What books will you be reading in 2026?

Readers planning their book choices for next year may now be making a note of forthcoming titles from new authors and old favourites in 2026.

There will be volumes to mark the late Queen’s centenary year, a fat collection of books focusing on the continuing interest in weight-loss jabs and, of course, the usual sprinkling of celebrity memoirs.

“In fiction, the ongoing surge of romantasy continues,” says Bea Carvalho, Waterstones’ head of books. “Likewise, healing fiction – cosy, cute, meditative novels – particularly translated fiction from Korea and Japan, will be significant next year.”

Horror – particularly ‘femgore’ (violent body-horror centring on female rage and trauma, by female writers) – is becoming big, says Francesca Russell, communications director at Hodder & Stoughton.

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“We have Kylie Lee Baker (author of the bestselling Bat Eater), who did write fantasy, and now she’s moving more into the horror space. We have her take on the haunted house novel coming next year, Japanese Gothic. It’s going to be gory and darkly funny.”

A-list celebrity memoirs for 2026 will come from Hollywood icons Liza Minnelli and Sylvester Stallone, and Scottish actor Tom Conti, as well as TV names including presenter Ruth Langsford, plus a fourth volume of diaries, entitled Enough Said, from celebrated playwright Alan Bennett.

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Longevity is likely to be popular in self-help, with titles such as Liz Earle’s How To Age, while books on weight-loss injections – and how to create a healthy lifestyle to avoid them – will also be prolific in the new year, Carvalho predicts.

Stand-out books

Fiction

Departure(s) by Julian Barnes (Jonathan Cape, January 22)

“This one reads like it might be semi-autobiographical, a story of a writer at the late stage of his career,” says Carvalho of the Booker Prize-winning author’s forthcoming story which is to be published three days after his 80th birthday. It examines the nature of love, memory and mortality and what it means to face the end of life.

Land by Maggie O’Farrell (Tinder Press, June 2)

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In the wake of the film adaptation of the Irish author’s bestselling book Hamnet, comes her 10th novel, Land, a multi-generational epic which opens on a windswept peninsula in the west of Ireland and follows its characters through loss, hope and reunion.

This Story Might Save Your Life by Tiffany Crum (Hodder & Stoughton, March 12)

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There’s a buzz around this debut, with rights sold in 11 countries and to a Hollywood studio, described by the publicists as “Taylor Jenkins Reid meets Lisa Jewell”, about Benny and Joy, two best friends who host a hit comedy podcast. When Joy goes missing, Benny finds himself in the frame for her murder.

The Ballad Of Falling Dragons by Sarah A Parker (HarperCollins,  May 19)

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Waterstones is predicting that this new romantasy sequel from the bestselling author of When The Moon Hatched, (and book two in The Moonfall Series) is going to be big, as Raeve and Kaan return in this imaginary vibrant world filled with mysterious creatures, a magic system and a burning love.

Vigil by George Saunders (Bloomsbury, January 27)

His first novel since winning the Booker Prize for Lincoln In The Bardo, Carvalho explains: “Like all of his writing, it’s a very surreal, slightly otherworldly novella about a tycoon on his death bed being visited by a being from the other side.”

A Far-Flung Life by M L Stedman (Doubleday, March 5)

The author of the bestseller The Light Between Oceans, which was adapted into a film, brings us a multi-generational novel set in rural Australia about a family in a sheep-rearing farm in the decade following a tragic event. “It’s heart-wrenching and filmic and I think it’s going to be one of those books which has extremely wide appeal – literary but encapsulating all of life,” says Carvalho.

Villa Coco by Andrew Sean Greer (Sceptre, June 9)

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From the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Less, this gentle, warm, funny story centres on a young American arriving at a villa in Tuscany to help out the Baronessa who lives there, and navigating his way through a ramshackle, farcical, ridiculous situation. Ideal holiday reading.

Hooked by Asako Yuzuki (Fourth Estate, March 12)

The author, who won Waterstones Prize of the Year for her word-of-mouth hit Butter, brings readers a story of female friendship and dangerous obsession, in which a corporate high flier gets hooked on a cult housewife’s blog and sets out to meet and befriend her. Translated from Japanese.

John Of John by Douglas Stuart (Picador, May 21)

This story from the prize-winning author of Shuggie Bain and Young Mungo is set in rural Scotland, centring on a man who returns to the windswept croft where he grew up and resumes his own life, caught between two huge influences of his childhood – his father, a pillar of the local church, and his Glaswegian grandmother, who has kept the peace with difficulty with her son-in-law.

Kin by Tayari Jones (Oneworld, March 26)

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The winner of the Women’s Prize for An American Marriage now brings us a tale of two lifelong friends, born in a small town in Louisiana and destined never to know their mothers, who grow up in segregated America in the 1950s and 60s and whose lives start to look very different because of the decisions they make along the way.

The Housekeeper by Rose Tremain (Chatto & Windus, September 17)

Inspired by Daphne du Maurier and the writing of her novel Rebecca, The Housekeeper is an original fictional imagining of how Rebecca came to be, from the prize-winning writer.

Agrippa by Robert Harris (Cornerstone, August 27)

The bestselling author of Conclave brings readers this epic drama set during the tumultuous times of the Roman Empire. Julius Caesar is dead and the lives of two teenage boys are about to be changed forever. One is Caesar’s 17-year-old nephew, Octavius, whom he has made his heir, the other is Octavius’s closest friend, Agrippa. Against all odds, they rule the world together – but in middle age, Octavius begins to pen his memoir, describing his real feelings towards his ruthless friend.

Non-Fiction

Elizabeth II: In Private. In Public. Her Inside Story by Robert Hardman (Macmillan, April 9)

In the centenary year of Queen Elizabeth II’s birth, the bestselling royal biographer offers an intimate and revealing portrait of Elizabeth – daughter, wife, mother and Queen. Spanning nearly nine decades of her life, he shares the nuances of the late Queen’s personal story, and how in representing the throne she also led a full life of her own behind the public eye.

London Falling by Patrick Radden Keefe (Picador, April 7)

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Gripping investigation into the mysterious death of a London teenager, who fell to his death from a luxury apartment building on the banks of the Thames. When his grieving parents investigated, they discovered their son had been leading a fantasy life, posing as the son of a wealthy Russian oligarch. “This author is widely considered to be one of the best writers of investigative non-fiction. His books are propulsive and read like thrillers, so the kind of non-fiction author which readers of fiction will love,” says Carvalho.

A Hymn To Life by Gisèle Pelicot (Vintage, February 24)

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The horrendous story of the woman whose husband had been secretly drugging and raping her for nearly a decade and inviting dozens of strangers into their home to abuse her made global headlines. Now, for the first times, she tells her story in her own words. It will undoubtedly make headlines and will hopefully inspire change, compassion and courage.

Rasputin by Antony Beevor (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, March 12)

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The distinguished historian makes a detour from his hugely successful World War Two tomes to examine how Rasputin, a barely literate peasant from Siberia and so-called ‘mad monk’, could have bewitched Tsar Nicholas II and his wife, Alexandra, and had such a massive effect on Russian history and the downfall of the Romanovs.

Kids, Wait Till You Hear This! by Liza Minnelli with Michael Feinstein (Coronet, March 10)

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Published just ahead of her 80th birthday, this first memoir from the US superstar, daughter of Judy Garland and Vincente Minnelli, raises the curtain on her life and career, from being born into Hollywood royalty to her own rise to superstardom, her marriages, heartbreaks and struggles with substance use disorder.