There’s been plenty to keep bookworms busy in 2026, with buzzy debuts, bestselling authors returning with new work and plenty of unexpected page-turners joining the shelves. Whether you’re after a gripping family drama, a swoony romance, a fantastical escape or a thought-provoking work of non-fiction, you’re in the right place to find your next read.
Polly Barton’s What Am I, a Deer? is an offbeat, obsessive debut about reinvention, romance and karaoke, while Hannah Mathewson’s The Age of Blood and Magic brings together billionaires, vampires and a vicious succession battle. Madeline Cash’s Lost Lambs follows three sisters whose fascination with a corrupt billionaire takes them somewhere increasingly dark, while Madeleine Dunnigan’s debut, Jean, is a queer coming-of-age story set in a boys’ boarding school in the 1970s. If you loved Asako Yuzuki’s viral read, Butter, you’ll be thrilled to learn that the author has returned this year with Hooked, an unsettling exploration of friendship and obsession.
There’s plenty of compelling non-fiction among this year’s releases, too. Belle Burden’s memoir Strangers chronicles the breakdown of her marriage after her husband’s affair; Patrick Radden Keefe – author of Empire of Pain – turns his attention to the mysterious death of a 19-year-old boy in London in London Falling. Plus, who could forget Caro Claire Burke’s Yesteryear, which takes a sharp look at the trad wife phenomenon.
Of course, 2026 isn’t finished yet. Barbara Kingsolver’s Partita, her first novel since Demon Copperhead, is still to come, while fans of Sarah J Maas’s A Court of Thorns and Roses have even more to look forward to, with two new books in the series announced for October this year and January 2027.
Alongside the IndyBest team, we’ve read dozens of this year’s new releases to separate the books worth making time for from those you can safely leave on the shelf. Keep scrolling for all the details.
The best new books to read are:
- Best overall – Yesteryear by Claire Caro Burke, published by Fourth Estate: £8.49, Amazon.co.uk
- Best debut – The Age of Blood and Magic by Hannah Mathewson, published by HarperCollins: £13.99, Amazon.co.uk
- Best historical fiction – 'The Shock of The Light' by Lori Inglis Hall, published by The Borough Press: £14.90, Amazon.co.uk
- Best family saga – 'Lost Lambs' by Madeline Cash, published by Doubleday: £14.90, Amazon.co.uk
Read more: I’ve already read some of 2026’s biggest book releases – these are the four to look out for
'Yesteryear' by Claire Caro Burke, published by Fourth Estate
Rating: 5/5
Best: new book overall
Release date: 9 April 2026
Genre: Thriller/satire
The movie rights for Caro Claire Burke’s debut novel Yesteryear have already been snapped up in an 11-way bidding war, won by Anne Hathaway, who will star in the leading role. This comes as no surprise, with the zeitgeisty story tackling some of our biggest online conversations: influencer culture, trad wives, conservative religion and feminism. Part psychological thriller and part social satire, it’s twisty and page-turning with a protagonist you’ll simultaneously loathe and root for.
It follows “trad wife” influencer called Natalie, whose life mirrors the real-life Hannah Neeleman – aka @ballerinafarm – on Instagram. She lives on a farm, broadcasting sourdough tutorials to her millions of followers, while homeschooling her litter of children, flirting with her cowboy partner and preaching the benefits of a traditional, rustic, rural life.
Just like the commentary surrounding Neeleman, Natalie’s reality is far more fickle. There are hidden nannies, social media assistants and farm hands who cover for her hapless husband. Then, one day, she wakes up transported back in time to 1805, where she’s forced to live the image of a “simple” settler life, just as she curated on Instagram. Burke’s clever time-travelling twist, paired with flashbacks to Natalie’s earlier life, keeps you gripped, constantly surprised and thought-provoked. It’s no doubt the book of the summer.
Buy now £16.99, Amazon.co.uk
'The Age of Blood and Magic' by Hannah Mathewson, published by HarperCollins
Rating: 5/5
Best: debut
Release date: 10 September 2026
Genre: Urban fantasy
Imagine a world where magic has become big business, with spells programmed using AI, patented by corporations and turned into products you can buy, and you’re somewhere close to the wonderfully bonkers premise of Hannah Mathewson’s The Age of Blood and Magic.
When Valentina Maddock’s father, the billionaire founder of magic empire Mythos, falls into a coma, she returns to the family estate expecting grief, only to discover that there’s an even bigger problem. With no named successor, she and her half-brother Jude are suddenly fighting over control of the company, just as Mythos prepares to launch its most lucrative product yet: a tonic promising immortality.
