Best new books to read this autumn, from Rebecca Yarros to Louise Kennedy

The quieter months between summer and the festive period leave ample time to make a dent in your reading pile. Whether you need a new page-turner for the commute, a thriller for screen-free evenings, or a romance to while away a weekend, all that’s left is to curate your TBR pile.

This autumn is a particularly exciting time in the book world. The prestigious Booker Prize 2026 winner will be announced on 9 November, but in the meantime, the shortlist provides plenty of reading inspiration. Meanwhile, romantasy fans are counting down the days until Rebecca Yarros’s latest Fourth Wing instalment, Threshing Day, is released, while Sarah J Maas’s long-awaited A Court of Thorns and Roses book six, A Court of Splintered Harmony, is nearly here too.

Elsewhere, 2026’s best new book releases span true crime and contemporary romance to historical fiction and stranger-than-fiction memoir. A family in post-famine Ireland spreads across the world in Maggie O’Farrell’s multi-generational historical epic, Land, while a high school teacher's life is turned upside down by a secret in Elizabeth Strout’s Booker Prize-nominated The Things We Never Say.

The tension between duty and desire is explored on a remote Scottish island in Douglas Stuart’s novel, John of John – also in the running for the Booker Prize – while in R. F. Kuang’s Tapei Story, an American student studying the Chinese language experiences a life-changing summer in Taipei. In Louise Kennedy’s Stations, two troubled teenagers leave Ireland for London in the eighties, while Marlon James explores the queer community in late-1980s Kingston in The Disappearers.

When it comes to non-fiction, Patrick Radden Keefe’s London Falling – an investigative piece that reads like a thriller novel – is dominating bestseller charts, while David Sedaris has returned with its latest heartfelt but humorous essay collection, The Land and Its People.

This year’s best memoirs include Belle Burden detailing her husband’s affair in Strangers, while actor Hannah Murray reveals her experience in a magical cult in The Make-Believe.

Here are the 18 best new books to read now

The American author Elizabeth Strout is as beloved as her most famous fictional figures, Olive Kitteridge and Lucy Barton. Now, there’s a new character in the canon: Artie Dam. Her latest acclaimed novel, The Things We Never Say, is a standalone story, but takes place in Strout’s favourite literary location of Maine. Artie is a high school history teacher who is grappling with middle-aged ennui. Despite appearing right as rain to his students, family and colleagues, he’s grieving the direction of life. Then, a brush with death while out on his sailing boat transforms his perspective, before a decade-long secret comes to light.

Forced to reevaluate everything he’s ever known, Artie gains a new, powerful perspective that makes the reader reassess their own life in the process. The father-son relationship is particularly touching, while Strout’s political commentary on Trump America gives the small but mighty book extra weight.

Listen on Audible now

I can’t think of many better ways to spend a weekend than with Ann Patchett’s perfectly woven new novel, Whistler. It begins with a couple, Daphne and Jonathan, strolling around the Metropolitan Museum of Art on a Saturday afternoon. When Jonathan notices an elderly man following them, his innate curiosity causes him to strike up a conversation. It turns out to be Daphne’s former stepfather, Eddie, whom she hasn’t seen since she was nine.

The serendipitous meeting forces Daphne to interrogate her childhood and long-repressed memories. From her mother and Eddie’s separation to her relationship with her own father, Daphne’s delayed coming-of-age is interspersed with flashbacks to a traumatic car crash in childhood.

As Eddie and Daphne catch up on decades lost, they begin to realise their bond, albeit short-lived, had a profound impact on both their lives. It’s the kind of slow-burn novel that emotionally sucker punches you out of nowhere, full of quiet wisdom about the passing of time, grief and enduring love – both the familial and romantic kind.

Listen on Audible now

Douglas Stuart, who won the Booker Prize in 2020 with Shuggie Bain, is back with his new novel, John of John. Exploring the author's signature themes of masculinity, working-class Scottish life and family relationships, Stuart takes us away from his home city of Glasgow to the Isle of Harris. At first, the novel appears to be about the coming home of John-Callum, a 22-year-old who has just graduated from art college on the mainland. With his dyed red hair, ‘strange clothes’ and artistic leanings, Cal is at direct odds with his father John, a devout Protestant, sheep farmer and a deacon in the small community's Presbyterian church.

