Key Points
- The New York Times Book Review named its standout fiction and nonfiction titles of 2026 so far.
- Critic Dwight Garner called Marlon James's The Disappearers the novel of the decade, possibly the century.
- The list previews the paper's end-of-year rankings, shaping sales and prize-season conversation for listed authors.
The latest:
Marlon James’s The Disappearers leads The New York Times Book Review’s selection of the best books of 2026 so far, with critic Dwight Garner calling it a masterpiece and the novel of the decade. The list, first published in April and updated September 30, spans fiction and nonfiction and signals which titles the paper’s editors expect to carry into their end-of-year rankings.
Details:
- The top pick: The Disappearers, a Booker Prize finalist, follows eight gay men attacked by a violent mob in Kingston, Jamaica, one of them killed and the rest left physically and psychologically scarred. Garner wrote that James has produced “a masterpiece, the novel of the decade and possibly of the century thus far.”
- Booker overlap: Two listed novels carry Booker recognition this year. Emma Cline’s Switzy, longlisted for the prize, follows David, a businessman with dementia traveling to Switzerland to end his life. Critic Alexandra Jacobs described it as a significant swerve from Cline’s earlier youth-centered fiction.
- Established names: The fiction list includes Ann Patchett’s 10th novel, Whistler; Tana French’s The Keeper, the final volume of her Cal Hooper detective series; Tayari Jones’s fifth novel, Kin; and Kathryn Stockett’s The Calamity Club, her first historical saga since The Help 17 years ago.
- Genre shifts: Several authors changed register. R.F. Kuang, known for the fantasy novels Babel and Katabasis, turned to realism with Taipei Story. Cat Sebastian moved from historical romance to her first contemporary novel, Star Shipped. Daniyal Mueenuddin published his first novel, set among Pakistan’s wealthy clans.
- Nonfiction standouts: Kai Bird, writing with researcher Susan Goldmark, traces Roy Cohn’s influence from the McCarthy hearings to Donald Trump in American Scoundrel. Anand Gopal’s Days of Love and Rage chronicles Syria’s 14-year civil war through six dissidents in Manbij, built on years of reporting and 2,000 interviews.
- Reported memoir: Zayd Ayers Dohrn reconstructs his parents’ years leading the Weather Underground using interviews, letters, diaries and F.B.I. records. Belle Burden expands her 2023 viral New York Times essay into Strangers, on a marriage undone weeks into the pandemic.
- Institutions examined: Theo Baker’s How to Rule the World recounts arriving at Stanford in 2022 and helping force out the university president, describing a campus shaped by venture capital. Rozina Ali’s Seasons of Fury follows four families through post-September 11 state persecution of Muslim Americans.
- History and criticism: Heather Ann Thompson revisits Bernie Goetz’s 1984 subway shooting of four Black teenagers as the origin of legal cover for white vigilantism. Wil Haygood’s The War Within a War examines Black soldiers in Vietnam, and Namwali Serpell’s On Morrison reassesses the Nobel laureate’s work.
- No ranking: The Book Review did not rank the titles or set a fixed number of selections, dividing them instead between fiction and nonfiction and grouping them by the kind of reading experience each offers.
Between the lines:
The selection doubles as a prize-season signal: by naming a Booker finalist as the decade’s novel and flagging a longlisted title, the Book Review is placing its critics’ judgment alongside the Booker jury’s before either the prize or its own December list is settled.
What’s next
The Book Review’s end-of-year best-of lists and 10 Best Books selection will show how many of these titles survive the full-year cut, and the Booker Prize outcome will test the critical verdict on The Disappearers.
