If you are looking for a good novel, try Paulo Coelho’s “The Devil and Miss Prym.” The author of “The Alchemist” is back with a story that asks us to follow our dreams. Those of us of a certain age grew up with our Sunday evening TV viewing set to the variety show hosted by Ed Sullivan. In nonfiction, here’s a chance to learn more about the man with the “really big shew”: “Impresario: The Life and Times of Ed Sullivan.” In paperbacks, look for “Them: A Memoir of Parents,” in which Francine Du Plessix Gray tells the award-winning story of her parents, who took the New York fashion world by storm. If you liked Susanna Clarke’s “Jonathan Strange and Mr. Morrell,” you’ll probably like her collection of short fiction coming in October, “The Ladies of Grace Adieu and Other Stories.”
FICTION
The Devil and Miss Prym, by Paulo Coelho, HarperCollins, 205 pages, $24.95|An emotional novel exploring the difference between good and evil and the lure of temptation in a remote village.
Learning to Kill, by Ed McBain, Harcourt, 496 pages, $25|The late master of crime fiction collected 25 of his early stories that led to his legendary career. The stories were written between 1952 and 1957 under various pseudonyms, including his real name, Evan Hunter.
Thrillers: Stories to Keep You Up All Night, edited by James Patterson, Mira, 384 pages, $24.95 |Interested in writing thrillers? Check out these from such masters as Lee Child and Denise Hamilton.
NONFICTION
Impresario: The Life and Times of Ed Sullivan, by James Maguire, Billboard, 352 pages, $24.95|The man behind “The Ed Sullivan Show,” in TV’s early days was tyrannical, egotistical and controlling, according to this new biography.
Hamas: Politics, Charity, and Terrorism in the Service of Jihad, by Matthew Levitt, Yale University, 336 pages, $26 |As Hamas continues to exert authority within the Palestine Authority, Levitt assesses the group’s likely goals, tactics and structure.
Black Gun, Silver Star: The Life and Legend of Frontier Marshal Bass Reeves, by Art T. Burton, University of Nebraska, 384 pages, $24.95 |Burton details the life of Reeves, a former slave who spent 32 years as a lawman in the Oklahoma and Indian territories of the 19th century.
PAPERBACKS
Them: A Memoir of Parents, by Francine Du Plessix Gray, Penguin, 529 pages, $16|Alexander Liberman and Tatiana Du Plessix were Russian emigres who fled pre-World War II Paris and came to New York and became the first power couple in that city’s fashion scene. Told by their daughter.
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, by Lisa See, Random House, 288 pages, $13.95|Set in China during the 19th century, See’s novel focuses on the lifelong friendship of two women.
Stoner, by John Williams, New York Review of Books, 288 pages, $14.95|This is a re-release of Williams’ 1965 novel (Williams was a member of the University of Denver faculty) telling the life story of scholar William Stoner.
COMING UP
The Ladies of Grace Adieu and Other Stores, by Susanna Clarke, Bloomsbury, 224 pages, $23.95, Oct.|The author of the immensely popular “Jonathan Strange and Mr. Morrell” returns with a collection of 10 short stories set during the same period of 19th-century England.
Enemy Combatant: My Imprisonment at Guantanamo, Bagram, and Kandahar, by Moazzam Begg, New Press, 416 pages, $26.95, Sept.|This is the first account by a detainee in the U.S. war on terror. Begg, an Englishman, was seized at his home in Pakistan, held in prison camps in Afghanistan and then sent to two years in solitary confinement at Guantanamo.
The Discomfort Zone, by Jonathan Franzen, Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 208 pages, $23, Sept.|The author takes a humorous look at the world of the adolescent.
