New year, new books! Book Light is our Dandelion Chandelier curated list of the titles we’re most excited about that are being published in the coming days. In this edition, we take a longer time horizon. Our intrepid team has been exploring the most-anticipated new books scheduled to be released in 2020 and here’s what we found. Spoiler alert: while 2019 proved to be a fine year for reading, 2020 is going to be a great year to be a bookworm.
the most-anticipated new books of 2020
Some of our all-time favorite authors are returning with new works: Hilary Mantel, Jenny Offill, Lily King, Brit Bennett, Emma Straub, Yaa Gyasi, and Zora Neale Hurston, to name a few.
Marie Kondo has a new book coming about how to organize our work lives, now that our homes are clutter-free. There’s a prequel to The Hunger Games trilogy from Suzanne Collins. And Ali Smith’s brilliant Seasonal Quartet comes to an end with the publication of Summer this August.
There’s also a strong group of debuts slated for 2020.
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Whether you’re looking for fiction or fact, here’s a list – by month – of our picks for the best new books coming in 2020. You can pre-order them now, if you like (we may earn a small commission if you choose to purchase a book via our site).
what are the best new books coming in 2020?
january 2020
For a full list of the best new releases coming in January 2020, click here.
debuts:
Topics of Conversation by Miranda Popkey. According to the publisher, this debut novel is about “desire, disgust, motherhood, loneliness, art, pain, feminism, anger, envy, and guilt.” Is that all? Comprised almost exclusively of conversations between women, we witness twenty years in the life of an unnamed narrator who is curious, determined, candid and smart – Publication Date: January 7, 2020
Show Them a Good Time: Short Stories by Nicole Flattery. A debut short story collection that includes the prize-winning story “Tracked.” stories about the strange worlds that women inhabit and the parts that they must play. the stories of women slotted away into restrictive roles: the celebrity’s girlfriend, the widower’s second wife, the lecherous professor’s student, the corporate employee – Publication Date: January 28, 2020
The best new books coming in 2020. Courtesy Photo.
returning favorites:
Hitting a Straight Lick with a Crooked Stick by Zora Neale Hurston. Twenty-one of Hurston’s short stories from the Harlem Renaissance—including eight “lost” tales—appear together here for the first time. The collection includes stories about love and migration, gender and class, racism and sexism – Publication Date: January 14, 2020
Run Me to Earth by Paul Yoon. This is a novel about three kids orphaned in 1960’s Laos—and how their destinies are entwined across decades. We follow their grueling days of rescuing civilians and searching for medical supplies, until an older doctor secures their evacuation on the last helicopters leaving the country – Publication Date: January 28, 2020
The best new books coming in 2020. Courtesy Photos.
february 2020
debuts:
In the Land of Men: A Memoir by Adrienne Miller. the first female literary editor of Esquire, appointed at twenty-five years old, narrates her remarkable experience as a cultural gatekeeper in a rarefied, male-dominated world – Publication date: February 11, 2020
Saint X by Alexis Schaitkin. In this debut novel, Claire is only seven years old when her college-age sister, Alison, disappears on the last night of their family vacation at a resort on the Caribbean island of Saint X. Years later, Claire is living and working in New York City when a brief but fateful encounter brings her together with one of the men originally suspected of murdering her sister. Hoping to gain his trust, waiting for the slip that will reveal the truth, instead she forms an unlikely attachment – Publication date: February 18, 2020
The most-anticipated new books coming in 2020. Courtesy Photos.
returning favorites:
Weather by Jenny Offill. In the second novel from the bestselling author of Dept. of Speculation, Lizzie Benson moonlights as a fake shrink outside of her day job as a librarian. When she’s hired by a famous podcaster to read and answer listener mail, Lizzie will have to confront everything she doesn’t know – Publication date: February 11, 2020
Amnesty by Aravind Adiga. One of our favorite writers, the bestselling, Man Booker Prize–winning author of The White Tiger and Last Man in Tower returns with a new novel about a young illegal immigrant who must decide whether to report crucial information about a murder—and thereby risk deportation – Publication date: February 18, 2020
The most-anticipated new books coming in 2020. Courtesy Photos.
