January
Nonfiction
The Showman: The Inside Story of the Invasion That Shook the World and Made a Leader of Volodymyr Zelensky by Simon Shuster (William Collins)
Having gained remarkable access to the Ukrainian president over the course of the Russian invasion, Time correspondent Shuster explains the character and motivations of the actor turned war hero.
Not the End of the World: How We Can Be the First Generation to Build a Sustainable Planet by Hannah Ritchie (Chatto & Windus)
Is there any room for hope amid the doom-laden headlines about the environment? Emphatically yes, argues data scientist Ritchie in a book Margaret Atwood has called “truly essential”.
I Seek a Kind Person: My Father, Seven Children and the Adverts That Helped Them Escape the Holocaust by Julian Borger (John Murray)
As the threat of invasion loomed over Vienna, Julian Borger’s Jewish grandparents placed an ad searching for a family in England to take care of their son. The Guardian journalist tells his father’s story and those of seven other children in the same situation.
Blood: The Science, Medicine and Mythology of Menstruation by Dr Jennifer Gunter (Piatkus)
Gunter’s war on misinformation about women’s health has won her legions of fans. Here she turns her eye to periods.
Missing Persons, Or My Grandmother’s Secrets by Clair Wills (Allen Lane)
The discovery of a secret cousin, born into one of Ireland’s notorious “mother and baby homes”, is the catalyst for this moving social and personal history that takes in three generations of women.
Empireworld: How British Imperialism Has Shaped the Globe by Sathnam Sanghera (Viking)
The Times columnist and author of Empireland returns with an examination of the seismic effect of the British empire on culture, laws and religion across the world.
Survivors: The Lost Stories of the Last Captives of the American Slave Trade by Hannah Durkin (William Collins)
The Clotilda was the last ship to sail as part of the Atlantic slave trade, arriving in Mobile, Alabama in July 1860. Historian Durkin traces the fates of its kidnapped passengers, many of whom lived well into the 20th century.
What Iranians Want: Women, Life, Freedom by Arash Azizi (Oneworld)
The death in 2022 of Mahsa Amini, a young woman arrested for contravening Iran’s strict religious dress codes, sparked domestic protests and international solidarity. Azizi attempts to explain the movement that grew in the wake of her killing.
Fiction
Wild Houses by Colin Barrett (Jonathan Cape)
The acclaimed short-story writer’s long-awaited debut novel explores a violent and farcical clash between small-town Irish drug dealers.
Day by Michael Cunningham (4th Estate)
The first novel in a decade from the author of The Hours follows the fortunes of a family across the pandemic.
My Friends by Hisham Matar (Viking)
Friendship and exile between three Libyans, in a meditation on displacement and the meaning of home from the author of The Return.
Come and Get It by Kiley Reid (Bloomsbury)
The campus novel follow-up to Such a Fun Age dramatises young women’s attitudes to race, money and success.
The Vulnerables by Sigrid Nunez (Virago)
Three strangers – a writer, a gen Z drop-out and a parrot called Eureka – come together in a Manhattan apartment during the pandemic in the latest novel from the author of The Friend.
The Gallopers by Jon Ransom (Muswell Press)
The Whale Tattoo took 2023’s Polari first book prize for LGBTQ+ publishing; this new novel moves from Norfolk in the 1950s to London during the Aids epidemic.
February
Nonfiction
Keir Starmer: The Biography by Tom Baldwin (William Collins)
An authorised biography by the former journalist and political adviser to Ed Miliband, this portrait is an attempt to flesh out Starmer’s life and political formation in the run-up to a general election.
Alphabetical Diaries by Sheila Heti (Fitzcarraldo)
Like many writers, Heti, author of the novels Motherhood and Pure Colour, keeps a journal. More unusually, she fed approximately 500,000 words of it into a spreadsheet and arranged all the sentences in alphabetical order. The result is a unique and strangely poetic memoir.