Reluctantly living with his sharp-tongued Glaswegian mother-in-law, Ella (a delightful character), John is troubled by his son’s free expression. An intimate portrait of a close-knit community in the rugged Outer Hebrides, John of John explores identity and belonging. Stuart has always written on mother-son relationships, but the tumultuous father-son dynamic in John of John confronts masculinity in a more complicated way. The tension between duty and religion, and desire and love, will keep you enthralled.

Listen on Audible now

Louise Kennedy burst into the literary scene in 2023 with her debut Trespasses. Telling the story of a young catholic school teacher’s affair with a protestant lawyer during the Troubles, its winning formula of history and forbidden romance earned the novel numerous prizes and a small-screen adaptation. While her follow-up also begins with a young woman’s romantic infatuation, Stations is a richly drawn, decade-spanning story of Irish assimilation, hardship and the heavy ache of first love.

Roisin is a teenager when her family moves from Northern Ireland to the south. Struggling to fit in at school, friendship blossoms with Red, an intelligent but rebellious outsider from a wealthy family. After a brush with the law, Red flees to London, where Roisin hunts him down years later. In the squat where they live, Roisin continues to pine for Red, whose unpredictability is made worse by addiction.

Listen on Audible now

Previous Booker Prize winner Marlon James has been nominated again for his latest novel, The Disappearers. Though a standalone novel, it returns to the same real-world setting of unstable 1980’s Jamaica, as reimagined in A Brief History of Seven Killings. The novel begins in 1988 Kingston, where eight gay men are rehearsing for what’s described as an openly gay play.

Their lives are transformed forever when they’re targeted in a brutal mob attack which kills one and injures. In the aftermarth, some seek revenge, some move on – but others completely disappear. A work of fiction that’s heavily rooted in the violence and homophobia of 1980’s Jamaica, it’s garnered critical acclaim across the board.

Listen on Audible now

With its pacy writing and stranger-than-fiction story, London Falling is appealing to those who don’t usually read non-fiction. Patrick Radden Keefe is the award-winning New Yorker staff writer and author of Empire of Pain, Say Nothing and Rogues. His latest book brings us to London, where a single incident unravels an insidious underworld in the capital city. Zac Brettler is just 19-years-old when he falls to his death from a luxury apartment building on the Thames. His parents refuse to believe it was an accident or suicide.

Through meticulous research, interviews and conversations detailed word-for-word, London Falling recounts the investigation conducted by Zac’s parents after they suspect foul play. A deep dive into the sinister world of Russian oligarchs in London, the sweeping story explores everything from the expulsion of Asians from Uganda in 1972, the immigrant experience in the UK and the life of teenage boys online. Both a portrait of a parent's grief and of contemporary London, Keefe’s book is as compelling as a novel.

Listen on Audible now

A world away from R.K Kuang’s fantasy or thriller books, the Yellowface author has written her first coming-of-age story. The witty and poignant novel follows Lily, a Chinese American student studying Mandarin in Taipei. As she acclimatises to Taipei’s frantic energy and the tiny studio flat she shares with a friend, Lily confronts being so far away from home and her family history.

With the summer blazing on, friendship groups fracture, dating disasters occur, and the intricacies of the language become startlingly clear – then, her grandfather dies. The novel is incredibly readable, combining coming-of-age tropes (jealous best friends and love bombing boys) with a fascinating popular history of China, Taipei, and the Mandarin language.

Listen on Audible now

David Sedaris is one of our greatest contemporary essayists, combining fierce wit and humour with surprising emotion. His new collection, The Land and Its People, contains 28 mostly new essays that can be dipped in and out of. As with his previous books, the audiobook is a particularly rewarding listen – Sedaris’ sardonic tone gives the writing extra weight.

In the collection, he poignantly reflects on caring for his long-term husband Hugh, following hip-replacement surgery, as well as his ageing family and friends that remind him of the mortal coil. Any profundity is balanced by recounts of bizarre conversations with a Duolingo chatbot, daring his friend Dawn to eat a truck tyre, and his numerous global escapades, from a safari in Kenya to horse riding in Guatemala. Sedaris’ signature observational comedy and crabby tendencies (we can all relate) will keep you heartwarmed and humoured this summer.

Listen on Audible now

Among this year’s most unexpected bestsellers, Hannah Murray is the actor you’ll recognise from Skins and Game of Thrones, but she all-but disappeared from the public eye almost a decade ago. This beautifully written and genuinely stranger-than-fiction memoir reveals what happened to her. Known for playing one troubled character after another, following a particularly heavy filming job – where she’s forced to act out a brutal scene again and again – Murray sees a ‘healer’ who’s recommended to her by a friend.

