Top new literary-fiction books in April 2025
Last updated:
April 30, 2025
April 2025 featuring new releases by Emily Henry, Matthew J. Sullivan, Emily Everett, Dolen Perkins-Valdez, Samanta Schweblin, Megan McDowell, Jennifer E. Smith, Abigail Dean, Virginia Evans, Amity Gaige, Jennifer Haigh and many more.
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Great Big Beautiful Life by Emily Henry
Two writers compete for the chance to tell the larger-than-life story of a woman with more than a couple of plot twists up her sleeve in this dazzling and sweeping new novel from Emily Henry.Alice Scott is an eternal optimist still dreaming of her big writing break. Hayden Anderson is a Pulitzer-prize winning human thundercloud...romance · contemporary · fiction · womens-fiction · season-summer · female-mc · friendship · humor · comedy · book -
Midnight in Soap Lake by Matthew J. Sullivan
A lake with mysterious properties. A town haunted by urban legend. Two women whose lives intersect in terrifying ways. Welcome to Soap Lake, a town to rival Twin Peaks and Stephen King’s Castle Rock.When Abigail agreed to move to Soap Lake, Washington, for her husband’s research, she expected old-growth forests and craft beer, folksy neighbors and the world’s largest lava lamp...mystery · fiction · suspense · audiobook · contemporary · horror · small-town · murder · fantasy · literary-fiction -
All That Life Can Afford by Emily Everett
A taut and lyrical coming-of-age debut about a young American woman navigating class, lies, and love amid London’s jet-set elite.I would arrive, blank like a sheet of notebook paper, and write myself new.Anna first fell in love with London at her hometown library—its Jane Austen balls a far cry from her life of food stamps and hand-me-downs... -
Happy Land by Dolen Perkins-Valdez
'It's time we name our kingdom!' he shouted over the wind. 'I say we call this place Happy Land. If this ain't the land of happy people, then where is it? Why not create our heaven right here on earth?' In the hills of Appalachia, there once existed a land ruled by a king and queen...north-america · usa · north-carolina · historical-fiction · fiction · historical · audiobook · fantasy · family · poc-mc -
Good and Evil and Other Stories by Samanta Schweblin, Megan McDowell
A haunting, unforgettable collection of tales from the 2022 National Book Award for Translated Literature winner and three-time Booker finalist, Samanta Schweblin.Once a decade a story collection rips a hole in the sky and we remember how it feels to have a spell cast upon us...horror · fiction · contemporary · literary-fiction · anthologies · terror · female-author · psychological · thriller · adult -
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Fun for the Whole Family by Jennifer E. Smith
A breathtaking, joy-filled novel about the people we love, the secrets we keep, and the enduring power of family, from the bestselling author of The Unsinkable Greta James...north-america · usa · north-dakota · fiction · contemporary · literary-fiction · family · audiobook · realistic · lgbtq -
The Death of Us by Abigail Dean
Bringing together the slow-burn simmer of psychological suspense and the propulsive drive of crime thrillers, The Death of Us is the story of a marriage turned inside out by a violent encounter that sets fire to the hairline faults that were there from the start.Late on a summer’s evening when they are thirty years old, husband and wife Edward and Isabel’s home is invaded by a serial killer...fiction · mystery · crime · audiobook · suspense · contemporary · psychological · thriller · mental-illness · serial-killers -
The Correspondent by Virginia Evans
Throughout her life Sybil Van Antwerp has used letters to make sense of the world and her place in it...fiction · audiobook · literary-fiction · contemporary · family · grief · friendship · epistolary · aging · season-summer -
Heartwood by Amity Gaige
Heartwood takes you on a gripping journey as a search and rescue team race against time when an experienced hiker mysteriously disappears on the Appalachian Trail in Maine.In the heart of the Maine woods, an experienced Appalachian Trail hiker goes missing. She is forty-two-year-old Valerie Gillis, who has vanished 200 miles from her final destination...north-america · usa · maine · mystery · fiction · suspense · outdoors · literary-fiction · contemporary · thriller -
Rabbit Moon by Jennifer Haigh
A family drama set in Shanghai, where a fractured American family faces its complicated past Four years after their bitter divorce, Claire and Aaron Litvak get a phone call no parent is prepared for: Their twenty-two-year-old daughter Lindsey, teaching English in China during a college gap year, has been critically injured in a hit-and-run accident...fiction · historical-fiction · contemporary · literary-fiction · family · audiobook · grief · mystery · realistic · coming-of-age -
