Everyone’s excited about this buzzy (pun intended) literary debut set in 1974, which has been likened to the work of Yann Martel (Life of Pi) and Khaled Hosseini (A Thousand Splendid Suns). The poignant coming-of-age story is about Hassan, a Pakistani teenager torn between his love of nature, duty to his mother (for whom he harvests precious black honey from a forbidden forest) and a scholarship that holds the promise of forging his own identity in England. It has incredible evocations of the inner workings of bees and the natural world. (Jan. 4)

In the 35 years covered by this novel, ending in 1946, Vienna goes from a relatively liberal haven for two women trying to build a life together to dangerous ground, against a backdrop of rising fascism and war. Hitchman, a British academic and researcher, writes tenderly of the hardships and tiny, accumulated joys of queer, long-term relationships. (Jan. 4) 

Five years ago, this TV show runner and writer (Fargo, Legion) published Before the Fall, a pacey novel that everyone seemed to be reading in that summer. History will repeat itself with this near-future pandemic nail-biter – about a plague-like spate of opioid suicides and a cult – that’s being called a cross between a Margaret Atwood dystopia and a Stephen King thriller. (Jan. 4)

This locked-room whodunit – not to be confused with the Netflix series – takes place around the posh Regency Grand Hotel, where Molly the maid makes a point of noticing and learning a lot about customers and their secrets. When wealthy guest Charles Black is murdered in his bed, she’s a suspect at first, and then she is on the case faster than you can say Clue by way of Grand Hotel. This charming cosy mystery, with an emotional personal journey at its heart, is the first novel by Prose (the pen name of Nita Pronovost, the vice-president and editorial director of Simon & Schuster Canada); Little Women’s Oscar-nominated Florence Pugh will star in the film adaptation. (Jan. 4)

Think of this speculative novel as Handmaid’s Tale adjacent. A recently divorced, single parent is caught leaving her toddler home alone in order to work. Before her parental rights are restored, she must pass a regimented, live-in program that rehabilitates “bad” mothers by having them care for surrogate children. It’s a harrowing story and a searing indictment of the erasure of mothers as human beings, flaws and all. You can’t look away. (Jan. 4)

Fans of Rumaan Alam (Leave the World Behind) and Joshua Ferris (To Rise Again at a Decent Hour) will appreciate this literary takedown of racial politics, diversity initiatives and tech culture. This novel from the award-winning author and screenwriter, who also pens crime novels as Nathan Ripley, is about a son banished from his family for working at an automated, higher-education start-up.  (Jan. 11)

Yanagihara’s follow-up to his 2015 bestseller is just as complex and challenging, and is sure to divide critics, who either loved or hated A Little Life. The editor of T: The New York Times Magazine tells a sprawling story of epidemics, same-sex love and intergenerational support in three “books” set in New York, from fin de siècle Washington Square through the 1980s AIDS crisis to a bleak, pandemic-ravaged city in 2093. (Jan. 11)

When two former college classmates meet by chance at JFK airport as their flights are delayed, one spends the evening regaling the other with a tale of rescue and obsession. Is he a deluded, unreliable narrator, or is the truth even more sinister? This psychological novel, which takes a page from American crime writer Dorothy B. Hughes, is an exciting, seamy pleasure to read. (Jan.11)

The award-winning historical novelist of Sally Hemings sets this true story – about a former sex worker who built a real estate empire in Harlem and was one of the richest Black women in America – at the turn of the last century. Chase-Riboud brings the era and the neighbourhood to life in this tale of blackmail and an unsolved murder, which brings the police into Hannah Elias’s orbit, threatening to topple her carefully constructed life. (Jan. 11)

This winsome and unabashedly charming rom-com sees desperate and recently divorced Dahlia Woodson, a competitor on TV show Chef’s Special, falling for London Parker, the first openly non-binary contestant on the wildly popular amateur cooking show. It is as entertaining and absorbing as watching a culinary competition show in real life. (Jan 18)

This novel seems written just for Downton devotees: Bella moves her English family to the Italian Riviera in the 1920s to open an upper-class hotel. It caters to entitled rich holidaying Brits and there’s not much money to spare to meet their demands. The idyllic setting, rising fascist political climate and family tensions make for a juicy historical drama. (Soon airing as a PBS Masterpiece series, starring Natasha McElhone and Anna Chancellor). (Jan. 22)

Thanks to her six acclaimed novels (including Late in the Day and The Past), this British author is much admired – you could call her a cult novelist. In this story set in 1967, a bored housewife gives it all up for one of her son’s friends, who becomes her lover. Hadley evokes the heady atmosphere in London, and the tension between a generation’s newfound freedom in the city and the suffocation of staid suburban life. (Jan. 25)