The 45 most anticipated books of 2024, including a new Stephen King and a study at how algorithms are molding our society, range from literary classics to crime thrillers.
If you want to read more fantastic novels in 2024, you're in luck. The literary world will be lively. This preview includes the long-awaited return of big-name writers, thrilling debuts, interesting memoirs, and thought-provoking non-fiction.
Bighitters
Several living and deceased literary giants have new books this year. A "lost novel" by Gabriel García Márquez will be released in March, 10 years after his death. The Nobel prize-winning novelist wrote Until August with dementia and requested for it not to be released in his dying days, but his sons opted to publish their "father's last effort to continue creating against all odds".
Faber, Viking, Sceptre Faber, Viking, Sceptre creditsFaber, Viking, Sceptre
Mayflies writer Andrew O'Hagan's latest doorstopper arrives in spring. In this grandiose state-of-the-nation book set in north London, Caledonian Road follows the demise of a prominent scholar and has a large cast of supporting characters. Long Island, a sequel to Colm Tóibín's brilliant 2009 book Brooklyn, will be released in May. The film starred Saoirse Ronan. Eilis and Tony had a nice life in the US with two children since we left them, but an unexpected knock on the door brings Eilis back to Ireland.
Percival Everett's James follows Barbara Kingsolver's popular Demon Copperhead, a contemporary reworking of David Copperfield. The prolific US novelist has quietly been writing superb books for four decades, with 2021's The Trees nominated for the Booker Prize. His 24th may be his most awaited. Jim, a slave, narrates Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn.
Very few current authors develop characters as human as David Nicholls. This year is important for him, with Netflix adapting his best-selling book One Day in February and his new novel You Are Here in April. The plot—two strangers trek across northern England—isn't the most exciting, but Nicholls finds the wonderful in the commonplace. It's not a pandemic story, but its themes of loneliness and clinging to connection are relevant after recent years.
In the summer, Elif Shafak returns with There Are Rivers in the Sky, an ambitious book about three foreigners living along a river across generations and nations. Ali Smith always finds unique methods to write novels, and for her next one, Gliff, published in October, she'll conceal a narrative that will inspire Glyph (released in 2025). Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's first work in almost a decade will be released later this year. Only that Dream Count has four interconnected tales is known.
Exciting debuts
Along with renowned names, fresh voices are emerging. The Ministry of Time by British-Cambodian writer Kaliane Bradley is a thrilling debut. The genre-bending romcom about a Victorian arctic explorer and a millennial civil worker who become roommates after a government time travel experiment is released in May.
After Fleabag, the "messy woman" cliche has become common in literature, but Australian writer Madeleine Gray's Green Dot, about a twentysomething with a boring job and an untenable relationship with a married guy, seems new. It has razor-sharp phrases and black humor. Rebecca K Reilly's Greta and Valdin, about two adult siblings' doomed love lives and their colorful family, is another exciting Australian debut. Both release in February.
Recent years have been great for Irish writing, and that's expected to continue. Famous short story writer Colin Barrett's debut book, Wild Houses, is a County Mayo criminal caper. Sally Rooney deems it "a book to live inside". Hagstone, about an artist, a secluded Irish island, and a mysterious women's commune, is a unique and engaging story about creativity, landscape, and folklore by Sinead Gleeson, a renowned writer and critic. Lauren Elkin's book Scaffolding follows two couples who live in the same Parisian flat 50 years apart.
Two renowned poets debut in fiction this year. Martyr! by Iranian-American writer Kaveh Akbar follows an adult orphan of Iranian immigrants looking for the truth about his mother's death. A South Yorkshire mining family's three generations of masculinity are examined in Andrew McMillan's Pity.
Female voices
Women authors have dominated the literary world for years, and 2024 appears to be another successful year for them.
Two successful debut authors return with anticipated sequels. Kiley Reid, whose 2020 book Such a Fun Age was a commercial and critical smash, returns this month with Come and Get It, a college novel about young women's financial worries and what individuals would do for money. In August, Nigerian novelist Abi Daré will release And So I Roar, which features Adunni, the heroine of The Girl with the Louding Voice.
Every Sarah Perry book is exceptional, and Enlightenment, a 20-year narrative of two friends exploring love, religion, and astronomy, will be released in May. After a decade, Miranda July's second book, All Fours, is a fresh perspective on the female mid-life crisis about a 45-year-old artist who takes a brief road trip and discovers herself.
