Contemporary fiction Books 1499 results

Brooke Averick

Penguin

'A ridiculously charming debut' Hannah Bonam-Young 'Had me completely charmed from the first page' Annabel Monaghan 'Heartfelt and funny . . . a love story for the ages - or at least for the anxious' Emily Austin 'Witty, relatable and unflinchingly honest . . . truly effervescent' Lyla Sage From podcaster - and TikTok's favourite romance reader - Brooke Averick, an honest, imp...

Daniel Kehlmann

Quercus

'Supple, horrifying and mordantly droll' New York Times 'Nothing short of brilliant' Wall Street Journal 'A subtle, often darkly funny novel about the relationship between art and power' Sunday Times 'A dazzling performance and a real page turner' Salman Rushdie From 'one of the brightest, most pleasure-giving writers at work today' (Jeffrey Eugenides), a visionary tale ins...

Anders Lustgarten

Penguin

Perhaps one reason not enough people kill billionaires is it's actually quite tricky... 'Hopeful and exciting. Funny and heartbreaking ... I want to read more books like this!' Mikaela Loach 'I wouldn't be surprised if it became a handbook for the revolution. I just loved it!' Patrick Alley When her home is destroyed in wildfires, fourteen-year-old Australian outback genius ...

Josh Silver

Magpie Books

'Fruit Fly is savage and darkly hilarious. A pointed satire of publishing with flawed, fascinating characters.' Juno Dawson 'This is an incredible book ... tough and raw and merciless but funny and kind at the same time.' Russell T. Davies, writer of It's a Sin Anyone can write a bestseller. Here's how. GO GAY It's been seven years since Mallory shot to fame as a literary sensa...

Lena Dunham

Harper

In this rowdy, frank reflection on illness, fame, sex, and everything in between, the remarkable mind behind the hit series Girls and the bestselling author of Not That Kind of Girl asks whether fulfilling her creative ambitions has been worth the pain. For the last decade, as she's spent countless hours in doctor's waiting rooms searching for diagnoses, treatments, and relief,...

Ben Lerner

Penguin

The narrator of Ben Lerner's new novel has travelled to Providence, where he is to conduct what will be the final published interview with Thomas, his ninety-year-old mentor, and the father of his college friend, Max. But after the narrator drops his smartphone in the hotel sink, he arrives at Thomas's house with no recording device, a fact he is mysteriously unable to confes...

Kate Bowler

Bloomsbury

'A deeply moving everyday masterpiece. I loved it' Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love 'A delight from start to finish, Joyful, Anyway embodies the mix of pleasure and aching that makes us human' Katherine May, author of Wintering You can't always be happy, but you can be joyful, anyway. After surviving a stage-four cancer diagnosis, Kate Bowler knew she was supposed...

Taylor Jenkins Reid

Penguin

***THE NUMBER ONE SUNDAY TIMES AND NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER*** 'This summer's biggest read' SUNDAY TIMES 'A richly drawn page-turner' OBSERVER 'Beautifully written, immersive' THE TIMES 'Our favourite TJR novel yet' COSMOPOLITAN 'I absolutely adored this' BRYONY GORDON READERS ARE SAYING... 'So emotional by the end that I could hardly speak' - Reader Review, 5***** 'Melted m...

Caro Claire Burke

Harper

'EVERYONE IS GOING TO BE TALKING ABOUT THIS BOOK' BELLA MACKIE 'NIGHTMARISH, SHOCKING, BRILLIANT' STYLIST 'THE BOOK THAT WILL BE EVERYWHERE' INDEPENDENT 'INTELLIGENT, INCISIVE, INSANELY READABLE' JENNIE GODFREY 'BOLD, BITING. WILL LEAVE YOU GASPING' NITA PROSE 'WICKEDLY FUNNY' ABIGAIL DEAN 'INVENTIVE, ADDICTIVE, A WILD RIDE' ASHLEY AUDRAIN 'SHOT THROUGH WITH HUMOUR, LACED WIT...

Emma Brodie

Orion

'An achingly romantic, compulsively readable love story - with chemistry that burns up every page. Emma Brodie has rendered an intoxicating portrayal of the power and intensity of human connection' TAYLOR JENKINS REID, Sunday Times bestselling author of Atmosphere 'Smart and romantic, with fine observations about theater and life . . . The final act will stay with me' GABRIELL...