Then there’s Luc, a mysterious vampire who arrives at the family’s weekend gathering with rather more interest in Valentina than she’d like. All of these elements combined make for a vicious mix of family rivalry, corporate greed, ancient magic and increasingly questionable alliances.
I particularly enjoyed the way Mathewson takes the language of tech start-ups and luxury brands and applies it to magic, making Mythos’s supernatural inventions feel eerily close to our own reality. It’s bloody, twisty and much stranger (in a good way) than its opening premise suggests.
Reviewed by Lucy Smith
Buy now £13.99, Amazon.co.uk
'The Shock of The Light' by Lori Inglis Hall, published by The Borough Press
Rating: 5/5
Best: war novel
Release date: 12 February 2026
Genre: Historical fiction
Lori Inglis Hall’s debut, The Shock of The Light, explores the emotional impact of World War Two on two siblings. It’s an emotional sucker punch of a novel. The story traces the idyllic upbringing of twins Tessa and Theo and their respective studies in Paris and Cambridge, before the outbreak of war changed their lives forever. Theo enlists in the RAF and is posted to North Africa before heading to France. Feeling frustrated at secretarial desk work in London, Tessa joins the SOE (Special Operations Executive) and is parachuted into occupied France.
Hall expertly weaves the personal tragedies and lives of the siblings with wartime history, from Theo’s D-Day mission and PTSD to Tessa’s experience as a woman behind enemy lines. As the afterword reveals, real-life betrayals, accounts of agents and horrors of wartime occupation influenced the book. The novel is particularly illuminating on female SOE agents – just 39 of the 407 SOE agents in France were women, and many of their stories haven’t been told. The novel takes us right up to the 21st century, where the reverberations of the Second World War are still playing out. It’s a devastating and masterfully told novel.
Buy now £18.99, Amazon.co.uk
'Lost Lambs' by Madeline Cash, published by Doubleday
Rating: 5/5
Best: Family saga
Release date: 5 February 2026
Genre: Satire
Garnering early praise from Lena Dunham and Megan Nolan, Madeline Cash’s novel Lost Lambs is among 2026’s buzziest debuts. Combining a comic and wry tone with quirky characters that would be right at home in a Wes Anderson movie, it lives up to the hype. The slightly surrealist story follows the three Flynn daughters as they navigate the fallout of their parents opening up their marriage. The eldest, Abigail, is dating an older ex-solider nicknamed “war crimes Wes”; the middle-child, Louise, is accidentally entangled with a terrorist online; and the youngest, Harper, has been sent to a kids’ reform camp for sleuthing on the town’s corrupt citizens (and her own family).
But it’s a domestic comedy with darkness at its heart. Paul Alabaster, the elusive and evil local billionaire, is as corrupt as his critics say. And, thanks to Harper never knowing when to quit, the Flynn’s become embroiled in a corporate conspiracy caper. Exploring everything from grooming and religion to the online world and tech-bro culture, Cash’s novel is a wild ride – but, at its core, it’s about a family coming together against all odds. If you devoured Paul Murray’s family saga, The Bee Sting, you’ll love this similarly wacky and wonderful tale.
Buy now £16.99, Amazon.co.uk
'John of John' by Douglas Stuart, published by Picador
Rating: 5/5
Best: for father-son relationships
Release day: 21 May 2026
Genre: Queer fiction
Douglas Stuart, famed for titles including Young Mungo and Booker Prize winning Shuggie Bain, takes us away from the streets of Glasgow and out to the rugged Hebrides, to the isle of Harris for his latest novel, John of John.
The novel tells the story of Cal, also known as John-Calumn Macleod, who leaves the mainland after struggling to establish a career in the arts and returns to his family’s croft on the isle of Harris. Cal struggles to slot back into his old life, keeping his sexuality a secret from his father John, a sheep farmer, weaver and like many on the island, a man with staunch Presbyterian values. It’s this father-son relationship that Stuart depicts so thoughtfully and tenderly, giving readers a masterclass in writing about complex masculine relationships.
Over the course of seven years, Stuart spent around 16 weeks in the Outer Hebrides researching the isolated landscape, its people and its heritage textile industry, and this becomes apparent when reading his vivid descriptions that completely transport you to the island and immerse you in Cal’s world.
