2026 is already shaping up to be a brilliant year for literature, Irish and otherwise. Here are just some of the forthcoming titles we can’t wait to sink our teeth into.
Half His Age, by Jennette McCurdy
January 20, Ballantine Books
The first work of fiction from the bestselling author of I’m Glad My Mom Died comes a sad, funny, thrilling novel about sex, consumerism, class, desire, loneliness, the internet, rage, intimacy, power, and the (oftentimes misguided) lengths we’ll go to in order to get what we want. Half His Age is a rich character study of a yearning seventeen-year-old who disregards all obstacles—or attempts to overcome them—in her effort to be seen, to be desired, to be loved.
Brigid, by Kim Curran
January 29, Michael Joseph
From the author of The Morrigan comes a witchy, radical re-imagining of Ireland’s most beloved saint and goddess. In a wild, ancient grove at the edge of winter, a desperate girl prays to the gods for her freedom, though none have ever listened until a vision arrives that will transform Brigid’s path forever. This is the story of a woman who could never be caged, by men, by gods, or even by history itself. What – or who – will Brigid sacrifice to hold on to her legacy?
Nothing Good Happens After 2am, by Niamh Hargan
January 29, Harper Collins
From London to Los Angeles, Berlin and Tokyo, Nothing Good Happens After 2am is a story of friendship, ambition, passion and something more. Beginning in London in 2005, behind the unmarked door of a tiny speakeasy, Robbie Saunders and El Tippett are cocktail-making stars on the rise. Locked in a volatile dance of rivalry and chemistry, they can’t decide how they feel about each other, and as the city transforms itself, the bar’s legend grows, and it all begins to unravel. Over the years that follow, one unexpected, ill-advised, and utterly glorious late night after another, can they put aside professional betrayals to build something brand new?
In Glass Houses, by Edel Coffey
February 12, Sphere
When everyone is looking in, a killer can only hide in plain sight. Twenty years ago, Eddie’s career as a journalist was destroyed by the Juliet Fox case. Juliet was young and beautiful, born into the privileged world of the Manhattan elite. Pulled into their orbit by her investigation, Eddie discovered how far the rich and powerful are prepared to go when their way of life is threatened. Eddie has always known that the wrong man was made the scapegoat for Juliet’s murder. So when a new luxury sky-rise is opened by Juliet’s father, just metres from where her body was discovered, Eddie can’t resist finding her way in.
Hooked, by Asako Yuzuki
March 12, 4th Estate
Eriko really wouldn’t mind being savaged if it were her best friend doing the savaging. Her life appears perfect. Devoted parents, spotless apartment and a job in the seafood division of one of Japan’s largest trading companies. Her latest project, to reintroduce the controversial Nile perch fish into the Japanese market, is characteristically ambitious. But beneath her flawless surface, she is wracked by loneliness. Eriko becomes fascinated with a popular blog written by a housewife, Shoko. Shoko’s posts about eating convenience store food and her untidy home are the opposite of the typical Japanese housewife’s manicured lifestyle. When Eriko tracks Shoko down at her favourite restaurant and befriends her, Shoko is at first charmed by her new companion. But as Eriko’s obsession with Shoko deepens, her increasingly possessive behaviour starts to raise suspicion. As Eriko’s carefully laid plans begin to unravel, how far will she go to hold on to the best friend that she’s ever had?
The Visit, by Neil Tully
March 26, Eriu
Sergeant Jim Field feels a guilty paternalism for Patrick Hatten, a young man struggling to find a job, a life and a purpose in a small-town Wexford community. Both are used to being on the fringes but while Jim is a romantic with bad health and regret, Patrick is full of anger and action, and his actions could have devastating effects.
