A lot has happened since Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie published her last novel, Americanah, more than a decade ago – including the author being sampled on Beyoncé’s song Flawless. Her long-awaited return to the fiction shelves this March is sure to be one of the publishing events of the year, with Dream Count exploring the lives of four Nigerian women during the pandemic.
Taylor Jenkins Reid – author of the best-selling Daisy Jones and The Six – loves revisiting past decades in her books, and her next, Atmosphere, out in June, is set against the backdrop of the 1980s Space Shuttle program. It’s likely to be spotted on many sun-loungers this summer. As will the latest from Emily Henry, whose romance novels have sold more than 10 million copies. Her newest, Great Big Beautiful Life, is out in April.
Stephen King famously writes every single day, and it certainly pays off – he’s published more than 70 books. His latest, Never Flinch, due in May, is a crime thriller featuring his recurring character Holly Gibney. Another prolific writer, Anne Tyler, releases her 25th novel in February. Three Days in June follows one woman across her daughter’s wedding weekend. Richard Osman is also fast establishing a meaty back catalogue – in the autumn he returns with the fifth (in five years) installment of his Thursday Murder Club series.
Anticipated follow-ups
This year will see new titles from several authors who made a big impression with their last books. Those hoping they can follow up that success include Natasha Brown, whose debut Assembly topped many best-of-year lists in 2021. Her second, Universality (March), which explores the consequences of a journalist’s viral long read, looks to be just as fêted. Also out that month is Torrey Peters’ Stag Dance, the follow up to Detransition, Baby – which won the 2021 PEN/Hemingway award for debut fiction. Her new Book explores trans lives past, present and future in four interconnected stories.
Ocean Vuong‘s 2019 debut On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous was a huge hit with both critics and on TikTok. He returns this spring with The Emperor of Gladness (May), the story of an unlikely friendship between a 19-year-old man and an elderly widow.
In the summer there’s another sequel to Irvine Welsh’s Trainspotting. Whereas 2001’s Porno followed Renton, Spud, Sick Boy and Begbie 10 years after the original book, and 2018’s Dead Men’s Trousers the period after that (a prequel, Skagboys, was also published in 2012), Men In Love skips back in time to pick up events directly after the end of 1993’s cult classic. The boys are trying their best to drop the drugs and find romance instead. Don’t expect a sentimental love story from Welsh, though. Talking of sequels, Glyph, the sister novel to Ali Smith‘s dystopian 2024 novel Gliff, will be out in the autumn.
A new title from Curtis Sittenfeld, author of American Wife, Prep and Romantic Comedy, is always something to look forward to, and this year she’s treating us to a new collection of short stories called Show Don’t Tell (February).