Hits, Flops, and Other Illusions: My Fortysomething Years in Hollywood by Ed Zwick (Gallery)
Movie and TV mogul Ed Zwick discovered Brad Pitt, Matt Damon and Denzel Washington; projects he’s worked on have racked up 18 Oscar nominations. The ultimate insider takes us behind the scenes of a cutthroat business.
How the World Made the West: A 4,000-Year History by Josephine Quinn (Bloomsbury)
We’re used to thinking about the past in terms of the rise and fall of “civilisations”, but connection and cross-fertilisation are what give rise to cultures, and “the west” is no exception.
American Mother by Colum McCann and Diane Foley (Bloomsbury)
Working with Irish novelist McCann, Diane Foley, mother of the murdered journalist James Foley, recounts the desperate story of his capture in Syria in 2014,efforts to secure his release, his public execution and its aftermath.
The Ladder: Life Lessons from Women Who Scaled the Heights (& Dodged the Snakes) by Cathy Newman (William Collins)
The Channel 4 News presenter gleans insights from a series of remarkable women, including former first minister Nicola Sturgeon, the first black female bishop Rose Hudson-Wilkin and fellow broadcaster Joan Bakewell.
Maurice and Maralyn by Sophie Elmhirst (Chatto & Windus)
An extraordinary account of the 70s suburban couple who decided to set sail for New Zealand only for their boat to be struck by a whale. They survived 118 days on a rubber raft before being rescued.
Fiction
Pity by Andrew McMillan (Canongate)
The award-winning poet’s debut novel follows three generations of a South Yorkshire mining family, to examine class, sexuality and masculinity.
My Heavenly Favourite by Lucas Rijneveld, translated by Michele Hutchison (Faber)
The Discomfort of Evening won the 2020 International Booker: this is a second taboo-breaking novel, in which a vet’s obsession with a young teenager has chilling consequences.
What Will Survive of Us by Howard Jacobson (Cape)
The Booker winner on love in later life.
Burma Sahib by Paul Theroux (Hamish Hamilton)
In this fictional retelling, George Orwell’s years as a colonial policeman in Burma are key to his political and literary development.
Parasol Against the Axe by Helen Oyeyemi (Faber)
This hen-do adventure is a love letter to Prague.
The Lodgers by Holly Pester (Granta)
A sharp fable about precarious living from the poet.
Vladivostok Circus by Elisa Shua Dusapin, translated by Aneesa Abbas Higgins (Daunt)
A young woman arrives on the Russian coast to design costumes for acrobats, in the latest novel from the author of Winter in Sokcho.
The Physics of Sorrow by Georgi Gospodinov, translated by Angela Rodel (W&N)
Published alongside a memoir, an early novel about communism, family and memory from the Bulgarian winner of the 2023 International Booker prize.
March
Nonfiction
Who’s Afraid of Gender? by Judith Butler (Allen Lane)
The influential American theorist examines the ways gender has become both a political bogeyman and a liberatory framework for understanding ourselves.
A Very Private School by Charles Spencer (William Collins)
The author and brother of Diana, Princess of Wales looks back at the moment, aged 8, when he was sent to boarding school – an indelible trauma that affected the rest of his life.
The Price of Life: In Search of What We’re Worth and Who Decides by Jenny Kleeman (Picador)
The author of Sex Robots & Vegan Meat returns with an examination of the “final frontier of monetization”, whether it’s the $15,000 it costs to hire a hitman or the six-figure price-tag attached to a baby born via IVF.
Revolutionary Acts: Love & Brotherhood in Black Gay Britain by Jason Okundaye
(Faber)
At the height of the Aids pandemic, few were interested in hearing the stories of black gay men. A generation later, journalist Okundaye has talked to the survivors, chronicling the grief and gossip, the politics and partying.
The Summer We Crossed Europe in the Rain: Lyrics for Stacey by Kent Kazuo Ishiguro (Faber)
After Ishiguro chose a Stacey Kent track as one of his Desert Island Discs, the jazz singer invited him to write lyrics for her. They collaborated on 16 songs, reproduced here, with an introduction by the Nobel laureate.
