Twenty-two new books hit shelves today, and the fiction lineup reads like a who’s who of contemporary literature. Min Jin Lee, Hernan Diaz, and Ayad Akhtar all have novels arriving this week, alongside a strong batch of nonfiction memoirs and a thriller from John Grisham. The range is staggering, from a family saga set in Korea to a biography of Sean Combs to a memoir of detention under authoritarian rule.
Here is what you need to know about each release.
Fiction Headliners
Min Jin Lee, American Hagwon (Cardinal) is the big one. The Korean-American author returns with a family saga that follows generations of a family running a hagwon, the Korean after-school tutoring centers. The blurb calls it “an enthralling family saga rich with intrigue, secrets, and betrayal. It is a literary triumph written in the most exquisite prose.”
Hernan Diaz, Ply (Riverhead) is the second major release. His new work is described as “a page-turning, pleasurably disorienting, and deeply humane vision of a possible future.” Vogue offered that praise.
Ayad Akhtar, The Radiance (Summit) rounds out the trio. The Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and novelist delivers a novel that reviewers say balances intimacy with cultural breadth. Mary Gaitskill called it “a fantastic surprise, a novel made of oppositions: almost painfully intimate, culturally wide-angled, vulnerable, shrewd, compassionate and ruthless, tragic and well, radiant.”
The Memoir Releases
Evan Gershkowitz, This Cursed Beautiful Land (Crown) is a memoir of imprisonment in Russia. Patrick Radden Keefe described it as “a rousing tribute to the beauty and importance of old-fashioned journalism, a taut thriller of high stakes ‘hostage diplomacy,’ and a poignant meditation on the human struggle between hope and apathy under authoritarian rule.”
Cheyenne Roundtree, Bad Boy for Life: The Rise and Fall of Sean Combs (Holt) is an explosive biography of the hip-hop mogul. Publishers Weekly called it “Roundtree’s explosive debut interrogates the shifting personas and crimes of hip-hop mogul Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs … A masterful character study.”
Mahmoud Khalil, No Land to Stand On: Notes From Detention (Metropolitan) is a memoir of detention. Kamila Shamsie praised it, saying “Khalil’s clear-eyed analysis, the clarity of his prose, and the strength of his character turn his devastating story into an extraordinary book that everyone should read.”
The Rest of the List
The remaining titles cover a wide range of genres and subjects:
| Title | Publisher |
|---|---|
| John Grisham, The French Illusion | Doubleday |
| Deesha Philyaw, The True Confessions of First Lady Freeman | Mariner |
| Bobby Finger and Lindsay Weber, I Want to Be Famous: When Everybody and Nobody is a Celebrity | Crown |
| Carla Vass, The Rally | Union Square |
| Robert Kolker, The Vanishing Family: Love, Fate, and the Quest to End Dementia | Doubleday |
| Sarah Blakely-Cartwright, Heavy Cream | Simon & Schuster |
| Anand Giridharadas, Man in the Mirror: Hope, Struggle, and Belonging in an American City | Knopf |
| Sarah Hepola, The Only Thing There is to Want: A Memoir of Three Loves | Dial Press |
| Rebecca Perry, May We Feed the King | Transit |
| Malcolm Gladwell, The American Way of Killing: The Invention of an Epidemic | Little Brown |
| Simon Sebag Montefiore, The Cauldron: The Making of the Modern Middle East | Knopf |
| Meg Mason, Sophie Standing There | Harper |
| Tom Overton, John Berger: From Life | Verso |
| Patrick deWitt, Dodge City | Ecco |
| Douglas Smith, The City Without Jews: Life and Death in Nazi Vienna | FSG |
| Sarah Langan, Trad Wife | Atria |
What the Blurbs Reveal
The reviews are uniformly positive, though they vary in tone. Some are formal (“an authoritative, nuanced biography”), some are playful (“It’s a hoot”), and others are deeply personal (“It should be a crime”). That range is part of what makes this haul so appealing: readers can sample everything from literary fiction to memoir to biography to horror.
The fiction titles in particular stand out for their ambition. Lee’s American Hagwon promises a family saga, Diaz’s Ply promises a speculative vision, and Akhtar’s The Radiance promises a novel of opposites. The nonfiction is just as varied, with Gershkowitz’s journalism thriller, Roundtree’s biography of Combs, and Khalil’s detention memoir all offering distinct angles on power and survival.
The Publishing Day
This is a banner day for readers. Twenty-two new books means there is plenty to choose from. The mix of bestsellers, debut authors, and established figures across genres gives the week a real sense of literary bounty.
The releases include memoirs and biographies. Gershkowitz writes about journalism under threat, Roundtree about a hip-hop mogul’s career, and Khalil about detention. Their stories carry weight because they are told by people who lived them.
The fiction side shows a similar range. Lee’s American Hagwon promises a family saga, Diaz’s Ply promises a speculative vision, and Akhtar’s The Radiance promises a novel of opposites. The nonfiction is just as varied, with Gershkowitz’s journalism thriller, Roundtree’s biography of Combs, and Khalil’s detention memoir all offering distinct angles on power and survival.
The Takeaway
If you are looking for something to read this week, you have options. The fiction triple-header from Lee, Diaz, and Akhtar is the obvious place to start, but the memoirs and nonfiction offer just as much promise.
The sheer variety is the story here. You could spend a week reading nothing but new books and still barely scratch the surface. That is a good problem to have.
The books are available now.
Source material: “Min Jin Lee, Hernan Diaz, Ayad Akhtar, and more: 22 new books out today!,” Literary Hub.
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