10 Books To Read Before You Watch The Adaptation In 2026
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3 weeks ago
Assigned reading: these soon-to-be blockbusters
Avid readers are well-acquainted with the satisfied feeling of knowing exactly what is happening on screen when watching a book-to-film or TV adaptation. In 2025 we had everything from Richard Osman’s The Thursday Murder Club to Helen Fielding’s Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy to enjoy – and luckily there are plenty to come in 2026. Here are 10 books to crack open before you settle in at the cinema.
Book Adaptations To Get Excited For In 2026
Hamnet (2020)
If you haven’t had the chance to catch Hamnet in the cinemas just yet, we’d recommend delaying your trip even further so you can read Maggie O’Farrell’s 2020 novel first. Having bagged the 2020 Women’s Prize for Fiction, this 384-page historical novel spins a tale from the true death of William Shakespeare’s only son, Hamnet, aged 11 in 1596. With the Bard never actually named in the book however, the focus is much more on his wife Anne Hathaway, renamed Agnes and portrayed as a mystical herbalist a young Shakespeare meets in the woods near Stratford. Like the film, the novel details their meeting, marriage and the birth of their three children, before their son tragically dies. The film is visually stunning, but naturally cannot quite portray O’Farrell’s signature lyrical prose, which is at once heart rending, gripping and mesmerising. In cinemas now.
Paperback, £10.99
The History of Sound (2025)
Speaking of Paul Mescal, another book adaptation we have our eyes on this season is The History of Sound, based on Ben Shattuck’s short story of the same name, which also gives its name to a collection of 12 stories exploring generational patterns of love and loss across three centuries. The History of Sound (and its film adaptation, also penned by Shattuck) centres on Lionel (Mescal) and David (Josh O’Connor), two students at the New England Conservatory during WWI. But their fleeting romantic encounter at a piano bar has a seismic impact on the rest of their lives. In cinemas 22 January.
Paperback, £9.99
H Is For Hawk (2015)
Claire Foy takes on the role of writer Helen Macdonald – who published her memoir, H is for Hawk, in 2015 – in this new film adaptation. Bagging the Costa Book of the Year award and climbing the bestseller charts almost immediately, the 320-page book chronicles the writer’s journey adopting and raising a goshawk in the wake of her father’s death. Dubbed ‘one of the best grief books ever written’ by Cariad Lloyd, nature lovers should definitely pick this up before settling in to watch Foy, Brendan Gleeson and Lindsay Duncan on the big screen. In cinemas 23 January.
Paperback, £10.99
The One Hundred Nights of Hero (2016)
The seminal collection of Middle Eastern folktales One Thousand and One Nights is being reimagined into a new flick for the big screen, 100 Nights of Hero, entangling Emma Corrin, Nicholas Galitzine and Maika Monroe in a fantastical love triangle. Based on Isabel Greenberg’s graphic novel The One Hundred Nights of Hero (2016), it’s a queer, feminist reimagining of the classic tales’ framework, but doesn’t include the original’s stories like Aladdin and Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves. In cinemas 6 February.
Paperback, £14.99
Wuthering Heights (1847)
Dubbed – especially by the marketing team of Emerald Fennell’s upcoming adaptation – as ‘the greatest love story of all time’, Wuthering Heights is the only novel English author Emily Brontë penned. Published in 1847 and deeply concerned with the social politics of Victorian landowning families, fans are divided on whether Fennell’s version, scored by Charli XCX, will be brilliant or diabolical. If you’d like to decide for yourself, crack open the tome before it lands in cinemas on 13 February.
Paperback, £9.99
Frankenstein (1818)
Another Frankenstein adaptation? Well, why not? And this time it’s a little different, anyway. Starring Jessie Buckley and Christian Bale, The Bride! riffs on James Whale’s 1935 film Bride of Frankenstein, itself based on Mary Shelley’s seminal 1818 novel Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. Set in 1930s Chicago, Frankenstein’s creature (Bale) asks Dr Euphronious (Annette Bening) to create a companion for him. And so the duo finds a murdered woman (Jessie Buckley) and restores her life – not dissimilar to Yorgos Lanthimos’ 2023 film Poor Things, based on Alasdair Gray’s 1992 novel of the same name. Nicknamed ‘the Bride’, the reanimation sparks romance, police interest and radical social change. In cinemas 6 March.
Paperback, £9.99
Project Hail Mary (2021)
The Martian author Andy Weir is back on the big screen this spring in a flick starring Ryan Gosling and Sandra Hüller. Set in space (but ironically filmed in Portsmouth), it’s a survival tale in which astronaut Ryland Grace (Gosling) wakes up on a space station with no recollection of who he is, how he got there or what his mission is supposed to be. And he’s entirely alone. If you enjoyed The Martian (on screen or on paper), it’s certainly worth picking up Project Hail Mary; Weir is a witty and intricate sci-fi writer who totally immerses you in the world. In cinemas 20 March.
Paperback, £9.99
The Enchanted Wood (1939)
For something family friendly, don’t miss the new adaptation of Enid Blyton’s classic tale, The Enchanted Wood – riffing on the name of her four-novel-long series, The Faraway Tree, for the movie. Penned by Wonka writer and Horrible Histories star Simon Farnaby, The Magic Faraway Tree is a modern reimagining of Blyton’s Thompson family: parents Polly and Tim (played by Claire Foy and Andrew Garfield) and their three children Beth (Delilah Bennett-Cardy), Fran (Billie Gadsdon) and Joe (Phoenix Laroche). Forced to relocate to the countryside, the children find something startling in the local woods: a magical tree, at the top of which lies a mystical land. The perfect nighttime read for little ones. In cinemas 27 March.
Paperback, £7.99
Odyssey (~800-700 BCE)
Another classic getting the screen treatment this year is Homer’s Odyssey, directed by Christopher Nolan (the man behind Interstellar [2014], Dunkirk [2017], Tenet [2020] and Oppenheimer [2023]) with an all-star cast. And we mean all-star: Matt Damon, Anne Hathaway, Tom Holland, Robert Pattinson, Lupita Nyong’o, Zendaya, Charlize Theron and more will star in the sky-high-budget adaptation of the Greek poet’s epic. Damon will play Odysseus, the Greek king of Ithaca who embarks on a 10-year-long perilous journey home to his wife Penelope (Hathaway) after the Trojan war. Along the way he encounters gods, perils and mythical beings including the Cyclops and sirens. Whether you are drawn more to the classical story or the poetry, there are plenty of translations to choose from. In cinemas 17 July.
Paperback, £12.99
Klara and The Sun (2021)
We thought the film adaptation of Booker and Nobel prize-winning author Kazuo Ishiguro’s eighth novel, Klara and the Sun (2021), would arrive in cinemas in 2025 – but no such luck. There’s more time to read it, then – and, delving into the world of AI, it’s more timely and frightening than ever. Telling the story of Josie (Mia Tharia) and Klara (Jenna Ortega), the former’s Artificial Friend, the story questions where we draw the line between human and machine. Directed by Taika Waititi and starring Amy Adams as Josie’s mother, it will also push us to consider how we can navigate an eerie fictional world that feels all too close to our own. Release date TBC.
Paperback, £9.99