Why We Remember by Charan Ranganath (Doubleday)
Psychology professor Ranganath debunks myths about the nature of memoryand teaches us how to better utilise our attention in order to remember more.
The House of Hidden Meanings: A Memoir by RuPaul (4th Estate)
The presenter of Drag Race tells a story of success against the odds, from an upbringing amid poverty to a world-dominating TV franchise.
Fiction
Until August by Gabriel García Márquez, translated by Anne McLean (Viking)
A married woman takes a new lover on one day every year, in the “lost” novel from the late Latin American Nobel laureate.
Mona of the Manor by Armistead Maupin (Doubleday)
The 10th instalment of the much-loved Tales of the City series moves to England, with a comedy of manners set in a country house.
Wandering Stars by Tommy Orange (Harvill Secker)
From a 19th-century massacre to a 21st-century tragedy, this saga of a Native American community includes characters from the debut There There.
Woman, Life, Freedom by Marjane Satrapi et al, translated by Una Dimitrijevic (Seven Stories)
Artists, activists and journalists collaborate to depict the protests in Iran for women’s rights following the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, in a graphic novel brought together by the author of Persepolis.
Prima Facie by Suzie Miller (Hutchinson Heinemann)
The playwright novelises her award-winning hit drama about a gifted young barrister running up against the patriarchy of the legal system.
The Silver Bone by Andrey Kurkov, translated by Boris Dralyuk (MacLehose)
The first in a series of mysteries set in Kyiv after the first world war, from the author of Death and the Penguin.
The Last Murder at the End of the World by Stuart Turton (Bloomsbury)
Another high-concept murder mystery, this time set on an island protected from global apocalypse, from the author of The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle.
Before the Queen Falls Asleep by Huzama Habayeb, translated by Kay Heikkinen (MacLehose)
A novel about patriarchy, exile and the experience of being a refugee from an award-winning Palestinian writer.
Family Politics by John O’Farrell (Doubleday)
More gentle political comedy from the author of Things Can Only Get Better, as the son of a high-profile leftwing couple comes out – as a Conservative.
Children
A Drop of Golden Sun by Kate Saunders (Faber)
The final book from the author of Five Children on the Western Front, who died this year, is inspired by child actors in The Sound of Music.
Where the Heart Should Be by Sarah Crossan (Bloomsbury)
Love and tragedy during Ireland’s Great Hunger.
April
Nonfiction
Knife by Salman Rushdie (Vintage)
The Booker prize-winning author, victim of an assasination attempt in 2022, gives his own account of the attack and its fallout.
Me and Mr Jones: My Life with David Bowie and the Spiders from Mars by Suzi Ronson (Faber)
After designing Ziggy Stardust’s hairdo, stylist Ronson joins Bowie on tour and meets her future husband, Mick, alongside musical luminaries Iggy Pop, Bob Dylan and Lou Reed.
Ten Years to Save the West by Liz Truss (Biteback)
Britain’s shortest-serving prime minister is back with a warning that the “adoption of fashionable ideas propagated by the global left” threatens civilisation as we know it.
Another England: A New Story of Who We Are and Who We Can Be by Caroline Lucas (Hutchinson Heinemann)
Westminster’s first green MP tries to rescue England’s national story from jingoism, articulating a vision of Englishness that puts “the Chartists and the Levellers in their rightful places alongside Nelson and Churchill”.
An African History of Africa: From the Dawn of Civilisation to Independence by Zeinab Badawi (WH Allen)
The journalist, and president of Soas University of London, visits more than 30 African countries to trace the sprawling history of the continent from the dawn of humanity to cultural flourishing, colonisation and independence.
A Body Made of Glass: A History of Hypochondria by Caroline Crampton (Granta)
Diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma at the age of 17, Crampton spent much of her adult life anticipating its return. She weaves that experience into a fascinating history of health anxiety, from Hippocrates to Dr Google.
Sociopath: A Memoir by Patric Gagne (Bluebird)
Sociopaths are rarely this introspective, but Gagne earned a PhD trying to understand why she and others like her struggle to feel fear, guilt or empathy.
