Indigo names Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke as top book of 2026
The chain's annual list of 10 Guaranteed Reads includes four Canadian authors, with Michelle Good's Eliza Sunshine in second place.
Canada's largest bookstore chain, Indigo, has named Caro Claire Burke's novel Yesteryear as its best book of 2026. The retailer released its annual list of 10 titles, which it calls Guaranteed Reads, meaning customers can return a book if they do not love it. More than 150 employees took part in the reading process to narrow down the selections and determine the final ranking. The list includes four books by Canadian authors.
Yesteryear, which has been popular on social media platform TikTok, follows a traditional American wife and mother who shares her pioneer-inspired lifestyle online. Her curated world is upended when she wakes up in the year 1855. The novel has been prominently displayed in bookstores across the country. Actress and producer Anne Hathaway reportedly bought the film rights to the novel in April.
The number two spot on Indigo's list went to Eliza Sunshine by Michelle Good. The novel is a multigenerational family saga inspired by the life of the author's mother, Martha Eliza Soonias Stiff. It follows three generations of Indigenous women as they handle colonial violence, intergenerational trauma, survival, and resilience. Good's debut novel, Five Little Indians, won the 2020 Governor General's Literary Award for fiction and was shortlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize.
Emily St. John Mandel's latest novel, Exit Party, is ranked third. The story is set in a post-collapse Los Angeles in 2031 and follows recently released ex-convict Ari Waker, who attends a post-curfew party where the host mysteriously vanishes, and people from parallel timelines begin to appear. Mandel is the author of seven novels, including The Glass Hotel and Station Eleven, which was adapted into a critically acclaimed HBO miniseries in 2021. Other Canadian authors on the list include Malcolm Gladwell and Manuel Garand. Indigo has compiled its annual best-books list since at least 2012. The company said the titles are selected as part of its Guaranteed Reads program.
With files from Curiocity