New Arrivals: The Best Recent Book Releases

Set in a coastal town under the shadow of a billionaire shipping magnate, this debut follows a family unraveling as their lives slide into criminal conspiracy. As the author puts it, “aspirationally, it’s The Corrections meets Eyes Wide Shut. A family saga and crime caper.”

The novel follows Kristian Hadeland, a misanthropic Norwegian photography student in 1985 London whose ambition outpaces his empathy, leading him into morally fraught encounters and a Faust‑like pact with an enigmatic artist. As Kristian’s career blossoms into international success, his past actions and relationships begin to unravel, forcing him — decades later — to confront the price he has paid for fame.

Set across Pakistan’s cities and feudal countryside, this novel traces lives shaped by power, loyalty, and survival. From the Story Prize–winning author whose debut was also a National Book Award and Pulitzer finalist, it arrives amid early prize buzz. The New York Times says it’s “a serious book you’ll be hearing about again,” with The Guardian and The Times already predicting major awards attention.

From the writer whose earlier novel Treasure Island!!! developed a devoted following, this darkly comic book follows a woman whose carefully managed worldview collapses while caring for her nephew, who insists he’s been possessed by the soul of a dead corgi. As the week spirals, rationality gives way to obsession, grief, and escalating absurdity.

This memoir opens as the pandemic begins, at a moment when stability is supposed to hold. Instead, a long, affluent marriage collapses without warning. Writing from inside the shock, Burden examines infidelity, class, and the quiet assumptions that shape an orderly life until they fail all at once. Town & Country called it “frank” and “moving,” praising how she writes herself back to wellness.

After losing her job, a risk-averse daughter heads west with her estranged, free-spirited mother, chasing a rumored million-dollar treasure hidden somewhere in the desert. What begins as skepticism turns into a high-stakes journey marked by old wounds, new alliances, and the possibility of reinvention.

From a MacArthur Fellow and National Humanities Medalist, this book examines the deep human need to feel significant and how that impulse fuels ambition, devotion, conflict, and belief. Through stories of artists, thinkers, caregivers, and extremists, it shows how different pursuits of meaning shape identity and culture.

Stretching from revolutionary Iran to the hyperconnected capitals of the twenty-first century, this debut maps a fractured family’s pursuit of money, meaning, and survival. Kirkus calls it “a hell of an accomplishment” and “a bitter yet compassionate tour de force,” while Publishers Weekly describes it as “cutting and self-assured” and sees in it the arrival of “a thrilling new voice in the vein of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Zadie Smith.”

An approachable, judgment-free guide to investing and financial independence. Written with clarity and humor by a former investment manager, it demystifies money while keeping the focus on freedom, security, and building a life that actually feels good.

Set on a fire-prone eucalyptus plantation, this unsettling debut follows the fallout from a mysterious fungal illness that kills multiple workers while leaving one man inexplicably alive. As scientists, clergy, and family members project meaning onto his survival, ecological collapse gives rise to belief, fear, and prophecy.