Reviewed by Sabrina Sahota
Buy now £10.44, Amazon.co.uk
'I Want You to Be Happy' by Jem Calder, published by Faber & Faber
Rating: 4/5
Best: age-gap romance
Release date: 21 May 2026
Genre: Contemporary fiction
Following the age gap relationship of 35-year-old Chuck and 23-year-old Joey, I Want You To Be Happy is Jem Calder’s first novel.
The story follows the pair as their relationship from a chance pub meeting, to exploring the complications and insecurities that come with their 12-year age difference. Their lives look very different, with Chuck, an aspiring novelist turned copywriter, living in a luxury flat while Joey, a barista who dreams of making it as a poet, struggles to make ends meet in a cramped house-share.
The chapters rotate from each of their perspectives, giving an insight into how they both view the relationship, and each other, as things become increasingly complicated.
Reviewed by Lois Mackenzie
Buy now £11.54, Amazon.co.uk
'London Falling' by Patrick Radden Keefe, published by Picador
Rating: 5/5
Best: non-fiction new book release
Release date: 7 April 2026
Genre: Non-fiction
The award-winning New Yorker staff writer and author of Empire of Pain, Say Nothing and Rogues, Patrick Radden Keefe is back with his latest non-fiction epic, London Falling: A Mysterious Death in a Gilded City and a Family’s Search for the Truth. In keeping with his other critically acclaimed books, the story starts with a single incident: the mysterious death of 19-year-old Zac Brettler in London, after his fall from a luxury apartment building on the Thames.
What follows is a deep dive into everything from the sinister world of Russian oligarchs in London and what teenage boys get up to online, to the the expulsion of Asians from Uganda in 1972, the immigrant experience in the UK and fabricated identities. The book’s depiction of the shadowy London underworld of gangsters, police corruption and assassinations– the kind most of us Londoners can’t even imagine – is equally engrossing and horrifying.
Through meticulous research, interviews and conversations detailed word-for-word, London Falling recounts the investigation conducted by Zac’s parent’s after they suspect foul play involved in their son’s death. Recounting their disappointment with the lacklustre police investigation and court verdict, the book is above all a portrait of a parent’s grief. Keefe compellingly explores countless themes in London Falling, but what the reader remembers is the devastated family at the heart of it.
Buy now £22, Amazon.co.uk
‘The Renovation’ by Kenan Orhan, published by Penguin Books
Rating: 5/5
Best: surreal novel
Release date: 26 March 2026
Genre: Historial fiction
The Renovation is the touching story of Dilara, her anxious husband, and her father who is declining in health. After fleeing their home of Istanbul for Salerno, Italy, due to political repression, Dilara is shocked to discover her bathroom renovation has in fact been remodeled into a Turkish prison cell.
The story follows a beautiful exploration of exile, memory and the real meaning of home. After her husband flees and her father’s Alzheimer’s worsens, she finds herself becoming increasingly drawn to the cell. Speaking with guards and prisoners, it begins to reconnect her with the Turkey she left behind. All while her life in Italy increasingly feels like its own kind of confinement.
I was drawn in by The Renovation making the 2026 Booker Prize longlist, but stayed for the heartfelt story of Dilara and her family. If you enjoy surrealism mixed with literary fiction, you’ll love this unusual and moving debut from Orhan.
Reviewed by Lois Mackenzie
Buy now £15.26, Amazon.co.uk
'Hooked' by Asako Yuzuki, published by Fourth Estate
Rating: 4/5
Best: psychological thriller
Release date: 12 March 2026
Genre: Psychological thriller
Perhaps controversially, I enjoyed Asako Yuzuki’s second novel, Hooked, far more than her English-language debut, Butter. A psychological thriller with a social commentary bite, Hooked also explores similar themes of food, friendship, loneliness and the female experience in contemporary Japan. Butter’s yellow cover dominated social media in 2024 – just like the pink Hooked cover is set to do this summer.
The novel follows Eriko, an ambitious career woman, and Shoko, a housewife with a popular blog. Writing about her untidy home and eating meals from convenience stores, Shoko is the antithesis of a trad-wife. Her flaws appeal to Eriko, who projects the image of a perfectly manicured woman – in reality, she’s beset by loneliness. After Eriko tracks Shoko down at one of her favourite restaurants, the two strike up a friendship. But the power dynamic shifts when Eriko’s behaviour becomes increasingly erratic and obsessive.
The novel’s descriptions of food are a bit marmite – you’ll love them or find them dull – while the author’s analogy about an aggressive Nile perch fish that eats everything in its path feels over-egged at times. Hooked is an uncomfortable yet strangely gripping read – the characters are both intensely unlikable, and you might not feel good after finishing it, but it’s enjoyable and addictive nevertheless.
