5 engrossing books to read this November

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The treasure trove of fall book releases continues, with several highly anticipated books arriving this month. The books include Haruki Murakami's first book in years and a departure from romantasy by Rebecca Yarros.

'Every Arc Bends Its Radian' by Sergio De La Pava

Buckle up for this "weirdly imaginative yarn" and its "endless hairpin twists and turns," said Kirkus Reviews. Best known for his 2012 debut, "A Naked Singularity," Sergio De La Pava's latest novel is a mysterious detective story set in Colombia. The story follows Riv, a New York private detective, as he searches for a missing woman named Angelica, who has ties to a criminal organization. Riv is only in Colombia to escape his regular life in New York City. As he gets caught up in the case, his journey "quickly turns philosophical" as he delves into the criminal underworld, forcing him to "confront larger questions about humanity," said AV Club. De La Pava has proven his ability to "weave disparate ideas and genres together into something uniquely manic and reflective of the current state of the world." (Nov. 12, preorder here)

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'The Magnificent Ruins' by Nayantara Roy

Television executive and playwright Nayantara Roy is adding novelist to her resume with her debut, "The Magnificent Ruins." The protagonist is Lila De, a young book editor whose publishing house was recently acquired by a billionaire. Lila is anticipating a promotion, but her world is turned upside down when she receives news that she has inherited her grandfather's palatial home 8,000 miles away in India. The timing could not be worse, but she travels overseas to deal with her ancestral home, where three generations of her family still reside. Roy's "roomy novel" draws readers "deep into the way family history is inscribed on buildings," said The Washington Post. With her debut, Roy "proves herself a daring architect, taking full advantage of this sprawling plot to explore a family shaken to its foundation." (Nov. 12, preorder here)

'The City and Its Uncertain Walls' by Haruki Murakami, translated by Philip Gabriel

The English translation of Haruki Murakami's latest novel, his first in six years, is finally here. Murakami masterfully blends genres and themes in this dark sci-fi coming-of-age story. The book explores a walled city the narrator and his teenage sweetheart imagined. They conjure a world where she works in a library while he obsessively reads the dreams archived there. Decades later, in the real world, the protagonist abandons Tokyo to become a librarian in a small town, where he meets people who help him reconnect with the city he imagined in his youth. "The City and Its Uncertain Walls" has "love, noir, pop culture, jazz, libraries" and all the "otherworldliness that we've come to expect from Murakami," said Book Riot. (Nov. 19, preorder here)

'Variation' by Rebecca Yarros

If you are deep into your romantasy bag, you probably know of Rebecca Yarros, who took the genre by storm with her "Empyrean" series. With her latest, she takes a break from the fantasy world with a stand-alone contemporary romance novel about a ballerina, Allie, who has a career-ending injury. She retreats to her summer home, where she finds herself "entangled in a web of family secrets," said The New York Times. While figuring out how to live a life appears at her door. Her niece also brings Allie's first love, Hudson, back into her life. (Nov. 19, preorder here)

'Time Of The Child' by Niall Williams

In his latest, Niall Williams returns to the setting of his 2019 novel "This Is Happiness," the fictional Irish village of Faha during the winter of 1962. The story follows the town doctor, Jack Troy, and his daughter, Ronnie, as they are unexpectedly left to care for a baby abandoned on a doorstep. As the holiday season approaches, their lives are upended by the baby they come to love and who they name Noelle. "Time Of The Child" is a "finely crafted novel" about "second chances, humanity and familial love" that "rewards close reading," The Guardian said. Williams' "descriptive language is extraordinary — his use of understatement and irony artfully deployed, his characterization sublime." (Nov. 19, preorder here)