The 12 Best Novels of 2026 That You Absolutely Need to Read

Release date: January 13

In her debut novel, Forever Magazine co-founder Madeline Cash weaves a tangled web of family dysfunction and criminal conspiracy to chaotic—and often hilarious—effect. It centers on the Flynn family, who find themselves wrapped up in a possible corruption scandal, courtesy of the youngest daughter’s obsession with mysterious goings-on in their small town.

Release date: January 27

In his first full-length novel since the Booker Prize-winning Lincoln in the Bardo, George Saunders crafts the thought-provoking story of an oil company CEO’s last night on Earth, as the people and animals impacted by him and his life’s work show up to demand a reckoning from a man with no regrets.

Release date: February 24

Tayari Jones is back with another sharply written, deeply moving novel about womanhood and family—both biological and chosen. Kin charts the paths of two Black women who set off in starkly different directions after growing up together in Louisiana, then find themselves brought back together in adulthood by a tragic turn of events.

Release date: March 10

Feminist retellings of ancient myths are always going to be an automatic yes for us. This one reimagines the tale of Medea, who, in Euripides’s original telling, found a passionate romance with Jason (of “and the Argonauts” fame), only for that passion to take on a much darker shape after her husband left her for another woman.

Release date: April 7

Lifelong fangirls, this one’s for you. Bestselling author Emma Straub digs into the idea of reclaiming the unbridled excitement and obsession of youth as she tells the story of Annie, a newly divorced middle-aged woman who embarks on a themed cruise starring a beloved ‘90s boy band. Beyond a dream vacation, she ultimately rediscovers a certain brand of hope, joy, and love that’s been locked away inside her for decades.

Release date: April 7

40 years after the still-unsolved disappearance of a woman at the forefront of an SNL-like comedy show, a journalist begins digging into the wild world of the N.Y.C. comedy scene in the 1980s in hopes of figuring out what happened to Lillian Martin. In the vein of Daisy Jones & the Six and The Favorites before it, The Midnight Show is told via interviews, articles, and transcripts, a format that never fails to fully immerse us in a very specific moment in time.

Release date: April 14

A literary romance novel that promises a perfect blend of sexy scenes with poignant discussions of self-image and second chances at love, Rainbow Rowell’s latest stars Cherry, whose life—and currently imploding marriage—is being adapted for the big screen by her soon-to-be ex-husband. Seeking a break from all that stress, Cherry heads to a concert, where she bumps into an old friend who just so happens to like her for exactly who she is.

Release date: April 14

This one sounds like a combo of Yellowface and The Substance—so count us very much in. It centers on Maggie, a young Asian-American writer desperate for her big break, and Ingrid, a veteran white Hollywood producer looking for her next big project. They broker a deal in which Ingrid will offer Maggie mentorship in exchange for regular blood transfusions (yes, really), sending them into an increasingly intense and psychologically fraught relationship that lays bare just how far they’d each go to get what they want.

Release date: May 5

Molly Fader’s latest is told across two timelines and three generations of women. It recounts both a summer of women-led vigilante justice against misbehaving men in 1970s New York and is set in present-day L.A., where one woman discovers—while grappling with her own husband’s misbehavior—that her mother may have had a hand in the justice doled out by the so-called “Lady X.”

Release date: June 2

Hamnet and The Marriage Portrait author Maggie O’Farrell has a knack for crafting quietly profound novels about family and history, and her next offering promises more of her impeccable style. Land revolves around a man and his son tasked with mapping all of Ireland after the Great Hunger, a mission derailed by a mysterious encounter in the woods that sends the man reeling.

Release date: June 30

A psychological-thriller-slash-body-horror story about the often-suffocating expectations of womanhood? Say no more. In Ruthy Mason's novel, after getting engaged and beginning to plan her over-the-top traditional wedding—in direct contrast to the much more unconventional life she always dreamed of—Bea suddenly begins experiencing some mysterious physical effects.