CONTEMPORARY FICTION

LONGLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE 2026 AND AN INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER

A BARACK OBAMA 2026 SUMMER READING LIST PICK

Artie Dam is a man with a secret. He spends his days teaching history to high schoolers, expanding their young minds, correcting their casual cruelties, and lending a kind word to those who need it most. He goes to holiday parties with his wife of three decades, makes small talk with neighbours, and, on weekends, takes his sailboat out on the beautiful Massachusetts Bay. He is, by all appearances, present and alive. But inside, Artie is plagued by feelings of isolation. He looks out at a world gone mad―at himself and the people around him―and turns a question over and over in his mind: how is it that we know so little about one another, even those closest to us?

And then, one day, Artie learns that life has been keeping a secret from him, one that threatens to upend his entire world. Once he learns it, he is forced to chart a new course, to reconsider the relationships he holds most dear―and to make peace with the mysteries at the heart of our existence.

From the bestselling author of the Dream Harbor series, comes a new small-town romance set in the quirky town of Maple Hollow.

The darker the woods, the bigger the secrets…

Ruby Bellerose lives on the edge of the woods, in a cottage more akin to a fairy tale than modern day life. Her love life is practically non-existent, and she keeps away from the whispered gossip that travels through Maple Hollow.

Until a chance encounter with Rafe.

As mysterious as he is brooding, Ruby is drawn to the woodsman, curious to find out about the stranger who lives deep within the woods.

Deluxe limited edition, sprayed edges.

For Lily, mastering Chinese means connection:

To her family

Her heritage

To herself

But what if waiting for perfection means it's too late to get the answers she wants most?
Yale student Lily Chen arrives in Taipei hungry: for family, for culture, for connection.
But her summer of discovery quickly unravels. Her classes are grueling, her roommate unbearable, and a reckless, deeply awkward trip to the hot springs with a guy she barely knows soon ignites vicious gossip.
Then her grandfather dies.
Grieving and adrift, Lily must confront her own questions about the culture she inherited but never fully understood. She embarks on a wryly funny, often devastating search for understanding: of herself, her family, and the meaning of home.

For Lily, mastering Chinese means connection:

To her family

Her heritage

To herself

But what if waiting for perfection means it's too late to get the answers she wants most?
Yale student Lily Chen arrives in Taipei hungry: for family, for culture, for connection.
But her summer of discovery quickly unravels. Her classes are grueling, her roommate unbearable, and a reckless, deeply awkward trip to the hot springs with a guy she barely knows soon ignites vicious gossip.
Then her grandfather dies.
Grieving and adrift, Lily must confront her own questions about the culture she inherited but never fully understood. She embarks on a wryly funny, often devastating search for understanding: of herself, her family, and the meaning of home.

More pleasure, more kink, more partners, more zest - this is desire turned all the way up.

If Want sparked the fire of a quiet revolution, More gives women the fuel to let it roar.
In this electrifying sequel to the landmark bestseller, Gillian Anderson invites us to leave shame and fear at the door as she dials up the heat on women's sexual fantasies and dares us to want more.

Set across Istanbul and Oxford, from the 1980s to the present day, Three Daughters of Eve is a sweeping tale of faith and friendship, tradition and modernity, love and unexpected, bitter betrayal.

Peri, a wealthy Turkish housewife and mother, is on her way to a dinner party at a seaside mansion in Istanbul when a beggar snatches her handbag. As she wrestles to get it back, a photograph falls to the ground - an old polaroid of three young women and their university professor. A relic from a past - and a love Peri had tried desperately to forget.

Winner of the Women's Prize for Fiction 2026

Every morning, Sybil Van Antwerp sits down to write letters – to her brother, to her best friend, to the president of the university who will not allow her to attend a class she desperately wants to take, to her favourite authors to tell them what she thinks of their latest books, and to one person to whom she writes often yet never sends the letter.


Because at seventy-three, Sybil has used her correspondence – witty and wise – to make sense of the world. But beyond the page, she has spent the last thirty years keeping the people who love her at arms’ length... until letters from someone in her past force her to examine one of the most painful periods of her life.

THE ROAD - but with hope.


Hig, bereaved and traumatised after global disaster, has three things to live for - his dog Jasper, his aggressive but helpful neighbour, and his Cessna aeroplane.
He's just about surviving, so long as he only takes his beloved plane for short journeys, and saves his remaining fuel.

But, just once, he picks up a message from another pilot, and eventually the temptation to find out who else is still alive becomes irresistible. So he takes his plane over the horizon, knowing that he won't have enough fuel to get back.
What follows is scarier and more life-affirming than he could have imagined.