Buy now £14.99, Amazon.co.uk
'Half His Age' by Jennette McCurdy, published by Fourth Estate
Rating: 4/5
Best: daring debut
Release date: 20 January 2026
Genre: Literary fiction
If you enjoyed former child star-turned-bestselling author Jennette McCurdy’s memoir, I’m Glad My Mom Died, her debut novel is equally thought-provoking and shocking. Half His Age follows Waldo, a disillusioned 17-year-old high school student. Living with her single mum, who bounces from man to man and struggles to hold down a job, Waldo works in Victoria's Secret between school hours to sustain her online shopping addiction. Disillusioned with dating and disgusted by the boys in her year, Waldo becomes infatuated with her new creative writing teacher, Mr Korgy. A willing participant in Waldo’s misplaced desire, Mr Korgy is unhappy in his own way, mourning for the successful author career that never happened.
The uncomfortable age-gap relationship is gross yet gripping, while the author’s tone is darkly comic and witty. The pacing is excellent – I read it in just two sittings – and the themes of power, grooming, class, desire and loneliness are deftly explored. Just like McCurdy took ownership of her own “creepy” age-gap relationship and abusive mother, the author makes a salient point by giving Waldo such agency over the relationship and, eventually, how it ends. It’s not a groundbreaking novel, but it’s definitely a conversation starter and an important look at power dynamics.
Read our full review of Jennette McCurdy’s Half His Age
Buy now £16.99, Amazon.co.uk
‘What Am I, a Deer?’ by Polly Barton, published by Fitzcarraldo Editions
Rating: 4/5
Best: stream-of-consciousness novel
Release date: 9 April 2026
Genre: Literary fiction
Polly Barton’s ‘What Am I, a Deer?’ follows an unnamed woman as she moves to Frankfurt to take up a job with a famous games company.
Written in a stream-of-consciousness style, the novel takes us into the narrator’s inner thoughts, jumping between everything from observations and memories, to social anxieties and her fixation on karaoke. As she adapts to her new life in Frankfurt, we’re given a backdrop for musings on limerence, loneliness, relationships and the ways in which we navigate modern life. It’s beautifully written and, despite its more introspective style, a real joy to read.
If you prefer a straightforward plot, this might not be the book for you. But if you enjoy getting lost inside a character’s thoughts and exploring the messier side of the human experience, What Am I, a Deer? is definitely worth picking up.
Reviewed by Lois Mackenzie
Buy now £11.85, Amazon.co.uk
'The Things We Never Say' by Elizabeth Strout, published by Penguin
Rating: 4.5/5
Best: quietly powerful novel
Release date: 9 May 2026
Genre: Literary fiction
Thanks to beloved characters such as Olive Kitteridge and Lucy Barton, Elizabeth Strout has one of the most loyal literary audiences. Her latest novel is a standalone story, introducing a new character that I’m sure will be met with equal adoration. The Things We Never Say centres around Artie Dam, a high school history teacher in Maine – Strout’s favourite novel location – who is grappling with middle-age feelings of loneliness, isolation and despair. To his wife, colleagues and students, he appears full of life, spending his Saturday’s out sailing on his boat, while enjoying active socialising and a stable career. Beneath, he is beset by grief about the direction of his later life.
One day, a chance incident changes everything – and then a decade-long secret comes to light that forces Artie to revaluate everything he’s ever known. As with most of Strout’s work, it’s a quietly powerful novel: the kind that makes you reassess your own life in the process. Combining the personal (the father and son relationship is touching and beautiful) with the political (Trump America looms large in the background), it’s one of her most moving works to date.
Buy now £18.99, Amazon.co.uk
'Wants & Needs' by Roxy Dunn, published by Fig Tree
Rating: 4/5
Best: unconventional romance
Release date: 29 January 2026
Genre: Romance
Roxy Dunn’s follow-up to her debut, As Young As This (one of my favourite novels of 2024), Wants & Needs is an unconventional love story with comedic chops. The novel follows thirty-something Misty, who is recently single, on crutches after recovering from knee surgery and living back at home with her mother.
Reluctantly thrown back into the dating world, she’s forced to navigate the world of apps, where she’s soon drawn to the older, handsome, charismatic and intelligent Christopher. The catch? He’s married with a child and in an open relationship. Faced with undeniable chemistry, she decides to explore the ‘ethical non-monogamy' that Christopher is offering. Funny, witty and fact-paced, I tore through it on a Sunday afternoon.
