Releasing in February we have the final work of the legendary Peruvian author Mario Vargas Llosa and a much anticipated new novel from the wonderful Tayari Jones. Enjoy 5 Wonderful New Books for February 2026!
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5 Wonderful New Books for February 2026
I Give You My Silence by Mario Vargas Llosa
The final novel from the Nobel prizewinning Mario Vargas Llosa, a playful, powerful and thought-provoking novel about the power of music.
One evening, Toño Azpilcueta, a Peruvian folk music journalist, witnesses a performance that changes his life. Toño becomes obsessed with hearing the virtuoso guitarist Lalo Molfino play again, but the next he hears, Molfino is dead.
So begins a quest to uncover the story of this unforgettable musician. Toño tracks down the priest who rescued Molfino from a rubbish heap and raised him, the musicians who played with him and the girl who claimed to love him. Toño decides that he will write a book that will not only immortalize the hero of the Creole vals but will establish the vals as a unifying symbol for his fractured country. But the more he writes, the more he struggles to keep control of his story. As his savings dwindle and his paranoia rises, it becomes clear that writing a masterpiece is more complicated and consuming than he had realised.
This Is Not About Us by Allegra Goodman
Was this just a brief skirmish, or the beginning of a thirty-year feud? In the Rubinstein family, it could go either way.
When their beloved sister passes away, Sylvia and Helen Rubinstein are unmoored. A misunderstanding about apple cake turns into a decade of stubborn silence. Busy with their own lives—divorces, dating, career setbacks, college applications, bat mitzvahs and ballet recitals—their children do not want to get involved. As for their grandchildren? Impossible.
Sharply observed and laced with humor, This Is Not About Us is a story of growing up and growing old, the weight of parental expectations, and the complex connection between sisters—a big-hearted book about the love that binds a family across generations.
Rebel English Academy by Hanif Mohammed
When a major Pakistani political figure is hanged, OK Town erupts in protest.
A few miles away, Sir Baghi is surprised by a knock at the door of his language school, the Rebel English Academy. An unexpected visitor, Sabiha, seeks refuge – but she has a gun, her parents are political prisoners, her husband has just died in a suspicious fire and she’s clearly hiding something.
Meanwhile Captain Gul, disgraced intelligence officer, has been banished to OK Town, where he aims to silence protesters by any means necessary. But his duties – and romantic desires – begin to overlap, and his already-dubious power is further threatened.
In Rebel English Academy, we see Pakistan coming into modernity through a vibrant cast of interconnected characters that face a changing landscape with violence, passion and sharp humour. Wry, searing and deeply relevant, this is a triumphant novel about political power, religion, education, sexuality and dissent.
Kin by Tayari Jones
Vernice and Annie are ‘cradle friends’, both born in Honeysuckle, Louisiana, both destined never to know their mothers. The girls are inseparable, bound by a friendship far deeper than sisterhood, but as they grow up, their lives start to look very different in the segregated America of the 1950s and 60s.
Both girls leave Honeysuckle in search of something that might fill the hole left by their absent mothers: a university education, the promise of a first love affair, the hope offered by the simmering civil rights movement. But it is Annie whose bad decisions pull her into a world of danger, leaving her oldest friend to battle to save her.
Tayari Jones returns with an exuberant, richly told novel about mothers and daughters, about a lifelong friendship, and the complexities of being a woman in the American South.
The Secret of Snow by Tina Harnesk
Máriddja is eight-five years old and more than a little eccentric. When she finds out she has cancer, her first thought isn’t for herself. It’s for her beloved husband. Without children or grandchildren, Máriddja and Biera have only ever had each other. She’s determined to keep her diagnosis a secret from Biera, and to find the one person who might take care of him when she’s gone.
Kaj is new to the village, recently engaged to the love of his life, and mourning the death of his mother. One day, he finds a box of Sámi handicrafts that once belonged to his mother, the carefully wrapped objects placed together like a crisp new set of jigsaw pieces. If he can solve the puzzle, it will unlock a secret he could have never imagined.
Tender, heart-wrenching and often laugh-out-loud funny, The Secret of Snow is a stunning, award-winning debut about family, loneliness and community.
If you enjoyed 5 Wonderful New Books for February 2026, check out our Most Anticipated Translated Fiction 2026 Part 1 (Jan – June)