Zeal by Morgan Jerkins
The New York Times bestselling author of This Will Be My Undoing and Caul Baby returns with an epic, multi-generational novel that illuminates the legacy of slavery and the power of romantic love.Harlem, 2019. Ardelia and Oliver are hosting their engagement party. As the guests get ready to leave, he hands her a love letter on a yellowing, crumbling piece of paper . . .Natchez, 1865...romance · historical-fiction · fiction · historical · literary-fiction · audiobook · season-summer · poc-mc · family · black-mc -
Audition by Katie Kitamura
One woman, the performance of a lifetime. Or two. A mesmerizing Mobius strip of a novel that asks who we are to the people we love.Two people meet for lunch in a Manhattan restaurant. She’s an elegant and accomplished actress in rehearsals for an upcoming premiere. He’s attractive, troubling, and young—young enough to be her son...fiction · contemporary · literary-fiction · poc-author · friendship · psychological · thriller · female-mc · book · adult -
The Beauty of the End: A Novel by Lauren Stienstra
In this provocative work of speculative fiction, two sisters navigate the complex moral terrain of reproductive ethics, individual freedoms, and society’s duty to a future facing imminent extinction.Charlie Tannehill and her twin sister, Maggie, are just eight years old when an unfortunate scientific discovery upends their world—and the world order...fiction · dystopia · sci-fi · audiobook · literary-fiction · friendship · female-mc · magical-realism · family · book -
Six Days in Bombay by Alka Joshi
From the New York Times bestselling author of THE HENNA ARTIST, this sweeping novel follows a young Anglo-Indian nurse who embarks on a journey from her home in Bombay, through Prague, Florence, Paris, and London, to uncover a mystery and prove her innocence after a famous painter dies in her care...historical-fiction · fiction · historical · literary-fiction · poc-mc · audiobook · 20th-century · female-mc · book · adult -
Always You and Me by Dani Atkins
From the bestselling author of Fractured comes a moving, heart-mending and uplifting novel of love, hope and second chances.Then…On the eve of her wedding to Adam, Lily’s best friend Josh unexpectedly walked out of her life, and she hasn’t seen him since.Lily and Adam are blissfully happy, until he falls ill...romance · fiction · contemporary · womens-fiction · friends-to-lovers · grief · friendship · literary-fiction · female-mc · family -
The California Dreamers by Amy Mason Doan
ONE GOLDEN FAMILY. ONE ICONIC PHOTO. It’s 1980s California, and everyone’s dreaming of the endless sun-drenched beaches, infinite waves, and most of all, beautiful, beautiful freedom. For the Merrick siblings, this idyllic vision is their reality, as they travel up and down the coast with their parents in a van year-round, surfing and swimming their days away... -
The Lilac People by Milo Todd
For readers of All the Light We Cannot See and In Memoriam, a moving and deeply humane story about a trans man who must relinquish the freedoms of prewar Berlin to survive first the Nazis then the Allies while protecting the ones he loves. In 1932 Berlin, Bertie, a trans man, and his friends spend carefree nights at the Eldorado Club, the epicenter of Berlin's thriving queer community...historical-fiction · lgbtq · fiction · historical · audiobook · ww2 · trans-mc · war · literary-fiction · drama -
The Maid's Secret by Nita Prose
When a daring art heist takes place at the Regency Grand, Molly’s life is threatened. The question is who’s out to get her, and why? Long-buried secrets will be revealed in this intriguing and heartwarming novel from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Maid and The Mystery Guest.Molly Gray’s life is about to change in ways she could never have imagined...fiction · cozy · contemporary · suspense · thriller · audiobook · romantic-love · crime · heist · literary-fiction -
The Wandering Season by Aimie K. Runyan
Unraveling the tangled roots of her family takes her places she never expected.Veronica Stratton, a specialty food broker with a business riding close to the margins, visits her parents in idyllic Estes Park for Christmas. With the holiday comes a DNA test from her younger sister and an engagement ring from her longtime boyfriend. The test confirms her secret she's adopted...fiction · magical-realism · contemporary · audiobook · family · historical-fiction · womens-fiction · fantasy · mystery · outdoors -
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Atavists: Stories by Lydia Millet
