March
historical fiction
The Beheading Game
by Rebecca Lehmann
Anne Boleyn is dead; long live Anne Boleyn. In Lehmann’s playful revision of history, Henry VIII’s second wife wakes up in a box after her execution, sews her head back on with a needle and thread and gets down to the business of assuring her daughter Elizabeth’s ascendance to the throne.
Literary fiction
The Complex
by Karan Mahajan
Mahajan follows the descendants of an Indian politician in his new novel, a sweeping tale of political machinations, family drama, betrayal and social transformation. Among the scions is Laxman Chopra, a hapless businessman who struts and frets his way onto the national stage by joining the far right.
Literary Fiction
A Good Person
by Kirsten King
A misanthropic and possibly alcoholic 29-year-old marketing manager named Lillian (read: not necessarily A Good Person) is doing her best to turn a bad situationship into a boyfriend when she is abruptly dumped. Days after their ugly breakup, the man turns up dead, stabbed outside a bar. Did she manifest his end?
thriller
The Keeper
by Tana French
In the third and final volume of French’s detective series starring Cal Hooper, a young woman’s drowning brings to light the ugliest secrets of a small town in western Ireland. Longstanding feuds and rivalries implicate nearly everyone in the search for the truth behind her death.
family drama
Lake Effect
by Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney
Rochester, N.Y., circa 1977: beef Wellington on the dinner table, “The Joy of Sex” stashed on a high bookshelf. Then a love affair between neighbors introduces a wrecking ball, leading to two divorces and a remarriage; the effects of that rift play out over the next several decades.
Horror
Nothing Tastes as Good
by Luke Dumas
In this thriller with shades of “The Substance,” an overweight retail worker named Emmett enrolls in a clinical trial for an extreme new weight loss drug. He sheds pounds at lightning speed, and just as quickly his career and romantic prospects improve — but he must decide if he can live with one notable side effect: an overwhelming craving for human flesh.
historical 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.
romance
Star Shipped
by Cat Sebastian
A beloved stalwart of historical romance, Sebastian turns her attention to this century with her first contemporary novel, about rival co-stars on a science fiction TV show. While the carriages and Rolodexes of her previous work may have been replaced by hot rods and cellphones, her trademarks remain: a tender grumpy-sunshine slow burn, queer joy and oodles of yearning (plus an emotional support dog).
literary fiction
Whidbey
by T Kira Madden
In Madden’s literary thriller, a series of women each grapple with the repercussions of abuse. As their stories weave together, Whidbey explores how past crimes echo into the present, altering the lives of everyone.
April
FRIENDSHIP 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.
mystery
The Ending Writes Itself
by Evelyn Clarke
The author V.E. Schwab and the screenwriter Cat Clarke teamed up, under the pseudonym Evelyn Clarke, to pen this meta murder mystery. Six struggling authors are summoned to a private island in Scotland and challenged to ghostwrite the final chapter of a thriller left unfinished by a beloved author.
literary fiction
Ghost Town
by Tom Perrotta
Jimmy Perrini, a 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.
FRIENDSHIP FICTION
Love by the Book
by Jessica George
This is a classic romance novel with a twist: The couple is completely platonic. As two women learn to lean on each other while navigating the ups and downs of their 30s, George makes the case that friendship is the most important relationship of all.
literary fiction
No Way Home
by T.C. Boyle
Things go from bad to worse for a Los Angeles doctor who’s returned to his small Nevada hometown to sort though his dead mother’s estate. Though a cafe meet-cute with a local woman at first promises respite from his grief, the relationship soon morphs into a nightmarish love triangle.
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. The plan goes awry when he breaks his phone, but it leads to an enigmatic conversation on manhood and parenting.
THRILLER
A Violent Masterpiece
by Jordan Harper
In the dark, grimy underbelly of Los Angeles, three unlikely people — a defense attorney, a live-streaming influencer and a concierge to the fantastically rich — join forces to investigate a serial killer.
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.
literary fiction
The Witch
by Marie NDiaye; translated by Jordan Stump
For generations, the women in Lucie’s family have suppressed their witchcraft to placate overbearing men. When Lucie defies her husband and introduces her twin daughters to their heritage, the girls’ powers prove too potent to contain.
thriller
Yesteryear
by Caro Claire Burke
Natalie, a tradwife influencer with six children and millions of followers, doesn’t mind that her idyllic, illusory farmhouse lifestyle is essentially a reality show, facilitated by nannies, producers and the like. Then one morning she wakes up and finds herself in the mid-19th century — and her cosplay life becomes a gritty, grueling reality.
May
science fiction
Babylon, South Dakota
by Tom Lin
A Chinese couple living on a 160-acre homestead in South Dakota begins to notice bizarre and mysterious happenings after the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers builds a nuclear missile site nearby.
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 during the Great Depression.
COMING-OF-AGE
Ghalen
by Walter Mosley
In Mosley’s latest novel — both a love story and a coming-of-age tale — Ghalen, the gifted son of a driven scientist and a gentle restaurant cook, navigates the choppy waters of adolescence.
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’s oldest friend, George — the Laurie to her Jo — drags her along on her prepaid honeymoon anyway. Once they’re alone, he enacts a five-stage plan to help assuage her heartbreak; but the more time the two spend together, the harder it becomes to deny their un-platonic feelings.
science fiction
Radiant Star
by Ann Leckie
In this standalone space opera, Leckie returns to her futuristic Radch empire. 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 will be granted this honor disrupts the entire city.
ROMANTASY
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. Though she’s not told who will win the matchup, she is tipped off that an impending romance could determine her fate.
Fantasy
The Tapestry of Fate
by Shannon Chakraborty
Chakraborty’s follow-up to “The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi” finds the swashbuckling pirate queen balancing single motherhood with treasure hunting, tracking down esoteric artifacts for a council of immortals. But when Raksh, the devilish spirit who happens to be her new husband, angers the council, they retaliate by sending Amina to an enchanted island for her most dangerous mission yet.
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.
The post 32 Novels We’re Excited About This Spring appeared first on New York Times.
