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We’re not even halfway through 2026 yet, and it’s already been a banner year for new books. From sumptuous novels by Ben Lerner, Adrian Tchaikovsky, and Tayari Jones to blockbuster works of nonfiction by Patrick Radden Keefe, Chuck Klosterman, and Namwali Serpell, we may have already seen many of the books that will wind up on 2026’s end-of-year lists and contend for the National Book Awards, Man Booker Prizes, and Pulitzer Prizes.
A few debut novels have also made a splash, including Daniyal Mueenuddin’s beautiful epic set in Pakistan, T Kira Madden’s intense thriller set in the Pacific Northwest, and Imani Thompson’s inverse slasher set in the halls of Cambridge. History buffs will dig Mike Pitts’s new excavation of Easter Island, while short story fans will devour new collections by Amal El-Mohtar, Louise Erdrich, and Camille Bordas.
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With a list this star-studded and diverse, finding a great book is easy—but keeping up with a literary calendar that refuses to slow down is getting harder every week.
This Is Where the Serpent Lives by Daniyal Mueenuddin (Knopf)
Penguin Press Football by Chuck Klosterman (Penguin Press)
Mariner Island at the Edge of the World: The Forgotten History of Easter Island – A Provocative Archaeological Study of Colonial Legacy, Indigenous Reclamation, and the Collapse Myth by Mike Pitts (Mariner)
Random House Books for Young Readers One Sun Only: Stories by Camille Bordas (Random House)
Graywolf Press Autobiography of Cotton: A Novel, by Cristina Rivera Garza, translated by Christina MacSweeney (Graywolf)
On Morrison by Namwali Serpell (Hogarth)
Kin by Tayari Jones (Knopf)
Whidbey by T Kira Madden (Mariner)
Europa Editions The Natural Way of Things by Charlotte Wood (Riverhead,
Children of Strife by Adrian Tchaikovsky (Orbit)
Harper Python’s Kiss by Louise Erdrich (Harper)
Seasons of Glass and Iron by Amal El-Mohtar (Tordotcom)
Farrar, Straus and Giroux Transcription by Ben Lerner (FSG)
London Falling by Patrick Radden Keefe (Doubleday)
Questions 27 & 28 by Karen Tei Yamashita (Graywolf)
Random House Books for Young Readers Honey by Imani Thompson (Random House)
Grove Press John of John by Douglas Stuart (Picador, May 21)
W. W. Norton & Company One Leg on Earth by ‘Pemi Aguda (Norton)
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