Así califica el New York Times a la lista de autores que están listos para ser editados en el reentré literario norteamericano. Según la nota, las librerías están haciendo espacio para las novedades que se mantendrán en la mesa especial hasta diciembre, por lo menos, para las navidades. Y es que la lista de esta manada es extensa y llena de nombres vendedores: Salman Rushdie con sus memorias, Junot Díaz con un nuevo libro de cuentos, Tom Wolfe con una crónica, JK Rowling con una novela para adultos, Ian McEwan, Zadie Smith y Michael Chabon encabezan la lista.
Salman Rushdie, the author of “Midnight’s Children,” will release a memoir, “Joseph Anton,” that goes on sale on Sept. 18. Ms. Rowling, best known for her phenomenally best-selling Harry Potter series, has written her first novel for adults, “The Casual Vacancy.”
In November Nan A. Talese/Doubleday will release Ian McEwan’s “Sweet Tooth,” a novel featuring his first female protagonist since Briony Tallis in “Atonement.” Michael Chabon’s new novel, “Telegraph Avenue,” is scheduled for release on Sept. 11, five years after his most recent book, “The Yiddish Policemen’s Union.”
The pileup has left publishers jostling for shelf space and publication dates, and critics wondering how they can review all of the elite writers worthy of attention — not to mention the debut and midlist authors who might be neglected.
“You can only read so much,” said Ron Charles, the fiction editor for The Washington Post. “There are some real giants this year. It’s difficult for places like us that just run one review a day.”
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Last month New York magazine published an interactive graphic carrying the headline,“Which Event Novel Should You Read This Fall?,” guiding readers through all of the choices. In a fall books forecast, Flavorpill, the online cultural guide, said that the season promised “to be a doozy, with September in particular filled with some serious literary heavy hitters, and enough great reads piled up through the autumn months to get you fat and happy just in time for winter.”
Geoffrey Kloske, the publisher of Riverhead Books, an imprint of Penguin Group USA, said that publishers had to consider the competition for spots on best-seller lists, placement in bookstores and media coverage.
“If a publisher thinks a writer is coming out too quickly on the heels of some previous work or, more likely, the work is a little shaky, then she’ll probably spend a lot of time glancing over her shoulder,” he said.
Some readers appear to be stocking up early. On Amazon, a listing for Mr. Rushdie’s memoir noted that some customers who had bought the book also preordered books by Barbara Kingsolver, Mark Helprin, Mr. McEwan, Ms. Smith and Mr. Chabon.
