For the week ending October 18, 2026

Here are this week’s Independent Press Top 40 Bestsellers for fiction, based on sales in hundreds of independent bookstores nationwide, generously provided by the American Booksellers Association. Compiled, designed, and distributed by The Independent Publishers Caucus .

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1. Blockers: Rebels in the Deep State by Michael Lewis (W. W. Norton)

2. Crossing the Wine-Dark Sea: Journeys Through Ancient Literature by Emily Wilson (Liveright)

3. Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer (Milkweed)

4. The Rise and Fall of the Artificial State by Jill Lepore (Liveright)

5. Guinness World Records 2027 by Guinness World Records

6. The Game by Peter King (W. W. Norton)

7. The Gales of November: The Untold Story of the Edmund Fitzgerald by John U. Bacon (Liveright)

8. Is a River Alive? by Robert Macfarlane (W.W. Norton)

9.…