With so many great books being published every month, some literary titles worth exploring can get lost in the mix. Page One offers the first lines of a dozen recently released books, including Let All Our Ghosts Depart by Meghana Mysore and The Disappearers by Marlon James.
“I came in at the end.” Perfect Italian (Sarabande Books, September 2026) by Kiki Petrosino. Sixth book, fifth poetry collection. Agent: None. Editor: Kristen Renee Miller. Publicist: Michelle Malonzo.
“And a world we want to begin begins: / I turned my love for you into art, // that I may triumph over death.” Exhibit G: Poems, Essays, and Photographs of Gaza (Milkweed Editions, September 2026) by Fady Joudah. Seventh book, first hybrid. Agent: Tanya McKinnon. Editor: Mary Austin Speaker. Publicist: Morgan LaRocca.
“The body’s rage grows more violent beneath the full moon.” Saving the Fire (Verso Books, September 2026) by Itamar Vieira Junior, translated from the Portuguese by Johnny Lorenz. Fifth book, second novel. Agent: Jessica Bullock. Editor: Cian McCourt. Publicists: Maya Osborne and Tim Thomas.
“Three surveillance cameras stared down at us from outside the holding cell.” The Wound Is Where the Light Enters: A Memoir of Resilience (Little, Brown, August 2026) by Chris Young. First book, memoir. Agent: Jenna Land Free. Editor: Vivian Lee. Publicist: Elizabeth Garriga.
“I have on my desk a brick, a single brick from the long-demolished building where I first heard a woman’s voice reciting poetry aloud from a recording in the room.” Otherwhere: New and Selected Poems, 1976–2026 (Scribner, September 2026) by Carolyn Forché. Seventh book, sixth poetry collection. Agent: Bill Clegg. Editor: Christopher Richards. Publicist: Ellie Crowley.
“If you are human, you might give yourself gifts.” Triage (Graywolf Press, August 2026) by Claudia Rankine. Seventh book, fourth hybrid. Agent: Nicole Aragi. Editor: Jeff Shotts. Publicist: Claire Lane.
“At my apartment complex’s scarf sale, I tried to give away my last boyfriend.” Let All Our Ghosts Depart (West Virginia University Press, September 2026) by Meghana Mysore. First book, story collection. Agent: Tanusri Prasanna. Editor: Marguerite Avery. Publicist: Little Birds Literary.
“So this boy just walks in smelling of Lip Smackers, Mattherhorn cigarettes, and sex sweat.” The Disappearers (Riverhead Books, September 2026) by Marlon James. Sixth book, novel. Agent: Ellen Levine. Editor: Jake Morrissey. Publicist: Bianca Flores.
“He can get it any way he wants.” Daytona Teddy Riggs (Hub City Press, August 2026) by Drew Buxton. Second book, first novel. Agent: None. Editor: Katherine Webb-Hehn. Publicist: Zoe-Aline Howard.
“Past the congested interstate, past the long lines” Staying Still (Tin House, September 2026) by Hieu Minh Nguyen. Third book, poetry collection. Agent: Annie Hwang. Editor: Alyssa Ogi. Publicist: Becky Kraemer.
“I once drove fourteen hours, across the flattest parts of the country and then up and over a mountain range, to spend a weekend with a man in the Florida woods.” I Have This Thing for Flowers: Essays on the Roots of Relationships (Flatiron Books, August 2026) by Alysia Li Ying Sawchyn. Second book, essay collection. Agent: Natalie Edwards. Editor: Sophie Garcia-Cubas Assemat. Publicist: Chris Smith.
“Before my mother’s wedding day, my grandmother gifted her the umbilical cord that had dried up and fallen off her newborn belly, which Ama had carefully saved all those years.” Unraveling Threads: Essays on Inheritance (Mad Creek Books, August 2026) by brenda Lin. Second book, essay collection. Agent: None. Editor: Kristen Elias Rowley. Publicist: Samara Rafert.
