The trouble with choosing holiday books is that we ask rather a lot of them. You want them to be smart and substantial, but also light and readable. They need to be page-turning enough to compete with the lure of a swim, but also thought-provoking enough to not be immediately forgotten. Ideally they would also be funny, and moving, and brimming with characters you would like to spend all your time with.
Luckily, 2026 has delivered. This summer’s best new books range from addictive debuts to big-name literary fiction from the likes of Ann Patchett, Maggie O’Farrell, Elizabeth Strout and Douglas Stuart, as well as clever thrillers, bittersweet memoirs and non-fiction as gripping as any beach read.
Here’s our pick of the 14 which are very much worth your precious suitcase space…
Whistler by Ann Patchett
This Women’s Prize-winning author rarely puts a foot wrong, and her latest is exactly the kind of effortless storytelling to savour over a summer weekend. It opens with Daphne running into the stepfather who vanished from her life when she was still a child, and unspools into a luminous story of family, memory, and the people who change us.
