6 of the Best New Book Releases Out March 17, 2026

Chain of Ideas: The Origins of Our Authoritarian Age by Ibram X. Kendi

In what is without a doubt one of the most anticipated books of the year, the author of Stamped from the Beginning and How to be an Antiracist expounds on the great replacement theory—the idea that people of color are invading to “replace” white populations—and how it has been leveraged to help put authoritarian leaders and conservative strongmen in power. He breaks down not only how pervasive it’s been throughout our history and our present, but how we can attempt to stop it from taking over our consciousness. —Leah Rachel von Essen

Heiress of Nowhere by Stacey Lee

Sisters in Yellow by Mieko Kawakami, translated by Laurel Taylor, Hitomi Yoshio

Mieko Kawakami’s English debut, the internationally best-selling Breasts and Eggs, was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year and one of Time’s Best 10 Books of 2020. It also won the prestigious Akutagawa Prize in its original Japanese. It was hailed as a “feminist masterwork,” and Kawakami went on to publish many more titles, now translated into over forty languages. Sisters in Yellow is her latest, and it’s been described as a Japanese Breaking Bad. Most of the novel is set in a dark, gritty 1990s Tokyo, and it follows fifteen-year-old Hana as she desperately tries to put together a better life for herself. This is an intimate and striking novel of poverty and loneliness that follows Hana and her “sisters in yellow” as they determine their futures. —Pierce Alquist

I Am Agatha by Nancy Foley

If you’ve ever gotten the urge to go full reclusive curmudgeon, Agatha is way ahead of you. To achieve the recluse lifestyle, she travels to a small town in New Mexico, but things don’t exactly go to plan. For one, she falls in love with a woman named Alice, a woman with dementia who must be near her daughter’s grave. When Alice’s son comes along with talks of putting her in a facility, Alice disappears and things get all shook up.

Paradiso 17 by Hannah Lillith Assadi

Being born near the 1948 Nakba in Palestine shapes the entirety of Sufien’s life—he starts searching and never stops. In Kuwait, he falls in love and starts a family, while in Italy he attends university and falls for the ideals of the West. In his pursuit of joy and freedom, he makes friends, fathers children, all while being called towards melancholy.

Hooked: A Novel of Obsession by Asako Yuzuki, Translated by Polly Barton

From the bestselling author of cult favorite Butter comes another, singular perspective of modern women. There’s Eriko, who has a seemingly perfect life, but who has also never had a real friend. She creates an opportunity to “run into” lifestyle blogger Shoko, and it feels like she’s finally gotten what she’s always desired. But then the controlled chaos in Shoko’s life becomes less controlled, and Eriko kind of…becomes obsessed with the other woman.