Paperbacks to Look Out For in June 2026: Part Two

Part two of June’s paperback preview begins with one of my 2025 favourites. Opening in the early 2000s, Alexander Starritt’s Drayton and Mackenzie follows two very different men. Driven and intensely competitive, even with himself, James is the affable, indolent Roland’s antithesis. He’s a rising star with McKinsey’s consultancy, set on becoming their youngest partner; Roland joins him, getting in by the skin of his teeth. When the 2008 crash hits, they’re sent off to Aberdeen to prepare employees for redundancy in the hard-hit oil and gas industry by the end of which they’ve formed a friendship that underpins the rest of their lives, and a business partnership in which one complements the other. Starritt’s novel is unusual in its theme of enduring male friendship and its setting in the business world. I found this story of ambition, determination and invention riveting.

Timothy O’Grady’s Monaghan ranges from West Belfast to San Francisco, following three men: Ronan, now living in New York, who’s made his name as an architectural theorist; Paul from Indiana, child of a single parent and now a hugely successful investment banker and Ryan, caught up in the Troubles who spent a decade as a sniper. ‘Their lives merge and conflict, rise and fall, as one man becomes the undoing of the next. Hauntingly beautiful, lyrical and profound, this is a novel about what happens when you cannot escape your past’ says the blurb promisingly.

Caragh Maxwell’s debut, Sugartown, comes with the inevitable Sally Rooney and Megan Nolan comparisons which seem to accompany every young Irish woman writer’s work. It sees Saoirse returning to her hometown and moving back in with her mother and her three young sisters after a bad breakup in London. A new relationship, old friends and revisiting scenes of teenage partying only serve to remind her that she’s the one out of step. Then an accident brings her life into sharp focus. ‘Razor-sharp and full of wit, Sugartown is a powerful story about what happens when growing up means outgrowing the place – and people – you once thought you knew’ promises the blurb. I’m sure I’ll read it but enough already with the Rooney references.

I like the premise of Viola van de Sandt’s The Dinner Party set during a heatwave. The titular event is to be planned, cooked and cleared away by Franca who has left the Netherlands to live with Andrew whose wealthy parents have lent them a flat in South Kensington. Andrew insists that Franca concentrates on her writing rather than get a job but, clearly, there’s a price to pay. Just to add to her stress, an unexpected guest turns up, the fridge breaks down and everyone drinks far too much. The blurb comes with a quote setting us up nicely: ‘I remember everything that happened in those three minutes at the beginning of the evening, him and me in the kitchen. That, and what happened at the end: the knife, and what I did with it’.

Frances Wise’s The Book Game seems to be aimed squarely at the book club market. A group of eight friends reunite at a weekend writing retreat in the Cambridgeshire countryside. Their days are spent reading and writing in the house’s beautiful grounds while they share drinks and dinner outdoors in the evenings, enjoying each other’s company. Someone, however, is up to no good. ‘As tensions rise over the seven days, desire and deceit rise to the surface and all their lives will change forever…’ says the blurb hinting at dark doings and perhaps betrayal. Sounds a bit like a potboiler but the bookish setting is hard to resist.

Described as a classic 1970s feminist novel, Gun-Britt Sundström’s Engagement sees students Martina and Gustav coupled up but not sure where that leads them, discussing their relationship between themselves and with others, trying to make it work. Martina wants to find her own place in the world, resisting marriage while her friends tread the traditional route into motherhood and domesticity. ‘First published in 1976, when it was heralded as an instant classic, Engagement remains as relevant, hilarious and heartbreaking today’ according to the blurb. Not a novel or writer I’ve heard of before, but it sounds interesting.

In Laura Barnett’s Birth Deaths Marriages, Zoe, Rob, Rachel, Yas, Al and Indie meet at university, forming the kind of friendship that can last a lifetime. Twenty years later, they’re facing middle age, some more scarred than others. This will be a significant year for all of them: lives will be changed irrevocably, unimaginable loss will be faced but there will be unexpected joy, too, and old desires reawakened. Barnett deftly flits in and out of her six main characters’ lives, exploring their often-complicated relationship with each other as they face love, loss, joy and the general grind of the day-to-day in this enjoyable celebration of the ups and downs of friendship.

That’s it for June. A click on a title will take you either to my review or to a more detailed synopsis should you want to know more, and if you’d like to catch up with part one it’s here. New fiction is here and here.