words by DEBORAH DRENOFCI
In his 1992 essay Comme un roman, Daniel Pennac lists the Rights of the Reader, or Les Droits imprescriptibles du lecteur. The first is the right not to read. Hence, if this year you were busy or simply did not find a book to get fully immersed in, don’t be so hard on yourself. We have curated a list of ten books published this year, from which you can choose a few to read before 2027 brings on new adventures. Or not, the choice is yours. But we will give one piece of advice, one that might save you from the overwhelming nagging of the “to-do list” or the infamous “New Year’s resolutions”. Don’t include “read more” or “read ten books a month” in such lists, because the art of reading must not become another goal or resolution. There is no need to wait for the New Year to start reading more or delving into fiction. You can read whenever, wherever, and that’s the beauty of it.
image via PINTEREST
THE RENOVATION
BY KENAN ORHAN
Longlisted for the 2026 Booker Prize, The Renovation is the debut novel of Kenan Orhan. The book sits in the territory of magical realism and stretches its premise into a political thriller. It follows Dilara, a political exile living in Italy because of her father’s past in Turkey. The story takes off with an interesting and unsettling discovery. The bathroom, renovated for her father as he battles Alzheimer’s, closely resembles a prison cell, one that channels the real elements of Turkey’s Silivri Prison, known for its political prisoners. Through the immaculate prose, the reader forgets that the setting might not be real. Because Orhan touches upon the rawness of grief, longing for the homeland, family responsibility and caretaking, all of which are too real and relatable not to ground us in the abyss of human experience.
MY YEAR IN PARIS WITH GERTRUDE STEIN: A FICTION
BY DEBORAH LEVY
You never know with Deborah Levy how much is based on her real endeavors and how much is fiction. The name of the American avant-garde poet Gertrude Stein makes this novel rather compelling, as if it promised a quest. The narrator goes to Paris, where she meets an artist named Eva and the adventurous Fanny. The three friends share walks, talks, good food and everything in between. It is a dazzling, glamorous meditation on what it means to become modern, to let go of the painful anxieties that stem from uncertainty, worry, moving to a new country and more. This book is a navigation of friendship. As transparent as it sounds, it holds a veil of mystery.
ANTI-ZIONISM: A JEWISH HISTORY
BY BENJAMIN MOSER
Pulitzer Prize winner Benjamin Moser brings forward a book that is not only educational, built on extensive historical research, but also important for humanity, especially amid the conflicts the world faces today. Through delicate and compelling storytelling, Moser focuses on the past two hundred years to tell the story, and consequently the views, of different rabbis, writers and thinkers on Zionism, and how it is not so much related to liberation as it is to harmful nationalism. It is crucial that we pick up these kinds of books, because knowing history allows us to form our own views and our own thoughts, and therefore to hope for a better future.
YESTERYEAR
BY CARO CLAIRE BURKE
This one ranks high among the books of 2026. It follows Natalie, the perfect wife with the perfect life. She lives on a ranch with her handsome husband, making sourdough starters and sharing it all with her envious followers. Then one morning, she wakes up in a strange reality. Everything is off, and she has to find her way back to her regular life. A witty, darkly humoured fiction that explores multifaceted womanhood, from faith to marriage to fame.
FRUIT FLY
BY JOSH SILVER
This satirical thriller follows Mallory Maddox, who has been battling a very prolonged writer’s block. She desperately needs inspiration, and a story. Then there is Leo, a struggling addict sleeping under bridges. Mallory believes his story needs to be told, and that she should be the one to write it. But then things take a turn, an unsettling one, and Mallory has to decide how far she is willing to go. A book that leaves us with an uncomfortable question. Who really has the right to tell someone else’s pain?
MINOR BLACK FIGURES
BY BRANDON TAYLOR
Booker Prize finalist Brandon Taylor has a delicate way of showing the tenderness of his characters, the questions they live through and the exchanges that help them get to the answers. This book does exactly that. In the heat of New York, Black gay painter Wyeth wanders around trying to connect with his desires, his creativity and his craft. After attending a peculiar creative event, he ends up in a bar in the West Village, where he meets Keating, a former seminarian. Over the summer they share long conversations about faith, art and sex. The book also follows Wyeth as he investigates a minor Black artist, which in turn makes him reflect on what it means to be a Black artist himself.
DEPARTURE(S)
BY JULIAN BARNES
Julian Barnes turned eighty this year and decided this would be his last book. The narrator is a writer called Julian, so once again the line between fiction and reality gets blurry. The story revolves around Stephen and Jean, two friends from university whom he brought back together forty years later, and about whom he swore he would never write. Well, he did. Along the way Barnes reflects on memory, getting older, illness and the art of saying goodbye. It is a short book, but one that stays with you long after the last page, light and melancholic at the same time.
LAND
BY MAGGIE O’FARRELL
The author of Hamnet takes us to Ireland this time, to the west coast in 1865, when the country was still recovering from the Great Famine. The novel follows one family through several generations, carrying their losses, their love and their will to survive. There is a hint of magic in the way O’Farrell writes about the landscape, as if the earth itself holds on to the past. A long and rich read, perfect for those cold winter evenings when you want to disappear into another world.
HOLLYWOOD, ENDING
BY JOHN GREEN
Remember crying over The Fault in Our Stars? John Green is back, and this time he is writing for adults. Two young actors land roles in a film about Andy Warhol, and when the movie becomes a hit, their lives turn upside down. It is a love story set behind the cameras, but also a sharp look at fame and the constant need for attention that social media has made part of everyone’s life, not only celebrities’. Funny, tender and a little bit sad, just the way Green likes it.
FAMESICK
BY LENA DUNHAM
In her second memoir, Lena Dunham looks back at the decade that made her famous and, in her own words, made her famesick. From her early days as a young filmmaker to the rise of Girls, every chapter takes its title from an episode of the show. Dunham places fame next to her long struggle with chronic illness, and the two start to look strangely alike. Raw, funny and vulnerable, it is a celebrity memoir that dares to ask whether the dream was worth the price.
