The Notable and Award-Winning Books of the Year

2026 Booker Prize Shortlist | 2026 National Book Award Longlist

From Marlon James, author of the Booker Prize-winning A Brief History of Seven Killings: The electrifying story of the murder of a gay man in 1980s Jamaica and its far-reaching consequences. In this spellbinding novel, Marlon James has written a propulsive crime story that is also a deeply human account of connection and acceptance. Full of fascinating characters, biting humor, and unapologetic sex, The Disappearers is both a thrilling page-turner and a finely etched portrait of queer life.

Winner of the 2026 Edgar Award for Best Fact Crime

A terrifying true-crime history of serial killers in the Pacific Northwest and beyond. A propulsive nonfiction thriller, Murderland transcends true-crime voyeurism and noir mythology, taking readers on a profound quest into the dark heart of the real American berserk.

2026 Kirkus Prize in Fiction Finalist

A magnificent new novel from the bestselling, award-winning author of An American Marriage — Tayari Jones has written an unforgettable novel that sparkles with wit and intelligence and deep feeling about two lifelong friends whose worlds converge after many years apart in the face of a devastating tragedy.

2026 Kirkus Prize in Nonfiction Finalist

The riveting, true story of an audacious con man who helped send another man to death row for a murder he did not commit. In this mesmerizing debut, Pamela Colloff spins a dark tale of a remorseless and brilliant liar made lethal by a system more concerned with winning convictions than finding the truth.

Winner of the 2026 Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Fiction

The seductive reimagining of a Gothic classic — a repressed wife encounters a mysterious woman who awakens her desire in the “lesbian vampire novel we need” (Them). This immersive reworking of Carmilla, the queer novella that inspired Dracula, delivers a richly atmospheric look at feminine rage and the desires that feed our hunger.

2026 Hugo Award Nominee for Best Novel

In the canton of Yarrowdale, at the very edge of the Empire’s reach, a Treasury officer has disappeared into thin air — vanishing from a room within a heavily guarded tower, its door and windows locked from the inside. To solve the case, the Empire calls on its most brilliant and mercurial detective, the great Ana Dolabra. At her side, as always, is her bemused assistant Dinios Kol. Din has seen his superior solve impossible cases before. But as the death toll grows and their quarry predicts each of Ana’s moves with uncanny foresight, he fears that she has at last met an enemy she can’t defeat …

2026 National Book Award Longlist

The intimate, sweeping tale of one Palestinian man’s restless search for home the world over, as the pendulum of fate swings between loss and life, grief and euphoria, regret and hope.

Winner of the 2026 Edgar Award for Best First Novel by an American Author

As the unofficial “problem solver” for Silicon Valley’s most ruthless venture capitalist, Mackenzie Clyde’s an expert at wrangling tech bros and their multimillions. But now she’s playing for higher stakes. Because the lightning-rod CEO of tech’s hottest startup has just been murdered, leaving behind billions in “dead money” frozen in his will — and Mackenzie’s boss is the company’s chief investor. With a fortune on the line and the official investigation going nowhere, it’s up to Mackenzie to step in and resolve things, fast.

2026 Booker Prize Shortlist

In this “profound, resplendent novel” (Financial Times) from Pulitzer Prize-winning author Elizabeth Strout, a chance incident sparks a powerful realization in a beloved teacher’s life. With exquisite prose and profound insight, The Things We Never Say takes one man’s fears and loneliness and makes them universal. And in the same breath, captures the abiding love that sustains and holds us all.

2026 Kirkus Prize in Fiction Finalist

Moving from Pakistan’s dazzling chaotic cities to its lawless feudal countryside, This Is Where the Serpent Lives powerfully evokes contemporary feudal Pakistan, following the destinies of a dozen unforgettable characters whose lives are linked through violence and tragedy, triumph, and love. Intimate and epic, elegiac and profoundly moving, This Is Where the Serpent Lives is a tour de force destined to become a classic of contemporary literature.

2026 Kirkus Prize in Nonfiction Finalist

From the bestselling, prize-winning author of Say Nothing and Empire of Pain, a spellbinding account of a family devastated by the sudden death of their 19-year-old son, only to discover that he had created a secret life which drew him into the dangerous criminal underworld that lies beneath London’s glittering surface.

Winner of the 2026 Lambda Literary Award for LGBTQ+ Romance

From the acclaimed author of Chef’s Kiss, a groundbreaking trans Regency romance that’s both delightfully witty and refreshingly iconoclastic. With its heady combination of dry wit, slow-burn romance, and a nuanced portrait of trans identity, A Gentleman’s Gentleman stands to transform the historical romance genre as we know it.

2026 Hugo Award Nominee for Best Novella

In this poignant, heartfelt novella from the New York Times bestselling author of Spinning Silver and the Scholomance trilogy, a young witch who has inadvertently cursed her brother to live a life without love must find a way to undo her spell.

2026 National Book Award Longlist

From the bestselling author of Everything Inside comes a vivid, timely story, moving from Haiti to Brooklyn to Miami, of a woman whose sense of self and family are called into question when she gets caught in a random act of violence one sunny Florida day.

