14 of the most effective books of 2026 thus far

“Filled with pathos and humour,” in line with The Instances, The Palm Home centres on a pair of spiky middle-aged colleagues, Laura Miller, a author and the novel’s narrator, and Edmund Putnam, an older editor who’s leaving his job at a intellectual literary journal. The buddies’ conversations in London pubs over drinks and shared packets of crisps are interspersed with typically heartbreaking recollections about their pasts. Critics have praised the novel’s dialogue, which Riley, writes the LRB, “wields… like a Swiss military knife, now corkscrewed, now serrated, however at all times coming to a brief, sharp level.” (RL)