by JULIET WATERS

From new local talent to the great masters, this fall’s season in literature is one of the best in a long time. Here’s a selection of books and reviews to look out for.

Heather O’Neill was a Montreal Mirror Noisemaker back in 2000 for her screenplays, one of which became local director John L’Ecuyer’s film Saint Jude. O’Neill’s first novel, Lullabies for Little Criminals, is bringing on the noise, big time. Barnes & Noble has picked her as one of the best new writers of the season. And look for a blurb on O’Neill in People magazine this fall, when the novel will be released in the U.S. Don’t be surprised if this infectious comi-tragic story about a gifted 13-year-old’s descent into life as a Montreal street kid finds a comfy little home for itself on U.S. bestseller lists.

If it does, it’ll have plenty of good company. Mark Haddon follows up his runaway hit The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time with A Spot of Bother, a story about a dignified man trying to go politely insane. Charles Frazier follows up Cold Mountain with what’s being called the most expensive novel ever published. Frazier received an $8-million advance for Thirteen Moons, about a young, 19th-century boy sent to run an Indian trading post. And Dave Eggers releases a new novel, What Is the What, which centres on the harrowing story of the Lost Boys of Sudan.

Alice in reading land

Alice Munro wrote recently that her new collection The View From Castle Rock will be her last. Though it’s hard to tell with the always-subtle literary superstar, I’m pretty sure she was being ironic. Now that she’s so sought after, she claims, the only way she’ll ever find the time to write again is if she quits writing. She probably just needs to quit answering the phone.

Munro’s success may be starting a trend among mega best-selling authors. How else to explain Dennis Lehane’s decision to release a collection of stories, Coronado, instead of another deep, dark thriller? Then again, maybe he’s just trying to get some breathing space too.

William Boyd has never received the massive acclaim he deserves, on this continent anyway. Let’s hope Restless, a spy story set in 1939 Paris, won’t get overlooked. No danger of that for Nell Freudenberger, who follows

up the highly praised short story

collection Lucky Girls with a highly buzzed first novel, The Dissident, a story about a Chinese artist visiting L.A. It’ll be interesting

to see how Thomas Pynchon is evolving these days with his first novel in nine years, Against the Day. On the Canadian front, Wayne Johnston returns with The Custodian of Paradise, resurrecting Sheilagh Fielding, one of the great characters from his classic The Colony of Unrequited Dreams.

Discomfort class

If I were going to read only one non-fiction book this season, it would probably be Jonathan Franzen’s new collection of essays, The Discomfort Zone. I’m still re-reading his last collection, How to Be Alone, a brilliant defence of reading in a post-literate culture. And I still hold a curmudgeonly affection for all the discomfort he caused when he dared to question the distinction of being an Oprah Pick. But I’m also hoping to find the time to read Bill Bryson’s latest memoir, The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid. While Franzen is reliably smart, Bryson is reliably hilarious. Both writers are worthy gurus in the genre of cranky midwestern Zen.

Fans of true crime will welcome the arrival of Thunderstruck by Erik Larson. The author of The Devil in the White City returns with a tale of murder and wireless communication. And fans of the Hollywood autobiography might want to take a peep at Pimps, Hos, Playa Hatas, and All the Rest of My Hollywood Friends by John Leguizamo.