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PENGUIN RANDOM HOUSE HIGHLIGHTS CATALOGUE January to June 2026 2 RISING STARS 6 SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY 10 GENERAL FICTION 14 HEALING FICTION 16 CRIME & THRILLERS 24 LITERARY FICTION 26 AFRIKAANSE FIKSIE 32 BIOGRAPHIES & MEMOIRS 36 NONFICTION 48 NATURE & TRAVEL 50 COOKERY 54 FAITH & INSPIRATION HIGHLIGHTS Contents CATALOGUEBringing head and heart together with its own crazy glue, Lost Lambs follows the spectacular falling apart – and eventual coming together – of the Flynn family LOST LAMBS Madeline Cash The Flynns are not alright. It’s been disastrous since Bud and Catherine opened up their marriage, and none of the Flynns can remember the last time a meal was cooked, a load of laundry done, or a social code abided by. Their daughters spiral in their own chaotic orbits: Abigail, the eldest, is dating a man in his twenties nicknamed War Crime Wes; Louise, the middle child, maintains a secret correspondence with an online terrorist; the brilliant youngest, Harper, is being sent to wilderness reform camp due to her insistence that someone – or something – is monitoring the town’s citizens. Casting a shadow across their lives, and their small coastal town, is Paul Alabaster, a nefarious local billionaire. Rumours of corruption circulate, but no one dares dig too deep. No one except Harper, whose obsession with Alabaster’s machinations sends the family hurtling into a criminal conspiracy – one that may just, finally, bring them closer together. Trade paperback • R395 • 9781529946130 • March RISING STARSJANUARY JUNE 2026 3 RISING STARS YOU & ME AND YOU & ME AND YOU & ME Josie Lloyd & Emlyn Rees Meet Adam and Jules. After twenty-five years of marriage, life feels dull – until Adam discovers a time machine in their shed. Hoping to rekindle their spark, they set off through the multiverse in search of their perfect love story. But time travel is as dangerous as it is thrilling, and the urge to fix the past proves impossible to resist. As the consequences start to spiral out of control, can they find a way back to their messy, imperfect, glorious real life? Or will they lose each other forever? Trade paperback • R395 • 9781787305380 • February THE EXES Leodora Darlington Natalie has a string of bad exes. The one thing they have in common? They all ended up dead. But now, she’s finally found The One – her loving husband, James. So why does she have a knife in her hand? Natalie doesn’t want to murder him. She wants her marriage – and her husband – to survive. But old habits die hard … A shocking new thriller, packed with twists, from an outstanding new voice in fiction. Trade paperback • R395 • 9780241725610 • April CALLER UNKNOWN Gillian McAllister A road trip across America with her teenage daughter was meant to be much-needed bonding time for Simone before Lucy leaves for university. But on the first night, Simone wakes to find Lucy missing and a mobile phone in her place. The phone rings and the voice on the other end issues instructions: Don’t tell the police. Be prepared to do a deal … There is nothing Simone wouldn’t do to save her daughter. Hide the truth. Commit a terrible crime. Become a wanted woman. But what if this is just what the kidnappers want? Trade paperback • R395 • 9780241648063 • May ALL WE HAVE IS TIME ĞŮΟĦłÝĦƂ 1605, London. Beatrix wanders the streets, haunted by a century of loss – immortality granted by a deathbed wish has made love impossible. Until she meets Oliver, and for one perfect day, she feels alive again, until he has to leave. A century later, they cross paths once more, and recognition strikes like lightning. Impossible as it seems, a chance for love sparks again. But their bond defies time itself: Beatrix has lived over two hundred years, and Oliver won’t be born for another four hundred … Trade paperback • R395 • 9780241745991 • AprilJANUARY JUNE 2026 4 RISING STARS THE SECRET LIVES OF MURDERERS’ WIVES Elizabeth Arnott It’s a scorching summer in 1960s California, and three women share an unlikely friendship. Behind their sparkling pools and false smiles, their husbands are notorious serial killers. Beverley raises two children under the shadow of their father’s crimes, bookish Elsie is determined to make a name for herself in the patriarchal newsroom, while party- girl Margot has a penchant for an early morning margarita - anything to quieten the shame of her ex-husband’s deceit. When a string of local murders hits the headlines, the women - underestimated and overlooked - launch their own investigation. After all, who better to catch a killer than those who have lived with one? Trade paperback • R395 • 9780241733639 • May ESTHER IS NOW FOLLOWING YOU Tanya Sweeney When Esther sees Ted in a park in London, she feels something she’s never felt before. She starts reading up about his life in Canada and his work as an actor. Then she watches every interview with him online. It isn’t long before she is stalking his every move. When Ted gets a new celebrity girlfriend, Esther decides that things have gone far enough. She leaves her husband, takes all their savings, and flies to Canada. After all, Ted might not know it yet, but they are meant to be together – he just needs a little bit of persuading. Trade paperback • R395 • 9780857507921 • February HOW TO GET AWAY WITH MURDER Rebecca Philipson Denver Brady claims to be the most successful serial killer of our time – and that’s precisely why you’ve never heard of him. But the publication of his manual, How to Get Away With Murder, changes everything. When a copy is found at the home of a murdered girl, DI Samantha Hansen must track down the elusive author. As their stories collide, secrets emerge, and with Denver’s book going viral, the pressure to catch him pushes Sam to the brink. But in this deadly game, who is really hunting whom? Trade paperback • R395 • 9780857507686 • April A KILLER IN THE FAMILY Amin Ahmad Naïve Mumbai party boy Ali Azeem is drifting through life, until he meets the Khan sisters: pretty, marriage-material Maryam and sexy, unpredictable Farhan. They are the daughters of Abbas Khan, the patriarch who has made New York City his playground. As Ali is drawn deeper into the Khan family’s seductive world of private jets and towering skyscrapers, he begins to uncover rumours of affairs, corruption – and a troubling connection to a Manhattan serial killer. As he learns the cost of the Khans’ unattainable wealth and power, Ali must decide: is it a price worth paying? Trade paperback • R395 • 9781529155167 • JuneJANUARY JUNE 2026 5 RISING STARS HOMEBOUND Portia Elan It’s 1983, and Becks can’t wait to get the hell out of Cincinnati. But first, she must finish a half-completed game left by her late uncle – the only person who truly understood her. What she codes will endure for centuries, shaping the lives of a scientist, an astronaut, and a desperate sea captain in ways she cannot imagine. It will connect these four pioneering women across time, vast oceans and far-distant planets. Homebound is a coming out and coming- of-age story, a wild sea adventure, a space odyssey. As it slips through time, loss, creativity, found family, it journeys deep into humanity’s future and capacity for love. Trade paperback • R395 • 9781784746179 • June SUCH A NICE GIRL Andrea Mara The morning after a glamorous wedding, you and your best friend go to wake your twenty-four-year-old daughters. You open the door to their shared room in the pool-house and find a lamp smashed on the floor, a blood stain on the carpet – and both girls are gone. The police come and you discover something inexplicable. Is one of your daughters trying to kill the other? And that’s when you and your best friend begin to unravel what’s really going on. You need to work together to find your daughters, testing your friendship to its limits. And you can’t help but wonder: which girl is the killer and which is the victim? Trade paperback • R395 • 9780857505903 • June Portia Elan studied history at Stanford University and earned an MFA from the University of Victoria before returning to California, where she has worked as a waitress, bookseller, teacher and public librarian. She was a 2016 Lambda Literary Fellow and lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her wife and an abundance of cats. Homebound is her first novel. Portia En MY YEAR AS A FRAUD Johanna Swanberg There’s no health guru in Sweden better than Cassi. Couple’s therapy? Puppy yoga? Full moon rituals? She’s got everyone in the remote village of Bäcken covered. The locals don’t really know who Cassi is or how she managed to turn a derelict cottage into a successful self-help retreat, but one thing is clear: they’re all willing to pay good money for her services. There’s only one problem: Cassi is a fraud. A great one at that, who has concealed her true self – a jobless, depressed alcoholic – and gotten rich in the process. But can a life based on a lie really last? And will her new friends accept her for who she really is when her secrets eventually come to the surface? My Year As A Fraud is a heartwarming, hilarious and healing translated debut novel about hitting rock bottom and finding your way back from an unmissable new voice in Swedish fiction. Trade paperback • R430 • 9781529155754 • MayRINGS OF FATE Melissa de la Cruz Every barmaid dreams of a prince. Aren just didn’t expect hers to be cursed, arrogant, and bleeding magical ruin all over her tavern floor. Prince Dietan is brooding, entitled, and bound to the Rings of Fate – ancient magical relics that were never meant to touch human flesh. Now they’re killing him. Slowly. Spectacularly. And when Aren accidentally triggers one, she gets tied to the curse, too. If he dies, so does the kingdom. If she walks away, she’ll take the magic – and half the realm – down with her. Their only hope? Each other. Trade paperback • R395 • 9781911750093 • February A prince. A curse. And a fate far more dangerous than falling in love. Princess Bride meets The Wheel of Time, in a swoon-worthy romantasy from a #1 New York Times bestseller SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASYJANUARY JUNE 2026 7 SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY THE BOOK OF BLOOD & ROSES Annie Summerlee Vampire hunter Rebecca Charity has secretly infiltrated Awin University. She’s searching for The Compendium: a magical book to destroy all vampires. But when an accident turns her into the familiar of popular vampire heir, Aliz Astra, the pair must find a cure. Just two problems: one, it’s in The Compendium. And two, Rebecca is falling for Aliz. Trade paperback • R395 • 9780241729120 • February DAUGHTER OF FATE A S Webb The heart stopping sequel to the Sunday Times bestseller, Daughter of Chaos. Danae’s quest to take down the Gods continues as she ventures into the underworld. Joined by Pegasus, she seeks the answers to the prophecy that foretold her victory over Mount Olympus. Trade paperback • R395 • 9780241676417 • May RITES OF THE STARLING Devney Perry The much anticipated follow up to the slow-burn, high-stakes romantasy where enemies become lovers, monsters stalk a cursed realm, and a forgotten princess finds the strength to tear off her crown and become the warrior she was never meant to be. Trade paperback • R395 • 9781911750192 • May WE WHO HAVE NO GODS Liza Anderson A lush, dark academia romantasy with the action-packed supernatural drive of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the real- world grit of Book of Night. Subverting the ‘Chosen One’ trope, when Vic Wood discovers her brother is a member of a secret society of witches, she has two choices: hunt, or be hunted. Welcome to the Acheron Order! Trade paperback • R395 • 9780857507099 • MarchNext >