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Your next favorite book
is waiting.
What books are there to look forward to for the rest of the summer? Fall? Winter? As the second half of the year approaches, we have you covered with our most anticipated reads for the last six months of 2025, including plenty of fresh contemporary fiction, an exciting haul of speculative and historical works, and some bookish nonfiction, such as a new biography of James Baldwin and memoirs from Margaret Atwood and Arundhati Roy. We’ll be featuring some of these upcoming titles in our digital magazine, as well as our First Impressions program and book club.
Dec 2, 2025. 288 pages
Published by St. Martin's Press
A funny, heartfelt, late coming-of-age story that examines the role of memory in holding us back―and in moving us forward―for fans of The Collected Regrets of Clover and Maame.
Why we're looking forward to it: This funny but sincere exploration of dementia and a father-daughter bond seems bound to take a few unexpected turns.
Nov 4, 2025. 352 pages
Published by Doubleday
A young woman must shake off a family curse and the widely held belief that she is the reincarnation of her dead cousin in this wickedly funny, brilliantly perceptive novel about love, female rivalry, and superstition from the author of the smash hit My Sister, the Serial Killer ("A bombshell of a book... Sharp, explosive, hilarious" —New York Times)
Why we're looking forward to it: Considering it's from the author of My Sister, the Serial Killer, this new humorous story of a family curse is sure to be a lot of fun.
Oct 28, 2025. 352 pages
Published by Ecco
A haunting, unforgettable novel of obsession, pride, and forgiveness, exploring the friendship and rivalry between two gifted boys in harrowing circumstances, from the acclaimed writer of The Removed.
Why we're looking forward to it: This story of rivalry, childhood trauma, and memory combined with original artwork promises to be an ambitious whirlwind of a novel.
Aug 12, 2025. 208 pages
Published by Scribner
A singular, devastating debut novel, Dogs traces the fallout of one catastrophic night in the lives of five high school wrestlers, asking what can survive in the blast radius of latent trauma and violence.
Why we're looking forward to it: A rough story of adolescent antics and buried trauma, Mallon’s intense debut appears poised to make a splash.
Aug 5, 2025. 256 pages
Published by Ecco
Magnetic, haunting, and tender, Extinction Capital of the World is a stunning portrait of Hawai'i—and a powerful meditation on family, queer love, and community amid imperialism and environmental collapse.
Why we're looking forward to it: Shelf Awareness calls this debut collection of stories depicting colonialism in Hawai'i “a wondrous literary gift.”
Aug 5, 2025. 256 pages
Published by Simon & Schuster
From the award-winning author of Denial comes a novel about a New Age writer whose life is irrevocably changed when a devastating climate disaster forces him to confront his belief in the existence of God.
Why we're looking forward to it: A domestic and philosophical drama as well as a “potent gut-punch of a novel” (Publishers Weekly), this outing from Raymond looks both provocative and profound.
Oct 14, 2025. 240 pages
Published by Liveright/W.W. Norton
In Amber Sparks' highly anticipated debut novel, a reclusive mother and her saturnine daughter move into a haunted building brimming with eccentrics―and secrets.
Why we're looking forward to it: A highly anticipated debut novel from an already widely published writer, Happy People Don’t Live Here promises to be a peculiar and humorous literary mystery.
Nov 4, 2025. 384 pages
Published by Soho Crime
From the author of the book club favorite The Nine Lives of Rose Napolitano comes a riveting feminist thriller that tackles an unspeakable taboo: regretting motherhood.
Why we're looking forward to it: This suspense-packed work of feminist fiction takes a controversial and topical perspective on motherhood.
Jul 15, 2025. 448 pages
Published by Knopf
A transformative love story about two best friends who fall for each other, fall apart, and try to find their way back together in their tight-knit British-Jamaican community.
Why we're looking forward to it: This highly praised debut about Jamaican immigrants in 1980s London calls attention to “an incredible new voice” (Kirkus).
Nov 25, 2025. 208 pages
Published by Ecco
From the acclaimed author of Beasts of a Little Land and City of Night Birds, an exquisite, globetrotting story collection about humans in precarious balance with the natural world.
Why we're looking forward to it: A wide-ranging story collection from the author of Beasts of a Little Land (beloved by our First Impressions reviewers) and City of Night Birds. Need we say more?
Aug 5, 2025. 320 pages
Published by Viking
A bold and inventive novel about real romance in the virtual workplace—bringing Castillo's trademark wit and sharp cultural criticism to an irresistible story about the possible future of love.
