If you’ve resolved to read more — or to spend less time doomscrolling, or to ensure that this will be the year you finally make it big on BookTok — 2026’s new fiction offerings are a great place to start. From multigenerational epics and classic bildungsromans to hybrid historical fiction and offshoot space operas (not to mention a steamy Colleen Hoover stand-alone and the conclusion of Colson Whitehead’s Harlem trilogy), there’s something to satisfy every literary appetite.
This is a running list, and publication dates may change. Check back for updates as the year goes on.
January | February | March | April | May | June | July | August | September
January
coming-of-age novel
Half His Age
by Jennette McCurdy
Readers of McCurdy’s best-selling memoir, “I’m Glad My Mom Died,” may recognize the turbulence of the mother-daughter relationship in this debut novel about a 17-year-old whose dreary life in Anchorage consists of frozen meals and shifts at Victoria’s Secret until, one day, she initiates an affair with her creative writing teacher.
literary Fiction
How to Commit a Postcolonial Murder
by Nina McConigley
When their odious uncle arrives at the family’s doorstep in 1986, Georgie Ayyar and Agatha Krishna — Indian American preteen sisters in Wyoming — resolve to poison him, little by little, with a cocktail of antifreeze and Mountain Dew.
Literary fiction
This Is Where the Serpent Lives
by Daniyal Mueenuddin
In his first novel, Mueenuddin weaves a sweeping tale of class conflict and ambition in Pakistan, focusing on members of a wealthy clan and those who serve them.
literary fiction
Vigil
by George Saunders
Jill “Doll” Blaine, a tactful grim reaper, has come to Earth for a seemingly routine soul-gathering mission. Then she meets the ailing K.J. Boone, an oil executive whose lack of repentance tests her capacity for compassion and raises questions about the limitations of justice and redemption.
ROMANTIC THRILLER
Woman Down
by Colleen Hoover
When the author Petra Rose decamps to a lakeside cabin following a controversy over her latest book-to-screen adaptation, she finds a muse for her next novel: Nathaniel Saint, a handsome detective. But as their affair blossoms, she begins to notice troubling cracks in his story.
February
historical fiction
Autobiography of Cotton
by Cristina Rivera Garza
Rivera Garza, the author of the genre-bending memoir “Liliana’s Invincible Summer,” has written another hybrid account, this one set in Estación Camarón, a cotton farming region in northern Mexico. Translated from the Spanish by Christina MacSweeney, the novel examines Estación Camarón by way of family history and literary criticism to reveal a legacy of inequality and ecological destruction.
Romantasy
Crown of War and Shadow
by J.R. Ward
In the first volume of a new series, Sorrel, a clairvoyant orphan, is driven from her town by an angry mob. As she embarks on a perilous journey in search of a fabled warrior queen, she finds companionship — and desire — in a brooding, secretive mercenary.
Literary Fiction
This Is Not About Us
by Allegra Goodman
The squabbling, loving, grievance-laden Rubinstein family comes alive through their marriages, divorces, bat mitzvahs, holiday celebrations and more.
thriller
Hooked
by Asako Yuzuki
This novel, translated from the Japanese by Polly Barton, follows polar opposites — Eriko, whose ambition and prestigious trading job belie a deep-seated loneliness; and Shoko, a happily married lifestyle blogger — as their mutual fascination gives way to obsession.
March
Thriller
The Keeper
by Tana French
In the final volume of the Cal Hooper series — after “The Searcher” (2020) and “The Hunter” (2024) — the death of Rachel Holohan, shortly before her engagement, roils a bucolic Irish village. As Hooper, a retired Chicago detective, peels back the mystery, he finds himself in the town’s cross hairs.
Literary fiction
Kin
by Tayari Jones
Annie and Niecy are best friends and neighbors in 1950s Louisiana, bound by a shared childhood without their mothers. Jones’s fifth novel explores how their lives diverge: Niecy encounters a world of power and affluence at Spelman College, while Annie leaves home in search of the mother who abandoned her.
LITERARY fiction
Nonesuch
by Francis Spufford
Though set in 1939 London before the Blitz, Spufford’s latest novel is less a historical restaging than a time-bending tale populated by specters and Nazi planes. Its unassuming hero is Iris, a fiery financial secretary who finds herself roped into a plot to stop an armed fascist from altering the course of history.
literary fiction
Now I Surrender
by Álvaro Enrigue
Described as “part epic, part alt-Western,” Enrigue’s latest novel, translated by Natasha Wimmer, reimagines a three-front war between Apaches, Mexico and the United States during the 19th century. It begins with the abduction of a young Mexican woman, continues through Geronimo’s fateful surrender and into the present.