Tahirah and Mary by Mishal Husain (4th Estate)
The Today programme presenter tells the story of her Indian grandparents and how the seismic political shifts of the mid-20th-century marked their lives.
Rebel Rising by Rebel Wilson (HarperCollins)
The first memoir from the Australian film star addresses her insecurities, body image and sexuality, promising to show us “how to love ourselves, while making us laugh uncontrollably”.
Fiction
Caledonian Road by Andrew O’Hagan (Faber)
A celebrity art historian is beguiled by his student in a state-of-the nation panorama about class and privilege built around one man’s fall.
James by Percival Everett (Mantle)
The Booker shortlistee reimagines Adventures of Huckleberry Finn from the point of view of Huck’s travelling companion – the runaway slave, Jim.
You Are Here by David Nicholls (Sceptre)
Two lonely people take a walk across the English countryside in a new love story from the author of Us.
The Spoiled Heart by Sunjeev Sahota (Harvill Secker)
Issues of long-buried secrets and community cohesion in a family mystery centred around a trade unionist living on the edge of the Peak District.
The Morningside by Téa Obreht (W&N)
In the near future, a young refugee living in a crumbling luxury tower block is entranced by folktales of her lost homeland.
Choice by Neel Mukherjee (Atlantic)
A publisher, an academic, and a family in rural India: three linked narratives about morality, free will and unintended consequences.
Poetry
Joy in Service on Rue Tagore by Paul Muldoon (Faber)
The Irish poet’s 15th collection ranges from Imperial Rome to wolves in Ulster to Ukraine.
May Day by Jackie Kay (Picador)
A collection drawing on six decades of activism.
May
Nonfiction
The Diaries of Mr Lucas: Notes from a Lost Gay Life by Hugo Greenhalgh (Atlantic)
George Lucas, a respectable civil servant, was also a criminal – at least until the Sexual Offences Act of 1967 made homosexuality legal. His “deliciously indiscreet” diaries, left in 2014 to journalist Hugo Greenhalgh, paint a vivid portrait of a now vanished world.
The Garden Against Time by Olivia Laing (Picador)
The author of The Lonely City and Crudo tackles the history of the garden in her inimitable style, weaving the historical, political and personal. The result is a “humming, glowing tapestry”.
Naked Portrait: A Memoir of Lucian Freud by Rose Boyt (Picador)
Boyt, Lucian Freud’s daughter, sat for her father from childhood until her marriage. Her book is a “viscerally honest account of complex family dynamics” in one of the most famous artistic families in Britain.
All That Glitters: A Story of Friendship, Fraud and Fine Art by Orlando Whitfield (Profile)
When high-flying art-dealer Inigo Philbrick was convicted of a multimillion-dollar fraud, it rocked the industry. Former friend Whitfield details the web of deceit that led to his downfall.
The Searchers: Five Rebels, Their Dream of a Different Britain, and Their Many Enemies by Andy Beckett (Allen Lane)
The Guardian columnist traces the trajectories and influence of five key figures on the left: Tony Benn, Ken Livingstone, John McDonnell, Diane Abbott and Jeremy Corbyn.
Not for Broadcast: The Life and Times of a News Agent by Jon Sopel (BBC)
The former BBC North America editor and co-presenter of The News Agents podcast takes us behind the scenes of his 30-year career.
The Playbook: Theatre, Democracy, and the Rise of America’s Culture Wars by James Shapiro (Faber)
Shakespeare expert Shapiro shows how Franklin D Roosevelt’s funding of a radical theatre programme led to a backlash and accusations of un-American activity – the same “playbook” used to prosecute culture wars today.
Fiction
Long Island by Colm Tóibín (Picador)
Fifteen years on, a sequel to his much loved tale of emigration and alternative lives, Brooklyn.
The Road to the Country by Chigozie Obioma (Hutchinson Heinemann)
The two-time Booker shortlistee’s third novel, set in Nigeria in the late 60s, features brothers whose lives are upended by the Biafran war.
