6 of the Best New Book Releases Out August 25, 2026

“Dèy” is the Creole word for “collective mourning,” and here, the award-winning, bestselling Danticat looks at the importance of grieving together. It all starts with Haitian American real estate agent Magnolia, who witnesses a shooting one day while shopping for her daughter. She keeps the experience secret, but then the complicated contents of her life begin to unravel: her fractured relationship with her partner, her mother’s mental issues (which she feels she may inherit), and even her father’s infidelity. Magnolia weaves in and out of identities, questioning what in her life can be salvaged and where she truly belongs. —Erica Ezeifedi

For fans of fictional serial killers, recanting in an old case, and childhood best friends

Twenty-five years ago, Barb, Nicolette, and Lorelei were best friends hanging out with a man working at the local amusement park, Wonderland. Now the serial killer who had once confessed to Lorelei’s murder has recanted, the amusement park is set to reopen, and Barb and Nicolette are left to face the past.

This is a standalone thriller in the same setting as Wonderland. —Jamie Canaves

We love a marriage-in-crisis romance in this house, and the fact that it’s a Black sapphic marriage in trouble with the high stakes addition of one of them being a WNBA player? Yes yes yes. Courtney and Sasha have been married for a couple of years, during which Sasha has been adjusting to life as a stay-at-home dog mom. They aren’t as close as they were in the earlier days of marriage, as Courtney’s life on the road is taking a toll on their relationship. When Courtney breaks her arm and can’t play for a while, the couple are thrown together at a much higher level of proximity than they’re used to, which leads to plenty of personal and shared revelations.  —Jessica Pryde

Being the Chosen One sounds great, right? Unless you’re kidnapped by the Fae and forced to become a student prisoner, whose only purpose is to save your captors from a gory fate. Well, Audra is not going to take it lying down. And with the help of a disturbingly attractive vision, she might stand a chance to free herself. —Carolina Ciucci

Brothers. Betrayal. One murderous plan for revenge. Seth Oreamundo is living in exile in the United States. Once, he was a powerful politician in Costa Rica, but his brother, Osario, betrayed him, and now he must pay. Split between the present, as Oreamundo returns to Costa Rica with plans to throw his brother into an infamously crocodile-filled river, and memories of their childhood growing up in a corrupt political dynasty on a coffee estate, Crocodilopolis is a powerful meditation on power and masculinity from a rising star of Costa Rican fiction. —Rachel Brittain

In this funny cozy fantasy, a demon gets more than he bargained for when he decides to retire. Spending his retirement on a turnip farm in a small village sounded ideal to Galornus Prime, but he soon learns that even small villages have their battles. —Liberty Hardy