At the Service95 Book Club, we’re always on the lookout for books that open our world a little – stories that shift how we see things, take us somewhere unexpected, or let us slip into someone else’s shoes for a while. From long-awaited returns by prize-winning favourites to bold new voices rewriting genres, these are the books we can’t wait to read in 2026.
The January Releases To Start The Year With
This Is Where The Serpent Lives by Daniyal Mueenuddin (out 13 January)
The Book: Told in a series of interlocking narratives that follow three generations of Pakistani families, This Is Where The Serpent Lives promises to be an intimate portrait of the anguish, betrayal and triumph of everyday life – but also a sweeping story of a country gripped by systems of caste, capital and power.
The Buzz: Readers have had to wait a long time since Daniyal’s multi-award-winning debut, the short story collection In Other Rooms, Other Wonders, in 2009. This is his first novel and excitement is running high.
Jackson Alone by Jose Ando (out 15 January)
The Book: When a disturbing video sparks wild office gossip about Jackson, a mixed-race massage therapist, he discovers three other queer guys dealing with the same thing. Teaming up, they hunt for whoever’s targeting them – and use the fact no one can tell them apart to turn the tables.
The Buzz: With its award-winning author and fierce themes of identity and retribution, this novel promises an unforgettable, conversation-starting read.
Vigil by George Saunders (out 27 January)
The Book: Vigil tackles the gravest issues of our time – the menace of corporate greed, the toll of capitalism, the environmental perils of progress, all through the eyes of Jill ‘Doll’ Blaine, who hurtles back to earth to usher another soul to the afterlife. Sounds heavy? Maybe, but expect George’s usual dose of compassion, empathy and humour.
The Buzz: The much-anticipated follow up to the award-winning Lincoln In The Bardo – Dua’s Monthly Read for October 2024 – which cemented George Saunders’ reputation as one of our greatest living novelists.
The February Releases To Make Space On Your Shelves For
Eating Ashes by Brenda Navarro, translated by Megan McDowell (out 5 February)
The Book: After returning to the Mexico of her childhood, a woman tries to make sense of her brother Diego’s death – six seconds that won’t stop replaying. As she revisits their life of struggle and displacement, she questions how well she ever knew him and what truly gives a life meaning. Translated by Booker-shortlisted Megan McDowell, it’s said to be vivid, darkly funny and quietly devastating.
The Buzz: It’s already a sensation, sweeping major literary awards in Spain – early praise describes the author as a fierce, electrifying new voice.
She Who Remains by Rene Karabash, translated by Izidora Angel (out 10 February)
The Book: High in the Accursed Mountains, in a village ruled by the ancient laws of the Kanun, Bekija escapes an arranged marriage by becoming a sworn virgin, renouncing her womanhood to live as a man. Her decision sets off a brutal chain of events, destroying her family and separating her from the one she loves the most. Years later, as Bekija – now Matija – tells their story to a visiting journalist, long-buried truths come to light, along with the realisation of all that might have been.
The Buzz: Rene Karabash’s landmark Bulgarian queer novel is finally translated into English. Watch out for the film adaptation, too, set to be released this year.
The Ark by Haruo Yuki, translated by Jim Rion (out 12 February)
The Book: The Ark throws 10 hikers into a nightmare when a rockslide traps them in an old mountain bunker – and then the place starts flooding. Their only way out? Someone must stay behind. Tempers spike, alliances shift, and before they can even choose, someone turns up murdered. With the water rising and trust evaporating fast, the group has to figure out who’s killing them – and how to get out alive.
The Buzz: It has the perfect mix of locked-room tension and survival-thriller chaos. A killer on the loose, water pouring in, and a group forced to pick who lives and who dies? Exactly the kind of book you tear through in one sitting.
As If by Isabel Waidner (out 26 February)
The Book: Lewis is mourning his dead wife; Korine is dodging his very-much-alive one. Lewis never had kids; Korine is a half-hearted parent. Lewis was an actor who skipped his big break; Korine chased dead-end jobs instead of his dreams. Two lives, mirrored yet divergent, each wanting what the other has and a second chance to get it right.
The Buzz: Isabel Waidner turns ordinary life into a hall of mirrors, full of ironic melancholy and sly existential twists – perfect for anyone who’s ever wondered ‘what if?’
