Fiction Books We Can’t Wait to Read in 2026

From Charleen Hurtubise, Saoirse is a rich literary narrative layered with drama and suspense. When Sarah was a teenager, she fled the traumas of her childhood, leaving Michigan behind to reinvent herself in Donegal, Ireland. Years later, she’s Saoirse, with a lovely family and a promising career as an artist. But when her paintings catch on, Saoirse finds herself in the public eye — and worries that the secrets of her past will be exposed. “Audacious and propulsive, a story that surges with emotional vitality — this is a dazzling novel” (Colin Walsh, author of Kala). 

Publication date: February 24, 2026

Amy Jo Burns, author of Mercury, returns this year with a lyrical new narrative about a famous folk singer, a young musician, and the music that connects them across the years. Elle Harlow was a shining star of 1970s Nashville, spellbinding fans from the Grand Ole Opry stage before vanishing without a trace. Nearly two decades later, 18-year-old Marijohn Shaw spends her summer working at the gas station, plucking out songs on her broken mandolin and yearning for a mother she never knew. Marijohn’s father swears he was the last person to see Elle Harlow before she disappeared. But when an otherworldly event unearths surprising pieces of Elle’s past, Marijohn is compelled to revisit everything she thought she knew about herself and the music she holds dear. Wait for Me is “a soul-stirring marvel” (Paula McLain, author of The Paris Wife).

Publication date: March 3, 2026

Edgar Award winner Caitlin Mullen’s compelling new mystery is sure to keep you turning the pages this summer. In 1994, 16-year-old Sabrina carries on an affair with a mysterious older man in the woods of the New Jersey Pine Barrens, while her twin sister, Annabelle, strives to figure out what’s going on with her sibling. Then both sisters go missing. Years later, Detective Callie Hauser reopens the cold case after events in the present churn up dark secrets about the unsolved disappearance. “Heather is the rare book that manages to be both a riveting page-turner and a deeply insightful meditation on the lives of girls and women” (Alexis Schaitkin, author of Saint X and Elsewhere).

Publication date: June 9, 2026

Tess is getting married. Again. Warren, her soon-to-be husband, is on his way to becoming a senator and is nothing like her ex, Peter. Tess wouldn’t mind showing Peter just how well she’s doing, so she invites him to the well-heeled wedding. Peter, a working-class artist at least a few tax brackets below Tess’s lot, is surprised to receive the invitation. It’s been years since he’s even seen his ex, and he’s moved on, too. So why not bring a plus one to the wedding? But when handsome Mitch agrees to accompany Peter to his ex’s wedding, sparks fly — igniting desire not only between Mitch and Peter, but Mitch and Tess, and Tess and Peter. A love triangle for the ages, Kat Stoddard’s Wasp’s Nest is a sharp, humorous, and heartfelt look at love, both modern and messy.

Publication date: June 30, 2026

From celebrated Brazilian writer Raphael Montes, the internationally bestselling thriller The Secret Dinner is receiving its highly anticipated English-language release this year. Dante, Piglet, Miguel, and Hugo are childhood friends from rural Brazil, doing what they can to keep up their new city lives in Copacabana, Rio. But when rent prices spike, their part-time jobs no longer cut it, so the four young students hatch a plan to make the money they need. Plunging into a sinister new world, they begin hosting high-priced and extremely exclusive dinner parties for Rio’s elite, seeking to satisfy their guests’ twisted appetites.... 

Publication date: August 4, 2026

Kevin Wade delivered a propulsive crime novel with 2025’s Johnny Careless. This year, the veteran screenwriter and Blue Bloods showrunner returns with One Good Eye, the next installment in his Jeep Mullane series. The new narrative finds Jeep investigating a baffling case at Jenny Racine’s Long Island estate. Jenny, a longtime friend and now a famous entrepreneur, was violently assaulted in a home invasion. Determined, Jeep sets off to discover who attacked her, wending his way through Long Island’s dark and dangerous criminal underbelly on a personal mission for revenge. 

Publication date: August 11, 2026

Booker Prize–winning author George Saunders returns this year with his highly anticipated new novel. Oil company CEO K. J. Boone has led a bold and brazen life. Now, as that life approaches its final hours, he finds himself with plenty of company — both living and dead. Among the visitors is Jill “Doll” Blaine, a spectral figure whose job is to escort him into the afterlife. Boone is different than her previous charges, though, because this one lived a successful life, seemingly devoid of regret. Will Boone’s outlook alter as they make their way to the other side? In Vigil, Saunders delves into the deep waters of capitalism, greed, and absolution with his signature sparkling imagination.

Publication date: January 27, 2026

A whodunit meets The Bear in Rebecca Kauffman’s restaurant mystery, The Reservation. When 22 rib eye steaks go missing from Aunt Orsa’s fine-dining establishment on the day it’s set to host a particularly notable booking — a famous author’s dinner party — Orsa must smoke out the culprit, all while running her restaurant. First, a slew of nasty online reviews, and now this? Orsa can’t help but think someone’s out to get her. Witty and clever, and featuring a cast of vibrant characters, The Reservation dishes up a thrillingly delectable tale.

Publication date: February 24, 2026

Acclaimed thriller author Jo Nesbø takes a dual-timeline approach to his gripping new narrative, Wolf Hour, which hits American shelves this year. In Minneapolis, Minnesota, 2016, suspended police officer Bob Oz spirals into obsession over Tomas Gomez — a suspected serial killer with gang connections. Fast-forward six years: A Norwegian crime writer travels to the U.S. to research the Gomez case for a new book. But with his own ties to Minneapolis, his motivations may be more complex than they initially appeared. Twisty, smart, and totally propulsive, Wolf Hour is “exquisitely plotted, darkly funny” (Publishers Weekly).

Publication date: February 3, 2026

Amitav Ghosh, bestselling author of the Ibis Trilogy, is back this summer with Ghost-Eye. The new novel splits time between 1960s Calcutta and modern-day Brooklyn. In Calcutta, when 3-year-old Varsha Gupta says she wants fish for lunch, her family — staunch vegetarians — are confused. But Varsha insists that she remembers eating fish in her last life, when she lived by the river. And so Varsha ends up as a subject in Dr. Shoma Bose’s study on “cases of the reincarnation type.” Decades later, Varsha’s case becomes the subject of fascination for a group of activists, and Shoma’s nephew, Dinu, ends up searching for Varsha while uprooting a forgotten past of his own.

Publication date: June 16, 2026

Witty, bold, and original, Nina McConigley’s debut novel, How to Commit a Postcolonial Murder, is “a fierce and marvelous book with an utterly unique, brightly burning life force” (Maggie Shipstead, author of Great Circle). In the summer of 1986, sisters Georgie Ayyar and Agatha Krishna open their Wyoming home to their aunt, uncle, and cousin, who have just arrived from India. Unfortunately, their uncle is not good for the family’s home life, so the sisters figure it’s best if he dies. This is all the fault of the British, if you ask Georgie, and to understand why, you’ll need to hear her family’s story. 

Publication date: January 20, 2026