Long Island Compromise by Taffy Brodesser-Akner

“Do you want to hear a story with a terrible ending?” So begins the second novel from the author of the hit 2019 book Fleishman is in Trouble, in which the kidnap of a businessman named Carl is a catalyst for four decades’ worth of family drama. Long Island Compromise interrogates wealth, status, dysfunctional relationships and inherited trauma, all with Brodesser-Akner’s typically incisive brand of wit.

(Wildfire, £20)

All the Colours of the Dark by Chris Whitaker

When Saint Brown’s best friend Patch is abducted late one summer, she is determined to find him. Meanwhile, in a pitch-black room, Patch falls for a girl named Grace, who later disappears into thin air. At once a missing person mystery, a love triangle story and a serial killer thriller, this Russian doll of a novel is unlike anything you have probably ever read before.

(Orion, £20)

Margo’s Got Money Troubles by Rufi Thorpe

A funny, spiky novel which is already being adapted into a TV series starring Nicole Kidman and Dakota and Elle Fanning, expect to see this on many sun loungers this summer. It follows Margo, a 20-year-old single mother, whose solution to her financial problems is creating an OnlyFans account where she can make money by sharing explicit photos of herself. What could go wrong?

(Sceptre, £16.99)

All Fours by Miranda July

Our unnamed narrator is a 45-year-old semi-famous artist who sets out on a solo road trip from California to New York. Unbeknown to the husband and child she has left at home, she never gets there, instead checking into an unremarkable motel a few miles down the road. All Fours is an exquisite tale of freedom, self-discovery and midlife reinvention.

(Canongate, £20)

The Husbands by Holly Gramazio

Lauren comes home one night to find a man she has never met before in her flat claiming to be her husband. She soon realises that her attic is providing an endless supply of men for her – send one husband up and another comes down – and with each, her life changes around her. The Husbands is an absolute riot: it has lots of clever things to say about dating, love, and life satisfaction, but is also very, very funny.

(Chatto & Windus, £16.99)

You Are Here by David Nicholls

The trouble with having a novel as successful as One Day is that your books will for evermore be compared to it. However, You Are Here is just as good (if not better). It’s the slow-burn love story of Marnie and Michael, who end up walking the coast-to-coast path in Cumbria and Yorkshire together. An ode to second chances, it’s the kind of book you feel better for reading.

(Sceptre, £20)

The Safe Keep by Yael van der Wouden

In 1960s rural Holland, Isabel’s quiet, unmarried life living in the family home takes an unexpected turn when her brother brings his new partner, Eva, to stay for the summer. The two women couldn’t be more different, and the tense dynamic provides a febrile ground for suspicion and obsession. This spine-chilling debut has been getting a deserving amount of praise since its publication.

(Viking, £16.99)

Caledonian Road by Andrew O’Hagan

If you’re the kind of person who saves doorstopper novels for when you can give them your undivided attention, Caledonian Road is one which should be packed for your summer break. This Dickensian read has a sprawling cast-list, but at its centre are Campbell Flynn, a 52-year-old celebrity academic, and Milo Mangasha, his student sidekick. Exploring power, scandal, crime, and privilege, it’s a state-of-the-nation novel for our times.

(Faber, £20)

The Hypocrite by Jo Hamya

When Sophia was on the precipice of adulthood, she went on holiday to Sicily with her father, a writer. Now, in 2020, he takes a seat in the audience of her play – which, to his surprise, recounts what happens on that very trip. Exploring parent-child relationships, art and hypocrisy, this is a short, taut, simmering read.

(W&N, £18.99)

Sandwich by Catherine Newman

Rocky, along with her nearly-adult children, ageing parents, husband and cat, arrives in the coastal apartment they always rent during their annual summer holiday to Cape Code. Over the course of a week, both new and long-held family secrets come to light. Newman writes beautifully about marriage, parenting, the passage of time, and the bittersweet realities of the sandwich generation.

(Doubleday, £16.99)

Parade by Rachel Cusk

There is nothing like reading a novel by this Booker-nominated author to make you look smart. Her latest is an experimental quartet of stories which explores the creative process and the gendered lives of artists, featuring a man who paints upside down and a woman who sculpts black spiders. For those with the requisite concentration, Parade is a strange but ultimately rewarding book.

(Faber, £16.99)

The Fellowship of Puzzlemakers by Samuel Bur

Abandoned on the doorstep of the Fellowship of Puzzlemakers as a baby, Clayton was raised by the sharpest minds in the country. When crossword compiler Pippa passes away, she leaves him one final puzzle – and solving it will help him understand the mystery of his parentage. This novel, an instant bestseller on publication in May, is highly original and thoroughly uplifting.

(Orion, £16.99)

The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley

With a TV adaptation already on the way, this time-hopping love story has been one of the most hyped releases of the year. The novel centres on a British-Cambodian woman from the near-future who must serve as a “bridge” to a commander from 1847. It is intelligent, enthralling and ingeniously told.

(Scepte, £16.99)

Come and Get it by Kiley Reid

Everyone seemed to be reading this novel when it was released earlier this year, so for the few who missed it: in Come and Get It, University of Arkansas student Millie Cousins’ path in life is irrevocably altered when visiting professor Agatha Paul makes her an offer. Every bit as sharp and perceptive as the author’s much-lauded debut Such a Fun Age.

(Bloomsbury, £16.99)

Lies and Weddings by Kevin Kwan

A summer’s day is always well paired with a fun and frothy romcom, and no-one does them quite like Crazy Rich Asians author Kevin Kwan. In his latest, down-to-earth Eden and her love interest Rufus would easily get their happily ever after if it weren’t for the latter’s mother’s schemes to marry him to money.