The March Releases To Assign To Your TBR Pile
Strangerland by Monika Radojevic (out 5 March)
The Book: Set between tropical Brazil, 1990s London and a rapidly fracturing Yugoslavia, Strangerland is a deeply moving and emotionally rich story about the power of love to transcend languages, borders and time. It is inspired by the long and difficult journey Monika’s parents embarked on to start a life together in London as immigrants from Brazil and Montenegro, after falling in love following a chance encounter at a supermarket checkout in 1990.
The Buzz: We love a debut novel, and Strangerland comes hotly tipped – Monica Radojevic’s first poetry collection Teeth In The Back Of My Neck won the #Merky Books New Writers’ Prize in 2019.
Tarantula by Eduardo Halfon, translated by Daniel Hahn (out 5 March)
The Book: In 1984, 12-year-old Eduardo is sent to the mountains for what his parents describe as ‘Jewish summer camp’. What it turns out to be is an immersive re-enactment of a Nazi concentration camp. Decades later, on the other side of the world, Eduardo sits across a table from a stranger. This is Samuel Blum, the Jewish camp counsellor who transformed into a terrifying Nazi commandant all those years ago. Now he is an old man, and he is ready to talk.
The Buzz: Award-winning Guatemalan author Eduardo Halfon is considered to be one of the great global writers of his generation.
Brawler by Lauren Groff (out 5 March)
The Book: A short story collection that ranges from the 1950s to the present day and moves across age, class and region – from New England to Florida and California. The theme that runs through them all is the ceaseless battle between the dark and light in all of us. Among those caught in this match are a young woman suddenly responsible for her Disabled sibling; a hot-tempered high school swimmer in need of an adult; a mother blinded by the loss of her family; and a banking scion endowed with a different kind of inheritance.
The Buzz: Lauren Groff frequently appears in Barack Obama’s annual favourite books lists.
The April Releases To Bookmark Now
London Falling by Patrick Radden Keefe (out 7 April)
The Book: The acclaimed investigative journalist – and author of Dua’s Monthly Read for June 2024, Say Nothing – turns his sharp eye to the real-life mystery that begins with the tragic death of London teenager Zac Brettler, who fell from a luxury riverside apartment in 2019. As his parents search for answers, they uncover a shocking truth: Zac had been pretending to be the son of a Russian oligarch, slipping into a fantasy world that led him straight into the city’s darker corners.
The Buzz: Patrick’s reporting reads like a thriller; this is set to be one of the year’s major non-fiction events.
The Book: This book kicks off with a wild premise – Anna Frenza, the CEO of Poland’s biggest oil company, gets caught on camera sleepwalking into the woods and having sex with a tree. Her career implodes, her marriage cracks open and her mind slips into another world – maybe madness, maybe magic. From a psych ward, she tumbles into the orbit of a centuries-old coven of radical women who worship the forest and reject the patriarchy. As Anna joins their ecstatic, rebellious rituals, the Church threatens to destroy everything they’ve built.
The Buzz: The kind of debut that grabs you by the collar and doesn’t apologise, it’s bold, surreal, feminist and ferociously funny – exactly the kind of book that rewires your brain. Oh, and Service95 favourite, Dua’s Monthly Read author Olga Tokarczuk, is a fan.
Having Spent Life Seeking by Kae Tempest (out 30 April)
The Book: Rothko is fresh out of prison and back in the bleak coastal town where they grew up, with nothing but ghosts and their newfound struggle with sobriety to keep company. Rothko’s mental health is fragile, and who knows if they would even survive without their faithful dog Donovan to keep them going. Their chaotic addict mother Meg still has the power to derail them, and their difficult relationship with their father is unresolved. But there are beacons of hope, among them Fletcher, whose embrace of trans joy shines a tentative light on a possible future. And there’s beautiful, extraordinary Dionne, who could see what was there all along.
The Buzz: This is a story of transformative love and coming home to oneself, written with authenticity, tenderness and sincerity, from a beloved poet, writer, lyricist and performer.
The May Releases To Add To Your Wish List
Mother Tongue by Sara Nović (out 5 May)
The Book: Sara Nović’s early years were steeped in music, Bible study, and a strong desire to fit in. But when she failed her school’s mandated hearing test, her worldview was thrown into chaos. No longer able to ignore her deafness, Sara sought out other deaf people and was welcomed into a tight-knit community rooted in American Sign Language. Now the mother of two young sons – one, biological and hearing, the other, adopted and deaf – Sara reflects on her life both before and after parenthood.
