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Louise Penny, author of Miss Wolcott's Ghost

“There’s a body in Lost Nation.” “Where?” demands Armand as he scribbles on the pad by his bed. But the line goes dead before Chief Inspector Gamache can question the caller. The head of homicide for the Sûreté du Québec has no idea where Lost Nation is, or who woke him in the small hours of the morning at his home in Three Pines. So Armand is thrust into the surrounding forests in search of the mythical Lost Nation. And a body. The unidentified dead man appears to be from an era more than a century old. Adding to the mystery, the early morning call appears to have come from Armand’s friend and neighbor, Clara Morrow. While she denies any knowledge of it, it becomes clear there is some connection between her, the Morrow family, and Lost Nation.

October 17, 2026

In the book world, the fall harvest that is represented by new releases has been bountiful! Each week has had multiple releases by well-known names and old favorites. I wish these days that instead of steps walked, I could count pages read for exercise!

We are happy to bring you the guides for these new books as soon as they are ready. Many times, I look at these questions before I interview an author for our “Bookreporter Talks To” video/podcast series to see if there is an angle that I may have missed.

John Mutter, author of Fortune and Glass

Berlin, 1932. Germany’s fragile democracy is fracturing, its ideals cracking like thin glass as political violence and paranoia seep into the streets. In the midst of this tension, Rudi, a young Foreign Ministry official, meets Sara, an unpredictable, morally fierce Jewish woman whose connection with him is immediate and combustible. By 1943, the Germany they knew has vanished, and Rudi works at the center of Nazi power, performing his duties by day and passing intelligence to the Allies by night --- until Sara’s unexpected return threatens to unravel the life he has carefully constructed to survive. 

Meg Mason, author of Sophie, Standing There

Sophie Pattison loves books. Along with a dream job at a local book festival, she has a husband she adores; a lifelong best friend, Emma; and a brother she’s always been close to. Which makes you wonder why since Christmas, Sophie has been living alone, estranged from Emma, avoiding her brother, and about to be fired. Now it feels like the only thing she has left is reading. When Sophie rediscovers an author she first read in her 20s, the words on the page reach her in a new way --- becoming both solace and company. Sophie devours every one of the author's novels and begins to dream of meeting her, but knows they never will. But what if she did? What if, by then, the author feels like a friend? What if, for Sophie, it feels almost like love?

Ríoghnach Robinson, author of Bad Words

Parker Navarro’s debut novel was meant to define his career --- until critic Selina Chan’s blistering review made it the flop of the decade. Four years later, his new book is his shot at redemption; for Selina, reviewing him again is a professional risk she can’t refuse. When her second takedown ignites a viral feud, both their fortunes shift overnight. But as the literary world feeds on their public sparring, a quieter dialogue begins --- one that challenges everything they thought they knew about success, sincerity and each other.

Amanda Rizkalla, author of Hungered

Sofia’s mother promises that soon she’ll have her own bedroom to decorate. Soon, too, she’ll be able to see her friends, go back to school, and eat the colorful, tempting cakes in the grocery store’s display case. For now, though, 12-year-old Sofia lives with her mother and younger brother in their car. For now, Sofia’s days are a blur of freeways and strip malls as her mother searches for a safe place to park for the night. For now, Sofia tries to carve out a space and an identity for herself while grappling with her family’s disintegration.

Bonnie Garmus, author of Peck & Peck

It’s 1982, New York City. Crime is on the rise, muggings are in the streets, and Batter Gray, a recent college graduate, is worried about his future. While his friends have real jobs, he’s folding T-shirts at the Gap. As for love? No. Not unless you count Sallie Mae, the student loan tyrant he hears from all the time. But when Batter gets a dream job at Peck & Peck, the most prestigious poetry quarterly in the world, his life moves into the literary fast lane. Soon Batter is knee-deep in the secret war between the two Editors in Chief, the famous Peck brothers --- twins and enemies --- as well as being privy to the private affairs of their 39 editors, whose professed mission is the same: Find originality. Reward creativity. Burn the rest. And by burn, they mean incinerate.

Editorial Content for American Hagwon

Teaser

The National Book Award finalist and New York Times bestselling author of PACHINKO returns with a breathtaking contemporary epic: a masterpiece by turns sweeping and intimate that reckons with ambition and moderation, lust and loyalty, personal dreams and familial duty.

Promo

The National Book Award finalist and New York Times bestselling author of PACHINKO returns with a breathtaking contemporary epic: a masterpiece by turns sweeping and intimate that reckons with ambition and moderation, lust and loyalty, personal dreams and familial duty.