Why we're looking forward to it: Elaine Castillo’s latest book encompasses romance, social media moderation, and our troubled times, “[shifting] seamlessly in scale and tone, from a wide-angled systems novel to a love story, and from barbed satire to staggering emotional depth” (Publishers Weekly).
Jul 22, 2025. 320 pages
Published by Riverhead Books
From the acclaimed author of Vagabonds!: an audacious and eye-opening exploration of cross-generational queer life in Nigeria.
What makes a family? How is it defined and by whom? Is freedom for everyone?
Why we're looking forward to it: According to Publishers Weekly, this novel from Osunde, which also boasts particularly striking cover art, “takes a kaleidoscopic view of queer Nigerian life” and contains “much to love.”
Nov 4, 2025. 336 pages
Published by Farrar, Straus & Giroux
A life-affirming novel of family, mending, and how we learn to love, from the award-winning Bryan Washington.
Why we're looking forward to it: The latest from Bryan Washington, author of Memorial and Family Meal, Palaver promises to be another insightful and globe-spanning novel about family and relationships.
Aug 5, 2025. 288 pages
Published by Dutton
The riveting new novel by the author of the 2021 National Book Award winner and bestseller Hell of a Book.
Why we're looking forward to it: People Like Us appears to be a funny metafictional tale that follows two storylines featuring Black authors on book tours, one of whom also appeared in Mott’s National Book Award winner Hell of a Book.
Dec 2, 2025. 256 pages
Published by Ecco
Bojack Horseman meets Joan Didion in this smart, sly, and irresistibly stylish debut novel about a jaded movie star and the two differently conflicted women in his orbit.
Why we're looking forward to it: Rothery’s Hollywood-set debut promises to be a fresh piece of literary commentary on contemporary culture.
Nov 4, 2025. 448 pages
Published by Simon & Schuster
One young woman's relentless quest to become the first Cherokee astronaut will irrevocably alter the fates of the people she loves most in this tour de force of a debut about ambition, belonging, and family.
Why we're looking forward to it: A starred review from Kirkus says of this debut about one woman’s journey to become the first Cherokee astronaut, “There are three novels worth of material here, all good.”
Aug 12, 2025. 288 pages
Published by Simon & Schuster
A haunting coming-of-age tale following the daughter of Vietnamese immigrants, Ronny Nguyen, as she grapples with the weight of generational trauma while navigating the violent power of teenage girlhood, for fans of Jennifer's Body and Little Fires Everywhere.
Why we're looking forward to it: Dang’s sophomore novel explores sibling tension and intergenerational trauma and should please fans of both horror fiction and family dramas.
Nov 11, 2025. 288 pages
Published by William Morrow
Part social thriller, part modern love story, Who Knows You by Heart is a sly, witty, and endlessly discussable tale of Big Tech, new money, relationships, race, and discovering what's real in an age of artificial intelligence.
Why we're looking forward to it: This book seems set to be a witty, incisive, and necessary take on AI, a pressing issue of our times.
Sep 23, 2025. 256 pages
Published by Riverhead Books
From the Booker Prize finalist and "formidably gifted writer" (The New York Times), a vertiginous novel about a woman's descent into illness and insanity.
Why we're looking forward to it: Called “a knockout” by Publishers Weekly, this latest from literary sensation Lockwood, which portrays an author’s experience with Long Covid, is sure to be a hit with her fans and to gain her new ones.
Oct 21, 2025. 352 pages
Published by Knopf
The award-winning author of The Resisters returns with an engrossing, blisteringly funny-sad autobiographical novel tracing a tumultuous mother-daughter relationship.
Why we're looking forward to it: Gish Jen (author of The Resisters and Thank You, Mr. Nixon, among other works) explores a tense mother-daughter relationship in this autobiographical novel that moves from Shanghai to Manhattan and spans decades.
Nov 18, 2025. 288 pages
Published by Little Brown & Company
In the spirit of Richard Powers and Daniel Mason, a novel spanning three centuries and tied together by the tale of Steller's sea cow—a long-extinct denizen of the northern oceans—at once intimate and sweeping about the tragic clash between man and nature.
Why we're looking forward to it: An international bestseller and award-winning novel now available in English translation, this story is a Finnish epic of sea travel and sea cows stretching over three centuries.
Aug 12, 2025. 176 pages
Published by Unbridled Books
Hinnefeld's web of characters are bound by legacies, genes, philanthropy, and chance but gravitate largely around Charlie, a rich, white, college graduate who ends up in Venice.
