2026 world literature: New books reflect a changing planet

As the new year meanders on in often unpredictable ways, books offer the surety we crave. Of course, writers also reflect the world in which we live, but this is done with a more distant, objective eye, unlike the instant noises on social media.
The last year was momentous for non-western literary works, with such high-ticket novels like Kiran Desai’s ‘The loneliness of Sonia and Sunny’, and Arundhati Roy’s ‘Mother Mary comes to me’ cutting across geographical borders to become bestsellers.
2026 is also offering an exciting range of novels and short stories for those who like to spend time understanding and appreciating the world around us.
Geentanjali Shree, an International-Booker winning novelist, is releasing a collection of short stories entitled ‘Once elephants lived here’, exploring her previous themes of resilience and loss in a world of transition. The collection is translated by Daisy Rockwell.
Another anthology of short stories is ‘The Penguin book of the international short story’ which includes such notables as Haruki Murakami, Salman Rushdie and Han Kang.
According to the publishers, the anthology aims “to provide a tour of modern fiction beyond the Western canon”.
There is also a graphic novel by Sarnath Banerjee called ‘Absolute Jafar’, exploring the author’s quest for belonging and identity as an Indian-Pakistani child living in Berlin.
A number of Arabic works of fiction and poetry are also planned for translation and release this year.
‘A mask the colour of the sky’ was written by Basim Khandagji, who won the International Prize for Arabic Fiction, for his novel written in prison. This just-translated novel follows the life of a Palestinian archaeologist, Nur, who tries to understand life on the other side of the security fence.
‘Mariam, It’s Arwa’, by debut Egyptian novelist Areej Gamal, showcases the author exploring her city Cairo, as it transforms and takes new meanings and shape.
An anthology of select poetry, ‘The Palestinian wedding’, is a bilingual work that celebrates Palestinian resilience and joy in times of crisis. Poets included here are Tawfiq Zayyad, Walid al Halis, Salma al Jayyusi and Mahmoud Darwish.
The collection is arranged around the themes of revolution, belonging and resistance, testifying to the enduring spirit of Palestinians across the world.
For those with a penchant for technology, Yuval Harari’s ‘Nexus: A brief history of information networks from the stone age to AI’ and Mustafa Suleyman’s ‘The coming wave’ are both still very relevant to understand the larger implications of the AI revolution and its connections to our world today.
For motivation and inspiration, ‘Atomic habits’ by James Clear and ‘Talk’ by Alison Wood are still trending for their focus on habit formation and public speaking.
There is a whole range of books to choose from as the year unfolds. There is something for everyone, be it fiction, history, graphic novels or memoirs. As international trends suggest, readers are looking for something that reveals and reflects the world in which we live and offer ways to make meaning in it. Reading itself is a large leap forward.