Enlightenment by Sarah Perry (Cape)
A story of love, astronomy and improbable friendship from the author of The Essex Serpent.
This Strange Eventful History by Claire Messud (Fleet)
In a major new novel from the author of The Woman Upstairs, a family is dispersed across the globe in the wake of the second world war.
Ghost Mountain by Ronan Hession (Bluemoose)
A fable about human connection from the author of Leonard and Hungry Paul.
Fast by the Horns by Moses McKenzie (Wildfire)
The follow-up to An Olive Grove in Ends explores oppression and divided loyalties in 1980 Bristol.
Passiontide by Monique Roffey (Harvill Secker)
A death opens this follow-up to the Costa-winning The Mermaid of Black Conch, the story of four women on a Caribbean island.
Blue Ruin by Hari Kunzru (Scribner)
A former art prodigy living in his car during a pandemic reckons with his past.
Hunted by Abir Mukherjee (Harvill Secker)
A contemporary thriller about terror and radicalisation from the author of the Wyndham and Banerjee detective series.
A Cage Went in Search of a Bird by various authors (Abacus)
Ahead of the centenary of Kafka’s death in June, a collection of 10 new Kafkaesque stories from Ali Smith, Tommy Orange, Elif Batuman and others.
June
Nonfiction
Endgame 1944: How the Soviet Army Won World War Two by Jonathan Dimbleby (Viking)
Drawing on previously untranslated sources, the veteran broadcaster tells the story of a single decisive year along the eastern front.
Scattered by Aamna Mohdin (Bloomsbury)
Reporting for the Guardian from the Calais refugee camp, Mohdin felt a jolt of recognition: she had once been a child refugee herself. From there she travels to Somalia, the country her parents fled, and back into her own past.
Under a Rock by Chris Stein (Corsair)
Blondie’s guitarist and former partner of lead singer Debbie Harry recounts the band’s glory years on the crest of new wave.
Sexed: A History of British Feminism by Susanna Rustin (Polity)
Guardian journalist Rustin argues that sex-based rights must remain central to feminist politics.
On the Edge: The Art of Risking Everything by Nate Silver (Allen Lane)
What drives the people who take risks for a living, whether in casinos or hedge funds? The author of The Signal and the Noise examines the pros and cons of the high-stakes mindset.
The Secret Public: How LGBTQ Resistance Shaped Popular Culture (1955–1979) by Jon Savage (Faber)
Britain’s foremost chronicler of punk turns his attention to the way queer artists transformed popular culture, from Little Richard to David Bowie and Sylvester.
Downfall: Prigozhin and Putin, and the New Fight for the Future of Russia by Mark Galeotti and Anna Arutunyan (Ebury)
Two months after Yevgeny Prigozhin attempted a coup against Vladimir Putin, the Wagner group’s leader was dead. Two experts decode the bitter struggle between two of Russia’s most powerful men.
The Architecture of Modern Empire by Arundhati Roy (Penguin)
The God of Small Things author addresses nationalism, technology and resistance in a kaleidoscopic collection of interviews. with David Barsamian.
Fiction
Parade by Rachel Cusk (Faber)
The new novel from the author of the Outline trilogy examines art, family and morality through a series of different lives.
Little Rot by Akwaeke Emezi (Faber)
A wild weekend in contemporary Nigeria has shattering consequences for five characters.
Godwin by Joseph O’Neill (4th Estate)
Two brothers cross the world to track down an African football prodigy, in an exploration of global capital and colonialism’s legacy from the author of Netherland.
The Heart in Winter by Kevin Barry (Canongate)
The Irish author spins a yarn of young lovers on the run across the Rocky Mountains, in the wild west of the 1890s.
I Love You, I Love You, I Love You by Laura Dockrill (HQ)
The poet and children’s author makes her adult debut with a nostalgic journey through the highs and lows of first love.
Poetry
Them! by Harry Josephine Giles (Picador)
From the Arthur C Clarke award winner, a subversive collection about contemporary trans life.