Winner of the 2026 Edgar Award for Best Novel

Traci Beller was 13 when her father disappeared in the sleepy town of Rancha, not far from Los Angeles. The evidence says Tommy Beller abandoned his family, but Traci never believed it. The police couldn’t find her dad and neither could the detectives her mother hired, but now, 10 years later, Traci is a super-popular influencer with millions of followers and the money to hire a new detective: Elvis Cole. In a case that tests Elvis Cole’s loyalty to his clients and himself, the truth must come out no matter the cost.

2026 Booker Prize Shortlist

Phillip Tennent makes his living at the tideline, collecting artifacts that wash up from the Channel. Now Phillip has fished out of the water an object he can’t keep. A creature that keeps changing. An artifact he must take inland, before it destroys everything he thinks he knows … The End of Everything is a slyly satirical and unsettling post-apocalyptic adventure into the limits of human understanding, from the peerless master of contemporary fiction.

2026 Kirkus Prize in Fiction Finalist

A spellbinding tour de force from the bestselling author of The Invisible Bridge — a novel about varieties of infidelity, the provenance of a literary masterpiece, and the power of storytelling to shape identity and destiny. In a narrative that spans four decades and four thousand miles, Luna, Phoenix, Queen illuminates the power of storytelling and explores the terror of losing the ability to make sense of our world. It is a cry of rage against our vulnerability and helplessness; an acknowledgment of the mysteries beneath the familiar surface of our world; and ultimately, if unexpectedly, a radical testament to love in its many forms.

2026 Kirkus Prize in Nonfiction Finalist

A stunning memoir of personal rebellion and political awakening from a young woman raised to be loyal to a brutal regime — and the unimaginable cost of choosing freedom. From the streets of Aleppo to exile in New York City, it offers an electrifying portrait of moral courage in the face of authoritarianism and violence. Told with clarity, fury, and grace, Defiance offers a rare ground-level portrait of what it means to wake up, to resist, and to become.

Winner of the 2026 Lambda Literary Award for Bisexual Nonfiction

The frank and revealing memoir of a writer who draws from her own creativity to heal. Here, she allows herself to look with the eye of an artist at the wounds she suffered and come to understand the transformational power this has to restore her soul. By turns candid and lyrical, stoic and forgiving, blunt and evocative, Reading the Waves reframes memory to show how crucial this process can be to gaining a deeper understanding of ourselves.

2026 Hugo Award Nominee for Best Series

A curmudgeonly professor journeys to a small town in the far north in this “incredibly fun journey through fae lands and dark magic” (NPR), the start of a heartwarming fantasy series. This enchanting deluxe hardcover edition features a faux-leather hardcover, a ribbon bookmark, endpapers with faerie illustrations, and more. And don’t forget to check out the rest of the Hugo-nominated series!

2026 National Book Award Longlist

From the beloved, award-winning author of the modern classics Lost Children Archive and Tell Me How It Ends comes her most powerful and page-turning novel yet: The tale of a mother and a daughter starting over, searching for a new story. Warm, funny, and poetic, this novel is an ode to imagination and possibility in dark times.

Winner of the 2026 Indies Choice Book Award

As an immigrant who came to the West, El Akkad believed that it promised freedom. But in the past 20 years, reporting on the War on Terror, Ferguson, climate change, Black Lives Matter protests, and more, and watching the unmitigated slaughter in Gaza, El Akkad has come to the conclusion that much of what the West promises is a lie. One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This is a chronicle of that painful realization, a moral grappling with what it means, as a citizen of the U.S., as a father, to carve out some sense of possibility in a time of carnage.

2026 Kirkus Prize in Fiction Finalist

From #1 New York Times bestselling author and two-time Pulitzer winner Colson Whitehead, an exuberantly entertaining novel that brings to life 1980s New York in the magnificent final volume of his Harlem Trilogy.

2026 Kirkus Prize in Nonfiction Finalist

The sexual assault that stunned the world. A courageous woman’s rallying call for shame to “change sides.” For the very first time, Gisèle Pelicot tells her story. Part memoir, part act of defiance, A Hymn to Life is a moving story of survival, testimony, and courage, and an unforgettable portrait of a woman who broke her silence, reclaimed her voice, and forced a reckoning.

Winner of the 2026 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work – Biography/Autobiography

In this celebration of style, from the moment she entered the public eye during her husband’s U.S. Senate campaign through her time as the first Black First Lady and today as one of this country’s most influential figures, Michelle Obama shares how she uses the beauty and intrigue of fashion to draw attention to her message. Beautifully illustrated with more than 200 photographs, including never-before-seen images, The Look is a stunning journey through Michelle Obama’s style evolution, in her own words for the first time.

Winner of the 2026 Indies Choice Book Award

Longtime NBC News reporter Char Adams writes a deeply compelling and rigorously reported history of Black political movements told through the lens of Black-owned bookstores, which have been centers for organizing from abolition to the Civil Rights Movement to Black Lives Matter.

2026 Kirkus Prize in Nonfiction Finalist

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of How to Change Your Mind, a panoptic exploration of consciousness — what it is, who has it, and why — and a meditation on the essence of our humanity. Eye-opening and mind-expanding, A World Appears takes us into the laboratories of our own minds, ultimately showing us how we might make better use of the gift of awareness to more meaningfully connect with the world and our deepest selves.

Winner of the 2026 Indies Choice Book Award

Discover the word-of-mouth hit hailed by Ann Patchett as “A cause for celebration” — an intimate novel about the transformative power of the written word and the beauty of slowing down to reconnect with the people we love.