Why we’re excited
Zuzu, a filmmaker, is in Paris for three days to launch her debut film. After that she is due back in LA for another round of trying to get pregnant, following several miscarriages. A wild best friend and a famous ex-girlfriend are in the city, and the July heat does the rest.
Coco Mellors wrote Cleopatra and Frankenstein and Blue Sisters, both close studies of messy people in New York. This is her third novel, and its question of whether you can want a child and your freedom at once is a sharp one. Readers who like literary fiction about marriage and ambition should look out for it.
On our most-anticipated list since 21 October 2026. See all the most anticipated books →
What to know about Grenade
Coco Mellors is a familiar name here: 2 of Coco Mellors’s books have full reviews, averaging 4.3 out of 5. The one we rated highest is Blue Sisters (4.5★).
From the publisher
THE NEW NOVEL FROM THE ACCLAIMED, NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF BLUE SISTERS AND CLEOPATRA AND FRANKENSTEIN
'I want to be a mother – and I want to be free.'
When filmmaker Zuzu arrives in Paris for the premiere of her first feature, she has only three days before she must return to Los Angeles to try, once again, to conceive a child. At thirty-four, she is reeling from multiple miscarriages just as she begins to taste the first real success of her career, and this trip is only meant to be a brief detour before the next attempt. But Paris in July – hot, crowded, and full of temptations – has other plans.
There is her brilliant, unruly best friend, Anouk, who wants everything and fears nothing. There is the possibility of a reunion with Paloma, her world-famous ex-girlfriend, whose attention Zuzu still craves. Finally, there is her husband back home, and a love both threatened and deepened by their shared longing for a child. As the sweltering days unfold and the past presses in, Zuzu makes a series of decisions that threaten to explode the life she has built so carefully.
The highly anticipated third novel from the New York Times bestselling author of Blue Sisters and Cleopatra and Frankenstein, Grenade confronts a contradiction that has never felt more timely: the longing for motherhood, marriage, and stability—and the longing to be free.
Description supplied by the publisher.
We haven’t read Grenade yet. When our review goes up, it will replace this page.
