The best books to read in October: new paperbacks from Zadie Smith, Thomas Pynchon and Francis Spufford

Key points

• The Guardian's October paperback roundup features new releases from Thomas Pynchon, Francis Spufford, Zadie Smith and others.
• Pynchon's Shadow Ticket is his first novel in 12 years and his ninth overall.
• The roundup also covers Iida Turpeinen's debut about Steller's sea cow and memoirs from Jung Chang and Paul McCartney's 1970s band.

The Guardian's October paperback roundup highlights new releases from Thomas Pynchon, Francis Spufford, Zadie Smith and several other authors. The selection spans noir fiction, historical fantasy, essays and oral history.

Pynchon's Shadow Ticket, his first novel in 12 years and his ninth overall, is a noir story about a detective in prohibition-era Milwaukee. Francis Spufford's Nonesuch is a second world war fantasy featuring time travel and a plot to assassinate Winston Churchill.

Debut and returning authors

Finnish author Iida Turpeinen's debut novel follows historical figures connected to Steller's sea cow, a sirenian discovered in 1741 and hunted to extinction within 30 years. Harriet Lane's third novel, Other People's Fun, centres on a narrator consumed by envy after a school reunion.

Jung Chang's Now, Fly, Wild Swans revisits her 1991 bestseller Wild Swans, which sold more than 13m copies in 37 languages. Paul McCartney's 1970s band is the subject of an authorised oral history edited by Ted Widmer.

Our backs hurt, the kids don't like Bach any more – and the seas are rising!

— Zadie Smith

Zadie Smith and Harper Lee

Zadie Smith's Dead and Alive collects speeches, criticism and eulogies from the past nine years. It includes a piece on mediated time and a New Yorker op-ed on the war in Gaza, reprinted with a new preamble.

The Land of Sweet Forever gathers unpublished stories and essays by Harper Lee. The review calls the early stories underdeveloped but says the collection sheds light on Lee's life and the repression she experienced.