 In this keenly awaited new collection, Zadie Smith brings her unique skills as an essayist to bear on a range of subjects.

'Dead and Alive' by Zadie Smith | October 2025 releases

'Dead and Alive' by Zadie Smith

About: In this keenly awaited new collection, Zadie Smith brings her unique skills as an essayist to bear on a range of subjects which have captured her attention in recent years.She takes an exhilaratingly close look at artists Toyin Ojih Odutola, Kara Walker and Celia Paul. She invites us along to the movies, to see and to think about Tár, and to Glastonbury to witness the ascendance of Stormzy. She takes us on a walk down Kilburn High Road in her beloved North West London and invites us to mourn with her the passing of writers Joan Didion, Martin Amis, Hilary Mantel, Philip Roth and Toni Morrison. She considers changes of government on both sides of the Atlantic – and the meaning of ‘the commons’ in all our lives.Themes: Community, Humanity, Critical thinkingRelease date: October 30, 2025

Dead_and_Alive_by_Zadie_Smith_1f49a5c7dd-seswkhkpxwtsyzr-16x9.jpg

Dead_and_Alive_by_Zadie_Smith_1f49a5c7dd-seswkhkpxwtsyzr-1x1.jpg

Dead_and_Alive_by_Zadie_Smith_1f49a5c7dd-seswkhkpxwtsyzr-3x2.jpg

Dead_and_Alive_by_Zadie_Smith_1f49a5c7dd-seswkhkpxwtsyzr-3x4.jpg

Dead_and_Alive_by_Zadie_Smith_1f49a5c7dd-seswkhkpxwtsyzr-4x3.jpg

medium_Dead and Alive by Zadie Smith.jpg

small_Dead and Alive by Zadie Smith.jpg

thumbnail_Dead and Alive by Zadie Smith.jpg

Dead and Alive by Zadie Smith.jpg

About: 1869. Tibet is closed to Europeans, an infuriating obstruction for the rap¬idly expanding British Empire. In response, Britain begins training Indians—permitted to cross borders that white men may not—to undertake illicit, dangerous surveying expeditions into Tibet.&nbsp;Balram is one such surveyor-spy, an Indian schoolteacher who, for several years, has worked for the British, often alongside his dearest friend, Gyan. But Gyan went missing on his last expedition and is rumored to be imprisoned within Tibet. Desperate to rescue his friend, Balram agrees to guide an English captain on a foolhardy mission: After years of paying others to do the exploring, the captain, disguised as a monk, wants to personally chart a river that runs through southern Tibet. Their path will cross fatefully with that of another Westerner in disguise, fifty-year-old Katherine. Denied a fellowship in the all-male Royal Geographical Society in London, she intends to be the first European woman to reach Lhasa.&nbsp;As Balram and Katherine make their way into Tibet, they will face storms and bandits, snow leopards and soldiers, fevers and frostbite. What’s more, they will have to battle their own doubts, ambitions, grief, and pasts in order to survive the treacherous landscape.&nbsp;Release date: January 13, 2026

Monthly_Releases_2_1_6f27f269a4-bktjgkxghqlmevw-16x9.jpg

Monthly_Releases_2_1_6f27f269a4-bktjgkxghqlmevw-1x1.jpg

Monthly_Releases_2_1_6f27f269a4-bktjgkxghqlmevw-3x2.jpg

Monthly_Releases_2_1_6f27f269a4-bktjgkxghqlmevw-3x4.jpg

Monthly_Releases_2_1_6f27f269a4-bktjgkxghqlmevw-4x3.jpg

medium_Monthly Releases 2 1.jpg

small_Monthly Releases 2 1.jpg

thumbnail_Monthly Releases 2 1.jpg

'The Last of Earth' by Deepa Anappara Releases 2 1.jpg

'The Last of Earth' by Deepa Anappara

About: Waldo is ravenous. Horny. Blunt. Naive. Wise. Impulsive. Lonely. Angry. Forceful. Hurting. Perceptive. Endlessly wanting. And the thing she wants most of all: Mr. Korgy, her creative writing teacher with the wife and the kid and the mortgage and the bills, with the dead dreams and the atrophied looks and the growing paunch. She doesn’t know why she wants him. Is it his passion? His life experience? The fact that he knows books and films and things that she doesn’t? Or is it purer than that, rooted in their unlikely connection, their kindred spirits, the similar filter with which they each take in the world around them? Or, perhaps, it’s just enough that he sees her when no one else does.&nbsp;Startlingly perceptive, mordantly funny, and keenly poignant, Half His Age is a rich character study of a yearning seventeen-year-old who disregards all obstacles—or attempts to overcome them—in her effort to be seen, to be desired, to be loved.Release date: January 20, 2026