About the Book

The National Book Award finalist and New York Times bestselling author of PACHINKO returns with a breathtaking contemporary epic: a masterpiece by turns sweeping and intimate that reckons with ambition and moderation, lust and loyalty, personal dreams and familial duty.

In schools and churches, hotel rooms and nail salons, law firms and fried-fish shops; in cramped, dingy apartments and luxury, gated communities, the men, women and children in AMERICAN HAGWON struggle to find satisfaction and meaning in a world that seems to grow less forgiving with each passing year. Once comfortably middle class in Korea, John and Helen Koh and their three children --- Bo, DH and Mido --- find their lives upended, first by a shocking betrayal by John’s oldest friend, then by the 1997 Asian financial crisis.

Desperately striving to regain their footing, they leave Seoul for Sydney and eventually settle in Southern California --- where new vistas of opportunity open up for the children as their parents, strangers in a strange land, must adjust to a new life in which their experience and education mean little, and they set their sights on whatever it takes to provide for their children’s futures. The Kohs, their friends, relatives and even their foes move in and out of each other’s lives as they navigate new courses across the years, always nursing the almost all-consuming faith that education will lead the next generation to success and security.

In AMERICAN HAGWON, Min Jin Lee has crafted an unforgettable, panoramic novel where the smallest of gestures can have enormous repercussions, where the bonds of family and of memory twist and fray but rarely break, and where willful self-sacrifice --- for the benefit of loved ones and even strangers --- is a kind of prayer.

Editorial Content for Bad Words

Book

Teaser

BAD WORDS is a sharp and deeply felt debut about art, ambition, and the connections that both inspire and undo us.

Promo

BAD WORDS is a sharp and deeply felt debut about art, ambition, and the connections that both inspire and undo us.

About the Book

A sharp and deeply felt debut about art, ambition, and the connections that both inspire and undo us.

Parker Navarro’s debut novel was meant to define his career --- until critic Selina Chan’s blistering review made it the flop of the decade. Four years later, his new book is his shot at redemption; for Selina, reviewing him again is a professional risk she can’t refuse. When her second takedown ignites a viral feud, both their fortunes shift overnight. But as the literary world feeds on their public sparring, a quieter dialogue begins --- one that challenges everything they thought they knew about success, sincerity and each other.

Both incisive and tender, BAD WORDS lays bare the costs of creation --- the pull between ambition and integrity, the vulnerability of being seen, and the unexpected closeness that can grow in the space between critique and care.

Editorial Content for Come Closer: Childhood Wounds, Adult Love, and the Secrets of Emotional Intimacy

Teaser

COME CLOSER is a profound and eye-opening book by Dr. Galit Atlas, a psychoanalyst and the internationally bestselling author of EMOTIONAL INHERITANCE, that reveals how our childhood wounds hold the key to understanding our adult relationships.

Promo

COME CLOSER is a profound and eye-opening book by Dr. Galit Atlas, a psychoanalyst and the internationally bestselling author of EMOTIONAL INHERITANCE, that reveals how our childhood wounds hold the key to understanding our adult relationships.

About the Book

For readers of Irvin D. Yalom, Esther Perel and Oliver Sacks, COME CLOSER is a profound and “deeply humane” (Meghan O’Rourke, bestselling author of THE INVISIBLE KINGDOM) book by Dr. Galit Atlas, a psychoanalyst and the internationally bestselling author of EMOTIONAL INHERITANCE, that reveals how our childhood wounds hold the key to understanding our adult relationships.

What is the secret of emotional intimacy? How can understanding our childhood experiences give us the insights we need to be close to others in a truly satisfying, longer-lasting and more meaningful way?

In COME CLOSER, Galit Atlas invites us inside the private lives of her patients --- and into her own --- to offer new, life-changing answers to these important questions. Atlas has identified six child archetypes --- the frightened child, the melancholic child, the ashamed child, the invisible child, the guilty child, and the chosen child --- and in these pages, she shows how each childhood wound plays out in our adult relationships.

In remarkably compelling and dramatic stories of both therapist and patient, Atlas illustrates how the child within us drives our love lives, forming patterns we repeat without awareness. Each narrative will have you on the edge of your seat, living the mystery alongside Atlas and her patients, uncovering roots, drawing parallels, and reaching insights and revelations just as they do.

No one who reads this eye-opening and “stunning” (Ramani Durvasula, psychologist and New York Times bestselling author of IT'S NOT YOU) book will ever see their relationships --- or themselves --- the same way again.