Conflicted Copy by Sam Riviere (Faber)
A collection written using AI as a creative resource.
Children
Chronicles of a Lizard Nobody by Patrick Ness, illustrated by Tim Miller (Walker)
A new comedy series for 9-12 introduces a school for animals.
Young adult
Four Eids and a Funeral by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé and Adiba Jaigirdar (Usborne)
A Muslim romcom from two rising stars of YA set around the rebuilding of an Islamic Centre.
July
Nonfiction
Iconic by Zandra Rhodes (Bantam)
The pink-haired queen of British textiles tells the story of her life through 50 personal objects, from the winged tunic she designed for Freddie Mercury to the teacups she and Princess Margaret used to drink gin from.
Twelve Trees: The Deep Roots of Our Future by Daniel Lewis (Simon & Schuster)
The environmental historian offers vivid portraits of 12 trees from around the world – including ebony, olive and sandalwood – scoping out the threats they face and the extraordinary ways they are able to adapt.
Autocracy Inc by Anne Applebaum (Allen Lane)
TheAtlantic columnist and Pulitzer prize winner contrasts the 20th century’s seemingly inexorable progress towards liberal democracy with the 21st’s steady erosion of freedom at the hands of strongmen.
Fiction
Gliff by Ali Smith (Hamish Hamilton)
The first in two companion books, a departure from her Seasons series but again written close to the wire of publication.
I Will Crash by Rebecca Watson (Faber)
A woman tries to make peace with her estranged brother, in the follow-up to the Goldsmiths-shortlisted Little Scratch.
Rosarita by Anita Desai (Picador)
Desai’s first adult fiction in a decade explores art, memory and the power of the past.
The Long Water by Stef Penney (Quercus)
A teenage boy goes missing in a small Scandinavian town, in a thriller from the author of The Beasts of Paris.
August
Nonfiction
Nature, Culture & Inequality by Thomas Piketty (Scribe)
The latest book from the author of Capital covers inequality, tax and the climate crisis.
Home Is Where We Start by Susanna Crossman (Fig Tree)
Susanna Crossman grew up in a utopian commune in rural England and saw its dark side. She talks to philosophers and ethicists about what happens when children are unwittingly drawn into social experiments.
The Red Emperor: Xi Jinping and the New China by Michael Sherida (Headline)
Sheridan charts the rise and rise of the technocrat turned dictator who rules over 1.4 billion people
Survival Is a Promise by Alexis Pauline Gumbs (Allen Lane)
An exhilarating account of the feminist and civil rights pioneer Audre Lorde and what she can teach us about navigating today’s fraught politics,from poet and activist Gumbs.
Eighteen: The Young Lives of 18 Leading Britons by Alice Loxton (Macmillan)
Historian Loxton – young herself, at 27 – zooms in on the lives of 18 exceptional Britons at the age of 18, from Empress Matilda to Vivienne Westwood.
Fiction
Munichs by David Peace (Faber)
Peace examines football and the state of the nation through the story of Manchester United after the Munich air disaster.
Death at the Sign of the Rook by Kate Atkinson (Doubleday)
A new Jackson Brodie is something to celebrate – this one will be “a unique take on the classic country house murder”.
The Echoes by Evie Wyld (Cape)
This follow-up to 2020’s The Bass Rock investigates the power of the past, moving between 20th-century rural Australia and modern-day London.
There Are Rivers in the Sky by Elif Shafak (Viking)
A novel inspired by the epic of Gilgamesh, set between the 19th century and now, and based around the Thames and the Tigris.
Rare Singles by Benjamin Myers (Bloomsbury)
Following the Goldsmiths-winning Cuddy, a tale of soul music and second chances, as a washed-up American singer meets a Scarborough woman.
Precipice by Robert Harris (Hutchinson Heinemann)
In the summer of 1914, with war on the horizon, the prime minister’s secret affair becomes a political liability in Harris’s latest melding of fact and fiction.
