One Hour of Fervour
Muriel Barbery, Gallic Books, $29.99
Remember Muriel Barbery’s megahit, The Elegance of the Hedgehog, that charming novel about a Parisian apartment building and the hesitant friendship between concierge Renee, 12-year-old Paloma, and a Japanese businessman who rents a room in the block? In One Hour of Fervour, Barbery’s sixth novel, Haru, a Japanese man, has an affair with a French woman, Maud, who gives birth to a daughter, Rose, but forbids Haru ever to see her. France and Japan – a big distance but can things ever change for father and daughter, and why does Maud insist that Haru stays out of their lives?

Buckham’s Bombers
Mark Baker, Allen & Unwin, $34.99
One in five of the Australian deaths in combat during World War II were airmen who flew with Bomber Command over Europe. Former Canberra Times editor Mark Baker tells the dramatic story of those who flew many daring raids over Germany under the captaincy of Bruce Buckham. What they became best known for, however, was the sinking in September 1944 of the Tirpitz, Hitler’s monster battleship that lurked in a Norwegian fjord and bedevilled Atlantic convoys. There are lighter moments, too, such as their brilliant, unauthorised flypast over the newly liberated Paris, an escapade that made even Winston Churchill chuckle.

There are Rivers in the Sky
Elif Shafak, Viking, $34.99 (published August 13)
Elif Shafak references Nisaba, the Sumerian goddess of storytelling, early on, which seems somehow appropriate for an epic that starts in Mesopotamia in “ancient times” and moves between the banks of the Tigris and Thames rivers in the 19th century and beyond. This is a story driven like the three atoms in water by three characters – Arthur, a poor, brilliant Victorian London boy; Narin, a Yazidi girl in Turkey in the early 21st century, and Zaleekhah, living on a houseboat on the Thames. And it’s partly narrated by a raindrop!

Broken Heart
Shireen Morris, La Trobe University Press, $36.99 (published August 19)
Shireen Morris, law professor and colleague of Noel Pearson, follows up Radical Heart with a book that examines the “whole trajectory of the Voice” and unpacks its failure in the referendum. She takes exception at blame for stubborness being dumped at the door of Indigenous leaders and the Albanese government, while the uncompromising Coalition seems to have got off lightly. What are some of the lessons for the future? “Try harder, work smarter, learn from our missteps, persevere with new and superior strategies.”

By Any Other Name
Jodi Picoult, Allen & Unwin, $34.99 (published August 20)

The hugely popular American novelist loves a plot that plays on people’s conflicting beliefs. And here she’s gone for a particularly divisive one: the identity of the real author of Shakespeare’s plays? Picoult was inspired by the story of the real Emilia Bassano, the first woman to publish a book of poetry in England and who may have been the “dark” lady of the Sonnets. Picoult’s novel takes place in two time frames, one contemporary featuring a would-be female playwright, and one in the 16th century focusing on Emilia’s life and the question of authorship. It’s a novel, remember, so Picoult takes some liberties, but she’s passionate about her theories.

The Booklist is a weekly newsletter for book lovers from books editor Jason Steger. Get it delivered every Friday.