diff --git a/src/calibre/utils/forked_map.py b/src/calibre/utils/forked_map.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..8d61c4bdbb
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/calibre/utils/forked_map.py
@@ -0,0 +1,174 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env python
+# License: GPLv3 Copyright: 2025, Kovid Goyal <kovid at kovidgoyal.net>
+
+import os
+import pickle
+import select
+import signal
+import ssl
+import traceback
+from collections.abc import Callable, Iterator
+from contextlib import ExitStack
+from itertools import batched, chain
+from typing import Any, BinaryIO, NamedTuple, TypeVar
+
+T = TypeVar('T')
+R = TypeVar('R')
+
+
+class _RemoteTraceback(Exception):
+    def __init__(self, tb):
+        self.tb = tb
+    def __str__(self):
+        return self.tb
+
+
+class _ExceptionWithTraceback:
+    def __init__(self, exc):
+        tb = ''.join(traceback.format_exception(type(exc), exc, exc.__traceback__))
+        self.exc = exc
+        # Traceback object needs to be garbage-collected as its frames
+        # contain references to all the objects in the exception scope
+        self.exc.__traceback__ = None
+        self.tb = f'\n"""\n{tb}"""'
+    def __reduce__(self):
+        return _rebuild_exc, (self.exc, self.tb)
+
+
+def _rebuild_exc(exc, tb):
+    exc.__cause__ = _RemoteTraceback(tb)
+    return exc
+
+
+class Job(NamedTuple):
+    id: int
+    arg: Any
+    fn: Callable[[Any], Any]
+
+
+class Worker:
+    pid: int
+    pipe: BinaryIO
+    unpickler: pickle.Unpickler
+
+    def __init__(self, pid: int, pipe_fd: int):
+        self.pid = pid
+        self.pipe = open(pipe_fd, 'rb')
+        self.unpickler = pickle.Unpickler(self.pipe)
+
+    def __enter__(self) -> 'Worker':
+        return self
+
+    def __exit__(self, exc_type, exc_value, tb) -> None:
+        self.pipe.close()
+        pid, status = os.waitpid(self.pid, os.WNOHANG)
+        if not pid:
+            os.kill(self.pid, signal.SIGKILL)
+            os.waitpid(self.pid, 0)
+
+
+class Result(NamedTuple):
+    ok: bool
+    id: int
+    value: Any
+
+
+def run_jobs(*jobs: Job) -> Worker:
+    r, w = os.pipe()
+    os.set_inheritable(w, True)
+    os.set_inheritable(r, False)
+    if pid := os.fork():  # parent
+        os.close(w)
+        ssl.RAND_bytes(1)  # change state of OpenSSL RNG so that it is not shared with child process
+        return Worker(pid, r)
+    else:
+        try:
+            with open(w, 'wb') as pipe:
+                pickler = pickle.Pickler(pipe, protocol=pickle.HIGHEST_PROTOCOL)
+                for job in jobs:
+                    try:
+                        result = Result(True, job.id, job.fn(job.arg))
+                    except BaseException as e:
+                        result = Result(False, job.id, _ExceptionWithTraceback(e))
+                    pickler.dump(result)
+                    pipe.flush()
+        except (BrokenPipeError, KeyboardInterrupt):
+            pass
+        except BaseException:
+            traceback.print_exc()
+            os._exit(os.EX_OSERR)
+        # do not call atexit and finally handlers
+        os._exit(os.EX_OK)
+
+
+def forked_map(fn: Callable[[T], R], iterable: T, *iterables: T, timeout: int | float | None = None, num_workers: int = 0) -> Iterator[R]:
+    '''
+    Should be used only in worker processes that have no threads and that do not use/import any non fork safe libraries such as macOS
+    system libraries.
+    '''
+    if num_workers <= 0:
+        num_workers = max(1, os.cpu_count())
+    chunk_size = max(1, len(iterables) / num_workers)
+    groups = batched((Job(i, arg, fn) for i, arg in enumerate(chain(iterable, *iterables))), chunk_size)
+    cache: dict[int, Result] = {}
+    pos = 0
+    workers = tuple(run_jobs(*g) for g in groups)
+    with ExitStack() as stack:
+        for w in workers:
+            stack.push(w)
+        wmap = {w.pipe.fileno(): w for w in workers}
+        while wmap:
+            ready, _, _ = select.select(tuple(wmap), (), (), timeout)
+            if not ready:
+                raise TimeoutError(f'Forked workers did not produce a result in {timeout} seconds')
+            for r in ready:
+                w = wmap[r]
+                try:
+                    result: Result = w.unpickler.load()
+                except EOFError:
+                    del wmap[r]
+                    continue
+                if pos == result.id:
+                    if not result.ok:
+                        raise result.value
+                    yield result.value
+                    pos += 1
+                    while res := cache.pop(pos, None):
+                        yield res.value
+                        pos += 1
+                else:
+                    cache[result.id] = result
+    while r := cache.pop(pos, None):
+        yield r.value
+        pos += 1
+    if pos < len(iterables):
+        raise OSError(f'Forked workers exited producing only {pos} out of {len(iterables)} results')
+
+
+forked_map_is_supported = hasattr(os, 'fork')
+
+
+def find_tests():
+    import random
+    import time
+    import unittest
+    class TestForkedMap(unittest.TestCase):
+        @unittest.skipUnless(forked_map_is_supported, 'forking not supported on this platform')
+        def test_forked_map(self):
+            def sleep(x: int) -> int:
+                time.sleep(10 * x)
+                return x
+            with self.assertRaises(TimeoutError):
+                tuple(forked_map(sleep, range(os.cpu_count() * 3), timeout=0.001))
+            def raise_error(x: int) -> None:
+                raise ReferenceError('testing')
+            with self.assertRaises(ReferenceError):
+                tuple(forked_map(raise_error, range(os.cpu_count() * 3)))
+            timings = 0, 1, 2, 3
+            def echo(x: int) -> int:
+                time.sleep(0.0001 * random.choice(timings))
+                return x
+            for num_workers in range(1, os.cpu_count() + 1):
+                items = tuple(range(num_workers * 3))
+                self.assertEqual(tuple(map(echo, items)), tuple(forked_map(echo, items)))
+    return unittest.defaultTestLoader.loadTestsFromTestCase(TestForkedMap)
diff --git a/src/calibre/utils/run_tests.py b/src/calibre/utils/run_tests.py
index b13f2deacf..ffd0f95c04 100644
--- a/src/calibre/utils/run_tests.py
+++ b/src/calibre/utils/run_tests.py
@@ -214,6 +214,9 @@ def find_tests(which_tests=None, exclude_tests=None):
     def ok(x):
         return (not which_tests or x in which_tests) and (not exclude_tests or x not in exclude_tests)
 
+    if ok('fork'):  # need these to run first before threads are created or libraries used
+        from calibre.utils.forked_map import find_tests
+        a(find_tests())
     if ok('build'):
         from calibre.test_build import find_tests
         a(find_tests(only_build=True))