Monthly_Releases_4_1_50c2e660cb-szsrrlpwzueqrzd-16x9.jpg

Monthly_Releases_4_1_50c2e660cb-szsrrlpwzueqrzd-1x1.jpg

Monthly_Releases_4_1_50c2e660cb-szsrrlpwzueqrzd-3x2.jpg

Monthly_Releases_4_1_50c2e660cb-szsrrlpwzueqrzd-3x4.jpg

Monthly_Releases_4_1_50c2e660cb-szsrrlpwzueqrzd-4x3.jpg

medium_Monthly Releases 4 1.jpg

small_Monthly Releases 4 1.jpg

thumbnail_Monthly Releases 4 1.jpg

'Half His Age' by Jennette McCurdy Releases 4 1.jpg

'Half His Age' by Jennette McCurdy

Why ‘Help Wanted’ by Adelle Waldman is our October pick 

At a big-box store in a small town in upstate New York, the members of Team Movement clock in every morning at 3:55. Under the eye of a self-absorbed and barely competent boss, they empty the day’s truck of merchandise, stock the shelves, and scatter before customers arrive. When a golden opportunity for a promotion presents itself, the diverse members of Movement―among them a comedy-obsessed oddball who acts half his age, a young woman clinging to her “cool kid” status from high school, a college football hopeful trying to find a new path―band together and set a just-so-crazy-it-might-work plot into motion. A darkly comic workplace caper that explores the aches and uses of solidarity, Help Wanted is a deeply human portrait of people trying, against increasingly long odds, to make a living.&nbsp;

Help_Wanted_by_Adelle_Waldman_5291cdee39-xhutgrhceepvqdk-16x9.jpg

Help_Wanted_by_Adelle_Waldman_5291cdee39-xhutgrhceepvqdk-1x1.jpg

Help_Wanted_by_Adelle_Waldman_5291cdee39-xhutgrhceepvqdk-3x2.jpg

Help_Wanted_by_Adelle_Waldman_5291cdee39-xhutgrhceepvqdk-3x4.jpg

Help_Wanted_by_Adelle_Waldman_5291cdee39-xhutgrhceepvqdk-4x3.jpg

large_Help Wanted by Adelle Waldman.jpg

medium_Help Wanted by Adelle Waldman.jpg

small_Help Wanted by Adelle Waldman.jpg

thumbnail_Help Wanted by Adelle Waldman.jpg

Help Wanted by Adelle Waldman.jpg

Help Wanted_Main Thumbnail.jpg

 Beyond the Book: Namita Dubey in conversation with Adelle Waldman

We’re still not over Adelle Waldman’s 'Help Wanted'—our October pick for The Nod Book Club. So, we called in actor and bookworm Namita Dubey to do what she does best: ask a lot of questions. In this chat, Waldman spills on how her day job inspired the book, who she’d cast in a movie version, and a whole lot more.~The Nod Book Club's Instagram channel: https://www.instagram.com/channel/AbaiNjee79flVG5f/More about The Nod Book Club here: https://thenodmag.com/book-club?utm_source=wa

'Help Wanted' by Adelle Waldman

About: Alice Law has only ever had one goal: to become one of the brightest minds in the field of Magick. She has sacrificed everything to make that a reality—her pride, her health, her love life, and most definitely her sanity. All to work with Professor Jacob Grimes at Cambridge, the greatest magician in the world—that is, until he dies in a magical accident that could possibly be her fault.Grimes is now in Hell, and she’s going in after him. Because his recommendation could hold her very future in his now incorporeal hands, and even death is not going to stop the pursuit of her dreams. Nor will the fact that her rival, Peter Murdoch, has come to the same conclusion.Themes: Fantasy, Redemption, RivalryRelease date: August 26, 2025