A fast-moving, heartbreaking collection of linked stories that evokes the joy and alienation between generations and classes in the era of mass overwhelm.From Lydia Millet—“the American writer with the funniest, wisest grasp on how we fool ourselves” (Chicago Tribune)—comes an inventive new collection of short fiction...fiction · literary-fiction · contemporary · anthologies · audiobook · family · humor · satire · adult -
The Road to Tender Hearts by Annie Hartnett
A darkly comic and warm-hearted novel about an old man on a cross-country mission to reunite with his high school crush—bringing together his adult daughter, two orphaned kids, and a cat who can predict death—from the beloved author of Rabbit Cake and Unlikely AnimalsAt sixty-three years old, million-dollar lottery winner PJ Halliday would be the luckiest man in Pondville, Massachusetts, if it...romance · fiction · contemporary · literary-fiction · audiobook · family · journey · humor · found-family · season-summer -
The Float Test by Lynn Steger Strong
From Lynn Steger Strong, critically acclaimed author of Flight, a sophisticated and layered novel about sisters, betrayal, love, and climate change, for readers of The Dutch House and The Most Fun We Ever Had.The Kenner siblings are at odds. Jenn is a harried mom struggling under the weight of family obligations... -
Don't Sleep with the Dead by Nghi Vo
From award-winning author Nghi Vo comes Don't Sleep with the Dead, a standalone companion novella to The Chosen and the Beautiful, her acclaimed reimagining of The Great Gatsby.“A vibrant and queer reinvention of F. Scott Fitzgerald's jazz age classic. . . . I was captivated from the first sentence...fantasy · lgbtq · retellings · historical-fiction · historical · fiction · horror · dark · romantic-love · literary-fiction -
The Usual Desire to Kill by Camilla Barnes
An often hilarious, surprisingly moving portrait of a long-married couple, seen through the eyes of their wickedly observant daughter—for fans of A Man Called Ove and The Royal Tenenbaums. Miranda’s parents live in a dilapidated house in rural France that they share with two llamas, eight ducks, five chickens, two cats, and a freezer full of food dating back to 1982...fiction · humor · literary-fiction · family · contemporary · audiobook · realistic · drama · book · adult -
Make Sure You Die Screaming by Zee Carlstrom
An electrifying debut about a nonbinary corporate burnout embarking on a road trip from Chicago to Arkansas to find their conspiracy-theorist father, who has gone missing—for fans of Detransition Baby and Chain-Gang All-StarsThe newly nameless narrator of Make Sure You Die Screaming has rejected the gender binary, has flamed out with a vengeance at their corporate gig, is most likely brain...fiction · lgbtq · contemporary · mystery · audiobook · literary-fiction · horror · thriller · journey · trans-mc -
Open, Heaven by Seán Hewitt
A stunning debut novel from the acclaimed young Irish poet Seán Hewitt, reminiscent of Garth Greenwell and Douglas Stuart in the intensity of its evocation of sexual awakening.Set in a remote village in the North of England, Open, Heaven unfolds over the course of one year in which two sixteen year old boys meet and transform each other’s lives...europe · british-isles · united-kingdom · england · romance · fiction · lgbtq · literary-fiction · contemporary · audiobook -
The Wildelings by Lisa Harding
Jessica and Linda have been best friends since the first day of school. Both are from broken, but different, homes, and willful Jessica has always ensured their survival. Now eighteen, the two have come to Wilde—an elite university in the heart of Dublin, far away from their troubled childhoods... -
Exit Zero by Marie-Helene Bertino
Twelve delightfully strange, haunting stories from the acclaimed, oracular author of Beautyland. Death-shaped entities—with all of their humor and strangeness— haunt the twelve stories in Exit Zero...fiction · horror · literary-fiction · fantasy · anthologies · audiobook · sci-fi · magical-realism · lgbtq · 21st-century -
Off the Wall by Julie Christianson
She’s in search of her soulmate. He avoids love at all costs. These neighbors are a total mismatch … until serendipity steps in.Nori Sinclair has two goals in find the husband of her dreams, and purchase the beloved tea shop in her hometown, Serendipity Springs...romance · contemporary · magical-realism · magic · fiction · forced-proximity · small-town · fantasy · sports · literary-fiction -
Deeply Examined: A Dark Medical Romance by Lexi Davis
She came in for a routine checkup. She left with a prescription for trouble.Jessica never expected her annual exam to change everything. But the moment she steps into Dr. Adam West’s office, the air between them crackles with unspoken tension, awakening forbidden desires she’s never dared to explore.He should keep his distance. She should walk away...romance · dark · forced-proximity · medical · steamy · abuse · stalking · billionaire · insta-love · fiction -
