A new novel by Tom Perrotta is coming in 2026.
Scribner will publish the author’s Ghost Town next spring, the press announced in a news release. It calls the book “a gripping and darkly nostalgic tale about a tumultuous summer in 1970s suburban New Jersey, from the perspective of a middle-aged writer looking back on a series of events that changed his life—and the story he finally has the courage to tell.”
Perrotta made his literary debut in 1994 with Bad Haircut: Stories of the Seventies and followed that up three years later with the novel The Wishbones.
His novels have been frequently been adapted for the screen, including Election and Little Children, which formed the bases for two critically acclaimed movies, as well as The Leftovers and Mrs. Fletcher, both adapted as television series. His most recent novel, Tracy Flick Can’t Win, brought back the popular character from Election and is currently being developed as a film, with Reese Witherspoon set to reprise her role from the 1999 movie.
Ghost Town will follow Jimmy Perrini, a New Jersey teen who is alienated from his family and friends after a tragedy. He forms friendships with two other teenagers: one a weed-addled burnout, the other an intelligent, Ouija board–obsessed girl. The novel, Scribner says, “reveals how our recent history haunts our present-day inner lives—the way our ghosts are always with us, even when we think we’ve left them behind.”
Ghost Town is slated for publication on April 28, 2026.
Michael Schaub is a contributing writer.
