The Most Anticipated Biographies & Memoirs of 2026

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.

The New York Times bestselling author of Begin Again confronts America’s unfinished story in this blistering reassessment of race, freedom, and the myths that bind us. Centered around the major celebrations of America’s milestone birthdays across 250 years of history, the book offers a riveting look at the battles over who has a stake in writing the American story. Devastatingly candid, profoundly moving, and deeply reflective, America, U.S.A. is a shining meditation on how we must reckon with a grim past in order to strive for the better angels of our future.

A gorgeous memoir about the sudden end to a seemingly happy marriage — an aching, love-filled, and transcendent account of surviving betrayal and discovering joy. With unflinching honesty and profound grace, Burden charts a path through heartbreak to show the power of a woman who refuses to give up on love. Strangers is a stunning, deeply moving, compulsively readable memoir heralding the arrival of a thrilling new literary talent.

The riveting true story of a legendary Spanish galleon that sunk off the coast of Colombia with over $1 billion in gold and silver — and one man’s obsessive quest to find it — from the New York Times bestselling author of Madhouse at the End of the Earth.

Simukai Chigudu grew up in the shadow of Africa’s struggles for liberation. As he navigates the tangled threads of personal and political history, he is guided by one central question: What does it mean to be truly free? An exquisitely crafted memoir, sweeping from Zimbabwe to Oxford, that lays bare the violent, enduring legacy of colonialism on both a country and a family.

From two-time National Magazine Award winner Tom Junod, a searching, brilliantly stylized memoir about a charismatic, philandering father who tried to mold his son in his image, the many secrets he hid, the son’s obsessive quest to uncover them, and ultimately, the true meaning of manhood.

From one of the most electric and consequential figures to emerge from the contemporary American labor movement, the remarkable story of his battle to create the first Amazon union in the U.S. and a powerful call to arms on behalf of the working class.

Joy won’t cure you, but it will carry you. Bestselling author and Duke University professor Kate Bowler reveals the surprising magic of joy — and how we can access it even when happiness feels out of reach. This is not a book about fixing your life. It is about how we can all find more — feel more — by making room for small, extraordinary moments.

A successful investor, philanthropist, and leading wellness CEO provides a practical, thoughtful testimony on the impact of deep friendships in our personal and professional lives, illustrating how all relationships help us show up and strengthen our communities.

From the long-tenured head of an institution legendary for its culture of success comes a candid memoir of global leadership in an age of extreme turbulence. A powerful blueprint for the wise stewardship of a cause that is larger than yourself, Streetwise will inspire and inform readers throughout the global business community and beyond.

What left is there to say about The Rolling Stones? A hell of a lot, it turns out. From the award-winning, bestselling author of classic histories of the Beatles and Led Zeppelin, a groundbreaking reckoning with the world’s greatest rock ‘n’ roll band.

The posthumous memoir of Rev. James Lawson Jr., peer of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., mentor to Congressman John Lewis and the Freedom Riders, and a principal architect of a nonviolent resistance movement that changed the world.

On September 24, 2021, Rachel Eliza Griffiths married her husband, the novelist Salman Rushdie. On the same day, hundreds of miles away, Griffiths’s closest friend and chosen sister, the poet Kamilah Aisha Moon, who was expected to speak at the wedding, died suddenly. Eleven months later, as Griffiths attempted to piece together her life as a newlywed with heartbreak in one hand and immense love in the other, a brutal attack nearly killed her husband. In The Flower Bearers, Griffiths inscribes the trajectories of two transformational relationships with grace and honesty, chronicling the beauty and pain that comes with opening oneself fully to love.

A tender, moving, and insightful account of queer motherhood and an interrogation of life on the margins of American culture as a self-described “ugly” woman. Interlacing cultural history and analysis with memoir, Ugly is a probing investigation into cultural norms and the formation of our aesthetic sense of self. By sharing the history of her troubled self-image, Fairyington invites us to go rogue, to invent a new language and logic to overthrow all the ways that women have been cultivated to hate themselves.

The highly anticipated biography of one of the world’s most treasured literary voices, showcasing a life as triumphant and inspiring as the stories she crafted. Oppenheimer peels back the curtain to reveal the woman behind the literary empire in all her complex, multifaceted glory — a true gift for anyone who grew up reading and loving these extraordinary books.

An electrifying memoir from the pioneering cultural icon The New Yorker called “the coolest person in New York,” whose fearless creativity reshaped the worlds of art, music, and style. Vibrant, rhapsodic, and compulsively readable, Everybody’s Fly is at once an intimate memoir and panoramic cultural history. It is a love letter to the art of seeing, a fascinating account of an inimitable creative life, and a celebration of what it means to shape culture.

A luminous memoir in essays from the Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist, who reflects on her origins and the mysteries of memory. Tender, inviting, sparkling with wisdom and open-heartedness, Small Town Girls is part coming-of-age story, part social history, Jayne Anne Phillips’s most personal, most accessible book yet — a love letter to the place and the people who have shaped her perceptions and her writing.

We all feel it, the teetering toward a place in America from which there is no return. The battle to remain hopeful in spite of injustice after injustice. In this powerful story of one lawyer’s fight for his community, both justice and hope are redeemed. From Tulsa to Chicago, Redeem a Nation offers a way forward through systemic change and community love. The time is now to resist, repair, and redeem a land once promised.

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. In Pollan’s dazzling exploration of consciousness, he discovers a world far deeper and stranger than our everyday reality.

From California Governor Gavin Newsom comes an intimate and poignant account of identity, belonging, and the defining moments that inspired a life in politics.

Legendary baseball player and manager Dusty Baker reflects on his extraordinary career — filled with invaluable lessons on perseverance, leadership, and living life meaningfully on the field and off.

The dramatic and heartrending true story of one remarkable young man’s account of love in the time of war, by a celebrated historian of untold Black stories. Ethelene Whitmire introduces us to an unforgettable character who fled from country to country as fighting advanced, was captured by Nazis and outwitted them in a daring escape, and risked it all in a personal fight for a life of love, freedom, beauty, and dignity in a world set against him.

New York Times bestselling author Isaac Fitzgerald sets off to the heart of America, following the path of the legendary Johnny Appleseed on an epic journey that both takes him far from home and brings him closer to it.

A personal meditation on, examination of, and tribute to Black single motherhood, unapologetically told through poignant essays and candid interviews by a celebrated cultural critic. Black. Single. Mother. sets out to inspire a new cultural and community dialogue about this powerful figure as one profoundly deserving of love, support, and respect.

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.

A raw and raucous memoir from chef and writer Zahra Tangorra about the great meals and great loves of her life, reflecting on family, friendship, grief, and the solace that can be found through food. Told with uproarious humor and tremendous insight, Extra Sauce is for anyone who yearns to embrace their whole self, who loves with abandon, and who eats with gusto.

From Nobel Prize winner Han Kang comes her first work of nonfiction published in English — a singular collection of writings including her inspiring Nobel Lecture.