The deluxe limited collector's editions of the New York Times bestselling Twisted series will have gorgeous designed edges, gold foil, and exclusive art.

The deluxe limited collector's editions of the New York Times bestselling Twisted series will have gorgeous designed edges, gold foil, and exclusive art.

The deluxe limited collector's editions of the New York Times bestselling Twisted series will have gorgeous designed edges, gold foil, and exclusive art.

The deluxe limited collector's editions of the New York Times bestselling Twisted series will have gorgeous designed edges, gold foil, and exclusive art.

After a string of nightmare relationships, Emily's had it with modern-day men. She'd rather pour herself a glass of wine and curl up with Pride and Prejudice and her beloved Mr Darcy. So what if he’s a fictional hero?

Faced with spending New Year’s at yet another singles party, she books herself on a coach tour of Jane Austen country, but quickly realises she won't find her dream man here - just a coach full of pensioners and one particularly aggravating (if handsome) journalist, Spike.

That's until she enters a room and finds herself face-to-face with none other than Darcy himself. The actual, real Mr Darcy. From the book. And, suddenly, every woman's fantasy becomes one woman's reality . . .

The villain isn’t supposed to be king.


I have a simple plan.
Finish Royal Elite School and secure a place at my dream university.
But one glance from the school’s king blows my strategy up in smoke.
One glance and he suffocates my air.
Because everything about Aiden King is black.
Black mind. Black heart. Black soul.
I should’ve remained quiet and endured the time I have left.
I didn’t.

Briar Thornton has spent months outrunning her past, but when she's drawn to the small Montana town of Bane Falls with the death of her late uncle and his estate to handle, she runs straight into a new nightmare- and a man more dangerous than the one who tried to kill her.

Roman Syxx isn't a saviour. He's a weapon - cold, precise, and programmed by the Dark Forces to destroy anything and anyone. As the lieutenant of the covert Icarus Squad, he's in Bane Falls on orders: infiltrate, eliminate, disappear. But the new girl that randomly shows up in the small town fractures his control in ways no enemy ever could.

Three years ago, Emery Finch did something completely out of character: she got married. To Luca - the impossibly charming landscaper she met on one blistering night in Vegas who made her laugh, made her dance, made her feel.

But now, Emery is consumed by her top-secret job, missing dinners, forgetting anniversaries, and promising herself Luca will understand once her cutting-edge research comes to light. Until the unthinkable happens: a tragic accident takes Luca from her.

My name is Preston Armstrong, and I’m the most depraved bastard you'll ever meet.
I take what I want, ruin what I don’t, and live exactly how I please.
That is, until I crash into the force of nature that is Marcus Osborn.
Captain of our rival hockey team and the perpetual thorn in my side.

Haunted by her role in a massacre that reignited an ancient war, demigod knight Alira is cursed to relive her kingdom's destruction - dying again and again at the hands of the Blood Knight, a ruthless demon commander. But when the demons propose a peace marriage to end the bloodshed, Alira volunteers herself, desperate to break the cycle and save her people.

Betrothed to her enemy - who is also the lost demon boy she once tried to save - Alira must navigate a dangerous path between vengeance and forgiveness. Kalel Lornhelm, haunted by his own dark past and the monstrous hunger within him, is torn between hatred and a growing, forbidden attraction.

It ends where it begins. . .

Years ago, four dangerous men and a mysterious negotiator gathered in the shadows to broker a deal that would shape the future of the Tenebrae Outfit forever.

Now, the criminal world they created is far darker – far more dangerous – than anyone could have ever imagined.

To survive, four couples – tied to one another in ways none of them understand – must work together to uncover the mob’s deadliest secrets and break free from the darkness that made them.

Perfect families, perfect houses, perfect lives. Three mothers, Jane, Madeline and Celeste appear to have it all... but do they? They are about to find out just how easy it is for one little lie to spiral out of control.

Single mum Jane has just moved to town. She's got her little boy in tow - plus a secret she's been carrying for five years. On the first day of the school run she meets Madeline - a force to be reckoned with, who remembers everything and forgives no one - and Celeste, the kind beautiful woman who makes the world stop and stare, but is inexplicably ill at ease.

When Sir James Harrison, one of the greatest actors of his generation, passes away at the age of ninety-five, he leaves behind not just a heartbroken family, but also a secret so shocking, so devastating, that it could rock the British Establishment to its core . . .

Joanna Haslam is an ambitious young journalist, assigned to cover the legendary actor’s funeral. The biggest icons of the celebrity world are in attendance. But Joanna stumbles on something dark beneath the glamour: the mention of a letter James Harrison has left behind, the contents of which others have been desperate to conceal for over seventy years.