Why we're looking forward to it: A novel in stories featuring fictionalized versions of both Ezra Pound and Wallace Stevens, and following a family through generations into contemporary times, this looks like a winner for fans of historical and literary fiction.
Aug 12, 2025. 272 pages
Published by Penguin Press
The story acclaimed English author Penelope Fitzgerald never wrote, of her real-life journey to Mexico with her son in search of a much-needed inheritance, by Jessica Francis Kane, bestselling author of Rules for Visiting.
Why we're looking forward to it: This bookish novel imagines a trip taken to by real-life British novelist Penelope Fitzgerald in the 1950s, setting the scene for a captivating historical drama.
Aug 5, 2025. 240 pages
Published by Henry Holt and Company
The Crucible meets The Virgin Suicides in this haunting debut about five sisters in a small village in eighteenth century England whose neighbors are convinced they're turning into dogs.
Why we're looking forward to it: A debut about sisters in 18th-century England that takes a turn for the strange, this should be a delight for book clubs and readers of historical fiction.
Dec 2, 2025. 336 pages
Published by Riverhead Books
In the mode of Flights, a novel about the rich stories of small places, from the Nobel Prize-winning, New York Times-bestselling author.
Why we're looking forward to it: A reprint of Tokarczuk’s English-language debut, this will bring the Nobel Prize winner’s early work to a wider audience.
Nov 11, 2025. 176 pages
Published by Other Press
This poignant World War II historical fiction unearths and honors the life of a young French Resistance fighter—from the New York Times bestselling author of The Anomaly.
Why we're looking forward to it: Oulipo member and author of Goncourt Prize winner The Anomaly, Hervé Le Tellier is back in English translation with this slim volume of World War II fiction purported to be both historical and timely.
Nov 4, 2025. 432 pages
Published by Simon & Schuster
After forty years, John Irving returns to the world of his bestselling classic novel and Academy Award–winning film, The Cider House Rules, revisiting the orphanage in St. Cloud's, Maine, where Dr. Wilbur Larch takes in Esther—a Viennese-born Jew whose life is shaped by anti-Semitism.
Why we're looking forward to it: The sixteenth novel from John Irving, Queen Esther expands on the universe of his beloved The Cider House Rules.
Oct 21, 2025. 224 pages
Published by Graywolf Press
A darkly comic, introspective debut collection that looks beneath the surface of trans life in 2010s Seattle.
Why we're looking forward to it: This debut collection of stories offers a glimpse of trans life in 2010s Seattle, exploring what it means to be part of a community with a radical vision while plagued by the realities of everyday life.
Nov 4, 2025. 256 pages
Published by Random House
From internationally renowned, award-winning author Salman Rushdie, an inventive collection of fiction that explores life, death, and what comes into focus at the proverbial eleventh hour of life.
Why we're looking forward to it: Publishing in the eleventh month of the year, The Eleventh Hour is a new short story collection from acclaimed writer Salman Rushdie exploring life, death, and freedom through settings in India, England, and America.
Jul 29, 2025. 224 pages
Published by Random House
A deadpan, wildly imaginative collection of stories that slices clean through the mundanity and absurdity of modern life, from the author of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize–winner and Pulitzer Prize finalist Same Bed Different Dreams.
Why we're looking forward to it: After the intricate journey of Same Bed, Different Dreams, Ed Park returns with a set of interconnected stories that have received multiple starred reviews. A Publishers Weekly review states, “Park’s delightful tales, which are driven by provocative ideas, strange occurrences, and gripping plots, pay tribute to the legacy of Kurt Vonnegut in the best ways.”
Oct 28, 2025. 384 pages
Published by Minotaur Books
The 20th mystery in the #1 New York Times-bestselling Armand Gamache series.
Why we're looking forward to this: The 20th novel in Penny’s successful Inspector Gamache series, containing such gems as All the Devils Are Here, is sure to be hotly anticipated by fans.
Sep 16, 2025. 264 pages
Published by Arcade Publishing
From the award-winning author of The Hole, a "Simmering" (New York Times Book Review) and "Compelling" (Wall Street Journal ) thriller—"A mystery masterpiece ... Hye-young Pyun at her best" (Books & Bao), named a "Best International Crime Novel of 2020" (CrimeReads) and selected as one of "Our 65 Favorite Books of the Year" (LitHub)
Why we're looking forward to it: We can assume a new English translation from Korean author Hye-young Pyun, whose slow-burning The Hole won the Shirley Jackson Award, is sure to be a must-read for suspense fans. This novel follows two women who experience unexpected loss in their lives, and may be mysteriously linked.
