Best of Fall 2012: five of this fall’s best books, from Zadie Smith to Rawi Hage

CARNIVAL, BY RAWI HAGE The normally polite CanLit canon won’t prepare you for the violence, obsession, anger, lust and corruption of Hage’s books. His third novel is a twisted, picaresque nightmare about a cabbie who drives every night, befriending killers and prostitutes and doing battle with customers who try to rip him off. Imagine Camus rewriting Taxi Driver. Sept. 29

THE SWEET GIRL, BY ANNABEL LYON Vancouver author Annabel Lyon’s first novel, The Golden Mean, a revisionist tale about Aristotle, was a massive bestseller. In the sequel, the philosopher’s strong-willed daughter, Pythias, must figure out how to get free of the husband-to-be who has been selected for her. It’s always been tough to be a celebrity’s child. Sept. 18

NW, BY ZADIE SMITH For her first novel in seven years, Smith returns to the multiracial London borough that was the setting for White Teeth, her ambitious debut. NW is a series of interlocking stories about a group of people struggling to make friends, money and babies in a neighbourhood that’s constantly trying to pull them under. It’s as vibrant and unpredictable as the city that is her muse. Sept. 4

MORTALITY, BY CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS The late writer was a master at pissing off all sides of every major political and cultural debate. He brought that same sense of defiance and combativeness to the essays, collected here, about the esophageal cancer that eventually killed him last year. Even his harshest critics may have to wipe away a tear after reading. Sept. 4