INTERNATIONAL TITLES: LENA DUNHAM

Lena Dunham’s apparently endless “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” saga continued when she announced the publication of her forthcoming memoir, Not that Kind of Girl (Doubleday Canada, $32 cl., Sept.). This time, it wasn’t the book’s perceived racy subject matter that incited Dunham’s critics, but a $3.7-million book deal with Random House – a sum many industry watchers called outlandish for a debut author, despite her success as creator of HBO’s Girls. Dunham’s loyal supporters were quick to respond, pinning the criticism to gendered stereotypes and buoying expectations for an insightful, relatable book about the contemporary female experience. Somewhere in the middle, major publishing firms also came under fire for relying on extravagant advances to enhance an author’s public profile and accelerating literature’s dissolve into a blockbuster industry. The memoir itself should be what fans and critics alike expect from Dunham: a tome of advice for young women from a young woman, complete with lessons drawn from her erratic romantic history and quirk-laden celebrity status.

Q&Q’s fall preview covers books published between July 1 and Dec. 31, 2014 • All information (titles, prices, publication dates, etc.) was supplied by publishers and may have been tentative at Q&Q’s press time