This is Maia’s story. When Pa Salt dies suddenly, the bereaved sisters gather together at their childhood home, a spectacular secluded castle on the shores of Lake Geneva. Each of them is handed a tantalising clue to their heritage and Maia finds herself on a journey across the world to a crumbling mansion in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Eighty years earlier, Izabela Bonifacio’s father has aspirations for her to marry into the aristocracy. But Izabela longs for adventure, and convinces him to allow her to first travel to Paris. In the heady, vibrant streets of the city, Izabela meets an ambitious young sculptor, and knows at once that her life will never be the same again.

The sixth book in the multi-million-copy bestselling series about a cosy Japanese cafe that offers its visitors the chance to travel back in time.

In a special seat in a fabled Tokyo cafe, you’re offered something irresistible – not just a warm, comforting coffee, but the chance to go back in time to revisit the ones you love . . .

In Before I knew I loved you, Toshikazu Kawaguchi takes us back to the warm heart of the mysterious Funiculi Funicula Cafe, with another four guests whose luminous stories of love, lost and won again, will reaffirm your belief in its eternal potential. In this book, we meet:

- The girl who wishes to make amends with the mother she never accepted
- The man who waited for a reply from his girlfriend, and never heard from her
- The woman anxious to travel ahead to know what her future holds
- The student who travels back to meet his father again, who passed away many years before.

Tyrannical Nurse Ratched rules her ward in an Oregon State mental hospital with a strict and unbending routine, unopposed by her patients, who remain cowed by mind-numbing medication and the threat of electroshock therapy. But her regime is disrupted by t

Elle has the chance of a lifetime to write a movie set in New York City. The only problem? Her recent writer's block.

When Elle returns to NYC, she finds her new neighbour to be none other than handsome tech billionaire Parker Warren. The same guy she had a disastrous hook up with two years ago. When seeing him again leads to a night of hate-fuelled writing, Elle realises he might just be her twisted muse.

Parker needs a fake relationship to help secure a business deal. Elle needs to test date spots for her screenplay. So, they make a deal.

As Kade seeks revenge on those who destroyed his life, the lines between sanity and insanity starts to blur. They threatened his family, shattered his mind, and then stole his girl. He'll sacrifice everything to save them all, even if it means war.

Stacey has been to hell and back, and now she's trapped by Bernadette, the monster who stole Kade from her. But Stacey isn't backing down - she'll do whatever it takes to save Kade, no matter the cost.

Can she free them both from Bernadette's clutches before this war consumes everyone they love?

When your life flashes before your eyes, what will matter most?

For Wilbur it was his time with Maggie, the love of his life. Their honeymoon in Venice. Before he threw it all away.

Years later, on the brink of his own death, a train arrives. It can take Wilbur back in time. To relive his most important moments. Soon he realises just how much he would have changed.

Dark and steamy motorcycle club romance Jakob Larson is going to be the death of me.

That's what I think every time he strides into my bar. The Kings of Kearny run this small Texas town, and Jakob is their chief enforcer. The Viking, they call him. He's a criminal. As dangerous as he is sexy. The kind of man who makes my inner cavewoman sit up and take notice.

I'm ready to indulge her desires, but just for one night.

Unfortunately, Jakob has other plans. Someone in town is breaking one of the cardinal rules set by the leader of The Kings, and Jakob thinks they're using my grandmother's nursing home to do it. Now I'm neck-deep in trouble with him, and every time I think I've figured out what's really going on, Jakob reveals another piece of the puzzle.

Professional bull rider Emmett Bush is not looking for love - he's looking for a paycheck to save his family's farm from bankruptcy. So, when he agrees to be the leading man on a hot new reality dating show, Romance Ranch, he's already decided it's all one big performance.

Until Julia Silva walks onto his property. Smart, snarky, beautiful, and off-limits in more ways than one. As the location consultant on set and the little sister of his most bitter professional rival, Theo, she's the last woman who should pique his interest.

On a windswept peninsula stretching out into the Atlantic, Tomás and his reluctant son, Liam, are working for the great Ordnance Survey project to map the whole of Ireland. The year is 1865, and in a country not long since ravaged and emptied by the Great Hunger, the task is not an easy one. Tomás, however, is determined that his maps will be a record of the disaster.

The British soldiers in charge are due to arrive any day, expecting the work to be completed, but Tomás is sent off course by an unsettling encounter in a copse. His life, and those of his family, will never be the same again. Liam is terrified by the sudden change in his taciturn father. What was it that caused such cracks to open in Tomás and how is Liam, aged only ten, going to finish the mapping, and get them both home?