NYT Books

An unlovable heroine, a cyborg in search of missing parts, the restoration of a classic work and a series that is always worth the wait highlight four new volumes.

Peter Schjeldahl’s final book collects the essays and reviews he wrote in the years after a cancer diagnosis.

Two exuberant new books chronicle the heyday of New York City’s criminal underworld on the Lower East Side.

In Lev Grossman’s new book, “The Bright Sword,” an eager adventurer stumbles into a Camelot that has fallen into hopelessness and disarray after the death of the king.

Jesse Katz’s true-crime narrative, “The Rent Collectors,” delivers a nuanced portrait of a community racked by poverty and violence and deprived of opportunities to get ahead.

In Halle Butler’s new book, “Banal Nightmare,” a 30-something woman returns to her hometown to get out of a rut and reassess her life after a bad breakup.

Set among the fevered residents of a remote Australian town, Ruby Todd’s debut novel considers how grief can draw people to extreme beliefs.

In “Rat City,” Jon Adams and Edmund Ramsden explore the life, times and influence of the scientific Pied Piper, John Bumpass Calhoun.

In a new telling of the Macedonian leader’s final years, Rachel Kousser shows what happened when dreams of conquest met reality.

Alisa Alering’s debut novel, “Smothermoss,” is an Appalachian mystery tangled with wild magic, queer coming-of-age and sisterly bonds.