What begins as seemingly innocent ‘wellness’ sends her down a dangerous path toward a sinister organisation that practices magic. Murray is brutally honest when recounting the grip the organisation had on her, from their cult-like, charismatic leader to their complex, repetitive rituals involving wands and energy healing.

An intimate depiction of how madness can creep up on you, Murray empathetically writes about her subsequent psychotic breakdown, being sectioned, and her slow path to recovery. Narrated by the actor herself, the audiobook is a particularly engrossing and extraordinary listen.

Listen on Audible now

It’s quite the thing to be called the new Sally Rooney – and that’s exactly what people are saying about Jem Calder. The novelist’s debut, I Want You To Be Happy, might be slight at less than 300 pages, but it packs a punch. On the surface, it’s a story about two people dating in London, but it says so much more about the way we all live now, from late-night TikTok scrolls to work Zoom calls with the camera off and overdraft texts.

Chuck and Joey meet one night at a bar and, despite the 12-year age gap, they’re united in their need for connection and company in a city that can feel anonymous. Chuck is fresh from the breakdown of his long-term relationship and finding solace in the bottom of a bottle, while Joey is navigating graduate life, friendships and aspirations to be a writer. The book is at times painful reading – Chuck is insufferable and self-destructive, while Joey is desperately trying to make a relationship out of nothing – but the novel says so much about contemporary living that you can barely put it down. It’s sharp-eyed and hilarious.

Listen on Audible now

Meg Mason’s novel, Sorrow & Bliss, was an overnight sensation during the pandemic, balancing humour with heavy topics such as depression. That same witty, comedic tone carries her latest novel, Sophie, Standing There. Set in the world of literature festivals with mentions of real-world authors – Ann Patchett, George Saunders, Zadie Smith and Elizabeth Strout – it’s sure to charm book lovers. We can only glean that the book’s behind-the-scenes tidbits are things Mason has now observed herself with newfound success.

Our titular character is Sophie, a festival tech who attaches microphones to the ‘talent’. At home, she’s reeling from her husband leaving her for another woman and, as a literature lover, she finds solace from sadness in books. After reading a proof by a beautiful actor-turned-author, she develops a parasocial relationship with the writer, and obsesses over her interviews and novels late into the night.

When the author is booked for her festival, she has to face her obsession head-on. I don’t imagine this book will land as well as Sorrow & Bliss did – both the plot and characters are more thinly drawn – but it’s an easy and enjoyable, if not forgettable, read.

Listen on Audible now

Lena Dunham’s memoir Famesick is written in the same wry, self-depricating and unapologetically candid voice that made Girls so distinctive. Fans of the show will love it, but even those less familiar with her work will find it compelling. Charting her rise from aspiring writer-director to cultural phenomenon, the book offers a revealing look at fame, controversy, and the pressures of public scrutiny.

While headlines have focused on her relationship with Jack Antonoff, and her complex dynamic with Girls co-star Adam Driver, Famesick is far more than celebrity gossip. Instead, it’s a moving portrait of a woman grappling with chronic illness, addiction and intense media attention. Like Girls, the memoir explores female friendship, mental health, sex and body image with honesty and humour. Dunham balances painful experiences with sharp wit, making for an engaging and often affecting read. The audiobook, narrated by Dunham herself, is particularly worth downloading.

Listen on Audible now

Maggie O’Farrell’s latest novel is a gripping family saga that goes back a millennium. The multigenerational historical epic begins in 1865 with a father and son mapping the Ordnance Survey in the aftermath of the Great Famine, when an estimated one million people died of starvation. Working for the ‘redcoats’ in the British Army, Tomás and his young son, Louis, are on a windswept peninsula in Ireland, where a strange incident transforms the trajectory of the family’s life forever.

The novel is vast in scope, but has Tomás, his wife Phina and their children at its heart. O’Farrell goes back as far as the Pagans and early Nordic settlers in the ancient woodland, before exploring colonisation, the Irish fighting back and migration around the world. Incorporating folklore, Celtic and ancient mythology, and the supernatural, the themes are grounded in Ireland’s devastating history. As much about the land as it is about the people, you’ll struggle to look up from Land’s pages on holiday.

Listen on Audible now