Archives de catégorie : Frankfurt 2026 Adult Fiction

POOL SERVICE de Nick Waters

Jackie Collins meets Carl Hiassen in this sexy summer thriller about a pool boy given a chance to exact revenge on the billionaire developer that stole his family’s home.

POOL SERVICE
by Nick Waters
Simon & Schuster, Summer 2027
(via Harvey Klinger)

Jack “Patch” Patchett is a thirty-something, second generation pool boy born and bred along the remote banks of the Loxahatchee River in Jupiter, Florida. Patch doesn’t just balance pH and chlorine levels for the rich; his ’services’ extend beyond the backyards and into the bedrooms of his female clientele. These McMansions are part of the wealthy developments that forced out local families like Patch’s, and threaten the natural order of the river’s habitat, but despite it all, Patch is content with his laid-back lifestyle and bolstered by an immoveable sense of belonging and pride in his community.

When he receives a call from Vivian, the wife of Harlan Wilde, the billionaire who evicted his family and kept their idyllic piece of land for himself, Patch can’t resist a glimpse of the property’s transformation. Patch feels a pull to home, and an overwhelming chemistry with the glamorous Vivian, who seems to have stepped out of a classic Hollywood film.

As their steamy affair heats up, and Patch develops a taste for the finer things in life, Vivian and Patch concoct a plan for murder that will test the limits of Patch’s moral code, and strain his relationships with Lola, his childhood love, and the cranky yet lovable Herschel, who owns the rundown motel where Patch lives. A hilarious, titillating adventure that also explores capitalism’s impact on nature and the thorny realities of the American dream, Nick Waters’ exhilarating debut is quite simply, the most fun you’ll have all summer.

Nick Waters graduated from Stanford with a B.S. in Engineering and Film Studies and an M.A. in communication; while there, he was a member of the varsity swim team and competed at the USA Olympic Trials. Afterwards, he relocated to LA where he’s produced, directed, and written screenplays. With POOL SERVICE, he begins a whole new career as an exciting new novelist.

EMPTY AND MARVELOUS de Melissa Broder

From the beloved, bestselling author of Milk Fed and Death Valley, a darkly comedic novel about existential anxiety, angels, and Ralphs supermarket; a picaresque of the psyche turned tale of supernatural eros.

EMPTY AND MARVELOUS
by Melissa Broder
Scribner, May 2027
(via The Gernert Company)

A writer in Los Angeles dares tell herself, “All is well.” With this newfound serenity, she allows herself to search online for Emil, the ex she barricaded from her life. She is shocked to discover that her intoxicating former flame—the inspiration for her cult classic erotic novel The Pegasus—has died by suicide. The writer must keep the revelation a secret from her husband, because her romance with Emil almost ended their once-open marriage. She can’t share it with her publisher, who expects her to go on book tour in a matter of days (to the delight of anxious teens with their own questions about life). And given the dangerous window that Emil’s death blows open on her own depression, the writer is determined not to face it herself.

There’s only one place she feels safe, connected to humanity and the spark of the divine: the Westwood branch of Ralphs supermarket. And when she begins receiving ethereal messages among the meatstuffs and produce, sublime sexts that seem to be coming from Emil in angel form, the writer discovers that she wants to live. But only inside the supermarket.

EMPTY AND MARVELOUS is a brazenly funny, cathartic, mystically lustful novel about a woman grappling with her existence. As she contends with grief, secret pleasure, and a crisis of faith, we wonder: Do cosmic threads exist between people? What is the responsibility of an artist to her fans? And can angels actually sext? A love letter to readers, the Muses, and the cereal aisle, EMPTY AND MARVELOUS is a marvel.

Melissa Broder is the author of the novels Death Valley, Milk Fed, and The Pisces, the essay collection So Sad Today, and five collections of poems, including Superdoom. Her books are translated in over a dozen languages. Broder has written for The New York Times, Harpers Bazaar, Elle, Bon Appetit, Bookforum, and New York Magazine. She lives in Los Angeles.

IST DOCH SCHÖN HIER de Miriam Burdelski

A powerful, deeply moving novel about memory, forgiveness and longing for a place to call home.

IST DOCH SCHÖN HIER
[It’s Lovely Here]
by Miriam Burdelski
Blessing Verlage/PRH Germany, July 2026

Family is what you make it.

When Liesel joins her grandma Emmi on a trip to what was once East Prussia, she’s hoping to find answers to questions that have kept generations in her family apart, and to uncover the secret that’s been hiding in yellowed old calendars and Emmi’s silence.

Between tree-lined avenues, old farm houses and the Baltic’s waves, a story of loss and hope, guilt and love unfolds. But the closer Liesel gets to discovering what happened all those years ago, the more she realises that home isn’t a place on a map: home are the people who stay when everything else is gone.