Gwendoline Riley

Panmacmillan

From the Women's Prize-shortlisted author of First Love Laura Miller and Edmund Putnam have been friends for a long time. Theirs is a happy meeting of minds, with long evenings spent huddled in an ancient pub by the Thames, where they share office gossip, reflect on their teenage passions, and lament the state of the world.Recently, though, Putnam has been harder to reach: he h...

Florence Knapp

Penguin

A once-in-a-generation debut from a major new talent, The Names is the story of three names, three versions of a life, and the infinite possibilities that a single decision can spark. 'I've just been blown away by the best debut novel in years . . . A genius idea for a book' Sunday Times 'Wildly original and emotionally profound' Observer 'An unadulterated success: moving, e...

Colm Tóibín / Tã3Ibã-N Colm

Panmacmillan

In The News from Dublin, a beautiful collection of short stories from the bestselling author of Brooklyn and Long Island, Colm Tóibín delves into the days and nights of those living far from home: lives of great longing, at a great distance from past lives and past selves. A woman in Galway hears of the death of her son in the First World War. An Irishman seeks anonymity in Ba...

Tayari Jones

Oneworld

A Most Anticipated Book for 2026 according to the New York Times, New Statesman, NPR, Guardian, Independent, Financial Times, Daily Express, Mirror, Scotsman, Vulture, TIME and USA Today 'Smart and funny and deftly profound. This is Tayari Jones's very best work.' Ann Patchett, author of Tom Lake A yearning for their missing mothers pulls Vernice and Annie apart. It will take a...

Holly Brickley

Harper

It was the love story of the decade... Or it should have been ------------------------------------------------ SOON TO BE A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE FROM A24, FILMING IN SPRING 2026 'Tender as a ballad and pleasurable as a pop song' COCO MELLORS 'Clever and heart-wrenching and addictive' MIRANDA COWLEY HELLER 'An incredibly special book' BETH O'LEARY -------------------------------...

Mieko Kawakami

Panmacmillan

From the International Booker Prize-Shortlisted author of Heaven and Breasts and Eggs Hana has nothing but she's hopeful. She's fifteen years old. She lives in a tiny apartment in a suburb of Tokyo with her young mother, a hostess at a local dive bar. They have no money, no security. Then Kimiko appears. Kimiko is older, a bright light in Hana's dark world. Together they set ...

Ia Genberg

Penguin

'A delightful and exquisitely executed literary mini-study that brings to mind Joan Didion' - Expressen 'I haven't read anything better this year' - Sydsvenskan 'Her humour and delight in language make the stories crackle with life' - Svenska Dagbladet 'Genberg captures, with intelligence and insight, the afflictions of our time' - Göteborgs-Posten _______ 'You know, love is...

John Lanchester

Faber & Faber

'A great read. A box of delights which is also a thrilling satirical torture chamber.' Jesse Armstrong, creator of Succession 'An absolute riot . . . totally compulsive.' Observer 'A modern master of funny, penetrating satire.' GQ 'If Phoebe Waller-Bridge had a score to settle.' Stylist The new novel from the bestselling author of Capital What if the year's most talked about ...

Asako Yuzuki

Harper

'Tender and thrilling it's Yuzuki at her best' ELLE 'I couldn't stop reading' COSTANZA CASATI 'Unsettling, compelling, richly written' JODIE HARSH 'Dark, tender, unforgettable' JANE CASEY The unmissable new novel of friendship and dangerous obsession from Asako Yuzuki, the award-winning author of the global bestselling sensation Butter. Eriko really wouldn't mind being savaged,...

Brandon Taylor

Jonathan Cape

Over a hot summer in New York a painter falls for a priest, in this captivating modern love story from the Booker-Prize shortlisted Brandon Taylor 'A genuinely swoony summer romance' New York Times 'Stunning... an inquiry into desire, faith and what it costs to create beauty' Observer, *Best of 2026* Wyeth is a newcomer to New York, a young Black painter who is trying to fin...