Jul 29, 2025. 304 pages
Published by Atria Books
The critically acclaimed author of the "crazily enjoyable" (The New York Times) Whalefall returns with an immersive, cinematic novel about five World War I soldiers who stumble upon a fallen angel that could hold the key to ending the war.
Why we're looking forward to it: Daniel Kraus pens the story of an angel on a battlefield in World War I, creating what looks to be a vivid, cinematic work of historical fiction.
Sep 2, 2025. 256 pages
Published by New Directions Publishing
In the concluding volume of her enormously popular, mind-expanding, and cheerfully dystopian trilogy, Yoko Tawada's intrepid young band of friends strike out in search of the lost Land of Sushi.
Why we're looking forward to it: Fans of Tawada’s delightfully surreal Scattered All Over the Earth and Suggested in the Stars will definitely want to check out this final installment in the trilogy.
Jul 1, 2025. 288 pages
Published by Mariner Books
From the author of There Is a Rio Grande in Heaven, a piercing debut novel following two families in alternative timelines of the Salvadoran civil war—a stunning exploration of the mechanisms of fate, the gravity of the past, and the endurance of love.
Why we're looking forward to it: Ruben Reyes Jr. returns (after There Is a Rio Grande in Heaven) with an impressive-looking speculative historical debut that explores modern characters’ family history and the Salvadoran civil war.
Aug 5, 2025. 160 pages
Published by Tordotcom
A cozy near-future novella about a crew of leftover robots opening their very own noodle shop, from acclaimed sci-fi author Annalee Newitz.
Why we're looking forward to it: The latest from Newitz envisions a future California in which robots working for a San Francisco fast food joint are abandoned by the company behind the operation and start their own ramen restaurant in a bid to survive. Publishers Weekly writes, “Newitz packs this tale with simmering action, endearing characters, and political savvy, topping it all off with generous dollops of humor and imagination.”
Jul 15, 2025. 368 pages
Published by Del Rey
Three women in three different eras encounter danger and witchcraft in this eerie multigenerational horror saga from the New York Times bestselling author of Mexican Gothic.
Why we're looking forward to it: Publishers Weekly calls this multigenerational work of Gothic horror and dark academia “as unsettling as it is unputdownable.”
Jul 8, 2025. 464 pages
Published by DAW Books
Part ecological Orpheus and Eurydice myth and part gothic thriller, discover this atmospheric near-future sci-fi novel about fae mysteries deep within strange nature preserves.
Why we're looking forward to it: This alternate-history tale may appeal even to those not normally into speculative fiction with its bizarre bordering-on-real-world premise of a proposed environmental initiative during the Reagan administration that turned thousands of people into supernatural beings.
Aug 12, 2025. 288 pages
Published by Saga Press
Euphoria meets Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke in this latest novel by the Bram Stoker Award–winning author Hailey Piper, following a couple whose search to spice up their sex life leads them down a path of madness.
Why we're looking forward to it: An “original tale of terror and ecstasy” (Library Journal), A Game in Yellow rests on the appealing premise of a book that has mind-altering, addictive properties. Publishers Weekly calls it “a surreal and complex examination of desire and control.”
Nov 4, 2025. 400 pages
Published by Mariner Books
From the twice-Booker-nominated writer of Burntcoat, a bold and astonishing literary masterpiece that explores faith, connection, and our relationship to the natural world.
Why we're looking forward to it: A new literary foray from a Booker-nominated author, this story of an ancient wind and its relationship with humanity takes on subjects real and imagined, new and old, and may have something significant to say about the current climate crisis.
Aug 5, 2025. 320 pages
Published by Ace Books
The beloved author of Holes presents his first adult novel, a modern fantasy classic of forbidden love, a crumbling kingdom, and the unexpected magic all around us.
Why we're looking forward to it: In the much-anticipated adult debut of YA author Sachar, a magician relates events from his life hundreds of years prior in a “melancholy, heartfelt, and utterly immersive Renaissance-esque fantasy” (Publishers Weekly).
Sep 30, 2025. 208 pages
Published by Algonquin Books
From the author and translator of the National Book Award finalist and Booker Prize shortlisted Cursed Bunny, comes a new novel-in-ghost-stories, set in a mysterious research center that houses cursed objects, where those who open the wrong door might find it's disappeared behind them, or that the echoing footsteps they're running from are their own…
Why we're looking forward to it: This “novel-in-ghost-stories” from National Book Award and Booker Prize shortlisted author Bora Chung should be the perfect Halloween treat for lovers of spooky tales.
