhaps have saved her from herself, the tormented man who condemned her to herself.