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.

THE ST. ALWYNN GIRLS AT SEA de Sheila Heti

From “one of the freshest, funniest and most ingenious humans writing today [and] one of our best living authors” (The Washington Post) comes a deeply delightful seafaring adventure and a brilliant group portrait of female adolescence.

THE ST. ALWYNN GIRLS AT SEA
by Sheila Heti
Farrar, Straus and Giroux, May 2027
(via Sterling Lord Literistic)

Photo credit: Luis Mora

To escape the dangers of wartime bombings, the girls of St. Alwynn’s have been evacuated by their headmistress to a ship on the high seas. Yet instead of being safe, they find themselves plunged into a different kind of chaos. Trapped in a floating pressure cooker of teenage anguish and rivalry, their isolation is penetrated by just one thing: the weekly arrival of the mail bag, bearing letters from a distant boys’ ship.

Through the perspectives of the passionate Dani, the high-minded Lorraine, the sensitive Flora, and the beautiful Yvonne, THE ST. ALWYNN GIRLS AT SEA creates a dramatic and vivid mini-society. But as their ship sails onward, westward, or perhaps just around in circles, the girls find themselves in ever more peril. Will they never reach home? Is their headmistress okay? And what if they’ve completely misunderstood each other―and themselves?

Hilarious, moving, and taking on some of the biggest questions of life, THE ST. ALWYNN GIRLS AT SEA delivers the absorbing and wondrous pleasures of childhood reading while inventing an entirely new category of narrative pleasure, anchored by the psychological incisiveness Sheila Heti is known for. It is as though she has gone back in time and returned to the present with a lost modern classic in hand.

Sheila Heti is the author of eight books, including the critically acclaimed How Should a Person Be? and the New York Times Bestseller, Women in Clothes (edited with Heidi Julavits and Leanne Shapton). She is the former interviews editor at The Believer magazine, and has been published in The New Yorker, McSweeney’s, The Paris Review, n+1, The London Review of Books, and more. Her work has been translated into a dozen languages. She lives in Toronto.

MANIPULATE, GASLIGHT, EXPLOIT, LIE de Tamara McClintock Greenberg

Uncover the patterns of people who want to hurt you—and protect yourself for good.

MANIPULATE, GASLIGHT, EXPLOIT, LIE:
How Toxic People Steal Your Power—and How to Take It Back
by Dr. Tamara McClintock Greenberg
Sourcebooks, May 2027

We’ve all found ourselves in toxic relationships—the boss who takes credit for your work, the in-law who ignores boundaries, the friend who betrays your trust, the partner who says all the right things but does all the wrong ones.

It would be nice to believe we can simply avoid people who hurt us. But the truth is, manipulative and exploitative individuals are everywhere. And for many of us, our own histories—old wounds, unmet needs, unresolved trauma—can make us especially vulnerable to their tactics.

The real question isn’t, How do I avoid toxic people?

It’s, How do I recognize the tools they use—and protect myself before the damage is done?

In MANIPULATE, GASLIGHT, EXPLOIT, LIE, psychologist Dr. Tamara McClintock Greenberg exposes the common tactics destructive people rely on to control, destabilize, and use others. She reveals:

• The most common personality patterns behind manipulative behavior
• The psychological tools toxic individuals use to gain power
• Why certain traits and past experiences can make us more susceptible
• The subtle warning signs most people miss
• How to set and enforce boundaries that actually work
• When to repair a relationship—and when to walk away

But this book isn’t just about identifying harmful people. It’s about understanding yourself—why you may be drawn toward certain dynamics, how to interrupt destructive cycles, and how to become more confident, assertive, and grounded in your needs.

With practical tools and psychological insight, MANIPULATE, GASLIGHT, EXPLOIT, LIE will help you protect yourself from toxic relationships—and build healthier, more secure connections instead.

Tamara McClintock Greenberg, PsyD, MS is a licensed clinical psychologist (PSY16206) in private practice in San Francisco. She has been working to help people impacted by trauma since the late 1980s, when she worked for Child Protective Services. Her writing has focused on care taking, health psychology, psychodynamic psychology, women’s issues and trauma, with the aim of helping people navigate complex physical and/or psychological issues. Tamara is the author of six books and numerous contributed chapters. She is a champion of combining multiple approaches to treating the nuances and intricacies of psychological problems and has advocated for integration of psychotherapy methods, as dogmatic adherence to just 1-2 approaches can limit the help we can provide to clients. She has also written for multiple publications, including The Huffington Post, Psych Central, Psychology Today, The Good Men Project, Maria Shriver’s website, The San Francisco Chronicle, and has been quoted as an expert in Forbes, USA Today, Newsweek, Next Avenue (PBS), The Washington Post, and more. She has been interviewed by numerous radio stations, including several NPR stations and affiliates. She lives in San Francisco with her husband and two pugs, Rufus and Otis.

COLD HEARTS de Philippa Young

A zombie romcom that will have you laughing, crying, and gasping, perfect for fans of Warm Bodies, and with a touch of social commentary reminiscent of Gretchen Felker-Martin’s Manhunt.

COLD HEARTS
by Philippa Young
Sourcebooks Casablanca, September 2027

An asteroid crashes into a small town in the UK, setting off a zombie apocalypse. When Frankie “awakens”, she has no memory of what happened, and realizes she now exists somewhere in between human and zombie – living on a diet of brains, but looking, walking, talking, and thinking like a normal human girl.

A year after the crash, Frankie is trying to fill her lonely days by sticking to her strict vegetarian (animal brain only) diet and trying to figure out how she died. Frankie then comes across a little girl named Bea, hiding in a cupboard after zombies infiltrated her family home. After quickly becoming attached to Bea, Frankie must figure out how to keep a child alive while knowing nothing about survival (and not remembering much about human needs).

When Frankie discovers a hidden door to a former bunker hotel in the woods, she hopes that she’s found the people who can truly take care of Bea, but instead she’s met with the reluctant hero of the zombie apocalypse, Griffin, who doesn’t trust that all Frankie wants is help for her tiny friend. After Griffin confiscates Frankie’s only weapon, a hammer strapped to her thigh, he allows Frankie and Bea to stay, just for the night, so Bea can get some food and water. Frankie will not admit that she liked the way his hand lingered on her thigh while he removed her weapon—nope, won’t do it.

One night turns into 2 nights, which turns into permanent residency thanks to Griffin’s inability to say no to Bea. And meanwhile, Frankie is desperate to keep her undead identity a secret by sneaking the tiniest bites of animal brains from her trusty thermos. She’s not quite sure what could happen if she lets herself starve, or rather she is… but it isn’t pretty. She can’t risk snacking on their found family and the growing attraction between her and Griffin puts her mouth dangerously close to certain parts of his body. Thankfully, after earning a trusted ally within the bunker, she’s able to sneak out in the night to feast.

As the events around them become more and more precarious, can Griffin learn to prioritize living over surviving? And how long can Frankie keep her secret? She’s not dead enough to be a true zombie and definitely not alive enough to be entirely human. Surely this can’t be a dealbreaker, right?

Philippa Young is an international bestselling steamy romance author with a penchant for cruise ships (and zombies). She is the author of the romantic comedy series Below Deck.