(Hutchinson Heinemann, £18.99)

Only Here, Only Now by Tom Newlands

In a story about belonging, grief and poverty, Cora is a young neurodivergent girl growing up on a council estate in 1990s Scotland, hoping for a bright future against all odds. It is near-impossible to read this coming-of-age novel without falling in love with it – literary insiders everywhere seem to be proclaiming it to be one of the best debuts of the year.

(Phoenix, £18.99)

Long Island by Colm Tóibín

The beloved Irish author’s prize-winning, bestselling 2009 novel Brooklyn was adapted into a film starring Saoirse Ronan. Now, the long-awaited sequel makes for dreamy summer reading (even as a standalone): this wistful tale about a stranger who turns up in Eilis Fiorello’s life is exactly the kind of book to read on a sultry afternoon.

(Picador, £20)

Blue Sisters by Coco Mellors

Mellors’ 2022 debut, Cleopatra and Frankenstein, was the surprise hit of the year after it found an audience through both word-of-mouth recommendations and aesthetically pleasing social media posts. As such, it is little surprise that her follow up has been an instant roaring success. In this compulsive novel, three very different sisters grieve for the fourth, Nicky, whose death has splintered their lives.

(Fourth Estate, £16.99)

The List of Suspicious Things by Jennie Godfrey

It’s 1979 and the Yorkshire Ripper serial killer has yet to be captured. The father of 12-year-old Miv is threatening to move the family ‘Down South’, so she and her best friend devise a plan to solve the murders themselves. A mystery wrapped up in a story of community, this is a gorgeous, page-turning book.

(Hutchinson Heinemann, £14.99)

The Midnight Feast by Lucy Foley

Lucy Foley excels at writing murder mysteries with immersive settings. In her bestseller The Hunting Party, it was a snowy Scottish highlands; here it’s a Dorset woodland manor house during midsummer, where the unearthing of a 15-year-old secret among friends ends somewhat badly. Propulsive and twisty, The Midnight Feast is a dream beach read.

(HarperCollins, £18.99)

You Like It Darker by Stephen King

Across 12 spring-tingling stories, the master of the horror genre delves into the darkest corners of humanity. There are psychic episodes which tear apart lives; long-buried secrets which are better left unearthed; unexpected inheritances which come at an almighty cost. Prolific though he may be, King’s storytelling abilities are unwaveringly good.

(Hodder & Stoughton, £25)

My Favourite Mistake by Marian Keyes

Marian Keyes’s latest will undoubtedly be front and centre of most airport bookshop tables, and rightly so. A sequel to Anybody Out There? of sorts – though it can be read as standalone – this is a wonderfully warm and funny look at midlife love, in which Anna swaps her glamorous life in Manhattan for a small Irish town, where an old flame is waiting in the wings.

(Michael Joseph, £22)

James by Percival Everett

To rework Mark Twain’s seminal 1876 novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn might be a rather daunting task, but it couldn’t have been in better hands than with this Booker shortlisted author. Told from the enslaved Jim’s perspective, James is a blisteringly good book which deserves every literary prize going.

(Mantle, £20)

The Heart in Winter by Kevin Barry

In 1891 Montana, an Irish poet named Tom pays the bills by composing letters to the prospective brides of men who haven’t learnt how to write. When he falls for one of these women, Polly, a forbidden love affair ensues – as does an epic journey fleeing on stolen horseback, with a bounty hanging over their heads.

(Canongate, £16.99)

Enlightenment by Sarah Perry

The author of The Essex Serpent just gets better and better: here is one of those rich, textured novels with a story to really sink into. In Ardleigh, Essex a few years before the turn of the millennium, Thomas and Grace investigate the story of a forgotten astronomer who disappeared a century before.

(Jonathan Cape, £20)

Under a Rock by Chris Stein

Blondie guitarist’s memoir charting his journey from a young punk to pop superstardom is so evocative of the era it will make you forget where you are. With drugs, sex and jetsetting aplenty, Under a Rock is a wild ride – while also being a tender love letter to his lifelong friend and partner Debbie Harry.

(Corsair, £25)

Knife by Salman Rushdie

On 12 August, 2022, the Booker Prize-winning author Salman Rushdie was on stage in New York about to give a lecture when he was stabbed multiple times, leaving him blind in one eye. Writing about this experience for the first time, Rushdie reflects on that day and its aftermath with sheer storytelling brilliance.

(Jonathan Cape, £20)

You Don’t Have to be Mad to Work Here by Dr Benji Waterhouse

In 2017, Adam Kay lifted the curtain on life as a junior doctor in his bestselling diaries This Is Going To Hurt. Now, NHS psychiatrist Dr Waterhouse does the same for the psychiatric ward in this memoir which manages to tread that delicate line of being both humane and hilarious.

(Jonathan Cape, £18.99)

We Will Not Be Saved by Nemonte Nenquimo

Born into the Waorani tribe of Ecuador’s Amazon rainforest, Nemonte grew up in a culture of foraging, storytelling and shamanism. Twenty years later, she has emerged as one of our most important climate activists. We Will Not Be Saved is her astonishing story; one which jolts you into action.

(Wildfire, £20)

All That Glitters by Orlando Whitfield

Orlando Whitfield met Inigo Philbrick, a forthright American intent on becoming an art dealer, at university in London in the early 2000s. Fifteen years later, his former friend has been charged with one of the largest cases of art fraud in American history. The wild ride in between makes for a jaw-dropping, riveting true-crime memoir.

(Profile, £20)