Jane Austen! Zora Neale Hurston! Hanif Kureishi! 27 New Paperbacks Out This January.

It’s a new year, and, with it, a time to reflect on the chaos and fascistic terror of 2o25 and the things we can fight for and hope to amend in 2026. It may feel naive to hope for much after a year of such breakneck political upheaval, a year of destroying a country’s democratic institutions and core principles by a thousand cuts, a year of telling certain groups of people that they do not belong in the xenophobic, Americentric, racist, transphobic, anti-science, intelligence-deprived Christian nationalist vision of the current administration. But hope is how we begin to draw the contours of the world we want. And having art we cherish by our side makes it easier to hold onto that hope, makes it easier to imagine that world-to-come, even if may be in brief moments.

Below, you’ll find a wide array of books in fresh new paperback editions that I hope can help you do just this, as well as find moments of comfort, hilarity, smart provocation, and more. If you missed any of these novels, collections, memoirs, or thoughtful critiques in hardback, you’ll want to check them out in paperback. Take joy in the simple moments—even just that inimitable aroma of a new book, or the sound of turning pages, or a passage that makes something in you smile—and let that fuel you in a larger sense for the year to come. The little moments matter.

I hope you enjoy these and add them to your piles. Happy New Year, everyone!

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Aria Aber, Good Girl
(Hogarth)

“[An] exhilarating debut novel….Aber has published astonishing poems I’ve read dozens of times. It’s thrilling to see her turn major poetic gifts toward the sweep of this Künstlerroman.”
–R.O. Kwon

Morgan Talty, Fire Exit
(Tin House/Zando)

“At once a touching narrative about family and a gritty story about alcoholism, dementia, and longing, Fire Exit is a novel in which past and present are constantly on the page as we follow a man’s life—while it also entertains what that life could have been…a story about very complicated things that is very easy to read. That beautiful simplicity is no easy task, and the fact that Talty pulled it off in his debut novel undoubtedly backs the statement he made with his superb short story collection, Night of the Living Rez: Talty is an outstanding new voice with a lot to say.”
–NPR

Susan Barker, Old Soul
(Putnam)

“[A] sweeping work of literary horror….The slow-burning tension and lush, atmospheric prose build a creeping sense of dread that lingers long after the final page. Fans of both the deeply personal speculative horror of Carmen Maria Machado and the subtle, character-driven mystery of Haruki Murakami will be enthralled.”
–Publishers Weekly

Rebecca Romney, Jane Austen’s Bookshelf: A Rare Book Collector’s Quest to Find the Women Writers Who Shaped a Legend
(Scribner)

“Rebecca Romney takes a cannon to the canon, tracing the history of the women writers who paved the way for Jane Austen. These overlooked authors struggled against debt, deadbeat husbands, horrific pregnancies, class prejudice, and the widespread idea that women couldn’t and shouldn’t write. Romney brings them vividly to life and makes the compelling case that they defined the modern English novel…a captivating narrative that weaves together history, feminism, and the enduring power of literature to move readers across centuries.”
–Amy Stewart

Hanif Kureishi, Shattered: A Memoir
(Ecco)

“Hanif Kureishi has long been one of the most exciting, irreverent, influential voices of his generation. In this beautiful, moving memoir he deals with personal calamity with wit, unflinching honesty and literary grace. It’s an extraordinary achievement.”
–Salman Rushdie

Imani Perry, Black in Blues: How a Color Tells the Story of My People
(Ecco)

“Perry asks us to see Black people’s relationship to the color blue in its spiritual and material specialness, and though blue carries immense tragedy inside of it, neither black nor blue is wholly defined by the cruelty that links them. Like a blues song, the beauty is found when you tune into its complex frequencies on the backbeat.”
–The New Republic

Ange Mlinko, Foxglovewise: Poems
(FSG)

“The lushness is late romantic; these poems’ ‘vintage is Keatsian,’ loading every rift with ore….This is a big and imposing book, worldly wise but warmly open and giving.”
–David Wheatley

Andrew Lipstein, Something Rotten
(FSG)

“Something Rotten is (characteristically, for this author) an irreverent book; often funny, at times caustic. Andrew Lipstein’s refreshingly frank third novel probes the more discomfiting questions—about marriage and fidelity, fathers and sons, cancel culture and propriety, sex and gender, ambition and motivation—of modern life.”
–Rumaan Alam