Romance
Star Shipped
by Cat Sebastian
In a bid to retain his reputation, Simon, an aloof and difficult actor on a popular sci-fi TV series, sparks a fake friendship with his impetuous co-star Charlie — only to have it bloom into an intense affair.
April
Fiction
American Fantasy
by Emma Straub
Newly divorced and pushing 50, Annie slumps onto a cruise ship for a nostalgic four-day excursion with her sister and 3,000 other women to see a beloved ’90s-era boy band. Though she’s skeptical at first, to her surprise, the music gives her renewed vitality.
ROMANCE
Cherry Baby
by Rainbow Rowell
When her husband’s semi-autobiographical webcomic goes viral, Cherry — heartbroken by the way it portrays her — reclaims her life in an emotional journey that’s sexy, messy, raw and funny.
Literary fiction
Ghost Town
by Tom Perrotta
Jimmy Perrini, a once-literary novelist who has gone commercial, recounts his adolescence in 1970s New Jersey, especially the public tragedy that changed his life.
Horror
Japanese Gothic
by Kylie Lee Baker
Baker’s time-bending novel toggles between a samurai hiding out from imperial soldiers at a rural house in 19th-century Japan and a college student who flees to the same house in 2026 after killing his college roommate.
literary fiction
On the Calculation of Volume, Book IV
by Solvej Balle
Translated by Sophia Hersi Smith and Jennifer Russell, this fourth volume (of seven) is a meditation on time that takes place on an endless Nov. 18, giving the time-loop narrative new and stunning proportions.
Literary fiction
Transcription
by Ben Lerner
The narrator of Lerner’s latest novel arrives in Providence, R.I., to record a final interview with his aging mentor, who happens to be the father of his college friend. The plan goes awry when he breaks his phone, but it leads to an enigmatic conversation on manhood and parenting.
Fantasy
We Burned So Bright
by TJ Klune
As a rogue black hole approaches the planet, a gay couple realize they have a month before their 40-year relationship is crushed into nothingness. So they pack up and hit the pavement on an apocalyptic cross-country road trip, witnessing the madness of the last days on Earth.
May
historical fiction
The Calamity Club
by Kathryn Stockett
“The Help” author’s sophomore novel, 17 years in the making, returns readers to Jim Crow-era Mississippi, where three women band together with a plan to improve their lives. But as the Great Depression bears down upon poor and rich alike, their audacious ploy earns them more enemies than friends.
literary fiction
John of John
by Douglas Stuart
John-Calum Macleod, a recent art school graduate, returns to his family home in Scotland’s Hebrides Islands to care for his ailing grandmother — and learns the bigger task will be facing family secrets, past relationships and a father at odds with his son’s queer, liberal transformation.
time-travel novel
The Midnight Train
by Matt Haig
The second installment in Haig’s Midnight World series centers on Wilbur, a man who boards a mystical train that allows him to time travel back to his honeymoon in Venice in an attempt to correct a catastrophic mistake. As any good sci-fi fan knows, though, changing the past never comes without major risks to the future.
Romance
Our Perfect Storm
by Carley Fortune
After she’s left at the altar, Frankie goes on her honeymoon anyway, taking her oldest friend, George, with whom she’s been quarreling. Once they’re alone, the two must face the feelings they’ve tried to avoid.
science fiction
Radiant Star
by Ann Leckie
Leckie returns to her futuristic Radch empire in this standalone space opera. As the Radchaai continue their expansionist march, they offer the people of Ooioiaa a concession: One last person will be allowed to travel to the mysterious religious site on the Radiant Star in order to be canonized as a “living saint.” Deciding who, exactly, is granted this honor disrupts the entire city.
Fantasy
Seek the Traitor’s Son
by Veronica Roth
Elegy Ahn’s life is turned upside down when a prophet tells her she is destined to lead her country into battle against the powerful nation of Talusar. And though she’s not told who will win the matchup, she is tipped off that an impending romance could determine her fate.
Literary fiction
The Things We Never Say
by Elizabeth Strout
Beneath his picture-perfect life, the high school teacher Artie Dam is in quiet agony — lonely, isolated and overwhelmed by how little he knows about the people around him. After a secret comes to light, Artie must reckon with the unknowability that comes with being human.
