The best books of 2027

How this list works

Every book here has been announced for 2027 by its publisher, its author or a reliable trade source such as The Bookseller or Publishers Weekly. Each entry gives the UK publisher and date, and the US date where it differs and matters. The one-line description paraphrases the publisher's own. We have not read these books yet, so there are no verdicts here, only what is coming and when.

Dates move. A novel announced for March can slip to May, and a paperback date is not a publication date. We check the list again as the year goes on, and the date at the top says when we last did.

A new book is a promise until somebody has read it.

Literary and general fiction

• Cash Out, Nick Hornby (Viking, 14 January). Sophie cares about neither money nor football, but has to decide whether to cash out a Leicester City bet her uncle placed in her name.
• Three Sisters, Jojo Moyes (Michael Joseph, 11 February). Cora is summoned by her estranged artist father to his home on Capri, where she meets her two sisters again.
• The Last Days of Vic & Coco, Taylor Jenkins Reid (Hutchinson Heinemann, 2 March). Two women run a pool hustle across America in the summer of 1974 and plan one last score.
• Miss Lambert Steps Aboard Danger, Kazuo Ishiguro (Faber, 9 March). London, 1938: a meeting between the mysterious Miss Lambert and a music-hall enthusiast. His first novel since Klara and the Sun.
• Blaze, Emma Donoghue (Picador, 18 March). In a partly flooded New York in 2040, a young pigeon takes in a human stranger.
• Christabel, Kate Morton (Mantle, 6 April). A publisher visits a reclusive author in a Cotswold village to buy the rights to a forgotten fairy tale that hides an old crime.
• The Return Trip Is Shorter, Anne Tyler (Chatto & Windus, 29 April). A widower living alone for the first time in thirty years is pulled back into family life when his youngest sister turns up.
• The Fire, Kristin Hannah (St. Martin's, 4 May in the US). After a public betrayal, Merritt Locke crosses America to find her way back to her estranged daughter.
• The Last Diva, Brit Bennett (Riverhead, 8 June in the US). Two friends form a singing group in 1963 and become rivals.
• The Deep and Secret Things, Ken Follett (Quercus, 21 September). A young Welsh noblewoman in Victorian Britain becomes entangled with a Quaker family of wheelmakers.

Thrillers and crime

• Rapid and Fatal, Patricia Cornwell (Scribner, 19 January in the US). The thirtieth Scarpetta: a billionaire couple dies after wasp stings, and Scarpetta does not believe it was an accident.
• Twist, Alice Feeney (Macmillan, 9 March). A flight attendant leads a double life, and when a man is killed his wife sets out to find who did it. A television adaptation is in development.
• The Sleepwalker, Freida McFadden (23 March). A nurse who sleepwalks fears her sleeping self is a killer. A standalone, not part of The Housemaid.
• A new Harlan Coben (Century, 20 May). A teenager is arrested for a double murder on DNA evidence that points to a son his parent never knew existed. The title is not announced yet.
• The Verdicts, John Grisham (Doubleday, 19 October in the US). Simon Latch from The Widow returns to the courtroom.

Fantasy and romantasy

• A Court of Forgotten Melody, Sarah J. Maas (Bloomsbury, 12 January). The seventh book in A Court of Thorns and Roses.
• The Stars Look Like Home, T.J. Klune (Tor, 14 January). Told by Burke, a dog who finds out he is not immortal.
• Emily Wilde's History of Dark Faerie, Heather Fawcett (Orbit, 19 January). The fourth Emily Wilde: a search for a missing friend in the Black Forest.
• The Moth Reborn, Samantha Shannon (Bloomsbury, 25 February). Book six of seven in The Bone Season.
• Seven and the Swift, Devney Perry (Red Tower Books, 9 March). The last book of Shield of Sparrows.

Romance

• The Two-Body Problem, Ali Hazelwood (Sphere, 2 February). The sequel to The Love Hypothesis: Olive and Adam against clashing schedules and a hard academic job market.
• Modern Classic, Emily Henry (Penguin, 8 April). A burnt-out screenwriter inherits her late mentor's house in Santa Barbara.

Non-fiction

• Thank You For Your Suffering, Michelle Zauner (Picador, 27 April). After Crying in H Mart: a year in Seoul learning Korean so she can read her late mother's diary.
• Between Books, Ian McEwan (Jonathan Cape, late May). His essays, collected for the first time.

The 2027 book calendar

• World Book Day, Thursday 4 March 2027, in the UK and Ireland. Its thirtieth year. Source: World Book Day.
• International Booker Prize, longlist 16 March, shortlist 15 April, winner in May 2027. Translated fiction published between 1 May 2026 and 30 April 2027 is eligible. Katie Kitamura chairs the judges.
• The Booker Prize, for novels published between 1 October 2026 and 31 July 2027. The 2026 longlist came out at the end of July.
• December: the end-of-year lists from newspapers, bookshops and readers.

Prizes tell you what a jury admired. They tell you less about what you want to read this winter. Use them as a supply of titles, not as homework.

How to find your own best book of 2027

A best-of list is an average. The book you will love most in the next twelve months may not be on any of them: a quiet novel, a translation that got little attention, a book from 1987 you found by chance.

1. Keep a note of what you loved, and why. One sentence per book is enough. After a few months you can see what you are really looking for: a voice, a place, a pace.
2. Ask readers who share your taste. A tip from somebody who loved the same books as you is worth more than any list. How to ask so you get a good answer is on what book should I read.
3. Read some new books, not only new books. The best book you read this year does not have to come out this year.
4. Talk about it. You only find out what a book did to you when you have to say it out loud. That is what a book club is for.

In the Time to Read app you write one sentence in Ask about what you are in the mood for. Readers with shelves like yours each choose one book, with a reason, usually within the hour. And the monthly pick is one book a month, chosen for you and signed by the Time to Read team.

The titles, publishers and dates on this page were checked on 3 November 2026 against the publishers' own pages, The Bookseller, Publishers Weekly, Kirkus Reviews and World Book Day. A date can still move.