The Unmissable Books of Early 2026

2025 was a strong year for literary releases, thanks to the likes of David Szalay’s Flesh, one of the best Booker winners in years; Solvej Balle’s ambitious On the Calculation of Volume septology; Vincenzo Latronico’s scathing Millennial satire Perfection; and Tony Tulathimutte’s deeply uncomfortable story collection Rejection. Looking over the first half of 2026 in publishing, there is a palpable sense of excitement as reliable names such as Brandon Taylor, Lauren Groff, Claudia Piñeiro and Sophie Mackintosh all have new works arriving soon. Independent presses like Fitzcarraldo Editions, Charco Press, Verve Books and Cipher Press likewise boast enviable catalogues, putting many major publishing houses to shame. But there’s no need to get stressed by the thousands of books arriving in the coming months. What follows is a concise guide to the unmissable releases of the first half of 2026. Follow it religiously, or save these titles for the breaks between the gay ice hockey books.

January

The year starts with the welcome return of cult Irish author Rob Doyle. His new novel, Cameo (available from January 22), is a typically dizzying blend of fiction and reality which follows the autofiction novelist Ren Duka. Billed as a “satire on literary ambition,” the novel presents a wild cast of characters, including Doyle himself as a writer in crisis. Makenna Goodman’s new novel, Helen of Nowhere (available from January 29), will be her first as a Fitzcarraldo author. Donning the iconic Yves Klein Blue jacket, Goodman’s novel has already garnered advance praise from the likes of Sarah Manguso, Rachel Cusk and Vincenzo Latronico and takes place over the course of a house viewing. A realtor shows an unnamed man around a countryside home, but instead of highlighting the house’s qualities, he begins to tell stories about the house’s previous owner, the enigmatic and mysterious Helen. Rounding out January’s standout releases is Margo Glantz’s Apparitions which will be available from January 28 – a date which coincides with the Mexican author’s 96th birthday. One of the leading writers of her generation, it is only in the last decade, through the efforts of Charco Press, that Glantz’s status has risen in the Anglosphere. Apparitions, which is translated into English by Ellen Jones, was first published in 1996 and has been one of Glantz’s most enduring works. It takes the form of intertwined vignettes that follow two nuns in a convent and an obsessed mother, meditating on themes of sex and shame.

February

Following the word-of-mouth success of his 2024 debut Isaac, Curtis Garner’s sophomore novel Orange arrives on February 19th. Set in the years 2018 and 2023, the novel flicks between two timelines, tracing Daniel and Jago from their teenage years, marked by the tentative exploration of their nascent sexualities, into adulthood, when Jago’s visit to Daniel forces a reckoning with the lives they once shared. Another author releasing their sophomore novel in February is Lauren J. Joseph, whose brilliantly titled Lean Cat, Savage Cat will hit shelves on the 26th. The novel is a bacchanalian journey through the bars of London’s Soho and Berlin’s party scene, following our protagonist Charli who falls under the spell of the mysterious Alexander Geist. Also out on the same day is poet Sophie Robinson’s debut novel, Prairie Oyster. The novel follows a 30-something filmmaker named Pearl who harbours an alcohol dependency and an obsession with making a film about the actress Veronica Lake. According to American poet and writer Eileen Myles, the novel “out jars The Bell Jar” has found fans in Maggie Nelson and Sophie Mackintosh.

March

March is a major month for powerhouse American authors. One of the country’s most dependable writers, Lauren Groff, is releasing a new short story collection on March 5th called Brawler. The collection ranges across decades and multiple cities as readers meet a young woman who becomes a carer for her disabled sibling; a teen diver living with her hypochondriac mother; and several other female protagonists fighting against the darkness in their lives. Booker Prize shortlistee Brandon Taylor returns with his third novel, Minor Black Figures, on March 19th. Set over a New York summer, the novel follows Wyeth, a young Black painter searching for his entry point into the Manhattan art scene. He meets Keating, a former priest, and the two spend a sultry season attending private viewings and parties, questioning what each is willing to risk for love. The month is rounded out by something of an occasion: the legendary queer American writer Wayne Koestenbaum, familiar to many through his books of astute criticism and numerous volumes of poetry, will finally be published by a UK press for the first time. His new novel, My Lover, the Rabbi, will be published by Granta on March 26th and follows a psychosexual relationship between a rabbi and the man who becomes totally devoted to him. 

April

Sophie Mackintosh returns on April 2nd with her fourth novel, Permanence. Her first major release since being deemed one of Granta’s Best Young British Novelists, the novel has the enticing premise of being centred around two people who are having a romantic affair and who wake up one morning to find themselves transported to an unfamiliar world populated entirely by fellow adulterers. On April 9th, one of the UK’s most essential punk indie presses, Cipher Press, will be publishing the latest novel by the cult queer writer Michelle Tea. Little F traces a cross-country odyssey as Spencer, shaken by a violent attack in suburban Arizona, sets off across the United States toward the promised queer utopia of Provincetown. To shift tack and bring some nonfiction into the mix, Frieze editor-in-chief Andrew Durbin will publish his landmark dual biography, The Wonderful World That Almost Was: A Life of Peter Hujar and Paul Thek, on April 23rd. Charting the intertwined lives of two of the most influential queer artists of the 20th century, Durbin weaves together Hujar’s and Thek’s timelines while examining their work and enduring influence.

May

The short fiction writer Jem Calder will publish his first novel, I Want You to Be Happy, with Faber on May 19th. Chronicling a situationship between a man in his mid-30s and a woman in her early 20s, the novel is a kind of Normal People for the Lost Mary generation. Set in contemporary London, it follows a pair adrift in the city: he is an overpaid copywriter living an empty life; she is a barista struggling to survive. As their lives entangle, the novel becomes a meditation on love in a city that seems determined to wear its inhabitants down. One of Ireland’s most innovative writers, Doireann Ní Ghríofa, returns with her first new prose work since 2020’s lauded A Ghost in the Throat. The new book, Said the Dead (available from May 21), is hard to define. Much like A Ghost in the Throat, it is a mix of prose and nonfiction, at once a history book and a ghost story, anchored in the tales of the derelict Victorian mental hospital that looms over the skyline of Cork City in the south of Ireland. Claudia Piñeiro fans can rejoice in the news that her 2020 novel, Cathedrals, is being released in an English translation by Frances Riddle on May 26th. One of Argentina’s biggest authors in translation, Piñeiro brings her distinctive literary approach to the crime genre in Cathedrals, which centres on a historic murder, the family it tore apart, and the decades-long suppression of the truth about its perpetrator.