The Tamesis
New year…new bookshelf! At least that’s how we feel here; there’s nothing more exciting than book season.
In that spirit, we present to you the best books we’ve read so far in 2026. As has been the case over the past few years, this is not a comprehensive list. Here are a lot of books you won’t find but we’re excited to read: Tayari Jones relativesher stunning follow-up american marriage; a new collection of short stories by Lauren Groff and Colm Tóibín; the final installation in Tana’s French trilogy; a new album by Booker Prize winner Douglas Stuart. Perhaps because of all the upcoming books from these well-known literary heavyweights, we skewed this early list toward debuts—and we’re glad we did. Read on to find new discoveries for yourself!
Strangers: A Memoir of a Marriage Author: Bear Burden (January)
Strangers: A Memoir of a Marriage
not every modern love The column needs to be a complete book, but there are definitely places where you need more backstory. bell burden’s Strangers: A Memoir of a Marriage (Dial Press) falls into the latter category. She published in 2023 in ” new york timesAdding to the popularity of “Bourdain” is the fact that she was Babe Paley’s granddaughter, so her divorce memoir (certainly an entry in a burgeoning genre) is imbued with assumptions of old-fashioned etiquette, which gives it anthropological appeal. The article tells the story of the initial shock, when Burden was forced to ask herself whether she was married to a man who was essentially a stranger. The book unfolds after the fact, leading you not toward an absolute answer but through the tangled impossibility of fully understanding another person. ——Chloe Sharma
I Can Be Famous: Story By Sydney Rende (January)
Sydney Rende’s debut shines a light on what matters most to us today: how we are perceived. I Can Be Famous: Story Bloomsbury is a collection of 11 funny and relatable anecdotes told by 10 female narrators, all tied together by a twisted, hot-shot male actor. In their own way, each woman shares their different desires and dreams, but is so focused on the possibility of failure, or what others might think of them. Lund’s short stories are brilliant and make the reader believe that with enough faith (or perhaps lack of faith) and delusion, we all can become famous one day. ——Kelly McGuigan
lost lamb By Madeleine Cash (January)
Madeline Cash’s brilliant debut novel about family dysfunction, lost lamb (Farrard, Strauss and Giroux), with its witty density and plot intricacy, is reminiscent of early Maria Semple. The novel lovingly depicts a family succumbing to open marriages, teenage rebellion, and the pressure to buy a home. This familiar family dilemma may not sound like the stuff of exciting new novels, but Cash’s book is one of the most exciting debuts I’ve encountered in a while. (Teenage rebellion is anything but tedious: one daughter is dating an ex-soldier known as “War Crime Wes,” another is deeply involved in a deep online relationship with a fundamentalist terrorist, and the youngest may have just discovered a huge scam.) I bet this will be one of the books of the year. -CS
Baihe Ferry By Ian McGuire (February)
A decade ago, British novelist Ian McGuire became famous for a whaling adventure set in a bleak 19th-century surrealist setting Beishui (This was made into a brilliant BBC adaptation.) McGuire’s new novel, Baihe Ferry (Crown), offers the same rugged winter fun. Set in the frozen Canadian wilderness of Hudson Bay at the end of the 18th century, this riveting story follows British traders on a dangerous expedition into the subarctic wilderness in search of gold. McGuire’s goal here was to entertain (which he achieved), but his sympathetic treatment of the native tribes who were contacted and conflicted by the British gave his novel an air of sad tragedy. ——Tyler Antrim
it has nothing to do with us By Allegra Goodman (February)
Allegra Goodman’s charming new book breaks new ground in the serial short story genre. it has nothing to do with us (Dial Press) is the story of a family, told by different members, each with their own perspective and deeply rooted narrative. The book begins with the deathbed story of an older sister whose two remaining sisters have a quarrel over cake—a family spat that becomes mysterious and entirely unspecific, the details lost in a lingering haze of resentment. In the stories that follow, Goodman provides a nuanced investigation of the relationships between siblings, the delicate mix of anxiety and pride parents feel for their children, and the confused feelings an aunt or uncle might feel for an aimless niece or random nephew. Not surprisingly, as with Goodman’s excellent essay about raising her own children, the book is most moving when it shifts between the perspectives of parent and child. But the book is surprising in many ways, with its cacophony of love and dissatisfaction crystallizing into an exquisite portrait of a tightly knit family bond. -CS
sky lantern By Cecile Pin (March)
Stories of emotionally tortured men who leave their families to explore the outer reaches of the solar system may feel like well-worn territory, but London-based author Cecil Ping finds many new emotional depths to explore in her exquisite and deeply moving second book. sky lantern (Holt) tracks astronaut Ollie’s journey across multiple timelines: from his first romance with a neighbor growing up in rural England, to his recruitment by figures like Musk to join the world’s most ambitious space program, to the flight logs documenting the 10-year journey he and his colleagues took to fly to the moons of Jupiter, longing for the comforts of home. It’s the contrast between Ollie’s cool, cerebral approach to life in space – which draws on her impressive knowledge of astrophysics research with ease, never letting it get bogged down in the page-turning story she’s weaving – and his passionate relationship with his wife that makes the book sing, finding powerful new ways to examine the sacrifices we must make in order to pursue our passions. ——Liam Hess
