These are my three book picks from the new releases coming in September.
The Bridge - Colm Tóibín
I'VE been having a little run on Tóibín’s books at the moment having just finished Nora Webster which I picked up for just £1 at my local secondhand bookshop (the bargain of the year so far!) and before that, Long Island. Both very different books and both deeply enjoyable and I have Brooklyn sitting patiently on my TBR list.
To The Bridge; this is a novella - and I LOVE a novella - set in the Pyrenees and how the construction of a bridge connecting two valleys causes change and friction in a father/son relationship. I think we can trust that this is going to be the perfect showcase for this authors immense observational skills of the quiet workings of his characters. I cannot wait.
Release date: 3rd September, 2026
The Pirate Queen - Ariel Lawhon
SEEN through the eyes of an infamous Irish sea captain, Grace O’Malley, Ariel Lawhon has taken another female and less well-known historical figure and is bringing her into the spotlight and I’m all for it. I loved reading about the midwife in The Frozen River and I want to know more about Grace. In this book, Grace learns that her dream of a life on the sea is not going to be compatible with the life she’s expected to lead as the daughter of a noble family.
After she returns to her childhood home, she sees her livelihood threatened by English incursions into Ireland and the dangers that brings to her family. It sounds like a book full of choices, from no choice to freedom of choice.
Release date: 10th September, 2026
American Hagwon - Min Jin Lee
THIS book has been a decade in the writing after Min Jin Lee’s superb Pachinko and at more than 650 pages, it’s quite a long read. In American Hagwon, John and Helen Koh and their three children are building new lives in Korea when they find their worlds upended, forcing them to leave Seoul for Sydney, then California. The children thrive, the parents stall. This is an epic that follows one family through sacrifice, duty, work, fortune and questions what is truly important for a good life.
I’m hoping for a novel that transports and shakes me about, just as Pachinko did when I first read it and it became one of my favourite books which I gifted many, many times. I’m excited and nervous for this one.
Release date: 29th September, 2026