Our most anticipated audiobooks of 2026

A new ancient epic from a master storyteller

In recent years, we've enjoyed retellings of Greek mythological characters, but leave it to Yann Martel to craft a compelling new homage to The Iliad and a new perspective on the Trojan War. In Son of Nobody, the Booker Prize-winning author of Life of Pi shares a new legend centred on a fictional epic poem, titled The Psoad, which was lost to history until a Canadian academic discovers it 30 centuries later in Oxford's Bodleian Library. He dedicates his discovery to his young daughter and finds parallels with contemporary preoccupations. We love Martel's fantastical imagination, and this tale of Ancient Greece sounds complex and lyrical and perfect for oral interpretation.

Grab your tissue boxes

At this point, just about everything TJ Klune writes is an immediate add-to-library. And from everything I’ve heard about We Burned So Bright, I’m already preparing myself for the ugliest of ugly cries. Following Dan and Rodney, two husbands on a month-long, end-of-the-world road trip after 40 years of marriage, this listen is going to make you feel. Klune has always had a knack for writing queer characters and dialogue that feel so incredibly real, and I am so ready for the emotional highs, lows, and love of Dan and Rodney’s final journey. Plus, with Kirt Graves set to narrate, I already know that we’re going to get a beautiful performance that’ll absolutely destroy me.

Say what?

One never knows where Alice Feeney is going to take you in her audiobooks. One thing’s for sure, it’s a place you’ve never been. The title alone has whetted my appetite. Shouldn’t it be “My Ex-Husband’s Wife”? I guess I’ll soon find out. The big key on the cover is either a big secret about to be unlocked or a door someone has no business unlocking. And just who is on the other side of that door? When it comes to Feeney’s audiobooks, narration never disappoints, and Richard Armitage can tell me a story any day. Who knows what the future holds in 2026? But I am certain about one thing: I’ll be listening to My Husband’s Wife.

All bills come due

You give me a story about the ethereal unknown of death and its afterparties, tell me it’s written by George Saunders, and you have my full attention. Comparing Vigil to Lincoln in the Bardo, his first novel, at first seems easy and sure. But Vigil is entirely new and exists as its own bit of remarkability. In the context of Saunders’s career, this stands clearly in its own lane as the work of an author who has again figured out the right words to describe this cosmic pudding we live in, with humour for us and grace for his characters who need it the most.

Go ahead and threaten me with a good time

I have to be careful when I listen to a mystery. I scare easily, and sometimes a thriller just isn’t worth the disruption to my psyche. But a contemporary retelling of Little Women in which Beth has been murdered? Thrill me. Terrorize me. I’m all in. Katie Bernet’s debut will hook you immediately with its campy cover and bold, declarative title: Beth Is Dead. Screw anticipation—I got an early listen and dove right in. Alternating between then (i.e. before the titular incident) and now, the clever narrative unfurls from the point of view of all four March sisters, brilliantly brought to life (and, ahem, death) by Caitlin Kelly, Emily Tremaine, Ferdelle Capistrano, and Piper Goodeve. I don’t know that I’ve ever enjoyed a retelling more. It’s witty, propulsive, layered, meta, and there are not one but two nested narratives that old and new acquaintances of the March sisters alike will relish.

And now, back to this series...

B.K. Borison bringing us back into the Heartstrings world is already a gift, but the setup of And Now, Back to You makes it shoot straight to the top of my most-anticipated list. Two meteorologists who cannot seem to be in the same room without something going sideways are forced to team up for a once-in-a-lifetime storm—and what ensues is a perfect storm of chaos. Jackson with his careful, structured calm; Delilah with her bright, irresistible energy—and a snowstorm big enough to push them past their long-running stalemate. I loved this story on the page. The tension, the banter, the warmth of it all is exactly why I cannot wait to hear how it comes together in audio.

Kennedy Ryan scores again

Amidst a sea of book 2’s scheduled for release in 2026, Score is the sequel I'm looking forward to the most. This long-awaited follow-up to Kennedy Ryan's Reel follows the screenwriter and music director of the epic Harlem Renaissance biopic first introduced in book 1. Verity and Monk are former lovers now working together on the film, and I know Ryan is going to make their second chance at love sizzle. I'm expecting the audio for Score to be nothing short of amazing and can't wait to learn which narrators are cast. Reel won the 2022 Romance Audie Award—the first Black author and narrator to win an Audie—and Ryan added a 7,000-word epilogue to the audiobook in 2024. Now’s the perfect time to rediscover this beloved romance ahead of the release of Score in May.

Modern dating really is dead

From Guillermo del Toro’s film adaptation of Frankenstein to Ryan Murphy’s Netflix reimagining of Ed Gein’s killing spree, romantic affairs with reanimated corpses seem to be all the rage among storytellers these days. Told through the lens of a venture capital superstar whose company is funding a dating app that encourages lonely, living singles to embrace the dead as a reasonable alternative to an otherwise grim dating pool, this debut lives at the intersection of corporate satire (which was very trendy in 2025) and an absurdist modern dating story (the most cathartic micro-genre for any listeners in their single era). After digging in to an advanced reader’s copy, I have no doubt that the matter-of-fact, macabre humour at the heart of this novel will come to life in audio.