Jessica Stanley

Penguin

Discover the joyful, funny love story everyone is falling for - perfect for fans of BRIDGET JONES, ONE DAY, and NORMAL PEOPLE. A NATALIE PORTMAN'S BOOK CLUB PICK 'A MUST-READ . . . LIKE ONE DAY AND NORMAL PEOPLE' THE TIMES 'FUNNY, SMART AND MEMORABLE . . . A DELIGHTFUL NOVEL' NEW YORK TIMES 'AS WARM AS A DAVID NICHOLLS NOVEL' STYLIST 'A BRILLIANT BOOK THAT HITS ALL THE RIGHT N...

Becky Barnicoat

Puffin

'By turns bloody, sweet, bleak and joyful... It is also very, very funny' NEW STATESMAN This is a graphic memoir (like a graphic novel, but true - and also a bit graphic). It's about the delirium, chaos and strangeness of becoming a parent for the first time. It's for every one who has ever wondered if it's ok to cry when the baby cries - and also laugh, snort, lie on the fl...

Rosie Hewlett

Bantam Books

THE GREATEST LOVE STORY NEVER TOLD. 'This is Rosie Hewlett's masterpiece' JENNIFER SAINT 'As dazzling as Madeline Miller's reimagining of the Iliad in The Song of Achilles' ELODIE HARPER 'The fury, the power, the cadence of this story will stay with me for years to come [...] Sappho herself would be proud.' NIKITA GILL 'A stunning tale of defiance, integrity and enduring lov...

Sofia Robleda

Penguin

In sixteenth-century Mexico, a fearless young woman strives to uncover the secrets her mother kept as the last Aztec empress in a sweeping historical epic by the author of Daughter of Fire. Tenochtitlan, 1551. Thirty years after the Spanish Conquest destroyed everything she loved, the last Aztec empress has passed and left behind a pristine yet tenuous legacy for her children. ...

Missouri Williams

Harper

'Astonishing' MICHAEL MAGEE 'A novel to marvel at ... ingenious' SOPHIE MACKINTOSH 'Wicked and beguiling' AMY TWIGG The acclaimed author of The Doloriad returns with a wildly imaginative new novel following a reclusive graduate as her attempts to navigate campus conspiracies set her on a collision course that will upend her life. In a famed but crumbling university city overrun...

Frances Crawford

Bantam Books

Don't miss the debut crime thriller of 2026 - perfect for fans of The List of Suspicious Things. A murder mystery unlike any other... 'Clever, honest, heart-rending.' VAL MCDERMID 'Richly authentic, funny, moving and insightful.' JANICE HALLETT 'I haven't read anything quite as unique as this since Trainspotting.' LIN ANDERSON 'A Bad, Bad Place will stay with me for a long, lo...

Asta Olivia Nordenhof

Puffin

A groundbreaking, profound and intimate novel about capitalism's effects on the human heart: Money to Burn is the first volume of the Scandinavian Star series, a new masterpiece of Danish literature *Guardian best translated fiction of 2025* 'Buzzes with electricity... intriguing, maddening, exciting. I'm in' Observer 'Like a normal novel with the boring bits taken out' Guardia...

Gabriel Tallent

Ladybird

''All this is, is the thing we've always known: we have nothing and nobody except each other. But that, we have in spades. Now, let's go climb rocks." 'Tender, immersive, and thrilling' GABRIELLE ZEVIN, author of Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow 'One of the best novels I've ever read about friendship between a young man and a young woman ... Exciting and tension filled' S...

Madeline Cash

Puffin

'A voice like no other' Lena Dunham 'Hilarious' Megan Nolan 'Fiendishly readable' Financial Times == Think your family is dysfunctional? Meet the Flynns. For the three Flynn daughters, it's been disastrous since their parents opened up their marriage. Abigail, the eldest, is dating an ex-soldier several years her senior nicknamed 'War Crimes Wes'. Louise, the middle child, ...

Sanam Mahloudji

Harper

SHORTLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION 2025 SHORTLISTED FOR THE BOLLINGER EVERYMAN WODEHOUSE PRIZE 2025 'Enormously entertaining' THE TIMES 'As funny as it is moving' GUARDIAN 'Unputdownable' HARPER'S BAZAAR 'Funny, sharp and insightful ... a triumph' LAUREN LAVERNE 'A joy of a debut' DAVID MITCHELL 'Magnificent BERNARDINE EVARISTO Five women. Three generations. A mounta...