June
Historical Fiction
Land
by Maggie O’Farrell
Ireland, 1865: Working for the British military’s land survey project, a man and his young son, Liam, document the aftermath of the famine that ravaged Ireland for nearly a decade. “‘Land’ is about a country trying to recover from a cataclysm,” O’Farrell told People magazine. “It’s about a man trying to retain his sense of history, both personal and universal, in the face of colonization and political upheaval.”
beach read
The Shampoo Effect
by Jenny Jackson
Things couldn’t be going better for Caroline Lash, who’s relocated to a seaside town in Massachusetts where she falls for the local golden boy, Van Whittaker. But beach bliss proves short-lived as secrets and drama threaten to upend the entire community.
literary fiction
Whistler
by Ann Patchett
After a chance encounter at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Daphne Fuller and her former stepfather, Eddie, rekindle their relationship, using this second chance as an opportunity to reflect on the choices that separated them.
July
HEIST NOVEL
Cool Machine
by Colson Whitehead
The conclusion to Whitehead’s Harlem trilogy finds the furniture salesman Ray Carney and his on-again-off-again partner in crime, Pepper, navigating midlife, a city in the midst of dramatic transition and, as always, a dubious scheme or two.
literary fiction
Beginning Middle End
by Valeria Luiselli
Reeling from a failed marriage, a mother takes her teenage daughter to Sicily to learn their family’s history. The two traverse the island in search of people and places that have shaped them, as well as a new definition of home.
literary fiction
Country People
by Daniel Mason
When Miles — a Russian folklore scholar — decamps to a college in Vermont with his family for a year, he gets swept up by the eccentricities of his new neighbors and a local legend that, it turns out, may not be as fantastical as it sounds.
cozy fantasy Romance
Sea of Charms
by Sarah Beth Durst
The lives of a stubbornly single sailor, Marin, and her old friend Dax collide when revolution comes to Alyssium. So, they strike a deal: Marin will let Dax join her crew to escape the dangers of war if he agrees to pose as her boyfriend for the End-of-Harvest Festival back home.
thriller
The Intrigue
by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
A simple scam goes awry in this seductive new noir from the author of “Mexican Gothic.” In 1940s Mexico, Ulises, a handsome con artist, sets his sights on Perla, the spinster proprietor of a small-town boardinghouse. But it turns out that she isn’t the straightforward target he envisioned.
August
literary fiction
Etna
by Paul Yoon
An ex-military dog sets off on an odyssey across a battle-scarred country in hopes of finding his way home — if home still exists, that is. Along the way, he meets a diverse cast of characters who are all seeking to rebuild their lives after surviving a catastrophic war.
thriller
The Secret Dinner
by Raphael Montes
The translator Zoë Alexandra Perry brings Brazil’s top thriller writer to American readers with this fast-paced tale of four broke 20-somethings lured into the world of Rio’s shady elite. What begins as a jokey get-rich-quick scheme — catering exclusive dinner parties — quickly morphs into something much more sinister.
Literary Fiction
A Tender Age
by Chang-rae Lee
Lee’s latest novel is a tale of almosts: a family of working-class immigrants almost living the American dream; an 11-year-old boy, almost transitioning into adulthood and straddling the worlds of his doting Korean parents and a semi-feral gaggle of neighborhood kids.
Literary Fiction
Under the Falls
by Richard Russo
Eighteen years after leaving Stone Mountain, the musician Tyler Sinclair returns to his hometown for a benefit concert, only to find that his dark past is closer to the present than he’d supposed.
September
Historical fiction
Agrippa
by Robert Harris
“Conclave” fans are already familiar with Harris’s knack for blending (fictionalized) petty interpersonal dramas and (real) political machinations, though this time the back-stabbing is literal. The novel picks up after Julius Caesar is murdered in the Senate, as his nephew Octavius — with the help of his closest friend, Agrippa — fights to take control of the Roman Empire.
Also coming in 2026
Dear Debbie, by Freida McFadden; My Lover, the Rabbi, by Wayne Koestenbaum; Lake Effect, by Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney; See You on the Other Side, by Jay McInerney; Go Gentle, by Maria Semple; Dey, by Edwidge Danticat; Dominion, by Jean Kwok; American Hagwon, by Min Jin Lee; Exit Party, by Emily St. John Mandel; The Radiance, by Ayad Akhtar; The Pirate Queen, by Ariel Lawhon; Music Against the Night, by Yiyun Li; Victorious, by V.E. Schwab; Luna, Phoenix, Queen, by Julie Orringer; Every Story Is a Love Story, by Imbolo Mbue; The Disappearers, by Marlon James; Ply, by Hernan Diaz.
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