Sep 23, 2025. 320 pages
Published by Knopf
From the Booker prize–winning, bestselling author of Atonement and Saturday, a genre-bending new novel full of secrets and surprises; an immersive exploration, across time and history, of what can ever be truly known.
Why we're looking forward to it: Ian McEwan has described his most recent novel, which imagines us a century into the future, as “science fiction with the science.” The publisher’s description intrigues in saying it “reclaims the present from our sense of looming catastrophe and imagines a future world where all is not quite lost.”
Aug 19, 2025. 704 pages
Published by Farrar, Straus & Giroux
Drawing on new archival material and original research and interviews, this spellbinding biography reveals how profoundly James Baldwin's personal relationships shaped his life and work.
Why we're looking forward to it: Touted as “the first major biography of James Baldwin in three decades,” this nearly 700-page book sheds new light on the famous American author and civil rights activist.
Jul 29, 2025. 320 pages
Published by Dutton
A powerful read redefining the meaning of genius while illuminating the ways in which Black Americans have found various ways to thrive despite insurmountable obstacles.
Why we're looking forward to it: Johnson’s debut confronts cultural and creative exploitation of Black Americans, but also how this has “failed to diminish the power of Black Americans’ experiences and perspectives or efface authentic, unquestionably distinct, original Black genius” (Library Journal).
Nov 4, 2025. 656 pages
Published by Doubleday
How does one of the greatest storytellers of our time write her own life? The long-awaited memoir from one of our most lauded and influential cultural figures.
Why we're looking forward to it: It’s Margaret Atwood’s memoir! Or, as the subtitle calls it, “a memoir of sorts.”
Aug 12, 2025. 256 pages
Published by HarperOne
From Denne Michele Norris and Electric Literature, a vital anthology of essays by trans and gender-nonconforming writers of color, sharing stories of joy, heartbreak, rage, and self-discovery.
Why we're looking forward to it: Edited by Denne Michele Norris, editor-in-chief at Electric Literature and author of When the Harvest Comes, this essay collection features a varied combination of work by trans and gender-nonconforming writers of color, Raquel Willis, Meredith Talusan, and Akwaeke Emezi among them.
Oct 21, 2025. 240 pages
Published by Harper
From one of America's most beloved authors, a posthumous collection of newly discovered short stories and previously published essays and magazine pieces, offering a fresh perspective on the remarkable literary mind of Harper Lee.
Why we're looking forward to it: This posthumous collection of stories and essays from Lee will offer new historical context on the career of one of the best-known and most-read American writers.
Sep 2, 2025. 352 pages
Published by Scribner
A raw and deeply moving memoir from the legendary author of The God of Small Things and The Ministry of Utmost Happiness that traces the complex relationship with her mother, Mary Roy, a fierce and formidable force who shaped Arundhati's life both as a woman and a writer.
Why we're looking forward to it: A memoir from the novelist Arundhati Roy called “An intimate, stirring chronicle” by Kirkus, this is certain to find a wide audience.
Jul 29, 2025. 432 pages
Published by Knopf
A provocative, revelatory history of British Romanticism that examines the impact of the transatlantic slave economy on the lives and times of some of our most beloved poets—with urgent lessons for today.
Why we're looking forward to it: This nonfiction account explores the Romantic poets through the lens of slavery and race, making it a work of scholarly history that will hold appeal for readers interested in the politics of literature.
Aug 5, 2025. 0 pages
Published by Tin House Books
A charming and moving debut memoir about how a man with a mystery illness saves a pigeon, and how the pigeon saves the man.
Why we're looking forward to it: An intimate account of disability and connection, Buckbee’s story of befriending a pigeon is one Kirkus calls “extraordinary…full of humanity and life lessons.”
Jul 15, 2025. 320 pages
Published by Algonquin Books
For readers of Jennifer Ackerman and Ed Yong, environmental journalist Alix Morris recounts the year she spent following seals, investigating their fascinating behavior, the effects of their extraordinary return from near extinction, and how we can try to bring nature back into balance.
Why we're looking forward to it: In an account addressing the controversial question of how to handle rebounding seal populations and the animals’ effect on humans and others, Morris delivers a philosophical work that considers people’s relationship to the natural world.
