Grab a piece of pumpkin pie and escape into one of these Thanksgiving-centric novels.
We’ve written often about our love for seasonal reading in this space. Sometimes the right book at the right time looks like a story that matches what’s happening in our actual lives, whether that’s the time of year, the weather, the mood, or—in today’s case—the holiday.
Over the years, I’ve heard many readers lament the lack of novels featuring Thanksgiving. We’ve found a handful to feature in this space—like this 2013 women’s fiction from an early Summer Reading Guide, or the handful included in our 24 winter holiday romances that will make your season bright—but I’ve long been surprised this particular holiday doesn’t feature more prominently in the pages of the fiction we love to read.
But lo and behold, 2025 came around and brought with it THREE new novels I thoroughly enjoyed—so much so that I included two in our MMD Summer Reading Guide and the third in our 2025 Fall Book Preview—in which Thanksgiving plays a prominent role. You may have heard me talk about these books before—especially if you’ve perused our Guide and Fall Preview—but now that the holiday is upon us, perhaps you’ll view them with different eyes than you did earlier this year.
If you’re a seasonal reading fan, the 2025 publishing landscape served up: one darkly humorous novel in which a disastrous Thanksgiving happening sets the plot in motion, one seaside family saga with a fraught celebration, and one slim family tale with a paintstakingly planned and then lovingly celebrated feast.
However you feel about the Thanksgiving holiday, I hope there’s a novel for you this year. That will be especially true if we can add more possibilities to the metaphorical pile: would you please add your own Thanksgiving and Thanksgiving-adjacent reads in comments? I’ll be grateful, and so will your fellow readers.
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No book of Jess Walter’s is like the one before; this 2025 Summer Reading Guide pick is my favorite of his work to date. His new novel centers a retired journalist who retreated from the world after he punched his son-in-law at Thanksgiving dinner in 2016. When his grandkids show up on his doorstep, he doesn’t even recognize them, and that floods him with shame. But when he realizes these kids need him, he resolves to protect them, not knowing how quickly he’ll be called to make good on this promise, how drastic his actions must be, or how much violence and suffering it will entail. This book is overtly political, written about and for a divided America: it’s not for everyone. But the right reader will find much to enjoy in its unique structure, well-developed characters, plot that puts the Wild West in mind, and much-appreciated humor. More info →
O’Neill’s debut is set largely over the four-day Thanksgiving holiday when a big Irish American family comes back together at the dilapidated old family seaside home for the first time in years. This family once had four siblings; now three adult sisters remain, having lost their brother years ago when he was just in his twenties. The family never figured out how to deal with the aftermath of a tragic accident on their brother’s boat that happened two decades ago and resulted in a friend’s death, an expensive lawsuit against their parents, and their brother’s subsequent tragic death. Now the parents are aging and struggling to take care of the old home, and of each other. The newly returned Ryan sisters are eager to reconnect but they each carry a secret—and before the weekend is over, it’s all going to come spilling out. This family drama explores grief, guilt, regret, and aging amidst the tensions of the holiday. More info →
Newman’s latest midlife novel is a follow up to Sandwich. While Sandwich took place over the course of a week at fifty-something Rocky’s Cape Cod beach house, this story unfolds over a longer time frame and is set two years later at her home in Western Massachusetts. At the beginning of the story, a twenty-something man Rocky's kids know is killed in a train wreck in town, and it sets her family and the wider community reeling—contemplating chance, corporate responsibility, and mortality. Meanwhile, Rocky starts experiencing weird medical symptoms and it turns out there are no easy answers about why she’s experiencing them. In the midst of medical uncertainty and grief, she’s trying to take care of her husband, adult children, and her father the best she can, while she works her job as a food writer from home. And then much of the book encompasses the planning and enjoyment of the family's Thanksgiving feast—the pages are brimming with discussions of how to spatchcock a turkey, brining vs. dry salting, and how many pecan pies to make for the holiday. All the yummy food descriptions made me wish I could join them at the table. (This can absolutely be read as a standalone, but if you suspect you're going to read Sandwich anyway, I'd nudge you to read that one first.) More info →
Do you have any favorite novels set during Thanksgiving? Please share in the comments.
P.S. 14 books about endearingly quirky families and How to make a book page pumpkin.
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