Liza, the legend, spills the tea

With so many pretty young things eager to share their story without having lived much of a life, it’s easy to be jaded about celebrity memoirs. Then there’s Liza Minnelli. The daughter of film director Vincente Minnelli and Wizard of Oz star Judy Garland, she’s Hollywood royalty who has seen it all. Yet, the EGOT winner has never shared her side of the story. The fact that the icon is finally giving us her tale of nearly 80 years on the planet is thrilling, and that the audio will include original interviews with her longtime friend Michael Feinstein (and hopefully other autobiographical recordings) is sure to make all of us stop and listen.

The ending I can’t wait to begin

Evelyn Clarke’s The Ending Writes Itself is easily my most anticipated release of the year. What made this even more enticing was the mystery surrounding the identity of author “Evelyn Clarke,” who recently revealed that they are none other than Cat Clarke and V.E. Schwab. The set-up for this exciting collaboration feels straight out of an Agatha Christie novel: a remote Scottish island, a dead literary legend, and a cast of ambitious suspects—six struggling authors competing to finish writing the deceased author’s final manuscript within 72 hours. As the clock ticks down and secrets surface, this literary game of cat-and-mouse might just prove that some stories are better left unfinished.

The latest from one of non-fic’s greatest

The first time I’d ever read anything by Patrick Radden Keefe, I was a college freshman assigned his New Yorker reporting on human trafficking, which he expanded upon in The Snakehead. Radden Keefe’s narrative pacing and deft ability to craft thoughtful, multifaceted portraits of his complex human subjects would come to redefine everything I thought possible about journalism. With modern classics Say Nothing and Empire of Pain, he cemented himself as a master of his craft, delivering chronicles of past and present with all the intrigue and finesse of the best fiction storytellers. Needless to say, I’m counting the days until the author-narrated London Falling, an intricate saga investigating a young man’s unimaginable double life and his tragic, sudden death.

A musical history lesson

On the very long list of things we didn’t learn in high school, let’s add this tale of an Underground Railroad that allowed enslaved people to escape south, across the Rio Grande, to Mexico. A musical history in the mold of Hamilton, Mexodus was created and performed by Brian Quijada and Nygel D. Robinson, who use hip-hop, beat box, and even accordion to tell the story of Henry, an enslaved man on the run, and Carlos, a traumatised vet, who must decide how much they’re willing to trust each other to survive. This is an Audible Original that truly offers something you’ve never heard before.

‘60s vibes and family drama

Meet the Newmans takes listeners to 1964, where "America's favourite TV family" faces declining ratings after two decades of primetime dominance. As society transforms around them, the Newmans must decide what to reveal about themselves to stay relevant in a changing world. Brilliantly narrated by Marin Ireland and Tim Campbell, this intimate behind-the-scenes tale explores each family member's struggles set against 1960s social upheaval. It's family drama at its finest—full of happy tears, heartbreak, feminist awakening, marital strife, and brotherly bonds—building to a life-affirming, thoroughly entertaining conclusion.

The tradwife novel about to go viral

It feels funny to call Yesteryear my most anticipated 2026 release, given I devoured an advance copy months ago and haven’t stopped thinking about it since. A debut novel about a tradwife influencer who is suddenly dropped into the mid-1800s and must learn to survive without a phone and staff of minions, let alone electricity and indoor plumbing? I was in from the jump, and Caro Claire Burke’s indelible main character, spot-on details, and shocking twists and turns had my jaw on the floor. What I can’t wait for is the audio performance by Rebecca Lowman, who will bring antiheroine Natalie Heller Mills to life, and to finally be able to discuss the novel’s themes, masterful handling of Ballerina Farm-style intrigue, and that ending (!!!) with my entire group chat. Because I’m calling it now: Come April, Yesteryear will be a sensation!

How to be a (queer) girl

I love a story that takes place over a short, specific period of time. Think Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway, narrated over the course of a single day, or Jenny Han’s wistful YA novel The Summer I Turned Pretty. These contained snapshots serve as a reminder of just how pivotal and evocative certain chapters of our existence can be, and how they play out, in some essence, for the rest of our lives. I’m hoping that Sonia Feldman’s dreamy debut, Girl’s Girl, follows in the footsteps of these works, as it takes place over the course of one Midwestern summer and zeroes in on the distinct realities of girlhood, specifically queer girlhood, as 15-year-old Mina examines what it means—and what it changes—to love another person with all your heart.

Good dad, bad dad

As a writer for Esquire and GQ, Tom Junod built a career chronicling what it meant to be a "man at his best." One of his most compelling subjects was his own father, Lou, a suave handbag salesman with a magnificent wardrobe and boundless charisma. But was Lou truly a good man? In this poetic but unsparing investigative memoir, Junod turns his reporter's lens inward, crawling inside his father's life to unearth a trove of family secrets. Revelations around Lou's worst betrayals irrevocably reshape Tom's life, along with his definitions of loyalty, forgiveness, and what it means to be a better man.