Justin Taylor, Reboot
(Vintage)

“For all the talk of an Other America—that underground country whose president is Trump and whose capital is Florida—we have precious few novels of its condition, and none as powerful, passionate, whacked-out, and pathic as Justin Taylor’s Reboot.”
–Joshua Cohen

Eric Puchner, Dream State
(Vintage)

“Eric Puchner’s Dream State delivers everything I want in a novel: a love triangle, a moving friendship story, a delicious setting (including some of the best skiing scenes I’ve ever read in my life) and rumination about how we search for meaning in our lives…an absolute masterpiece.”
–Elin Hilderbrand

Dionne Brand, Salvage: Readings from the Wreck
(Picador)

“In this scintillating literary analysis, Canadian poet Brand, who grew up in Trinidad, examines depictions of imperialism in works by Charlotte Brontë, William Thackeray, and other British writers….Brand’s piercing analysis is at once sweeping and deeply personal….It’s a potent reevaluation of the British literary canon.”
–Publishers Weekly

Manuel Betancourt, Hello Stranger: Musings on Queer Intimacies
(Catapult)

“From the acclaimed author of The Male Gazed comes a new collection of essays about modern intimacy and queer romance. From the bars, to the apps, to bathhouses, a stranger is nothing but a series of possibilities, right? In this collection, Betancourt unpacks his own past relationships, and references many heavy hitters to help drive his points home: Sondheim, Frank O’Hara, and the films Before Sunrise and Cruising. Sign us up.”
–Tiernan Bertrand-Essington

Sarah Gerard, Carrie Carolyn Coco: My Friend, Her Murder, and an Obsession with the Unthinkable
(Zando)

“In a sweeping act of grace, Sarah Gerard has written an ode, a testament, a love letter to a friend, and the scathing critique of true crime I’ve been waiting for…presents an unfathomable act of violence and a depiction of the systemic, patriarchal ills that allow exploitative mythologies to be spun from suffering. This book is a balm and antidote to such narratives―offering, instead, a story full of light, artistry, and strength. I didn’t know Carolyn Bush or her art when I started this book; now I do, and my life is fuller for it.”
–T. Kira Madden

Caryl Phillips, Another Man in the Street
(Picador)

“Contrasting the long shadows of colonialism and WWII with the shininess of the mod era, Phillips demonstrates profound depths of imagination and empathy in this astute, bleak, and heartbreakingly exquisite tale.”
–Booklist

Sash Bischoff, Sweet Fury
(Simon and Schuster)

“Sweet Fury is a gorgeous literary thriller, filled with a cast of glamorous and tragic characters that feel like they might just have stepped out of a modern-day F. Scott Fitzgerald novel. I absolutely devoured this smart, sensual, and twisty story of revenge.”
–Jillian Cantor

John Banville (formerly Benjamin Black), Even the Dead
(Holt)

“There are now seven [novels] that feature Quirke, and by the latest, Even the Dead, they make a series with a complex intertwining of places, obsessions, memories, and characters, many of whom return frequently: something like Raymond Chandler played through a Proustian woodwind….We can now look at the books as an ensemble that does something remarkable within the detective genre.”
–The New York Review of Books

Michelle Adams, The Containment: Detroit, the Supreme Court, and the Battle for Racial Justice in the North
(Picador)

“Michelle Adams has written the definitive history of Milliken v. Bradley, one of the most important Supreme Court cases of all time. Deeply researched and beautifully written, The Containment fundamentally changes how we understand the history of civil rights. This page-turner illuminates how battles over school desegregation shaped cities and suburbs, and explains why issues like affirmative action remain political battlegrounds today.”
–Matthew F. Delmont

Sara Ahmed, The Feminist Killjoy Handbook: The Radical Potential of Getting in the Way
(Seal Press)

“Odd and exciting to let out a shout as one reads a book of theory, theory written for and about the ordinary outrages that demand a feminist response….Ahmed thinks in the middle of rage, never letting go of the possibility of joyful resistance, writing, turning over what she just wrote, showing how ‘obstinacy’ is one form for the desire to survive….This book is a great gift, enormously important for overcoming this vicious trans/feminist divide, showing how anti-racism and the struggle for disability rights is central to feminist and queer thinking and politics.”
–Judith Butler

Allison Pugh, The Last Human Job: Seeing Each Other in an Age of Automation
(Princeton University Press)

