15 new books to devour this June

by Taylor Jenkins Reid, Ballantine Books

Taylor Jenkins Reid is back, and she’s got a new book and a new thing for us to be obsessed with: space. Atmosphere follows a brainy, starry-eyed physicist who shoots her shot at NASA’s Space Shuttle programme in the ’80s and discovers love, friendship, and gravity-defying ambition. The author came out as bi last month, so having this women-in-STEM and space-sapphic-energy drop during Pride Month? Honestly, the universe has never looked gayer. Releases June 3

by Melissa Febos, Penguin Random House

Melissa Febos is done. With dating, with drama, with trying to make it work. In The Dry Season, the bestselling author of Girlhood swaps romance for radical solitude and ends up having the most fulfilling, sensual year of her life. What starts as a breakup recovery turns into a deep dive into desire, feminism, and the power of being alone. It’s proof that dating fatigue isn’t a dead end. Delete Hinge, find inner peace, read this book. Releases June 5

by Gurnaik Johal, Hatchette India

In Saraswati, Gurnaik Johal dives headfirst into the modern “translit” genre—globe-trotting narratives, big themes, and characters who are never, ever accountants. When Satnam returns to his ancestral village and finds a sacred river flowing again, it sparks a bold nationalist project and a family saga spanning continents. Lush, layered, and quietly satirical, this sophomore book wrestles with myth, identity, and what it means to inherit both a legacy and a land. Releases June 12

by Claire Lynch, Simon & Schuster

Set between 1980s Britain and today, A Family Matter is a moving debut about secrets, silence, and what we pass down. When Maggie uncovers the truth about her mother’s love for another woman, she’s forced to reframe everything she thought she knew. Claire Lynch’s novel is perfect for those who like dual timelines, queer history, and messy families. Releases June 3

by Susan Choi, Macmillan Publishers

In Flashlight, Susan Choi delivers a haunting, beautifully layered novel that begins with a mystery: a 10-year-old girl found alone on the beach, her father missing. What unfolds is a gripping family story about fractured identities, buried pasts, and the quiet devastation of loss. Told across decades and perspectives, Flashlight traces the emotional aftershocks of one summer night while navigating the larger tides of migration, memory, and grief. For fans of literary suspense with heart and history. Releases June 3

by Jeet Thayil, HarperCollins India

Tired of tidy storytelling? Jeet Thayil’s The Elsewhereans tosses out the rulebook. It’s memoir meets fiction meets photo album meets...maybe a séance? Set across continents and timelines, this is a bold meditation on exile, identity, and the ghosts we carry. For readers who want literature that doesn’t behave and aren’t afraid to get lost in the in-between. Releases June 23

by Vauhini Vara, HarperCollins India

Before ChatGPT was helping you write emails and flirt on dating apps, it helped Vauhini Vara write about her sister’s death, and she hasn’t stopped thinking about it since. Searches is a sharp, sly deep dive into what it means to live, grieve, Google, and overshare in the age of algorithms. It’s part memoir, part internet archaeology, part “how did we get here?” and all very, very human. Required reading for anyone who has ever trauma-dumped to a chatbot. Releases June 28

by Hiro Arikawa, Penguin Random House

Japanese author Hiro Arikawa is back with another dose of healing fiction. But this time, it’s not a cat stealing the show, it’s a dashing little dachshund. The Passengers on the Hankyu Line is the kind of book that feels like a soft blanket on a rainy day: warm, cosy, and quietly life-affirming. If you loved People on Platform 5 or just need a gentle reminder that strangers can change your life, hop on board. Releases June 5

by Antony Johnston, Penguin Random House

Fans of Murdle, assemble, because this interactive mystery puts you in charge. In Can You Solve the Murder?, a local businessman is found dead at a luxe wellness retreat, stabbed with a gardening fork and posed with a rose in his mouth. The balcony he “fell” from? Locked. The suspects? Everyone. You’re the detective now. Interview, investigate, accuse. Every choice you make twists the story. Solve the murder… or become part of it. Your move. Channel your inner Poirot, because at Elysium everyone has something to hide—and not all of them might make it out alive. Releases June 5

by John Birdsall, W. W. Norton & Company

This Pride Month is dishing out literary delights, and What Is Queer Food? is a standout serving. John Birdsall blends food writing with queer history, taking us from James Baldwin’s kitchen to rainbow icebox cakes with flair and fire. Written with sharp wit and rich storytelling, it’s part brunch, part manifesto—proof that food, like queerness, is culture, resistance, and celebration. Releases June 3

by VE Schwab, Macmillan

VE Schwab’s latest spins a blood-soaked tapestry across time. Three women, three centuries, one impossible hunger. In Spain, María escapes marriage by embracing immortality. In England, Charlotte is corseted into silence until a widow rewrites her fate. And in modern-day Boston, Alice’s one-night stand leaves her thirsting for answers. Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil is gothic, queer, and gorgeously vengeful. It’s perfect for fans of feminist horror and eternal girl rage. Releases June 10

by Ashley Poston, HarperCollins

If you’re a sucker for a big-city-girl-returns-to-save-the-family-business story with a magical, musical twist, Ashley Poston's latest should be your summer read. Sounds like Love follows hit songwriter Joni Lark as she leaves LA burnout behind for her sleepy hometown of Vienna Shores, only to discover fading memories, old wounds, and a song in her head…that someone else is hearing too. It’s funny, romantic, a little mystical. Releases June 17

by Kazim Ali, Penguin Random House India

This powerful collection brings together 24 LGBTQIA+ voices from South Asia and beyond, exploring the space where queerness and faith meet. Through short stories, poems, memoirs, and fragments, writers share personal, mythical, and spiritual journeys. From djinns in Assam to whispered prayers in Nepal, these pieces challenge what it means to believe and belong. Releases June 28

by Jonas Hassen Khemiri, Macmillan 

The Sisters by is a sweeping, inventive family saga following three very different siblings—Ina, Evelyn, and Anastasia—raised between Swedish and Tunisian worlds. As they navigate betrayal, love, reinvention, and a long-standing family curse, their lives intertwine with Jonas, an outsider with his own secrets. Told across six uniquely structured parts, this novel spans decades, continents, and emotional terrain, exploring identity, sisterhood, and belonging. Releases June 17

by Aisling Rawle, Penguin Random House

The Compound is what happens when Love Island crash-lands into The Hunger Games. Twenty contestants. One scorching desert compound. And only one winner. Luxury rewards, secret alliances, messy hookups, and producers pulling sinister strings behind the scenes. It’s bingeable, brutal, and weirdly seductive. If you’re obsessed with reality TV, dark social satire, or the chaos of watching hot people unravel under pressure, this is the twisted beach read of your dreams (or nightmares). Releases June 24