Buy now £9.99, Amazon.co.uk
'Jean' by Madeleine Dunnigan, published by Daunt Books
Rating: 4.5/5
Best: coming-of-age story
Release date: 12 February 2026
Genre: Coming-of-age
Madeleine Dunnigan’s debut, Jean, is a searingly beautiful but brutal coming-of-age story. Set in the late seventies at a Sussex boarding school for troubled boys, 17-year-old Jean is in his final year with Marxist dreams of venturing to China. The son of a single mother who fled pre-war Europe, Jewish and on a scholarship, he’s an outsider and silent observer of his privileged classmates. Taking place over one hot English summer, Jean becomes increasingly entangled in an intense and intimate relationship with fellow boarder Tom.
Navigating adolescent love, desire and loss, the story flashes back to his upbringing in London’s hazy late sixties counter-culture. Looming large in the background is Jean’s fraught relationship with his mother, who is herself an outsider, and his penchant toward violence, which landed him in the school for delinquents. The story of an ostracised child at boarding school is familiar, but Dunnigan’s story of a teenager figuring out both his future and his past is immersive and compelling.
Reviewed by Daisy Lester
Buy now £9.95, Amazon.co.uk
'A Private Man' by Stephanie Sy-Quia, published by Orion
Rating: 5/5
Best: slow burn romance
Release date: 19 February 2026
Genre: Romance/literary fiction
Stephanie Sy-Quia’s beautiful debut novel is inspired by her own grandparents’ unique love story, unfolding between 1950s Rome, 1960s England and 21st-century France. The tender story follows David, a handsome and charming young priest, newly ordained and returning to England, sworn to lifelong celibacy. Margaret, meanwhile, is reeling from the end of an affair and has found faith later in life. With her feminist views and progressive outlook, she’s drawn to a forward-thinking Catholic school in Rome. Mid-century Rome and the post-war period are evocatively imagined in Sy-Quia’s writing, from Margaret’s liberating time studying and teaching as a theology teacher, to David’s Oxford years being interrupted by the Second World War.
Their lives soon become entangled at a Catholic college in a small English parish, where a meeting of minds turns into something more dangerous. In flash forwards to the present, Margaret is living with dementia, and her grandson is unearthing the long-buried story of his grandparents' forbidden love. A story of slow-burn romance, but also of hard-won friendship, the novel explores faith, duty and love. I couldn’t put it down.
Buy now £16.99, Amazon.co.uk
'Strangers' by Belle Burden, published by Ebury Press
Rating: 4/5
Best: marital memoir
Release date: 15 January 2026
Genre: Memoir
The Covid pandemic was a catalyst for many things, including pushing relationships to their logical conclusions, with couples moving in together and getting engaged having known one another for just a few months. Or, in the case of Belle Burden’s husband, leaving his wife of 22 years and their three children to lock down with a younger woman.
Almost too aware of her privilege, Burden comes from a long line of moguls: her father the politician, her grandmother the socialite and one-time ‘swan’ of Truman Capote. Once you crack through the over-wrought osprey analogies, this ludicrously compelling memoir - at times salacious, then moving - goes to show that no amount of holiday homes on Martha’s Vineyard will protect your heart from a cheating deadbeat husband.
Reviewed by Samuel Mathewson
Buy now £14.75, Amazon.co.uk
What are the best new novels to read in 2026?
Claire Caro Burke’s trad-wife expose, Yesteryear, is a pacy, twisty and thought provoking read – it’s shot to the top of bestseller lists for good reason. For something altogether darker, Hannah Mathewson’s The Age of Blood and Magic is a wildly entertaining, sharply satirical read that throws vampires into its outrageous premise and runs with it. Lost Lambs by Madeline Cash lives up to the hype – it’s funny yet strangely moving, with some of the best characters you’ll read this year. Two works of historical fiction that are well worth adding to your book pile, The Shock of the Light is an emotional and illuminating read, while A Private Man is a quiet and gentle love story, set against the backdrop of religion and duty.
Why you can trust IndyBest reviews
Daisy Lester was previously IndyBest’s senior shopping writer, and specialises in reviewing books, and has her finger on the pulse when it comes to new releases from both debut authors and acclaimed writers. Daisy knows what makes a gripping, moving or important story, whether it’s a romantic comedy or historical drama. Alongside the IndyBest team she has reviewed books across every genre, from satire to mystery and crime, so there will be a book for every taste in her roundups.
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