NYT names Kin and London Falling

The New York Times on April 27 put Tayari Jones’s “Kin” and Patrick Radden Keefe’s “London Falling” on its best-books-of-2026-so-far list. (nytimes.com) The list came from the paper’s Book Review staff, which said it had already reviewed hundreds of 2026 titles and expected some of these picks to remain in play for year-end lists. (nytimes.com) “Kin,” published February 24, is Jones’s fifth novel and an Oprah’s Book Club selection. It follows Annie and Vernice, two motherless girls raised in Honeysuckle, Louisiana, whose lives split between Memphis and Spelman College in Atlanta. (penguinrandomhouse.com) (news.emory.edu) Jones said the novel centers friendship, and Emory University described its alternating points of view as tracking years of class shifts, geography and loss. “Kin” was already a New York Times best seller before Monday’s roundup. (news.emory.edu) (penguinrandomhouse.com) “London Falling,” published April 7, is Keefe’s 384-page nonfiction account of Zac Brettler, a 19-year-old who died after jumping into the River Thames in November 2019. (penguinrandomhouse.com) Keefe’s book says Brettler had built a fake identity as “Zac Ismailov,” the supposed son of a Russian oligarch, and became entangled with businessman Akbar Shamji and a gangster known as Indian Dave. (penguinrandomhouse.com) The publisher describes the book as following Brettler’s parents, Rachelle and Matthew, as they investigate his death and come to believe it was not suicide, while Scotland Yard failed to deliver answers they trusted. (penguinrandomhouse.com) The Times list matters in part because both books were already entering the season with momentum. “Kin” arrived with Oprah backing, and “London Falling” was released as a No. 1 New York Times best seller and a heavily promoted spring nonfiction title. (penguinrandomhouse.com 1) (penguinrandomhouse.com 2) For readers, the pairing shows the shape of the Times’s spring list: one literary novel about Black womanhood, family and friendship in the American South, and one reported nonfiction narrative about wealth, secrecy and death in London. (news.emory.edu) (penguinrandomhouse.com) The immediate effect is simple: two books that were already visible in February and April now have a New York Times endorsement attached to them before the summer reading season begins. (nytimes.com) (penguinrandomhouse.com 1) (penguinrandomhouse.com 2)