march 2020
debuts:
My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell. Set in the year 2000, this debut novel explores the psychological dynamics of the relationship between a precocious yet naïve teenage girl and her magnetic and manipulative teacher – Publication Date: March 10, 2020
Sharks in the Time of Saviors by Kawai Strong Washburn. This is a highly-anticpated debut novel that folds the legends of Hawai’ian gods into an engrossing family saga. – Publication Date: March 3, 2020
The best new books coming in 2020. Courtesy Photos.
returning favorites:
The Mirror & the Light by Hilary Mantel. The final installment in the Booker Prize-winning trilogy closes out the rich political saga that began with 2009’s Wolf Hall. It traces the final years of Thomas Cromwell, offering a defining portrait of predator and prey, of a ferocious contest between present and past, and between royal will and a common man’s vision. – Publication Date: March 10, 2020
Writers and Lovers by Lily King. In the Euphoria author’s new novel, Casey Peabody has just moved to Boston, where she’s waiting tables and working on the same novel she started six years ago. As she falls in love with two different men, Casey will struggle between the pulls of love, creativity, and ambition – Publication date: March 3, 2020
The best new books coming in 2020. Courtesy Photos.
april 2020
debuts:
If I Had Your Face by Frances Cha. first novel follows four young women in Seoul, South Korea trapped in a sphere of impossible beauty standards Land of K-pop, brutal beauty standards, and rigid class divides. Four young women living in the same apartment building find solace in their friendship as they try to rise in a city that seems bent on keeping them down – Publication Date: April 21, 2020
Warhol by Blake Gopnik. In this definitive biography, art critic Blake Gopnik takes on Andy Warhol in all his depth and dimensions. Pop Art became synonymous with Warhol’s name, but in this comprehensive assessment of the artist’s life, we see him fully with all of his contradictions – Publication Date: April 21, 2020
The most-anticipated new book releases of 2020. Courtesy Photos.
returning favorites:
Death in Her Hands by Ottessa Moshfegh, author of My Year of Rest and Relaxation, is about an elderly widow whose life is upturned when she finds a cryptic note on a walk in the woods that ultimately makes her question everything about her new home- Publication Date: April 21, 2020
Joy at Work: Organizing Your Professional Life by Marie Kondo and Scott Sonenshein. The author of The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up returns with stories, studies, and strategies to help eliminate clutter and make space for work that really matters. Says the author: “With a tidy desk comes a tidy mind” – Publication Date: April 7, 2020
Navigate Your Stars by Jesmyn Ward. For Tulane University’s 2018 commencement, Ward delivered a stirring speech about the value of hard work and the importance of respect for oneself and others. Now her words, which inspired everyone who heard her meditation on tenacity in the face of hardship, are in book form – Publication Date: April 7, 2020
The most-anticipated new book releases of 2020. Courtesy Photos.
may 2020
debuts:
The Equivalents: A Story of Art, Female Friendship, and Liberation in the 1960’s by Maggie Doherty. Five brilliant, passionate women converged at the newly founded Radcliffe Institute for Independent Study in the early 1960’s. Together, they stepped outside the domestic sphere and shaped the course of feminism – Publication date: May 19, 2020
Eat a Peach by David Chang with Gabe Ulla. In this debut memoir, the chef behind Momofuku and star of Netflix’s Ugly Delicious lays bare his self-doubt and ruminates on mental health. He explains the ideas that guide him and demonstrates how cuisine is a weapon against complacency and racism – Publication Date: May 19, 2020
The most-anticipated new book releases of 2020. Courtesy Photos.
returning favorites:
All Adults Here by Emma Straub. The author of The Vacationers and Modern Lovers returns with a new novel about family and memory. After Astrid witnesses a school bus accident, she suddenly recalls a long-repressed memory that makes her start to question how she raised her three now-grown children – Publication Date: May 5, 2020
The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins. In this prequel, we’re invited to revisit the world of Panem sixty-four years before the events of The Hunger Games, starting on the morning of the reaping of the Tenth Hunger Games – Publication Date: May 19, 2020
The most-anticipated new book releases of 2020. Courtesy Photos.