Bad Nature by Ariel Courage
Armed with a terminal diagnosis, a grudge, and a rental car, Hester sets out to fulfill her lifelong dream of killing her father in this brilliantly subversive and bleakly funny novel.When Hester is diagnosed with terminal cancer on her fortieth birthday, she knows immediately what she must do: abandon her possessions and drive to California to kill her estranged father...north-america · usa · pennsylvania · urban · indiana · illinois · missouri · arkansas · oklahoma · texas -
I See You've Called in Dead: A Novel by John Kenney
“Razor-sharp, darkly comedic, and emotionally piercing. With the satirical bite of Richard Russo’s Straight Man, the introspection of Fredrik Backman’s A Man Called Ove, and the reinvention of Andrew Sean Greer's Less, Kenney’s vivid prose transforms the mundane into unexpected hilarity...fiction · humor · contemporary · literary-fiction · grief · comedy · drama · dark-humor · friendship · satire -
Big Chief by Jon Hickey
There There meets The Night Watchman in this gripping literary debut about power and corruption, family, and facing the ghosts of the past.Mitch Caddo, a young law school graduate and aspiring political fixer, is an outsider in the homeland of his Anishinaabe ancestors...fiction · indigenous-mc · contemporary · literary-fiction · audiobook · politics · poc-author · mystery · social-commentary · poc-mc -
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Fun and Games by John Patrick McHugh
A stunning, darkly comic and deeply moving debut novel following a teenage boy as he comes of age on the west coast of Ireland, from the author of the acclaimed short story collection Pure Gold.Seventeen-year-old John Masterson has no idea what he wants. It’s his last summer on the small island where he has grown up and he should be enjoying the weeks until his exam results come through...romance · fiction · contemporary · lgbtq · coming-of-age · audiobook · season-summer · literary-fiction · young-adult · small-town -
Signed, Sealed, and Smitten by Melanie Jacobson
The last thing she needs is another off-limits work romance. He’s fine playing the friendly flirt . . . until he falls for real.Embarrassing breakups at work cost you promotions. Phoebe learned that the hard way. So when a patron’s will names her as the director of a new museum in Serendipity Springs, she jumps at the chance to prove her professionalism.Her new plan: focus on work...romance · contemporary · magical-realism · fiction · workplace · magic · small-town · multi-pov · fantasy · forced-proximity -
Sky Daddy by Kate Folk
Subversive and unexpectedly heartwarming, Sky Daddy hijacks the classic love story, exploring desire, fate, and the longing to be accepted for who we truly are.Linda is doing her best to lead a life that would appear normal to the casual observer...north-america · usa · california · romance · fiction · contemporary · literary-fiction · audiobook · sci-fi · humor -
A Lesser Light by Peter Geye
On the rocky shores of Lake Superior, a piercing story of selfhood and determinism is the future what we’re handed or what we make of it? It’s 1910, and Theodulf Sauer has finally achieved a position befitting his master lighthouse keeper at a newly commissioned station towering above Lake Superior...historical-fiction · fiction · historical · literary-fiction · audiobook · marriage · 20th-century · psychological · book · adult -
The Night Alphabet by Joelle Taylor
'Joelle Taylor has a Midas touch with words' Diana Souhami The tattoo was a reclamation, a flag we mounted in the centre of our own landscape.A woman walks into a tattoo parlour. But this is no ordinary woman, and this is Hackney in 2233...fiction · sci-fi · lgbtq · literary-fiction · time-travel · feminism · contemporary · dystopia · 21st-century · female-author -
A Town with Half the Lights On by Page Getz
For readers of J. Ryan Stradal and The Music of Bees (with a dash of FX’s The Bear) comes a quirky and refreshing epistolary novel about family of culture-shocked Brooklynites transplanted to Goodnight, Kansas and their fight for their unexpected lifeline: the legendary May Day Diner.Welcome to Goodnight, Kansas...north-america · usa · arkansas · kansas · fiction · audiobook · contemporary · drama · found-family · family -
A Carnival of Atrocities by Natalia García Freire
The residents of a desolate town nestled in the Ecuadorian Andes are forced to reckon with the legend of Mildred, a girl wronged by the town years ago.Cocuán, a desolate town nestled between the hot jungle and the frigid Andes, is about to slip away from memory...fiction · magical-realism · horror · literary-fiction · fantasy · folk-horror · rural · myths · retellings · book