gunk By Saba Sams (March)
An extremely fascinating book, gunk Saba Sams’ “Knopf” tells the aimless story of a 30-something bar manager who discovers she has a baby she didn’t give birth to. The bar’s biological mother, a mysterious teenage employee, has disappeared. While this seems like a promising start to the plot, what the rest of the novel shows is how this happens – and an exploration of the seedy side of British nightlife, the surrogate families that form after get off work, and the allure of mind-altering substances and experiences, whether chemical or biological. A stylish, secretly funny debut. -CS
downtime Author: Andrew Martin (March)
Andrew Martin’s first novel, early workmarks him as a comic chronicler of what it meant to be young, often lusty, and single-mindedly devoted to a literary life. The novel has a simple plot and is not in urgent need of a sequel, but Martin’s new work downtime (Farrar, Strauss and Giroux) provide some kind of continuation (at least emotionally). Here are five post-college friends, two men, three women, split between Boston and Brooklyn, trying with varying degrees of vigor to figure out how to basically get their shit together. Here, the story is not important, what is important is the mood and vividly described entertainment, in which downtime There are many. Sexual entanglements are carefully crafted and fearlessly depicted; so are the dangers of substance addiction and depression. The novel flies by with a strange and delightfully dissatisfied energy. —TA
Whidbey By T. Kira Madden (March)
After the gorgeously rendered and often heartbreaking success of Madden’s 2019 debut memoir, I had high hopes for her first novel Long live the fatherless girl tribebut to be fair, her novel Whidbey “The Sailor” – a literary thriller told from the alternating perspectives of a child abuser’s mother and two victims – met my expectations and upped the ante. Whidbey like being carefully observed and cleverly narrated Long livebut it’s particularly noteworthy for its empathy with the characters whose paths it crosses. Madden has a unique interest in complicating our ideas about who “deserves” justice or forgiveness, and the dark, desolate, and breathtakingly compelling stories she weaves within them Whidbey It’s something I won’t soon forget. ——Emma Spector
porcupine By Fran Fabritsky (April)
porcupine “Summit” is another debut novel that heralds the arrival of an ambitious writer who doesn’t seem afraid to write about something far beyond her personal experiences. The novel tells the story of Szonja, a young Hungarian woman who travels to Los Angeles to visit her sister after the fall of the Berlin Wall. (How her sister came to Los Angeles is another unlikely story—marriage to an Orthodox Jew—that somehow works within the context of this wide-ranging novel.) Unfazed by her sister’s rule-bound life, Szonja soon embarked on more adventurous American experiences. Fast forward ten years and she is still living in the United States and is now the mother of a nine-year-old. You can guess what happened. There’s nothing overtly political about the book, and there’s nothing sanctimonious about it, but I couldn’t help reading it and admiring its humanity – it’s a funny, entertaining, clever immigrant story. -CS
last year Carol Claire Burke (April)
How do women present themselves to the world? This problem is compounded by the fact that we transmit images of ourselves across a billion (countless?) small screens. The most astute fictional dissection of femininity and the social media panopticon is coming this spring last year (Knopf), Carol Claire Burke’s hilarious satirical debut novel. old days The protagonist Natalie is a traditional wife who makes a living and becomes famous by broadcasting her old days (but-surprise!— rather untrue) the lives of many of her followers. (She enjoys off-screen trips to Target and finds farm life stressful.) Natalie’s online haters, whom she considers “angry women,” are another type: burnt-out overachievers. Natalie attempts to escape her fate by crafting a simpler life, creating a new kind of prison for herself in the process. The book deftly alternates the story of how Natalie became an influencer with a more sinister plot in which she seems to actually be trapped in 19th century life. -CS
real animals By Emmeline Atwood (July)
Lucy, the main character in Emeline Atwood’s novel, is in her senior year of college. real animals (Catapult) became convinced she was a leopard and placed herself high in a tree before campus authorities removed her. Are we in a fictional world that blends graduate student burnout and magical realism, or are we just reading about a nervous breakdown? The narrator tells us: “Nothing like the leopard will ever happen to me again,” and: “I know something about fear now
Not quite human. ” real animals The impact of three long-term relationships (with an aloof college boyfriend; an explosive, dangerous old man; and an upright citizen with very different personalities) in affirming or dismantling the narrator’s belief in himself is documented. Even after the vision passes, her animal instincts remain powerful
How she interacts with the world as a character. -CS