The lockdown saw word-of-mouth popularity for Clare Chambers' 2020 book Small Pleasures, about 1950s suburban life. Her 1960s sequel Shy Creatures follows an art therapist and her married lover whose lives are upended by unforeseen circumstances.
Rachel Cusk, author of the Outline series, releases Parade this summer. The narrative of "art, womanhood and violence" is recounted in a fresh "on the border between fiction and reality" voice.
Finally, if you're feeling romantic, Emily Henry's latest novel comes out in April. Funny Story is a "happily ever after that wasn't" about two heartbroken strangers becoming housemates and more.
Crime tales
Tana French lovers and aficionados of dark, atmospheric mysteries may rejoice when the writer returns in March with The Hunter, a sequel to 2020's The Searcher. French says it's a tale about retribution and families—both natural and created—set in a little west Irish community.
In May, Stephen King will release You Like It Darker, a short tale anthology 50 years after Carrie. The moniker implies that these stories explore the dark underbelly of daily existence.
Stuart Turton's post-apocalyptic murder-mystery The Last Murder at the End of the World will be released in March. Kate Atkinson's beloved Jackson Brodie detective series will return in late summer. Death at the Sign of the Rook, a tribute to Agatha Christie, finds Brodie trapped in an ancient rural mansion during a blizzard with a diverse group.
Richard Osman, the genre's monarch, will debut a new series in the fall, replacing his retirement home amateur sleuths with a new investigative partnership. Osman also praised Jonny Sweet, a young mystery writer whose spring debut The Kellerby Code is characterized as Patricia Highsmith meets Donna Tartt.
Recallable memoirs
Prince Harry, Pamela Anderson, Britney Spears, and Barbra Streisand were featured in 2023, but 2024 promises a more unique combination of life tales.
Two authors whose lives altered drastically in 2022 publish new novels on their ordeals. Salmon Rushdie's Knife, published in April, recounts the literary incident assault that left him blind. In December 2022, The Buddha of Suburbia author Hanif Kureishi fell in Rome and lost use of his hands, arms, and legs. Shattered, his October memoir, reveals his "becoming another person" adjustment.
The captivating essayist Leslie Jamison releases her debut book, Splinters, in February. It examines parenting, marriage, sorrow, and art. The Piano Player of Budapest, coming this summer, is the tale of singer-songwriter Roxanne de Bastion, who discovered a cassette tape of her grandpa playing piano and discovered how he survived the Holocaust via music.
The House of Hidden Meanings (March) chronicles Ru Paul's rise from gay and black San Diego kid to worldwide drag sensation and cultural icon. Two powerful female artists released autobiographies this year. Kathleen Hanna of Bikini Kill and Le Tigre will release Rebel Girl: My Life as a Feminist Punk in May, while Neneh Cherry will release A Thousand Threads in September.
New non-fiction
As usual, this year's non-fiction books span genre and subject matter, so here is only a sampling.
Two significant new books examine how AI is affecting human lives. New Yorker staff writer Kyle Chayka examines how algorithms are affecting society and constraining our worldview in Filterworld (January). In Code Dependent (March), Financial Times writer Madhumita Murgia examines how AI affects nine average individuals worldwide to determine its effects on society.
After his bestseller Empireland, novelist and journalist Sathnam Sanghera explores Britain's imperial legacy worldwide in Empireworld (January). In Private Revolutions: A Coming of Age Story (May), journalist Yuan Yang follows four 1980s and 1990s Chinese women who dream of a better future.
Olivia Laing's non-fiction works have covered loneliness, alcoholic authors, rivers, and the body. In her latest book, The Garden Against Time, released in May, she begins in her Sussex walled garden and explores gardens' joys and potential.
Ann Powers, a famous NPR music reviewer, writes about her passion. Travelling: On the Path of Joni Mitchell (March) examines Mitchell's musical and other adventures.
Since Lauren Oyler is a tough literary critic, her debut collection of essays, No Judgement (March), examines cultural critique in current culture. After Bluets and The Argonauts, Maggie Nelson's Like Love, a compilation of art and artist articles, follows in April. Nelson's genre-busting work and Deborah Levy's essay collection, which will be released in September, have won over many followers.