Dogs and Monsters by Mark Haddon (Chatto & Windus)
The Pier Falls was an exceptional short story collection; these new tales weave ancient mythology with contemporary life.
Mammoth by Eva Baltasar, translated by Julia Sanches (And Other Stories)
Following the International Booker-shortlisted Boulder, an account of queer motherhood from the Catalan author.
The Life Impossible by Matt Haig (Canongate)
A new novel about self-transformation from the author of The Midnight Library.
Concerning the Future of Souls by Joy Williams (Tuskar Rock)
The American philosophical miniaturist conjures meditations on mortality through the figure of Azrael, angel of death.
September
Nonfiction
A Yard of Sky by Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe (Chatto)
The British-Iranian woman wrongly imprisoned in Iran between 2016 and 2022 writes about her incarceration and the fight to get her out.
Untitled memoir by Angela Merkel (Pan Macmillan)
Germany’s first female chancellor developed a reputation for formality during her 16 years in office. Don’t expect her biography to break the mould – in her words: “I am pleased to reflect on central decisions and situations of my political work … and to make them understandable to a broad public, also with recourse to my personal history”.
The Golden Road: How Ancient India Transformed the World William Dalrymple (Bloomsbury)
The historianand author of City of Djinns turns his attention to the period from 200BC to AD1200, when Indian culture flourished and the region became the “intellectual and philosophical superpower of ancient Asia”.
Meditations for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman (Bodley Head)
After turning time management on its head in his bestseller Four Thousand Weeks, Burkeman brings us a twist on the self-help manual, with a page a day of ancient philosophy, inspiring quotations and humour.
The Story of a Heart by Rachel Clarke (Abacus)
The author and medic tells the remarkable story of how the heart of nine-year-old Keira, who died in a traffic accident, allowed Max to carry on living.
The Lie of the Land by Guy Shrubsole (William Collins)
The idea that Britain’s landowners are “good stewards” of the natural environment is exposed as a damaging myth in this urgent account of our landscape’s history and endangered present.
The Art of Uncertainty by David Spiegelhalter (Pelican)
The closest thing the world of statistics has to a national treasure, Spiegelhalter tells us how to better navigate uncertainty in a world that makes it inevitable.
Nights Out at Home: Stories and Recipes from 25 Years as a Restaurant Critic by Jay Rayner (Fig Tree)
A memoir-in-recipes that highlights some of the meals that changed Rayner’s perspective on food – and encourages you to try them yourselves, from the Ivy’s crispy duck salad to a classic Whitechapel curry.
Kingmaker: Pamela Harriman’s Astonishing Life of Seduction, Intrigue and Power by Sonia Purnell (Virago)
Through a series of high-powered marriages and shrewd political calculation, Harriman became one of the most influential women in 20th century history. Purnell, biographer of Boris Johnson, tells her remarkable story.
A Thousand Threads by Neneh Cherry (Fern)
The first memoir from Swedish singer Cherry, who burst on to the scene with Buffalo Stance in 1988.
Fiction
Playground by Richard Powers (Hutchinson Heinemann)
The Overstory author considers the future of our oceans, and of humanity, through four characters on an island in French Polynesia.
Untitled by Nick Harkaway (Viking)
George Smiley returns this autumn in a new spy story written by the late John le Carré’s son and set in the decade before Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.
The Women Behind the Door by Roddy Doyle (Cape)
A sequel to The Woman Who Walked Into Doors, revisiting the characters 17 years later, delves into addiction, family and survival.
Small Rain by Garth Greenwell (Picador)
An autobiographical novel exploring illness, from the US author of What Belongs to You.
Annihilation by Michel Houellebecq, translated by Shaun Whiteside (Picador)
The publisher promises that this tale of a near-future France beset by inequality and terrorism adds “compassion and tenderness to the emotions of rage, disgust and irony that have powered his earlier novels”.
The Examiner by Janice Hallett (Viper)
Another murder case from the author of The Appeal, this time laid out through art students’ coursework.
Dear Dickhead by Virginie Despentes, translated by Frank Wynne (MacLehose)
The fearless French author takes on MeToo, addiction, transphobia and AI in an epistolary novel set during the pandemic.