The Buzz: Interwoven with Sara’s personal story is a remarkable portrait of America through reflections on some of its most complex histories: the rise of the Christian right, the thorny world of international adoption and, above all, the deaf and Disabled communities’ continual survival in the face of persistent oppression.
Eat Bitter by Lydia Pang (out 14 May)
The Book: Lydia Pang’s bold, honest and utterly relatable take on food, family, and getting through life’s tough spots. Inspired by the Hakka saying ‘eat bitter’ – enduring hardship to taste sweetness – she weaves her ancestors’ struggles with her own challenges: marriage, burnout, fertility and caring for a parent. Along the way, eight recipes bring memories to life, from egg noodles for a sick sister to bone broth in New York and courgettes grown in Wales.
The Buzz: Lydia shows how food can be medicine, memory and a lifeline all at once. It’s perfect for anyone who loves family stories, a bit of wisdom and a healthy dose of real-life grit – plus some seriously good recipes.
The Book: It follows Marisol, a young girl forced to flee her home under a military dictatorship in Chile. She and her family end up in a refugee camp, clinging to hope for asylum and a new life. Told in fragments spanning childhood and adulthood, the novel explores displacement, trauma and the struggle to hold onto love and hope amid upheaval.
The Buzz: Loosely inspired by Pedro Carmona-Alvarez’s own experiences of fleeing Chile, it captures both the heartbreak of loss and the resilience of hope, making it a quiet but unforgettable read.
John Of John by Douglas Stuart (out 21 May)
The Book: Out of money and with little to show for his art school education, John-Calum Macleod takes the ferry home to the island of Harris to find that not much has changed except for him. In the windswept croft where he grew up, Cal resumes his old life, caught between the two poles of his childhood: his father John, a sheep farmer, weaver and pillar of their local Presbyterian church, and his Glaswegian grandmother Ella, who has kept a faltering peace with her son-in-law for decades. The Macleods are vividly drawn, complicated but loveable. At times they will drive you mad with frustration and alternatively, make you laugh out loud.
The Buzz: One of our founder Dua Lipa’s favourite authors, this is the book the whole Service95 team has been waiting for!
At Sea by Y.M, Abdel-Magied (out 21 May)
The Book: Zainab, an expert driller, gets the call to lead a make-or-break operation on a failing offshore oil rig. She jumps at the chance, leaving her pregnant sister behind, only to land in the middle of a volatile, all-male crew who want nothing to do with a woman in charge. As she fights to earn even a shred of respect, she digs into the rig’s looming structural disaster – and realises the real threat isn’t the machinery but the men around her, driven by ego, fear and their worst impulses.
The Buzz: It promises a tough, propulsive story about competence, power, and what it really takes to lead when the ground – literally – is giving way beneath you.
Wimmy Road Boyz by Sufiyaan Salam (out 28 May)
The Book: A white bimmer hurtles down Manchester’s curry mile, carrying three brown boys in pursuit of a wild night out. It’s an evening of chaos and mischief. Three boys with nothing to do and something to prove. Of course there’s going to be trouble. What the boys don’t know: this night might just be their last.
The Buzz: A blistering story of masculinity, violence and love set over the course of a single, surreal night from the winner of the 2023/24 #Merky Books New Writers’ Prize.
The July Release To Add To Your Calendar
The Book: Friendship makes life worth living – and worth ending, too. When Eufrasia Vela begins working as a caregiver for the elderly in Lima, little does she suspect that her job will lead her to an existential crossroads. The warm relationships she develops with Doña Carmen, Dr Harrison and ‘The Magnificent Seven’, force her to rethink her role as a mother and sister, the vicissitudes of longevity, the forms that compassion takes – and the surprising value that guinea pigs acquire in her moral compass.
The Buzz: A tragicomic novel about one of the great conflicts of our times: care for the elderly and our empathy towards them.
The September Release You Won’t Want To Miss
Stations by Louise Kennedy (out 24 September)
The Book: Róisín and Red meet as teenagers in their Irish hometown in 1982. Two years later, their lives have unfolded in wildly different directions. Róisín enrols in college, still living at home with her mother, while Red has disappeared into a vacant flat in London, squatting with four other people and a maladjusted greyhound. When Róisín unexpectedly arrives in London to spend Christmas with her estranged father, she finds herself swept up once more into Red’s storm – with consequences that will echo through both of their lives in the years to come.
The Buzz: Stations, by the author of 2022’s bestselling Trespasses, is an unforgettable story of love, friendship and the choices that dictate our lives: those we make ourselves, and those that are made for us.
