2026 is right around the corner, and we know your TBR list needs some refreshing. It’s a good thing that next year, we’re excited to anticipate new novels from both debut authors as well as household names. From our bookshelf to yours, here are the most anticipated contemporary fiction novels of 2026.

The Future Saints by Ashley Winstead (1/20)

When you spend your life chasing fame, what will you do once you grasp it? This is the question facing the Future Saints, a band whose world has been turned upside down by the death of their manager. After bombing show after show and preparing to pack up the set gear for good they are given one last chance when Theo, a record executive, makes a gamble by taking them on after their grieving lead singer, Hannah, makes the band go viral by rebelling against the band’s original sound. In the whirlwind of success, virality, and loss, the Future Saints might lose everything all over again.

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This is Not About Us by Allegra Goodman (2/10)

Like all good decade-long familial disputes, this one started over apple cake. In the wake of their sister’s death, Sylvia and Helen Rubinstein allow their disagreement to form a rift that would keep them separated and use constant excuses to keep from being the first to extend the olive branch. Whether it be divorce, dance recitals, or bat mitzvahs, the pair always have an excuse that keeps them from facing one another again. With their children and grandchildren staying tapped out of the fight, will they ever rebuild their bridge to each other?

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More Than Enough by Anna Quindlen (2/24)

Polly Goodman knows that she can tell her book club anything. She can spill the deepest secrets of her relationship with her mother, the students in her classroom, and even her IVF journey. There’s nothing off-limits. When the club gives Polly an ancestry test kit, she’s fully prepared to take it for the joke until her results match her with a total stranger. It has to be a mistake, but what if it’s not? As she delves deeper for answers, Polly is also faced with the possibility of loss striking her book club. In the cycle of love, loss, and new discoveries, Polly sees just how much all the love around her has changed her life.

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Lake Effect by Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney (3/3)

Nina Larkin has never let herself admit just how bored she is. When her recently divorced friend gives her a copy of The Joy of Sex, Nina has to confront the fact that her marriage has long-since gone stale. When she chases the thrill of a lurid affair with a neighbor, she never stops to consider the scandal she’s drawing upon both families. Her daughter, Clara, is caught in the midst and never quite makes it out, even decades later as she hones her successful career in New York City. When she returns home after years, she follows in her mother’s footsteps and makes one more decision to wreak havoc.

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Like This, But Funnier by Hallie Cantor (4/7)

Writing for television has trapped Caroline Neumann in a self-pitying spiral of envy and loathing with no discernable light at the end of the tunnel. If her own self-hatred weren’t bad enough, even her husband Harry, the ever-supportive therapist, has lost his faith and is urging her to consider “pausing” her career aspirations and focusing on having children. Who ever said Caroline even wanted children? So, who can really even blame her for stumbling upon her husband’s patient notes, mentioning all of the most private, deep, confidential patient secrets to a Hollywood executive, and getting picked up for a show? The only few problems are that Caroline has actually grown close to this patient, her professional tunnel vision has put her marriage on the rocks, and Caroline doesn’t fully know where to draw the line anymore—if she ever did.

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American Fantasy by Emma Straub (4/7)

One cruise ship, five members of a mega-famous boyband from the nineties, hundreds of screaming fans, and one fifty-year-old divorcee with approximately zero idea what all the fuss is about. This could be the setup for a joke with a strange punchline, or it could be the very real life of Annie, who had all but left her fandom life behind her. Once the music starts to play, though, a version of herself Annie had long-forgotten awakens to guide her back to herself. When she meets a member of the band on his own journey, she sees how far extending a friendly hand can go.

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Go Gentle by Maria Semple (4/14)

Adora Hazzard wants for nothing and she likes it that way. She follows the path of Stoicism and is content with her single life, her wonderful daughter, and her job as a moral tutor. She’s been perfectly surrounded by her own curation of good things, even a coven she’s formed of like-minded women who all live on the same floor of the Ansonia building. She has everything she could ever want, up until she’s faced with an emotion long-forgotten– desire. When a handsome stranger falls into her life, a line of bombs threatens to detonate everything good she’s been curating. Between black-market deals, international intrigue, and her own incessantly nagging past, Adora finds herself wanting again, and that is the most dangerous thing of them all.

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Last Night in Brooklyn by Xochitl Gonzalez (4/21)

Alicia Canales is sick of being tucked away at home. She is twenty-six years old, still yielding to her mother’s beliefs, saving up for a wedding to a doctor she’s been long distance with, and has no sense of what she even wants. She just knows it’s not this. When she finds herself wandering in the neighborhood of Fort Greene in Brooklyn, a group of young creatives draws her into their fold, and she impulsively decides to move in with them. As she begins her new life, Alicia learns about her neighbor, the rising fashion designer La Garza. Like a green lantern across the water, Alicia can’t help but observe La Garza’s legendary parties from across the street, watching how they shape the neighborhood lore. What legends lie in wait for Alicia in this new life of hers?

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Ms. Mebel Goes Back to the Chopping Block by Jesse Q Suntanto (4/28)

Mebel has been the perfect trophy wife. She thought that would at least get her a worthy retirement. European beaches, luxury hotels, or at least a hostel somewhere with good food. Imagine her surprise when her husband of four decades decides to leave her for their private chef. If he wants good food, she can make good food no problem. Mebel enrolls herself in culinary school in France in an effort to save her marriage. After all, no one knows her husband better than her, so no one can cook for him better than her. However, in France, she ends up discovering more than just sous vide techniques.

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The Things We Never Say by Elizabeth Strout (5/5)

Artie Dam is superior at keeping up appearances. He appears to have the perfectly quiet, content life of a teacher who supports his growing students and lends them a shoulder to lean on. He appears to be perfectly personable by going to parties and celebrations with his wife, and keeping up with neighbors and friends. He even appears to have perfect weekends out on his boat. Underneath the veneer, though, lies gnawing existential dread that Artie cannot seem to weed out of himself. He cannot seem to dig himself out of his hole of isolation and incessant questions about supposed realities of our world. When he uncovers a secret that could blow all his kept-up appearances to pieces, Artie has to learn how to make peace with his dread, fast.

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