How do you measure a year? Well, for us, it's often in books read (or anticipated). And in 2026, there's already no shortage of novels memoirs, poetry collections and biographies being released into the ether and ready to be swallowed whole by our greedy little minds.

If you're looking for a roadmap through the releases – and some dates to put into your calendar – then read on for our comprehensive (although very much not conclusive) list of 2026 book releases to have on your radar.

1. My Year in Paris with Gertrude Stein by Deborah Levy

Release date: 21 April 2026

Levy's latest book is a fictionalised autobiography of sorts, chronicling a year spent in Paris researching the late great writer and arart collector, alongside two quirky friends and a missing, nameless cat.

2. Life of M by Rachel Cusk

Release date: 25 August 2026

The next novel from celebrated Canadian-British novelist Rachel Cusk is set to explore fame, power, beauty, and truth through a writer’s, close, perhaps intrusive study of a globally renowned, enigmatic film star named M. It explores the nature of reality and selfhood when subjected to intense surveillance.

3. Hooked by Asako Yuzuki

Release date: 12 March 2026

The Butter author returns with a thriller about a complex female friendship – one: a high-achieving, lonely executive; the other: a lifestyle blogger. But when their friendship leads to fixation, the dynamic turns from toxic to dangerous.

4. Untitled by Coco Mellors

Release date: TBC

Well, this one's a bit of a question mark, but we're excited nonetheless. Mellors posted to Instagram that her third books is officially finished and in with her publishers in the US and UK, along with a photo of the manuscript. She said in the caption that the new book is "a story about the longing for and fear of motherhood, about being cleaved by love for two people at once, about female ambition versus compliance – and also why, sometimes, you just need to run away to Paris."

5. Famesick by Lena Dunham

Release date: 14 April 2026

Perhaps this year's most hotly anticipated memoir is that of Girls writer, director and star Lena Dunham. Back in the spotlight, Dunham chronicles her raw rise to fame while battling chronic illness, addiction, and the toxic pressures of stardom.

6. Big Little Truths by Liane Moriarty

Release date: 25 August 2026

Moriarty's first-ever sequel continues the story of Big Little Lies (the famed book-turned-television-series helmed by Nicole Kidman, Zoe Kravitz, Shailene Woodley and Reese Witherspoon). We don't have much on the storyline as of yet, but Freida McFadden, the bestselling author of The Housemaid) had this review: “Equal parts juicy, gripping, and impossible to put down … I loved diving back into the lives of these unforgettable characters.”

7. The Midnight Train by Matt Haig

Release date: 26 May 2026

Haig's thematic successor to The Midnight Library (which was just optioned for film by Florence Pugh) is a magical, time-traveling love story the follows an elderly bookstore owner who boards a train after his death to revisit, and potentially change, the key moments of his life, specifically focusing on his lost love, Maggie.

8. Land by Maggie O'Farrell

Release date: 2 June 2026

It feels like we've only just begun to emerge from the emotional ruin that was Chloe Zhao's adaptation of O'Farrell's Hamnet, but we've got more goodness coming from the author this year. O'Farrell is back in the land of historical novels, delivering a multigenerational epic focusing on a family navigating the aftermath of Ireland's Great Hunger in 1865.

9. Cool Machine by Colson Whitehead

Release date: 21 July 2026

You've probably already read two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Whitehead's novels like the The Underground Railroad or The Nickel Boys (both of which were adapted for the screen), but his new novel is a swaggering trip through early 80s New York, a scheming furniture dealer and a dangerous heist. It's also the third in his Harlem trilogy, if you've already read the first two.

10. The Things We Never Say by Elizabeth Strout

Release date: 5 May 2026

The Pulitzer Prize-winning author is back with a new novel that tells the story of a chance incident in a high school history teacher's life that derails his mundanity; a meditation on loneliness, friendship, and free will.

11. Half His Age by Jennette McCurdy

Release date: 20 January 2026

McCurdy's follow-up book is her fiction debut exploring the relationship between a 17-year-old girl and her 40-year-old creative writing teacher. We're expecting it to be bleak, hilarious and uncomfortable – all the things we've come to know and love McCurdy for in her debut I'm Glad My Mom Died.