Katabasis_The_Nod_Mag_394217a8a2-inxvidchjdkakaa-16x9.jpg

Katabasis_The_Nod_Mag_394217a8a2-inxvidchjdkakaa-1x1.jpg

Katabasis_The_Nod_Mag_394217a8a2-inxvidchjdkakaa-3x2.jpg

Katabasis_The_Nod_Mag_394217a8a2-inxvidchjdkakaa-3x4.jpg

Katabasis_The_Nod_Mag_394217a8a2-inxvidchjdkakaa-4x3.jpg

large_Katabasis_The_Nod_Mag.jpg

medium_Katabasis_The_Nod_Mag.jpg

small_Katabasis_The_Nod_Mag.jpg

thumbnail_Katabasis_The_Nod_Mag.jpg

Katabasis_The_Nod_Mag.jpg

'Katabasis' by R.F. Kuang

About: On a cold night in a remote Irish village, a girl goes missing.Sweet, loving Rachel Holohan was about to be engaged to the son of the local big shot. Instead, she’s dead in the river.In a place like this, her death isn’t simple. It comes wrapped in generations-old grudges and power struggles, and it splits the townland in two. Retired Chicago detective Cal Hooper has friends here now and he owes them loyalty, but his fiancée Lena wants nothing to do with Ardnakelty’s tangles. As the feud becomes more vicious, their settled peace starts to crack apart. And when they uncover a scheme that casts a new light on Rachel’s death and threatens the whole village, they find themselves in the firing line.Release date: 31 March, 2026

Monthly_Releases_3_3_1c98d046fe-kurwmjwjkdebgsl-16x9.jpg

Monthly_Releases_3_3_1c98d046fe-kurwmjwjkdebgsl-1x1.jpg

Monthly_Releases_3_3_1c98d046fe-kurwmjwjkdebgsl-3x2.jpg

Monthly_Releases_3_3_1c98d046fe-kurwmjwjkdebgsl-3x4.jpg

Monthly_Releases_3_3_1c98d046fe-kurwmjwjkdebgsl-4x3.jpg

medium_Monthly Releases 3 3.jpg

small_Monthly Releases 3 3.jpg

thumbnail_Monthly Releases 3 3.jpg

The Keeper Tana French Releases 3 3.jpg

'The Keeper' by Tana French

A virtual literary hangout where we handpick one unputdownable book every month

Workhorse

About: At the turn of the millennium, editorial assistant Clodagh “Clo” Harmon wants nothing more than to rise through the ranks at the world’s most prestigious fashion magazine. There’s just one problem: She doesn’t have the right pedigree. Instead, Clo is a “workhorse” surrounded by beautiful, wealthy, impossibly well-connected “show horses” who get ahead without effort, including her beguiling cubicle-mate, Davis Lawrence, the daughter of a beloved but fading Broadway actress. Harry Wood, Davis’s boarding school classmate and a reporter with visions of his own media empire, might be Clo’s ally in gaming the system—or he might be the only thing standing between Clo and her rightful place at the top.In a career punctuated by moments of high absurdity, sudden windfalls, and devastating reversals of fortune, Clo wades across boundaries, taking ever greater and more dangerous risks to become the important person she wants to be within the confines of a world where female ambition remains cloaked. But who really is Clo underneath all the borrowed designer clothes and studied manners—and who are we if we share her desires?Themes: Workplace drama, Ambition, New York high society

Workhorse by Caroline Palmer 1.jpg

'Workhorse' by Caroline Palmer

large_Book club FINAL.jpg

medium_Book club FINAL.jpg

small_Book club FINAL.jpg

thumbnail_Book club FINAL.jpg

Book club FINAL.jpg

Join our Instagram channel to discuss the book of the month as we read it. From every-thought-you-had-while-reading to the author's notes, there's a lot going on here. 

Want to be a member of The Nod Book Club?

For book recs that will make you ditch your TBR, sign up for our newsletter.

The Nod Book Club 

YT cut_v2.00_08_45_03.Still001.jpg

Kiran Desai in conversation with Sonam Kapoor for The Nod Book Club

Getting Kiran Desai and Sonam Kapoor in a room to talk about 'The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny' (and then some) was pure magic. There was laughter, goosebumps, a few misty eyes—and everything in between. We couldn’t have dreamed up a better duo to kick off The Nod Book Club’s very first event.