1 The Correspondent by Virginia Evans (Michael Joseph, $38)

Very popular novel in letters.

2 Vigil by George Saunders (Bloomsbury, $37)

“Saunders’ new novel, Vigil, is an argument for how kindness can fail; how wrong-headed kindness misapplied at the wrong time is futile. It’s a novel that deliberately tests the patience of its readers and shares the same fascination with that liminal space between life and death as his Booker Prize-winning first novel Lincoln in the Bardo. Vigil is quintessential Saunders: theatrical, dark, funny, inventive and, ultimately, a morality play wrestling with an ambiguous thesis.” Read the rest of The Spinoff’s review and conversation with George Saunders, right here.

3 The Wedding People by Alison Espach (Phoenix House, $28)

Darkly funny.

4 Departure(s) by Julian Barnes (Jonathan Cape, $38)

Barnes’ final novel.

5 James by Percival Everett (Picador, $25)

One of the biggest selling books in the past few years is back!

6 The Safekeep by Yael Van Der Wouden (Penguin, $28)

Excellent historical fiction with a romantic heart.

7 Raising Hare by Chloe Dalton (Canongate, $28)

Truly lovely and exceptionally well-written account of letting wild creatures turn your house into a home.

8 Flesh by David Szalay (Jonathan Cape, $38)

The 2025 Booker Prize winner is still winning the charts in 2026.

9 Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell (Tinder Press, $28) 

Are people reading the novel before or after they see the film? Will Wuthering Heights show up here next?

10 Lost Lambs by Madeline Cash (Doubleday, $38)

“It’s been disastrous since Bud and Catherine opened up their marriage,” begins the publisher’s blurb, “and none of the Flynns can remember the last time a meal was cooked, a load of laundry done, or a social code abided by.

Their daughters spiral in their own chaotic orbits: Abigail, the eldest, is dating a man in his twenties nicknamed War Crime Wes; Louise, the middle child, maintains a secret correspondence with an online terrorist; the brilliant youngest, Harper, is being sent to wilderness reform camp due to her insistence that someone – or something – is monitoring the town’s citizens.

Casting a shadow across their lives, and their small coastal town, is Paul Alabaster, a nefarious local billionaire. Rumours of corruption circulate, but no one dares dig too deep. No one except Harper, whose obsession with Alabaster’s machinations sends the family hurtling into a criminal conspiracy – one that may just, finally, bring them closer together.”

WELLINGTON

1 What to Wear by Jenny Bornholdt (Te Herenga Waka University Press, $25)

A stunning new collection from former Poet Laureate Jenny Bornholdt. Read books editor Claire Mabey’s double review (with Lyrical Ballads, below) right here.

2 Lyrical Ballads by Bill Manhire (Te Herenga Waka University Press, $30)

Funny, sad, surprising – another triumph from Manhire (read more about it, here).

3 Deliverywoman by Eva Wyles (Influx Press, $39) 

A fantastic debut collection of short stories.

4 Vigil by George Saunders (Bloomsbury, $37)

5 Mother Mary Comes to Me by Arundhati Roy (Hamish Hamilton, $40) 

Longlisted for the Women’s Prize for nonfiction 2026.

6 Raising Hare by Chloe Dalton (Canongate, $28)

7 Departure(s) by Julian Barnes (Jonathan Cape, $38)

8 Half His Age by Jennette McCurdy (HarperCollins, $35

“A debut novel with bright spots, but unbalanced and lacking in finesse.” Read the rest of the Kirkus review, here.

9 Flesh by David Szalay (Jonathan Cape, $38)

10 Mr Ward’s Map: Victorian Wellington Street by Street by Elizabeth Cox (Massey University Press, $90)

Rightfully longlisted for this year’s Ockhams!