“Based on a multiyear study of US workers and workplace, Pugh’s The Last Human Job is set against a scene of quantification, standardization, and task automation at scale. At stake in Pugh’s analysis is the future of connective labor, or the skilled practice of perceiving, acknowledging, and reflecting back others’ thoughts and feelings—a blend of emotional labor and psycho-social recognition….Connective labor is not just a task, Pugh says, nor is it reducible to measurable ends. It is an inalienable part of humanity itself, without which the social fabric is left threadbare and thin.”
–Public Books

Zora Neale Hurston, The Life of Herod the Great
(Amistad)

“[A]n important piece…the newly published edition (as well as the excellent scholarly commentary by editor Dr. Deborah Plant) is an invaluable artifact for Hurston specialists and historians of American literature…a monument to Hurston’s passionate, piercing intellect, fired by curiosity and persistence. It is invaluable to Hurston scholars, offering a glimpse into her creative process, her abiding academic and artistic passions, her unflagging drive to keep creating art and scholarship.”
–Chicago Review of Books

Charmaine Wilkerson, Good Dirt
(Ballantine Books)

“A remarkable exploration of family bonds, grief, heartbreak, friendship, and the deep scars of slavery and racism, Good Dirt seamlessly links the tragedies and resilience of our past in a way that is both brilliantly resonant and heartbreakingly beautiful. Wilkerson’s prose is succinct yet richly evocative, masterfully delving into the minds and motivations of her characters and delivering a narrative that lingers long after the final page…solidifies Wilkerson’s place as one of the great multi-generational storytellers of our time.”
–Abi Daré

Emma Knight, The Life Cycle of the Common Octopus
(Penguin Books)

“In her fiction debut, Knight delicately explores the painful and exhilarating experience of growing up, which for Pen includes falling in love for the first time and realizing that her parents are flawed human beings….A lovely and poignant coming-of-age story.”
–Kirkus Reviews

Lee Hawkins, I Am Nobody’s Slave: How Uncovering My Family’s History Set Me Free
(Amistad)

“As a direct descendant of Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings, I carry a legacy that embodies both the violence of enslavement and the strength of survival. This knowledge reshaped how I see myself and my place in a history….Hawkins…captures this complexity with remarkable clarity, tracing the connections between past and present to reveal the generational forces that shape our identities. It is a work that invites readers to confront the truths in their own histories and imagine the possibility of healing, not by erasing the past, but by fully understanding it.”
–Shannon LaNier

Hannah Durkin, The Survivors of the Clotilda: The Lost Stories of the Last Captives of the American Slave Trade
(Amistad)

“A sweeping history of the survivors of the Clotilda, the last slave ship to land in America….Durkin’s in-depth view is based largely on the survivors’ own words and perspectives (some lived into the twentieth century and related their stories to various writers, most notably Zora Neale Hurston), and is woven together with her extensive archival research. It’s a stirring saga of resilience that sheds new light on Black life in postbellum America.”
–Publishers Weekly

Paul Hendrickson, Fighting the Night: Iwo Jima, World War II, and a Flyer’s Life
(Vintage)

“Paul Hendrickson has long stood apart from other writers because of his singular, lyrical voice, and Fighting the Night is the work of a great author at his very best. The themes have universal appeal—fathers and sons, love and war—but the true heart of Fighting the Night is Hendrickson’s reckoning with the ghosts of a life in a book that is hypnotic, profound, achingly honest and compulsively readable.”
–David Finkel

Clarence A. Haynes, The Ghosts of Gwendolyn Montgomery
(Legacy Lit)

“A superstar publicist has to contend with the literal ghosts of her past when they attempt to ruin her life in this debut novel…Haynes has created a mystical, sensuous, dangerous world of spirits and power while also making characters that feel three-dimensional and knowable….This is a strong debut for a new, interesting voice with things to say. A smart, sexy story filled with ghosts, history, and resilience.”
–Kirkus Reviews

Sara Sligar, Vantage Point
(Picador)

“Vantage Point is a sophisticated suspense novel that’s as thought-provoking as it is unnerving. With her signature seductive prose, Sligar holds up a mirror to the dark side of privilege and the true horrors of being a woman on the internet, crafting a story that feels like shattered glass: brilliant and exquisite, but it will cut you deep.”
–Layne Fargo