Miriam Burdelski studied history, German and art at Hamburg University and at Ca’ Foscari University in Venice. While still a student, she started working as a photographer, and among other things worked on documentaries about development aid in Africa and Central America. In 2014, she retraced her grandmother’s journey as a refugee from former East Prussia to West Germany.

THE SQUATTERS de Saba Brelvi

Two families collide in this provocative debut about motherhood, migration, and the distance between who we are and who we want to be.

THE SQUATTERS
by Saba Brelvi
The Dial Press, November 2026
(via Writers House)

How far are you willing to go to help someone in need?

Surrey is a quiet, affluent area just outside of London, replete with tree-lined streets, great schools, and friendly neighbors. But among them, Dalia Waheed has never quite felt like she belongs. Though she and her husband embody second-generation immigrant success, Dalia can’t shake the sense that she is destined for something other than her carefully constructed suburban life.

While volunteering at a local nonprofit called Refugee Resettlement, Dalia meets the very pregnant Hajira and her husband, who have fled their home country to seek asylum in the U.K. In Hajira, Dalia feels a kinship she can’t quite explain. So, when Hajira asks for help finding an alternative to their squalid government housing, Dalia knows she will not ignore her plea. Helping a soon-to-be mother find a place to live is the least she can do.

What begins as a simple act of kindness spirals into something far more treacherous than Dalia could have ever imagined. Suddenly, she finds herself in a political firestorm that threatens to engulf everything she holds close: friendships, community ties—even her marriage. With the pressure mounting on all sides and the situation teetering closer to real danger, Dalia is forced to confront a terrifying question: how much is she willing to risk—for her ideals, her family, and for a woman who has already lost everything?

Gripping and unflinching, THE SQUATTERS lays bare the fractures of belonging, the costs of conviction, and the tensions that simmer beneath even the most idyllic communities.

“A beautiful, timely novel . . . Saba Brelvi has written a haunting story about the oft-forgotten human face of the refugee experience, the frailties and illusions of the perfect life, and the true cost of moral courage.” —Patmeena Sabit, author of Good People

Saba Brelvi is a Muslim American writer from California. She holds a BA from Brown University and an MPH from Johns Hopkins University and has spent more than two decades working in the nonprofit sector. She currently resides in Abu Dhabi with her family. The Squatters is her debut novel.

CELLO’S GATE de Maurice Africh

With a wit to rival Matt Dinniman’s Dungeon Crawler Carl, action on par with Pierce Brown’s Red Rising, and the scope of Tamsyn Muir’s Gideon the Ninth, this is a rollicking sci-fi fantasy epic about a ragtag crew of rogues on the hunt for mythic treasure. They did not, however, sign up to save the world.

CELLO’S GATE
(The Sky Pirates of Imperia, Book 1)
by Maurice Africh
Saga Press/S&S, November 2026
(via Writers House)

One crew of sky pirates. Seven mythological stones. A race to find them all.

Captain Grey and his crew of sky pirates have a reputation for doing the impossible. From breaking into high-security military research facilities to conning the iCity elite, there isn’t a lock they can’t pick, a safe they can’t break, or a hidden treasure they can’t find. Until now.

Returning from a harrowing heist involving a neon battery and a trash chute, Grey and his crew are approached by Dalia, the immortal daughter of the infamous ArchGovernor—and she has an offer.

The job? Locate and steal the Stones of Indigo—seven fabled rocks invested with godlike power. The search for the first stone is a bona fide treasure hunt, guided by an ancient map to a deadly, uncharted island that’s protected by a mysterious guardian. The score? One million credits per crew member, per stone. The catch? Well, that’s where things get a little complicated.

The stones don’t exist. They’re a myth. A bedtime story told to little pirates to make them believe that power and wealth are attainable if you just work hard enough.

And to make matters infinitely worse, Grey’s never trusted immortals, and Dalia’s definitely hiding something—something bad. And if they don’t figure out what it is, it might cost them their lives in this “wickedly wild and uniquely imaginative adventure” (Grimdark Magazine).

“A stellar debut. It’s got scheming immortals, a perilious quest, and a ragtag band of eclectic, eccentric, exceedingly dangerous misfits setting out on a grand adventure. This one’s a must-read. » – Nicholas Eames (Author of Kings of the Wyld)

« The very definition of rip-roaring. » – Richard Swan (Author of the Empire of the Wolf Trilogy)

Maurice Africh is an ex-theater kid with a passion for tasty food, semi-luxurious travel, reality competition television shows, D&D, and fantasy novels. He currently lives in Asheville, North Carolina, with his beautiful wife, Rachel, and his cute, albeit cranky chihuahua, Toby.