The New Year is the perfect time to set your sights high for your reading goal. And what better place to start than with some exciting early 2026 releases?
We’re wasting no time this year, because January is full of book releases you won’t want to miss. From the return of an American literary icon like George Saunders to a number of can’t-miss works in translation, you’ll find plenty of books to get your 2026 started on the right foot.
One Sun Only
By Camille Bordas
Random House
Camille Bordas never fails to disappoint, as her hilarious 2024 novel The Material was one of my favorite books of that year. One Sun Only collects some of her recent stories and highlights her blistering talent with short form fiction. In one story, a teenager becomes obsessed with the obituaries in a weekly magazine. In another, painters and almost-painters try to distinguish Good Art from Bad Art. With equal parts humor and sadness, Bordas perfectly pokes at the cracks in our humanity, exposing the pus of ego, insecurity, and loneliness that keeps us apart.
The Hitch
By Sara Levine
Roxane Gay Books
After Rose Cutler’s Newfoundland attacks and kills a corgi at the park while taking care of her six-year-old nephew Nathan, he begins to act strangely—including barking, overeating, and talking to himself. In fact, he claims that the dog isn’t dead, but that his soul has leapt into his body. The Hitch is a careful character study set to absurd proportions, delivering dark, deadpan humor that always lands. Sara Levine is utterly brave in her commitment to these fascinating and flawed characters. I absolutely adored reading this novel.
Vigil
By George Saunders
Random House
The bard of the afterlife returns with Vigil, a slim yet existentially complex novel about a woman guiding an oil company CEO to death in his waning hours. George Saunders has long been one for the writers best equipped to explore despicable people with clear-eyed compassion, and in his latest he takes aim at his toughest task yet. Vigil is tender yet unsparing as it explores the haunted humanity that exists alongside the unending greed of a capitalist.
E
By Noa Micaela Fields
Nightboat Books
In this triumphant poetry collection, Noa Micaela Fields delivers mischievous mishearings and homophonic translations to remix a classic of 20th Century American poetry. Noa, a trans poet with hearing aids, completely re-imagines the possibilities of poetry with her innovative lyricism, as she works in a form that translates sound rather than meaning. Prepare to have your mind expanded with E.
Pedro the Vast
By Simón López Trujillo
Translated by Robin Myers
Algonquin Books
In Pedro the Vast, Simón López Trujillo brings readers to a work wrecked by a deadly virus. While several workers at a eucalyptus farm die from a mysterious illness, somehow Pedro survives, and in turn is dubbed a prophet by a local priest. Pedro the Vast is a terrifying speculative thriller in the vein of Jeff Vandermeer and Samanta Schweblin, perfect for readers who want to be horrified in the most satisfying way possible.
On Morrison
By Namwali Serpell
Hogarth
Trying to sum up the influence of the great Toni Morrison is a near impossible task, but Namwali Serpell’s latest proves to be both an eye-opening read and a wonderful ode to one of our greatest American writers. On Morrison takes readers on a journey through her career, as Serpell provides in-depth insights to consider. Morrison stands the test of time as an oracle of the fraughtness of American life, and this critical guide offers the best primer on the subject.
The Age of Calamities
By Senaa Ahmad
Henry Holt and Co.
In this exciting debut collection, Senaa Ahmad plays with history and turns its most infamous figures in captivating characters. One story follows Henry VIII in his pursuit to get rid of Anne Boleyn, but he realizes that she keeps coming back to life no matter what he does. Another story invites readers to a dinner party turned murder mystery with figures such as Nefertiti, Queen Victoria, John Adams, and Marilyn Monroe. The Age of Calamities bursts at the seams with ingenuity and wit, making for an extraordinary explosion of time and space like no other.
Attensity!: A Manifesto of the Attention Liberation Movement
By The Friends of Attention
Crown
It will come to no surprise to hear that human attention is one of the most valuable resources in our contemporary times. In Attensity! the collective of activists, artists, and thinkers known as The Friend of Attention argue for a path forward in a world in which tech companies and powerful people are selling out our sense of the world (which they describe as “human fracking”). Talking to welders, nurses, poets, and other every-day people, they explore how we can take refuge from this human fracking and rediscover our love for the world, free from those who would wish to keep us under their charm.
How to Commit a Postcolonial Murder
By Nina McConigley
Pantheon
The Creel sisters welcome their aunt, uncle, and young cousin from India to stay with them in rural Wyoming. Then, they decide their uncle must die. This compulsive literary thriller uncovers a long-standing familial and historical collective violence, delivered with an incredible satisfying twist. Nina McConigley is daring and incredibly witty in her debut novel.
The Undead: A Novel of Modern Russia
By Svetlana Satchkova
Melville House
When Maya, a young Russian filmmaker, makes a low-budget horror movie with her friends, she believes it will be the start to her indie film career. Instead, it will attract the attention of the autocratic censors in the Russian police state. The Undead is a wicked smart novel about the politics of art under censorship, proving that nothing we film can ever be more horrifying than the oppressive hand of dictatorship.
The Last Quarter of the Moon
By Chi Zijian
Translated by Bruce Humes
Milkweed Editions
Kick off 2026 with this sweeping, award-winning novel about the last remote reindeer-herding tribes of northeastern China. Taking readers through the world-spinning changes of the twentieth century in the region—from the fray of Chinese, Japanese, and Russian nation-building and its corrosive effects on the land—The Last Quarter of the Moon proves to be a poignant and melancholic ode to the natural world and a community closely tied to it.
Field Guide to Falling Ill
By Jonathan Gleason
Yale University Press
The inaugural winner of the Yale Nonfiction Book Prize, Field Guide to Falling Ill interrogates the human lives behind the corporate, legal, and cultural practices that shape disease. Jonathan Gleason draws on his own experiences as a medical interpreter and patient to trace the echoes of our ableist society on individuals. These essays are both intimate and aching, exploring topics that range from the racial dimensions of organ donation, the past and present of the AIDS crisis, and the troubled relationship between state violence and mental illness. Field Guide to Falling Ill is an absolutely necessary read that spares no ink on issues that strike at the heart of our lives.