All Them Dogs, by Djamel White
March 26, John Murray
Things are different since Tony Ward landed back in town. The West Dublin gangland has changed. His old mentor is dead, and his best pal Kenny Boyle is on the straight and narrow. After five years keeping quiet across the way, Tony is keen to reinstate himself, and when the opportunity to work side by side with Darren ‘Flute’ Walsh, a top enforcer of notorious crime boss Angus Lavelle, it feels like a no-brainer. Biting off more than he can chew has never bothered Tony Ward, but Flute Walsh is not the meek, quiet boy Tony remembers from school. Brooding, stoic, and unpredictably dangerous, Tony finds himself drawn to his new associate in more ways than one. With retribution from his past actions always close in the rear view, the protection offered by Flute’s standing in the gang is crucial. But how safe is Tony really when a mutual attraction starts to complicate matters?
Sweep the Cobwebs off the Sky, by Mary O’Donnell
March, Époque Press
As spring evenings lengthen over Kilnavarn House, two sisters, looking after their infirm mother, navigate the fragile territory between past and present. Memories of a troubled upbringing resurface and the house holds onto the women, as it always has, refusing to let them go until long-suppressed truths are spoken. Sweep the Cobwebs off the Sky is a tender exploration of ageing, memory, place, and the desire for reconciliation.
Everything that is Beautiful, by Louise Nealon
April 2, Manilla
Told through the perspectives of three very different women, Everything That Is Beautiful unfolds the story of one complicated family in startlingly honest prose. By turns funny and deeply moving, and with unmatched emotional intelligence, this is an unforgettable story of love and family, heartbreak and hope, and who we might become after we pick up the pieces.
Whatever Happened to Madeline Stone?, by Louise O’Neill
April 9, Bantam
In 2002, twin sisters Madeline and Chelsea Stone were joint stars of the AtomicKids sitcom Double Trouble, but everyone knows it’s Maddie who shines most brightly, until Chelsea beats her sister out for the role of a lifetime and is catapulted into the spotlight. And just as Chelsea’s star reaches impossible new heights, Maddie disappears. Flash forward to 2025, when a storage locker is found containing heartbreaking truths about the year Maddie went missing. Chelsea feels a flicker of hope for the first time in twenty years. This is her chance to discover what really happened to her twin, but to follow the trail she’ll have to face the past and step back into the spotlight.
Famesick, by Lena Dunham
April 14, HarperCollins
In Famesick, a frank, deeply personal reflection on illness, fame, sex, and everything in between, the mind behind the hit series Girls and Too Much, and the bestselling author of Not That Kind of Girl explores–among many other things–whether fulfilling her creative ambitions has been worth the pain it’s caused. This book is a story of learning to live with what we can’t change, the hard, ongoing work of turning regrets into wisdom that can carry us forward, and reconnecting to what and who we love. As she emerges from her twenties and into a world she no longer recognises, she has to rehash the codependent dynamics, romantic failures and misplaced instincts that got her there. She has to turn her life back into something she can bear to live with.
Devotions, by Lucy Caldwell
April, Faber
“There must be moments when we let go – let go of all that we do, all that we are.” From the acclaimed, prize-winning author of Multitudes, Intimacies and Openings comes eight vital stories of memory and connection. In her new collection, Lucy Caldwell explores yearning for distant pasts and unknown futures. A woman recalls the time her grandfather claimed to have met Jesus. A professional musician travels across the world and through her memories with a violin older than the USA. A young Belfast theatre troupe brings their experimental production of Hamlet to New York. Transporting and profound, these are stories of love, grief, and the ways that lives can be haunted.
Over The Water: Essays on Islands, by various contributors
April, Daunt Book Publishers
From the glimmering coast of Cornwall’s St Ives to the wild coast of Ireland to the warm water and glowing sun of Phuket, Over the Water will transport you to shores far and near. In these essays, thirteen writers capture the magic and mirage of islands. Octavia Bright remembers a formative trip to the fish-shaped island of Elba in Tuscany; Megan Nolan sees Manhattan anew after discovering the joys of wandering the city alone; Noreen Masud flies to Tasmania, hoping to catch sight of a duck-billed platypus, and K Patrick takes a two-hour ferry from the Isle of Skye to the Isle of Lewis.
