The Hottest New Fiction to Read Now

In this Tertulia staff pick and Read with Jenna book club selection, a woman lands at LAX, where agents detain her based on a chilling prediction: their dream-surveillance algorithm shows she will harm her husband. Confined to a retention center for "observation," she joins other women also held captive by their own dreams. It’s a deeply human story about privacy, freedom, and resistance in an age of digital surveillance.

This recently International Booker Prize-longlisted novel is set in Berlin, following an expat couple who have built their dream life around digital success, houseplants, and curated images. But as they grow bored and disillusioned, they grapple with the emptiness of modern aspirations. The Booker judges called it “astute, discomfiting, cringe-making and often laugh-out-loud funny… holds up a mirror to the way so many people aspire to and are let down by today’s off-the-shelf measures of success. A startlingly refreshing read.”

The Booker Prize-shortlisted Austrian author of A Whole Life, delivers the story of a man opening a café in 1960s Vienna, where strangers come together and form a found family. “Beautiful,” raves Publishers Weekly. “Seethaler’s story bursts with empathy. This is a winner.”

In the Australian outback, an unnamed narrator seeks refuge in a religious community after leaving behind her urban life. When three dramatic events—a mouse plague, the return of a murdered nun's bones, and a face from the past—disturb the retreat's quiet, she must confront fundamental questions about human responsibility to one another and to nature.

You won't want to miss Dream State—Oprah's latest book club pick. Already snapped up by A24 Productions, this multigenerational epic of inherited guilt, set in a small Montana town, has critics raving. The Washington Post calls it “a transporting wonder” with “one of the most touching endings in years,” while The Boston Globe praises its “cinematic opening”—a vivid scene so warm and attentive, a reader can’t help but fall in head first.

Inspired by the true story of Marguerite de La Rocque, this “lushly painted, surprisingly feminist historical fiction” follows a young woman and her lover marooned on an island after their forbidden relationship is discovered. According to People magazine, “It’s a perfect read for cozying up by a roaring fire—and feeling thankful you’re not the sixteenth-century heroine the story is based on.” This book was featured as Reese Witherspoon’s February Book Club selection.

Named one of the most anticipated books of 2025 by The New York Times, Vulture, Elle, and more, this debut novel by the author of the poetry collection Hard Damage follows a nineteen-year-old woman as she immerses herself in Berlin's vibrant yet chaotic underground scene, exploring freedom, love, and the complexities of identity. “Once in a blue moon a debut novel comes along, announcing a voice quite unlike any other, with a layered story and sentences that crackle and pop, begging to be read aloud. Good Girl introduces just such a voice,” raves The Los Angeles Times.

Featured in Vogue’s best books to read in 2025, this “modern Gothic tragedy” follows a woman who, after returning to her old money family’s remote Maine estate, becomes ensnared in a chilling mystery when intimate videos surface that she doesn’t remember filming. It’s a “highly entertaining thriller” that examines the fragility of truth in a world ruled by digital illusions and ambition.

Remember when mixtapes were love letters and your taste in music pretty much defined your whole personality? Deep Cuts promises to transport you back to that glorious era! Set in the early-2000s indie music scene, it follows two Berkeley college students whose creative partnership gets tangled up in love, ambition, and obsession.