by JULIET WATERS

The fall, a time of back to school, back to coats and back to Hydro bills. In the publishing world, it's a flurry of new books desperate to become Christmas bestsellers, or make it onto an award shortlist. In the Bible, of course, it is a time of jealousy, rebellion and death, which leads us to the first title in this roundup of some of the more interesting books you'll be hearing about this season.

David Maine's Fallen, a witty, elegant re-imagination of the Bible's first family, probably won't turn any of us into creationists. Now that The Sopranos are coming to an end, however, if you're looking for another family forced to mix mundane life in and out of Paradise, with murder, temptation and jealousy, this one's been entertaining people for millennia. Maine became a big favourite with critics after The Preservationist, his re-imagination of Noah's life.

If nothing else, Rick Moody's The Diviners should win a prize for best cover. That crazed-looking Mongolian Hun with the rabbit fur trimmed boots may lead a few people to mistake this for fantasy literature, but Moody's latest is a satire of contemporary life on the set of a huge television saga. For broader satire, Letterman regular Chris Elliott's spoof of a 19th-century historical crime thriller, The Shroud of the Thwacker looks fun. Myla Goldberg's Wickett's Remedy takes place in Boston during the great flu epidemic of 1918. Probably a good book to curl up with during cold season. Ever since her sharp, quirky debut novel Bee Season (look for the film, out sometime this October), Goldberg's been a name to watch for. She'll be in Montreal for a reading sometime in November.

Expect to hear a lot about Salman Rushdie's Shalimar the Clown. Big hype usually surrounds any Rushdie release, though it hasn't really been merited in recent years. His newest, however, is weirdly prescient, Shalimar being a terrorist operating in London. Also, Rushdie will be in Montreal in a couple of weeks, making our city one of the first appearances on his book tour. There's also a fair amount of buzz around Irish novelist Kitty Fitzgerald's Pigtopia. This short novel about an outcast boy who raises pigs may appeal to the same readers who loved The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.

On the Canadian front, Newfoundlander Michael Crummey, who'll be reading here this month, follows up his impressive debut, River Thieves, with another work of historical fiction. The Wreckage looks to be the kind of intense, painful World War II romance that may nudge Crummey into Michael Ondaatje territory. Rust and Bone, short stories by Calgarian Craig Davidson takes place in the dark world of professional boxing. If advance praise means anything, this book could also be a big contender for those sought-after fall awards.

In non-fiction, Toronto Star book critic Phillip Marchand will be in Montreal with Ghost Empire, an intriguing book about our own local historical hero, the explorer La Salle. Turns out La Salle once had a master plan to turn all of Texas into a French nation, which, but for a few twists of fate, might have happened. Imagine. Dave Bidini celebrates the return of hockey with The Best Game You Can Name, his account of the Exclaim! Cup amateur hockey tournament, where teams of musicians vie for supremacy among the hockey rock ranks. Transplanted Torontonian, now a New Yorker, David Rakoff comes to Montreal this fall to read from his new book of essays Don't Get Too Comfortable, covering subjects from a trip on Hooters Air to a stint at a Paris fashion show.