Much like with Final Fantasy XIII and its “Episode Zero -Promise-” and “-Episode i-” novella counterparts, Square Enix has announced two new books for Final Fantasy XIII-2.

The first will be a post card book, and will contain CG illustrations of the main characters of the game, such as Serah, Noel, Snow, and Lightning, and an eight page character introduction. It will also come with a collection of 24 post cards.

The second and more important book that will be released will be titled “Final Fantasy XIII-2: Fragments Before”, and will focus on the events that took place before those in the game itself. It will also be written by Jun Eishima, the author of the Final Fantasy XIII novellas. This novel will again focus on the different stories of the main characters and will, interestingly enough, also include Rygdea and Bartholomew Estheim from Final Fantasy XIII. Below is a list of the different chapters for each character, as stated in the Nova Crystallis blog post:

Serah: Memories of the year AF0.
New Bodhum: A story of the year AF3.
Snow: The story of his departure.
Rygdea & Bartholomew: The creation of a provisional government, and the secret history of the founding of the Academy.
Noel: The end of the world, a period of uncertainty.

Both books will be available on December 31st, the day Final Fantasy XIII-2 is released in Japan.

Thanks to forum member Henry for finding this information!

Source: Nova Crystallis