Hungry, by Katriona O’Sullivan
April 23, Hachette Books Ireland
A powerful new memoir from bestselling author Katriona O’Sullivan, Hungry has been described as a raw, courageous exploration of survival, identity and the lifelong search for self-acceptance. Katriona interrogates how trauma, class and gender shape the way women see themselves, and how society teaches them to measure their value. Told with stunning courage and vulnerability, Hungry is both a personal reckoning and a powerful reclaiming of body, voice and self. It is one woman’s story, and a rallying cry for every woman who has ever felt she had to shrink to survive.
Fruit Fly, by Josh Silver
April 23, Magpie
It’s been seven years since Mallory shot to fame as a literary sensation. But after years of struggling with writer’s block, she’s desperate to resurrect her career before it spirals into obscurity. She needs inspiration to strike – and fast. Enter Leo – a young struggling addict sleeping under bridges and trading sex for survival. He’s vulnerable. He’s enigmatic. He’s exactly what Mallory has been looking for. Mallory needs Leo if she wants another bestseller. Authenticity sells, and there’s nothing more authentic than real life. She’s the perfect person to tell Leo’s story. Gay, sad, dark – just what the world needs right now. But as secrets threaten to unravel more than just her career, Mallory must decide: just how far will she go to pen the perfect story?
Honey, by Imani Thompson
May 7, The Borough Press
A debut that’s been described as comic, sexy, addictive and unpredictable, Honey launches Imani Thompson as an exciting new voice in fiction. The first time, Yrsa doesn’t intend to kill. But the Cambridge professor sitting opposite has manipulated her friend, and stolen her research. When she flicks the bee into his Sanpellegrino, she thinks he’ll get a nasty sting. Then he’s dead. And Yrsa, who—let’s face it—has been bored for a while, is alive. It’s a sweet feeling, finally having some control.
Love Scene, by Anna Carey
May 7, Hachette Books Ireland
Writing for an iconic soap opera was supposed to be a dream come true. But Annie’s boss is a tyrant, the actors are out of control, and there are rumours that Northside will soon be cancelled. The worst part of all of it: Annie has to share an office with her nemesis, Art Sullivan. Talented-and-he-knows-it Art was once the Next Big Thing with a promising Hollywood career. So why is he back in town, writing for a show he’s never seen a single episode of? Annie tries to ignore Art, but when she suspects someone’s sabotaging Northside, she realises she’ll need Art’s help to stop them. If they can quit arguing long enough to work together, there might just be another plot twist ahead.
Little Vanities, by Sarah Gilmartin
May 21, Pushkin Press
Dylan, Stevie and Ben have been inseparable since their days at Trinity, when everything seemed possible. A glance between them can still conjure their younger selves: dancing beneath pulsing lights, the sharp taste of salt after swims in Dublin Bay. Two decades on, life feels smaller. Dylan, once a rugby star, is stranded on the sofa, cared for by his wife Rachel. Across town, Stevie and Ben’s relationship has settled into a weary routine. Then, after countless auditions, Ben lands a role in Pinter’s Betrayal. As rehearsals unfold, the play’s shifting allegiances seep into reality, reviving old jealousies and awakening sudden longings, as each must reckon with how far they’re willing to go in pursuit of desire.
John of Johns, by Douglas Stuart
May 21, Picador
From Douglas Stuart, Booker prize-winning author of Shuggie Bain and Young Mungo comes a stunning new novel, John of John. Set in the Isle of Harris, the book is a tender and devastating story of love and religion, of a father and son, art and landscape, and the corrosive effects of living a secret life. It confirms Douglas Stuart as one of Britain’s greatest contemporary novelists.
