The debut novel, part time-travel romance, part workplace thriller, comes highly recommended for fans of Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander novels and the Apple TV+ sci-fi thriller, Severance. Our unnamed narrator is a civil servant – British-Cambodian, like the author – working as guide to notable but bewildered “expats” from across history on a project studying whether time travel is viable. Her charge is Graham Gore, a sailor from the failed 1945 Franklin Expedition, who’s been plopped down in near-future London. Entertaining commentary (and comedy) about pop culture and contemporary society emerge from supporting characters’ observations across the centuries. (May 7) 

The author’s 2009 coming-of-age novel Brooklyn (made into a period feature starring Saoirse Ronan) introduced Eilis Lacey, a working-class Irish girl torn between two worlds after she emigrates to mid-century New York. This sequel checks in on her 20 years later, when she’s raising two children and still married to Tony, who’s cheated on her (oh, and his girlfriend is pregnant). Eilis returns to Ireland to celebrate her mother’s 80th birthday and figure things out in a powerful story that probes regret, nostalgia and heartbreak. (May 7)

Vocal instrumentalist Ella Fitzgerald was barely 21 when she became the bestselling female vocalist in America in 1938. With this inspiring fictional biography, Richards – a former background vocalist for Whitney Houston and now the executive director of the prestigious Harlem Writers Guild – explores the hardships and emotional scars behind the expressive singer’s deeply soulful work. Following the death of her mother, the 15-year-old fled her abusive stepfather and worked as a brothel lookout for the mob, escaped racist reform school and was eventually, while still a homeless teenager, discovered at Harlem’s famous Apollo Theater. It’s as rich in historical detail of Depression-era Harlem as it is in emotional depth. (May 7)

Small-town Washington State detective Chelsey Calhoun gets a second chance at her sister Lydia’s cold case, 20 years after she disappeared. The investigation is spurred by the present-day appearance of another missing girl, Ellie, who won’t talk about where she’s been for the last two years. The dual timeline is elaborately descriptive, but the one recounting the teen’s time in captivity (think: Emma Donoghue’s Room) merits a trigger warning. This new adult crime novel from the bestselling Vancouver, Wash.-based writer of young adult fiction is impressive. (May 7)

It’s 1974 and Nick, an elderly Rhode Island man and former soldier, is haunted by a decision he made in rural France during the First World War. A terminal cancer diagnosis spurs him to use the time he has left to make amends, if he can. Together with his college-age assistant Jenny, who’s also trying to figure out her place in the world, the unlikely duo journey through Italy and France. Hood varies the dual-timeline formula by recounting chapters not just from their alternating points of view, but also from that of a connected Neapolitan artist named Enzo. Readers will be drawn in by the American author’s musings on redemption and renewal. (May 7)

Drawing in part on her own family’s history, the acclaimed Cambridge, Mass.-based author of The Emperor’s Children tells the story she knew “was always going to have to be written,” as she recently told Publisher’s Weekly. Beginning in 1940, the immersive epic of social and political upheaval covers seven decades and three generations of secrets in the Cassar family. The fictional clan are pied-noir – an ethno-cultural group descended from Europeans born in Algeria during French rule – and displaced from their home in Algiers during the country’s War of Independence. This is Messud’s most personal novel yet. (May 7)

Sykes, the willowy British fashion journalist and socialite who contributed to American Vogue in the Devil Wears Prada-era, is now happily ensconced in the Cotswolds, so naturally her latest romp takes aim at Oxfordshire aristocrats. Twenty years ago her bestselling debut Bergdorf Blondes satirized Park Avenue heiresses and husband hunters, but we’re in the post-Downton Abbey era now, so the milieu is the hierarchy and ecosystem of grand ancestral estates. The story follows the exploits of “executive butler” Ian Palmer, who attends to the British elite: His charges include tycoons, tiny dogs, divorcées and would-be influencers, who all jockey for position. (May 14)

The American filmmaker and author of the popular short story collection No One Belongs Here More Than You returns with a frank, sexy and comic novel about midlife awakening. Facing menopause and looking to reinvent herself, a 45-year-old artist and mother ditches the cross-country drive to a writing retreat and holes up at a nearby motel instead. Once ensconced, she redecorates and embarks on a series of explorations – that, as July recently explained, take on the adventure of aging – and erotic revelations before returning home. (May 14)

The Singapore-born American author ventures away from the entwined families of his blockbuster Crazy Rich Asians trilogy for … more globe-trotting romantic and financial hijinks among the ultra-ultra-wealthy, the secretly impoverished and even a few regular folk. The escapist tale of glitter, gossip and glamour (which flits between Hawaii, Marrakech, London, L.A. and manors in the English countryside) is about whether the best marriage is a love match or a socially suitable one. Kwan folds diverting layers of fictional invitations, gala menus and society columns into the story. That inspired touch elevates the witty and barbed comedy of manners – as though Evelyn Waugh had stumbled into a modern-day version of Bridgerton. (May 21)

The British author is celebrated for the crowd-pleasing One Day, a love story that alights on a single day in the life of a long-term couple (with millions of copies sold, and newly adapted into a hit Netflix series). More than one critic has rightly dubbed this sweetly comic novel as “One Day for middle-aged romantics.” It’s about two jaded middle-aged hikers with failed marriages who find themselves in a small group on a walking tour across the north of England, and strike up a will-they-or-won’t-they bond through long conversations. (May 28)

Troubled 13-year-old Jolie is reunited with her estranged father Ethan, a felon and recovering addict, when he returns to make sure she’s all right after an accident on the New York subway. The sprawling 608-page dad-daughter story – from the bestselling American writer who made headlines in 2015 for his 944-page breakout novel, City on Fire (and the whopping US$2-million advance) – takes readers into the psychology of a repeatedly failing father as well as the life of a teenage girl. (May 28)