june 2020
debuts:
The Lightness by Emily Temple. This debut novel is a meditation on adolescent desire, female friendship, and the female body. Four teenage girls decide they will finally achieve enlightenment―and learn to levitate. To defy the weight of their bodies, to experience ultimate lightness – June 16, 2020
returning favorites:
The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett. She’s finally back! Yay! The author of superb novel The Mothers returns with a new story of once-inseparable twin girls now living radically different lives. One sister remained in their southern, predominantly Black hometown. While the other secretly passes for white in California.
The best new books coming in 2020. Courtesy Photos.
How Beautiful We Were by Imbolo Mbue. The author of Behold the Dreamers returns with a new novel about an African village clashing with the American oil company that’s set up shop there
The Madwoman and the Roomba by Sandra Tsing Loh. With wit and candor, the 55-year old author recounts her struggles trying to lean in, stay lean, and keep her family well-fed and financially afloat. She shines a gently illuminating light to reveal the realities of what it means to be a middle-aged woman in the twenty-first century. – Publication date: June 2, 2020
The best new books coming in 2020. Courtesy Photos.
july 2020
returning favorites:
The Lions of Fifth Avenue by Fiona Davis. In the author’s latest historical novel, a series of book thefts roils the iconic New York Public Library, leaving two generations of strong-willed women to pick up the pieces – Publication date: July 28, 2020
Mother Land by Leah Fraqui. The author of America for Beginners is back with a new novel set in Mumbai. An adventurous young American woman agrees to move with her husband to Mumbai. Then her mother-in-law arrives unannounced from Kolkata with news that she’s left her husband of more than forty years. And she’s moving in with them – Publication date: July 14, 2020
The best new books coming in 2020. Courtesy Photos.
august 2020
debuts:
Luster by Raven Leilani. This debut novel sees a young black woman fall into art and someone else’s open marriage – Publication date: August 4, 2020
The All-Night Sun by Diane Zinna. At a small college outside of Washington, DC. a lonely young woman gets too close to her charismatic female student. When she’s invited to spend some time in June at her student’s home in Sweden, the visit ends with a dark and dangerous Midsommar’s Eve. One reviewer notes that this debut novel “reveals the many ways in which grief can distort one’s judgment and even one’s allegiance to the truth” – Publication date: August 4, 2020
The best new books coming in 2020. Courtesy Photos.
returning favorites:
Summer by Ali Smith. the exciting culmination of Ali Smith’s celebrated Seasonal Quartet, a series of stand-alone novels, separate but interconnected (as the seasons are) – Publication date: August 4, 2020
The Bright Side Sanctuary for Animals by Becky Mandelbaum. The winner of the 2016 Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction returns with a novel set at an animal sanctuary in western Kansas. An estranged daughter’s homecoming leads to emotional confrontations between mother and child, and between current and former lovers – Publication date: August 4, 2020
Black Bottom Saints by Alice Randall. The author of The Wind Done Gone and co-author of the cookbook Soul Food Love, returns. Her new novel pays tribute to one of Detroit’s legendary neighborhoods. Joseph “Ziggy” Johnson has been the pulse of Detroit’s famous Black Bottom. As he lays dying, he reflects on his life, the community, and the remarkable people who helped shape it – Publication date: August 18, 2020
The best new books coming in 2020. Courtesy Photos.
september 2020
returning favorites:
Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi. In her follow-up to the critically acclaimed Homegoing, a new novel tells of a Ghanaian family that moves to America and struggles to assimilate to life in a small Southern town – Publication date: September 15, 2020
the best new books coming in 2020
That’s it – our curated list of the best new books coming in 2020 that we know of so far. What say you? What’s at the top of your list?
join our community
For access to insider ideas and information on the world of luxury, sign up for our Dandelion Chandelier newsletter, here. And see luxury in a new light.
Join our community
For access to insider ideas and information on the world of luxury, sign up for our Dandelion Chandelier newsletter. And see luxury in a new light.