Said the Dead, by Doireann Ní Ghríofa
May, Faber
From the prizewinning author of A Ghost in the Throat comes a work of sublime intensity and tenderness that breaks the boundaries between worlds—past and present, imagined and real—to make something lasting and new: an experience full of danger, full of love and full of truth. In Cork, a derelict Victorian mental hospital is being converted into modern apartments. One passerby has always flinched as she passes the place. Had her birth occurred in another decade, she too might have lived within those walls. Now, she notices a sign: FOR SALE. It is the first of many signs.
LAND, by Maggie O’Farrell
June 2, Tinder Press
Inspired by the mapping of Ireland in the mid nineteenth century, LAND is at once intimate and epic: a portrait of a family navigating a legacy of upheaval and loss with love and hope. On a windswept peninsula stretching out into the Atlantic, Tomás and his reluctant son, Liam, are working for the great Ordnance Survey project to map the whole of Ireland. The year is 1865, and in a country not long since ravaged and emptied by the Great Hunger, the task is not an easy one. Tomás, however, is determined that his maps will be a record of the disaster. As spellbinding and various as the landscape that inspired it, LAND is, above all, a story of survival, for our times, and for all time.
Everything She Didn’t Say, by Jane Casey
June 4, Hemlock Press
A woman arrives at a hospital in Mayo. At first, she won’t speak. Then she reveals her name: Ruth. A story starts pouring out – about a missing friend and her paranoid behaviour in the days before she disappeared. The two women were staying together in a rented clifftop house, but there’s blood on the floor and locals say they never saw the pair together. Ruth’s story makes sense, if you want to believe her. But someone is dead, someone is a killer, someone is lying. Can Ruth’s version unlock the truth, or are the answers in everything she didn’t say?
Opening Night, by Sara Baume
July 2, Granta Books
Shortly after the imposed isolation of the pandemic, Sara Baume came across a painting at a pop-up exhibition in a renovated shed in rural West Cork. It so intrigued her that she was inspired to make contact with the artist. Mollie Douthit, a North Dakotan exile, was living and working alone in a log cabin down a ravaged laneway surrounded by rugged coastline. Sara and Mollie discovered they had much in common – a dysfunctional attitude towards companionship, a devotion to the daily rituals of their respective art practices, an affinity with nature. They started to meet every month for soup and punishing swims in the Atlantic.
The Project, by Annie Lord
July 9, Harvill
Daisy and Maya bounce around the city like they own it, from all-night house parties to sticky-floored smoking areas, drinks in hand. But after a particularly regrettable one-night stand with her annoying friend James, Daisy starts to look around and wonder why, in a sea of intelligent, gorgeous women, all their prospects seem so hopeless. It’s time for The Project, a radical reinvention of dating, and who better to start with than James?
A Bigger Life, by Louise O’Neill
September 2026, HQ
Following the release of her new fiction title, Whatever Happened to Madeline Stone?, in April, Louise O’Neill’s memoir will hit the shelves. A Bigger Life has been described as a bold, witty and deeply moving exploration of reinvention and self-discovery. The book follows O’Neill’s journey through the unexpected collapse of her long-term relationship as she “embarks on an audacious dating experiment across cities such as Paris, London and New York.”
Stations, by Louise Kennedy
September, Bloomsbury
An unforgettable story of love, friendship, and the choices that map out the course of our lives: those we make ourselves, and those that are made for us. In 1982, Róisín and Red meet as teenagers. Red’s reputation for trouble might precede him, but Róisín finds in him an intelligent and funny – if unlikely – friend. When a brush with the law pushes Red into a corner, he finds himself presented with an opportunity to escape their town and his family for good and start a new life in England. Two years later, their lives have unfolded in wildly different directions. Róisín enrols in college, still living at home with her mother, while Red has disappeared into a vacant flat in London. When Róisín unexpectedly arrives in London to spend Christmas with her estranged father, she finds herself swept up once more into Red’s storm – with consequences that will echo through both of their lives in the years to come.
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