The best new books to read in June 2026

Summer reading season is upon us, and June’s new releases arrive with the kind of line-up that makes you want to clear your diary and find a sunny spot to settle in with a book. There are heavyweight literary names returning with much-anticipated new novels – including Ann Patchett and Maggie O’Farrell – alongside escapist pleasures of a different kind, not least a gorgeous, sun-soaked novel from Andrew Sean Greer that feels tailor-made for holiday reading. Here’s our pick of the best…

Whistler by Ann Patchett

A woman in her mid fifties runs into the beloved stepfather who disappeared from her life when she was still a child, sending her and her sister back through buried memories. No-one does effortless storytelling quite like this Women’s Prize-winning author.

Bloomsbury, £20

Villa Coco by Andrew Sean Greer

A young American archivist takes a job with an eccentric Baronessa in a crumbling Tuscan mansion, where a roving cast of characters each bring their own tendrils of chaos. It is impossible to read this playful, escapist novel without a smile on your face.

Sceptre, £20

Land by Maggie O’Farrell

Ten novels in, Maggie O’Farrell continues to get better and better. Her latest, which is inspired by her own family history, transports us to 1800s famine-scarred Ireland, where a cartographer’s son must finish his father’s Ordnance Survey maps without attracting British suspicion.

Tinder Press, £25

Natural Disaster by Lisa Owens

Across one chaotic day, a mother tries to give her two young sons a perfect final hurrah before her return to work and their going to nursery. Owens captures the absurdity, tenderness and frazzle of modern motherhood with acute, painfully recognisable humour.

Virago, £16.99

A Little Bit Bad by Cassandra Neyenesch

In Obama-era San Diego, pregnant Perdita begins an affair with her younger roofer. Years later, he has been shot and his ex seems to be stalking her. This darkly funny, slippery novel is a hoot to read and will please fans of Miranda July’s All Fours.

Fig Tree, £16.99

The End of Everything by M John Harrison

After ecological collapse and an alien incursion, Philip spends his days dredging objects from the sea in a bid to survive. When he finds something strange, reality begins to buckle further in Harrison’s eerie, speculative novel of crisis and its aftermath.

Serpent’s Tail, £16.99

Hello, Limerence by Momo Yamaguchi

In Tokyo, 24-year-old office worker Mika is bored, lonely and certain the extent of her interactions with men will be with those who grope or leer at her on the metro. Then she meets Tai. This feverish debut is told with the kind of vivid, self-aware voice that carries you through the pages.

Faber, £14.99

Sail Away Land by Ben Pester

Following his debut novel The Expansion Project, Pester’s second story collection moves through uncanny spaces: liminal afterlives, surreal workplaces and parties reached through doors in colleagues’ heads. Strange, funny and disorientating.

Granta, £14.99

People in Love by Claire Daverley

Nora is happily engaged until her childhood best friend, and the one who got away, walks back into her life at her engagement party. Daverley follows her acclaimed debut, Talking at Night, with an equally good read on memory, timing and regret.

Michael Joseph, £16.99

The Children by Melissa Albert

A bestselling children’s author and her family reckon with the cost of turning childhood into art. Moving between 1990s Vermont and present-day New York, Albert’s adult debut is a beguiling read; smart yet satisfying.

Bloomsbury Circus, £18.99

Togetherness by Rowan Hooper

Hooper challenges the idea that life is driven chiefly by competition, showing instead how deeply nature depends on co-operation. From figs and wasps to coral and gut microbes, this is an eye-opening account of symbiosis and survival.

Fern Press, £25

A British Childhood by Frank Cottrell-Boyce

Drawing on stories gathered across the country, alongside memories of his own Liverpool upbringing, Cottrell-Boyce examines what childhood in Britain looks like now. Part memoir, part manifesto, it is especially powerful on poverty, reading and imagination.

Picador, £14.99

Tonight the Music Seems So Loud by Sathnam Sanghera

After years writing about the British Empire, and being caught in the culture wars in the process, Sanghera decided to turn to a subject that brings him joy: George Michael. The result is an affectionate but thoughtful portrait of the artist’s music, contradictions and background.

Picador, £22

Regina: A New History of Women and Power by Kate Williams

Williams surveys queens, empresses, princesses and courtiers across centuries, asking how royal women have wielded power and how men have shaped their legacies. From Cleopatra to Diana, it is a broad yet microscopic history.

W&N, £25