Picador will publish a new novel, 20 years in the making, from award-winning author China Miéville.* The Rouse* will be Miéville’s first single-authored novel for an adult audience since 2011 and be published in September 2026. Del Rey will publish in the US.

“From the bestselling and award-winning master of speculative fiction comes a deeply moving, decade- and continent-spanning epic,” the publisher said. “Forced to investigate a devastating personal tragedy, an ordinary woman stumbles on dark conspiracies and provokes the attention of uncanny forces.”

Miéville said: “I’ve been working on The Rouse for considerably more than half my adult life: its release feels monumental, exhilarating, terrifying, defining, for me.”

Lewis Russell, assistant editor at Picador, said: “At once thrilling, tender, illuminating and eerie, The Rouse is astonishingly brilliant, the result of a master craftsperson honing their skills over decades. It is so multitudinous that readers will be poring over its secrets and uncovering its mysteries for years to come. We are so proud to be China’s publisher and we can’t wait for his fans to get their hands on The Rouse next September.” More details will be released in a global announcement in the new year, Picador said.

Miéville is a New York Times-bestselling author of fiction and non-fiction. In 2015 he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and in 2018 he was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship for fiction.

His work has won various prizes, including the Arthur C Clarke Award, the World Fantasy Award, the Hugo Award and the British Science Fiction Award, and has been shortlisted for the Folio Prize and the Edge Hill Short Story Prize. His most recent project is the bestselling collaboration with Keanu Reeves, The Book of Elsewhere (Del Rey), published in 2024.