There’s been a lot of talk — including right here in this review space — that 2025 was a year without a “Big Book.”
Now, don’t get me wrong… There was plenty to read, and I had a tough time culling my annual list of favorites down to a manageable dozen or so. But the publishing industry as a whole went without an indisputable, widespread hit like Percival Everett’s James or Emily St. John Mandel’s Station Eleven. For example, this year’s Kirkus Prize, Booker Prize and National Book Award went to three vastly different novels: Lucas Schaefer’s The Slip, David Szalay’s Flesh, and Rabih Alameddine’s The True True Story of Raja the Gullible (and His Mother).
But let’s not wallow in the past; 2026 is shaping up to be a banger of a year for book lovers, with several big-name authors returning after long breaks. The new year promises plenty of literary fiction, short stories and brain-busting nonfiction, so let’s take a look at the nowhere-near-complete lineup.
Late January will bring us George Saunders’ second novel, Vigil, which takes place at the bedside of an oil company executive in the twilight hours of his life. (Lincoln in the Bardo vibes, anyone?) We’ll also get political nonfiction from Heather Ann Thompson, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Blood in the Water. Thompson’s new title, Fear and Fury, will look at the 1984 shooting of four black teenagers on a New York City subway train by Bernie Goetz, who later became a vigilante hero to millions.
In February, look for another short story collection from Lauren Groff — her first since Florida in 2018. We’ll also get a new novel from Tayari Jones, author of An American Marriage, which won the Women’s Prize for Fiction in 2019.
Spring and summer will bring new novels from heavy hitters Ann Patchett, Jane Smiley and Maggie O’Farrell, as well as Cool Machine by Colson Whitehead, which will wrap up his Harlem trilogy that started with Harlem Shuffle.
In April, investigative journalist Patrick Radden Keefe returns with London Falling: A Mysterious Death in a Gilded City and a Family’s Search for Truth. Fans of Empire of Pain and Say Nothing will no doubt clamor for this true-life tale that opens with an apparent suicide and then delves into London’s criminal underworld.
Upcoming short story collections include ones from Louise Erdrich, Rachel Khong and Ruth Ozeki, and a book of essays from two-time National Book Award-winner Jesmyn Ward.
We’ll get celebrity memoirs from Liza Minnelli, Laverne Cox and Octavia Spencer, and another book from perennial humorist (and personal favorite) David Sedaris.
As if that weren’t already an embarrassment of riches, 2026 will also bring new novels from Emily St. John Mandel, Min Jin Lee, Dave Eggers, Emma Straub, Andrew Sean Greer and Elizabeth Strout.
And we’re already getting word of some buzzy debut novels, including Caro Claire Burke’s Yesteryear, which is set for an April release. This satirical thriller tells the story of a modern-day social media influencer who wakes up one morning in 1855 and is forced to grapple with the harsh realities of a real “tradwife” lifestyle.
Wow. That’s a lot to look forward to in the coming year, so plug in the reading lamp, rev up the library card, and let’s get ready to read.
