Barnes & Noble and Amazon Picked Two Family Sagas as Their Best Books of 2026. Which Should You Read?

On November 12, Barnes & Noble named Mary Beth Keane’s Whale Harbor its 2026 Book of the Year. The same day, Amazon’s books editors put Min Jin Lee’s American Hagwon at No. 1 on their year-end list. Amazon also ranked Whale Harbor No. 11, so both books made the editors’ top 20.

Start with Whale Harbor if you want a family saga built around a missing brother and a promise. Choose American Hagwon if you want a bigger novel about immigration, education and what parents give up to improve their children’s chances. Both families cross oceans. What they hope to give the children who come after them makes for two very different reading experiences.

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Read Whale Harbor if you want a mystery inside a family saga

In 1960s Ireland, tragedy leaves the eleven Joyce brothers facing different futures. Some of the older boys leave for work in England. Macdara, the second eldest, takes a job on a Montana cattle ranch and promises to bring his younger brother Rian to America when he’s old enough. Then Macdara learns that Rian has gone missing. Keane drew on her own family history for the novel, which follows the effects of that disappearance across decades.

A missing sibling gives an eleven-brother story a clear place to begin. You can follow Macdara and Rian’s relationship into the larger family history. Macdara leaves to make a life for himself, and the promise makes that choice matter to someone back home. The disappearance raises a question that can sustain a whole novel: How long can you hold yourself responsible for a person whose life is beyond your reach?

This is the one I’d suggest for readers drawn to the family fallout in Keane’s Ask Again, Yes. It’s also the easier of the two to fit into a short reading window. For more on how the award was chosen, see our coverage of Barnes & Noble’s Book of the Year.

Shop the Whale Harbor hardcover on Amazon

Read American Hagwon if you want to see what ambition costs a family

John and Helen Koh have built a comfortable life in Korea when a betrayal by John’s oldest friend and the 1997 Asian financial crisis undo their security. They move with their three children to Sydney and eventually Southern California. New schools and opportunities open up for the children while their parents have to start over in places where their education and experience carry less weight. A hagwon is a private Korean academy, often attended after regular school hours. That word points to one of the Kohs’ deepest convictions: Education can give their children security.

What makes the premise so good for a book club is that the same move can look like a step forward to a child and a loss of standing to a parent. It gives the group room to disagree about what the Koh children owe their parents and whether success can repay the price of starting over.

If you loved Pachinko for the way history changed what an entire family could hope for, pick up American Hagwon first. It follows a new family and stands on its own. At 656 pages, it’s the one I’d save for a stretch when I can spend real time with several characters.

Shop the American Hagwon hardcover on Amazon

Which one should you read first?

My default pick is Whale Harbor. If you’re choosing on premise alone, one brother’s disappearance gives you a clear thread to follow through a big family story. I’d also choose it for a book club on a tight schedule. If your group likes to argue about money, education and what parents expect in return for their sacrifices, go with American Hagwon. Give everyone an extra week and start with this question: When the Kohs talk about a better future, do they mean the same thing?

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