A visual preview of the fall season, part one

There are a lot of forthcoming titles to preview, so I'll be posting about them in multiple installments. The common element within this grouping should be obvious; let's call them the Daughters of Autumn...


The struggle between traditional values and modernity, as seen from the viewpoint of a young woman in occupied Korea in the early 20th century; inspired by the life of the author's mother. Henry Holt, Aug.

It's been ages since anyone's written a novel about Cleopatra Selene (and the version I'd read wasn't all that good), so I'm looking forward to this one. Nice cover, too; the red makes a statement! Crown, September.

Li X’ia, daughter of an elderly spice farmer and his teenage concubine in early 20th-century China, evades her father's plans for her and flees, vowing to fulfill her mother's dreams of becoming a scholar. St. Martin's Griffin, Sept.

Mary Tudor's life story, as seen through her own eyes. Lee has previously written other novels set in 16th-c England (A Question of Guilt, plus The Spanish Bride as Laurien Gardner). NAL, Dec.

I'm not a big fan of prehistoric fiction; Auel's novels never did it for me, though I enjoyed Elizabeth Marshall Thomas's Reindeer Moon and The Animal Wife. This one looks to be different, plus I love the cover. It's set amid a matriarchal culture in southeast Africa half a million years ago. S&S, Aug.

A YA historical about Albia, the (imagined) daughter of Macbeth and his lady, who is raised in the woods by three strange sisters; from the author of Ophelia. Do YAs prefer more modern-looking covers? This doesn't say "historical" to me at all. Bloomsbury Children's, Oct.

An interpretation of Jane Austen's Lady Susan which transforms the short epistolary novella into a full-fledged novel about two aristocratic women, Susan and her daughter Frederica, who navigate their place in Regency society. Co-written by a mother-daughter team, with letters reproduced from the original. Crown, Oct.

Abigail Adams turns detective in the first volume of a new historical mystery series set in Revolutionary-era Boston. Berkley, Sept.

The imagined story of Harriet, daughter of Sally Hemings and Thomas Jefferson, who leaves Monticello at age twenty-one and, with her red hair and light skin, easily passes for white. This reissue is the sequel to Chase-Riboud's classic Sally Hemings (reissued by Chicago Review Press in April), the novel which brought renewed attention to this enigmatic woman. Chicago Review, Sept.

Third in a trilogy about the intelligent, talented daughters of medieval Talmudic scholar Rashi. Rachel, her father's favorite, finds her life torn apart during the First Crusade. Plume, August.

The Crusades as seen from the viewpoint of Khalidah, a young Bedouin woman; this is an engrossing literary novel set in 12th-century Arabia, a time and place many Western readers know little about. I read it from the UK edition last year. Berkley, Oct.