I’ve already read some of 2026’s biggest book releases – these are the 4 to look out for

The Booker Prize-winning author of Shuggie Bain is back with his highly anticipated third novel, John of John. It explores the writer’s well-trodden themes of masculinity, coming of age and working-class life in a Scottish setting.

The novel follows 22-year-old John-Callum (Cal) as he returns to his father’s home on the Isle of Harris after graduating from art college. Cal’s father, John, is a devout Protestant, sheep farmer and influential figure at the community’s Presbyterian church, who is reluctantly living with his Glaswegian mother-in-law, Ella.

A poetic portrait of a close-knit community in the beautiful but brutal Outer Hebrides, John of John explores identity and belonging. Through a troubled father-son bond, the novel comforts the tension between duty and religion, desire and love.

I can’t say much more without ruining it, but I’m still thinking about the characters and story long after finishing John of John. It’s Stuart at his very best.

Reminiscent of Mormon Wives, Yesteryear centres around a “trad wife” influencer, Natalie. On Instagram to her millions of followers, she lives an idyllic life in a farmhouse on a ranch, spending her days cooking sourdough, flirting with her handsome cowboy husband and homeschooling her litter of six children. The reality is much more fickle, from nannies and social media assistants to hapless husbands, moody daughters and internal battles about feminism. Then, she wakes up one day, transported back in time to 1805, where she’s forced to live the image of a “simple” settler life, just as she curated on Instagram.

Tackling pop culture ideas of trad wives, social media and the curated reality shown on Instagram, while also exploring more serious themes of religious conservatism, the debut is witty, funny and thought-provoking. It's released on 9 April, so get ready to see it everywhere in the latter half of 2026.

Eden McKenzie-Goddard’s debut centres on one family’s experience of the Windrush scandal, which saw people of the Windrush generation wrongfully detained, denied legal rights, threatened with deportation, and, in some cases, deported by the British government.

Smallie is a multi-generational story that begins in 1961, when Lucinda arrives in Southampton from Barbados in pursuit of her lover – and her young son’s father – Clarence, who joined the British army. Her experience integrating, finding work and a home in 1960s London is interspersed with time jumps to 2017, where her children are fighting claims that their mother is an illegal immigrant. A powerful, important and poetic novel, it sheds essential light on the government scandal.

Roxy Dunn’s debut, As Young As This, was one of my favourite novels of 2024. Her follow-up, Wants & Needs, is equally enjoyable. Thirty-something Misty is recently single, on crutches, recovering from knee surgery and living back at home with her mother. Reluctantly thrown back into the dating world, she’s forced to navigate the world of apps, where she’s soon drawn to the older, handsome, charismatic and intelligent Christopher. The catch? He’s married with a child and in an open relationship. Faced with undeniable chemistry, she decides to explore the ‘ethical non-monogamy' that Christopher is offering. Funny, witty and fact-paced, I tore through it on a Sunday afternoon.