September in Melbourne is usually associated with a certain feverish state, namely Footy Finals Fever. It may not be surprising to hear that this common ailment does not affect me, but this year I don’t feel so left out because bookish fevers of other kinds give one plenty of reason to cheer and swoon.

This is the month we celebrate the release of Fever of Animals, our Book of the Month, and the seriously wonderful debut novel from our colleague in St Kilda, Miles Allinson. I just finished reading an advance copy of this book, and I share our reviewer’s enthusiasm for this unique work about art, which is itself a work of art. The brightness of Miles’s talent is clear, and I’m just pleased to be in its general orbit. His book joins a number of debut Australian novels this month, including Shirley Barrett’s highly anticipated, Rush Oh!, Jenny Ackland’s speculative riff on the story of Ned Kelly, The Secret Son, and Leah Kaminsky’s tale of memory and family, The Waiting Room.

Fans around the world have been longing for the fourth and final of Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan Novels, and at last it arrives this month. It’s no secret that our staff are hugely in love with these books (as our reviewer, perhaps the loudest in the cheer squad, puts it, she ‘can’t recommend them highly enough’); you can join in their fervour at our Ferrante Fever event in the Carlton store on 17 September.

Personally, I have been suffering dreadfully from Franzen Fever. Purity hits our shelves this week, and is going to be one of the most talked about international releases of the year. Like all great novelists, Jonathan Franzen tends to incite passions of both the positive and negative variety, so you can expect to hear a lot of opinions about this book: make sure yours is informed by actually reading it! (It’s brilliant, by the way!) Franzen shares the spotlight with William Boyd, whose Sweet Caress promises to win him new admirers as he plays with fact, fiction and visual culture. John Banville, Pat Barker, Iain Pears, Patrick de Witt, Ron Rash and Scarlett Thomas all have new novels this month, along with two young writers making a buzz in the US, Stephanie Clifford (Everybody Rise) and Lauren Holmes (Barbara the Slut), and Bill Clegg’s Man Booker Prize-nominated, Did You Ever Have A Family. Meanwhile, David Lagercrantz picks up where Stieg Larsson left off with The Girl in the Spider’s Web.

The best book title award this month must go to Gore Vidal’s biography, written by Jay Parini, Every Time a Friend Succeeds Something Inside Me Dies; I feel like there has to be a German word for that sentiment that means the opposite of schadenfreude. A heap of memoirs appear this month, including Larissa Dubecki’s hilarious account of working in the hospitality industry, Prick with a Fork; rising star Rosie Waterland’s recollections of a difficult childhood, The Anti-Cool Girl; and Lesley & Tammy Williams’ mother–daughter dialogue, Not Just Black and White. Further required reading this month includes The Economics of Inequality, the precursor to Thomas Piketty’s landmark work, Capital in the Twenty-First Century; Jane Rawson & James Whitmore’s practical primer on how to survive climate change in The Handbook; and Granta’s authoritative collection, New American Stories.

And did I mention, dear reader, that Yotam Ottolenghi’s new cookbook, Nopi, co-written with the restaurant’s head chef Ramael Scully, will be in store on 16 September …? Cue Ottolenghi Fever!

Alison Huber