Poetry
Signs, Music by Raymond Antrobus (Picador)
Poems about masculinity and fatherhood.
Children
Ghostlines by Katya Balen (Bloomsbury)
Friendship and danger on a tiny island, from the Carnegie Medal-winning author.
The Forest of Intent by Frances Hardinge, illustrated by Emily Gravett (Two Hoots)
Another collaboration from the duo behind Island of Whispers.
October
Nonfiction
The Unfinished Harauld Hughes by Richard Ayoade (Faber)
An in-depth exploration of a neglected mid-century poet and screenwriter, who died 20 years ago. Or did he? The creation of comedy writer Ayoade, Harauld Hughes is an enigmatic figure for the ages.
Shattered by Hanif Kureishi (Hamish Hamilton)
On Boxing Day 2022, Kureishi was rushed to hospital after a paralysing fall. Shattered is his account of the year that followed, alongside reflections from a life in writing.
Untitled by Alison Steadman (HarperCollins)
The actor, whose credits include Abigail’s Party and Pride and Prejudice, tells the story of her journey from postwar Liverpool to the red carpet at Cannes.
Fiction
The Great When by Alan Moore (Bloomsbury)
The comics writer takes a fantastical tour through an alternative postwar London soaked in the atmosphere of penny dreadfuls and William Blake.
The Wood at Midwinter by Susanna Clarke (Bloomsbury)
A short story from the Piranesi author, about a teenage girl’s life-changing journey into the forest.
The Third Realm by Karl Ove Knausgård, translated by Martin Aitken (Harvill Secker)
The third in Knausgård’s series in which the world is rocked by the appearance of a mysterious star.
Entitlement by Rumaan Alam (Bloomsbury)
Following mega-hit Leave the World Behind, an exploration of privilege and racial politics, through the tale of an octogenarian billionaire promising to give away his fortune.
The Drowned by John Banville (Faber)
The new Strafford and Quirke mystery is a missing persons case in 1950s rural Ireland.
A Case of Matricide by Graeme Macrae Burnet (Saraband)
A third detective novel from the Booker shortlistee.
Waterblack by Alex Pheby (Galley Beggar)
The conclusion of his twisted fantasy trilogy.
She Speaks! What Shakespeare’s Women Might Say by Harriet Walter (Virago)
Speeches, in verse and prose, in which the celebrated actor imagines what Shakespeare’s female characters from Ariel to Lady Macbeth are really thinking.
November
Nonfiction
A Very British Cult: The Rogue Priest, the Abode of Love, and the Holy Spirit by Stuart Flinders (Icon)
The bizarre story of the religious sect founded in the 1840s by ex-Anglican priest Henry James Prince, whose doctrines included free love and ceremonial sex – all in a genteel Somerset mansion.
How Food Really Works: A Factful Guide to Eating (Without Killing the Planet) by Vaclav Smil (Viking)
How can we eat healthily and ethically at the same time? Environmental scientist Smil explains and helps us put his insights into practice.
Fiction
The City and Its Uncertain Walls by Haruki Murakami, translated by Philip Gabriel (Harvill Secker)
A new novel from the Japanese author.
Season of the Swamp by Yuri Herrera, translated by Lisa Dillman (And Other Stories)
Imagining the exile of Benito Juárez, the future first indigenous president of Mexico, as he journeys from 19th-century Cuba to Louisiana.
Guide Me Home by Attica Locke (Viper)
The conclusion to her award-winning Highway 59 crime series about race and community in Texas, set during the Trump years.
Herscht by Laszlo Krasznahorkai, translated by Ottilie Mulzet (Tuskar Rock)
A man tries to warn Angela Merkel of the coming apocalypse, in the latest one-sentence epic from the Hungarian author.
• This article was amended on 31 December 2023 to correctly reference Mick Ronson, not Mark Ronson, as Suzi Ronson’s husband.
• To explore any of the books featured, visit guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply.
