May’s publishing slate is stacked with novels that demand attention, from blistering debuts to long-awaited returns. The Mirror's resident bookworm has selected six of the most anticipated books landing this month.
Douglas Stuart, the Booker Prize-winning author of Shuggie Bain, returns with his third novel John of John. Set on the rugged Isle of Harris, it follows Cal, a young man returning home from art school to a father who desperately needs him, exploring duty, suppressed emotion and the 'terrible secrecy' of a father-son relationship.
Kathryn Stockett, author of the global phenomenon The Help, releases her first fiction in seventeen years. The Calamity Club is set in Depression-era Mississippi in 1933 and follows three unforgettable characters: Meg, an 'unadoptable' eleven-year-old orphan, and two women named Birdie and Charlie. Early praise describes it as a 'joyful, heartbreaking, and heartwarming' story of female resilience.
Elizabeth Strout, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Olive Kitteridge, shifts focus to Massachusetts in The Things We Never Say. It follows Artie Dam, a 57-year-old history teacher and coach who appears 'jolly' on the outside but grapples with existential loneliness, meditating on unspoken fears and abiding love.
Ana Kinsella follows her acclaimed non-fiction with her debut novel Frida Slattery as Herself, selected as a BBC Culture Pick for 2026. It tracks the shifting relationship between Frieda, an actor, and John, a writer-director, over seventeen years, told through the plays they create together. Samar Yazbek’s Your Presence is a Danger to Your Life is a harrowing document of survival in Gaza after October 2023, based on testimonies of twenty-six Palestinians. Jem Calder’s debut novel I Want Y follows his acclaimed short story collection Reward System and has been described by Sally Rooney as 'irresistible'.
