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Amazon just dropped its best books of 2026 list. Earlier this year, the editors over at Amazon rounded up the best books of the year so far, but now that the year is nearly wrapped, the definitive list is here.
“We saw people reach for sweeping family sagas, genre-bending fiction, gripping narrative nonfiction, and horror,” says Amazon Editor Al Woodworth. The end-of-year list is packed with books across genres, and this year, the editors at Amazon even added two new best-of lists on horror and buzzworthy books.
Picking the top 20 books of the year is a big task. Woodworth says that Amazon Editors are reading thousands of books every year, then championing the titles they can’t stop thinking about. “At the end of the year, we look back at everything we’ve read and debate which books belong on the final list. Every reader is different, so we recommend books from the widest possible selection,” says Woodworth.
There are common themes across the top books of the year, including non-fiction that reads like fiction, stories of sacrificing for those they love, characters facing hard choices, and books the internet can’t stop talking about.
But the best book of the year? Well, read on to find out which novel Woodworth and fellow Amazon Editors declared the best of the year.
20. Night Objects by Eli Raphael
Earlier this year, Amazon Editor Annabel Gutterman spoke on Night Objects, saying: “This mesmerizing suspense novel about a teenager’s desperate search for belonging at her elite boarding school — where secrets swirl, and danger looms large — lived in my head for days. Eli Raphael introduces herself as a writer you don’t want to miss.”
19. The Nightingales by Emil Wilson
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Fans of Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home will love the 2026 release The Nightingales by Emil Wilson. This graphic novel is a touching picture of unlikely friendship between a 17-year-old girl and the dying stranger who moves into her family home. It’s visually and emotionally striking, a graphic novel that’s full of hope.
18. The Disappearers by Marlon James
The Disappearers came out with a bang as the New York Times declared it “the novel of the decade, if not the century.” It’s a propulsive crime story that manages to be both harrowing and hilarious as it captures the gay experience in 1980s Jamaica.
17. Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke
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From Gutterman: “When a tradwife influencer wakes up to discover it’s somehow the 19th century, her journey back to reality makes for a brilliant, biting novel about motherhood, fame, and faith. A reading experience like no other, this is the book I want to talk about with literally everyone I’ve ever met.”
16. John of John by Douglas Stuart
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From the author of Shuggie Bain, Douglas Stuart, comes a new novel, John of John. When John-Calum ‘Cal’ Macleod returns to his home on the Isle of Harris, it is not the place that has changed, but him. At odds with his father’s expectations, Cal discovered the secrets within his home and what’s truly holding the community together.
15. Strangers: A Memoir of Marriage by Belle Burden
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Earlier this year, Sarah Gelman, Amazon Editorial Director, said: “Strangers is a divorce memoir, but it’s also a forensic examination of a love and a marriage gone wrong, seemingly without any warning. Burden puts words to many of our worst fears — that one day the person we love and trust the most will become an utter stranger to us.”
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14. Bad Words by Rioghnach Robinson
As a romance reader, there’s one book I haven’t stopped hearing about. Bad Words by Rioghnach Robinson is a will-they-won’t-they romance of a novelist and the critic who panned his debut book. But don’t take it from me. Emily Henry calls this novel a “once-in-a-lifetime read.”
13. Public Access Afterworld by Jane Schoenbrun
As if releasing the hit film, Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma wasn’t enough, director Jane Schoenbrun also released the novel Public Access Afterworld. The debut is being heralded as one of the top books of the year as it delves into the surreal broadcasts of Public Access Afterworld, a pirate TV network with the potential to change lives.
12. Luna, Phoenix, Queen by Julie Orringer
Luna, Phoenix, Queen is an intricate novel, unraveling the relationship between two college professors and their resilient dog, Luna. Julie Orringer’s latest novel is a web of artistic and marital betrayal, and of all those tangled in that story.
11. Whale Harbor by Mary Beth Keane
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The popularity of epic family sagas continues with Mary Beth Keane’s Whale Harbor, a novel told across the globe. Set in Ireland, England, Montana, and New York, the story is based on Keane’s actual family history following the haunting mystery that hangs over a family when one of its members disappears.
10. Cool Machine by Colson Whitehead
From Woodworth: “Two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Colson Whitehead delivers another searing page-turner of heists, gangsters, criminals, and families in this mesmerizing portrait of 1980s New York City.”
9. This Cursed Beautiful Land: A Russian-American Story by Evan Gershkovich
From Lindsay Powers, Amazon Editor: “This heart-pounding, reported memoir sucked me in from the first page; it’s a gripping account of resilience and perseverance that goes far beyond the headlines to reveal what really happened to Evan Gershkovich when he was snatched off the street and thrown into a Russian prison.”
8. Big Little Truths by Liane Moriarty
From Gelman: “The many fans of Big Little Lies will love this follow-up, but you don’t need to have read that book or seen the show to enjoy Big Little Truths. I’ve been a fan of Liane Moriarty since her early books, and this is simply one of her very best. The dialogue is so clever, and the storytelling so engrossing, you won’t be able to put this book down.”
7. London Falling: A Mysterious Death in a Gilded City and a Family’s Search for Truth by Patrick Radden Keefe
From Woodworth: “Illuminating and unforgettable, Patrick Radden Keefe’s latest delivers another knockout work of narrative nonfiction, this time telling the shocking story of how a young man got caught up in the dangerous and powerful world of Russian oligarchs and landed at the bottom of the Thames.”
6. Land by Maggie O’Farrell
Woodworth says, “Never before have a 19th-century mapmaker, a scruffy, loyal dog, and a mysterious copse of trees been more enchanting. O’Farrell delivers a soaring and bewitching tale of family, and how the remote Irish peninsula where they live defines and shapes them, generation after generation.”
5. Fruit Fly by Josh Silver
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From Abby Abell, Amazon Editor: “Walking the line between hysterical and horrifying, this electric psychological thriller ruthlessly takes on cultural appropriation through a delicious cat-and-mouse game like no other. If you’re in a reading slump, Fruit Fly is the cure.”
4. Kin by Tayari Jones
From Erin Kodicek, Amazon Editor: “This was our pick for the best book of the year so far, and our love for this novel about two motherless friends coming of age in the Jim Crow South endures. A nuanced portrait of friendship, family, and race — Jones’s sentences sing.”
3. The Vanishing Family: Love, Fate, and the Quest to End Dementia by Robert Kolker
From Powers: “Robert Kolker’s enthralling medical mystery is both mesmerizing and heartbreaking — it asks big questions about chance and choice, what makes a full life, what we’re willing to run toward (or hide from), and how we care for each other. It’s a true story that will stick with you.”
2. Exit Party by Emily St. John Mandel
From Gutterman: “A sparkling, genre-busting gift of a novel, Emily St. John Mandel’s latest is dystopian fiction that shook me to my core. Spanning continents, timelines, and perhaps even universes, Exit Party makes for a glorious puzzle, one with pieces that fit together seamlessly.”
1. American Hagwon by Min Jin Lee
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From Woodworth: “An extraordinary Trojan horse of a novel that will make your heart sing and make you want to talk to everybody you know about it. Utterly magnetic, American Hagwon will change the way you think about family, sacrifice, and education. Min Jin Lee has written (another) once-in-a-lifetime read.”
