diff --git a/Changelog.txt b/Changelog.txt
index 28bfac4cf8..86b4d636f1 100644
--- a/Changelog.txt
+++ b/Changelog.txt
@@ -23,6 +23,37 @@
 # - title by author
 # }}}
 
+{{{ 8.8.0 2025-08-08
+
+:: new features
+
+- E-book viewer: Improve display of Lookup results from Google
+
+- Kobo driver: Add support for latest Tolino firmware
+
+- Conversion: Handle -epub-text-emphasis properties used in some Japanese language EPUB books
+
+- [2117433] Piper Neural text to speech engine: re-write the backend used to run the Piper speech models to no longer need an external binary for improved performance and robustness
+
+:: bug fixes
+
+- Edit book: Reports: Fix sorting by name of CSS rules
+
+- [2118744] Fix template based custom column of tags type not being treated as multi valued when using it for similarity searches
+
+- When adding books recursively do not try to import folder whose names named with an ebook file extension. These are, for example, generated by Apple Books
+
+- [2117255, 2117336] EPUB3 Output: Fix various issues with processing nav files when they contain more than just the Table of Contents and are not included in the spine.
+
+:: improved recipes
+- Economist
+- Press Information Bureau
+- Indian Express
+- Wall Street Journal
+- De Tijd
+- Washington Post
+}}}
+
 {{{ 8.7.0 2025-07-18
 
 :: new features
diff --git a/src/calibre/constants.py b/src/calibre/constants.py
index 61d5cdc09f..fa4b211459 100644
--- a/src/calibre/constants.py
+++ b/src/calibre/constants.py
@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@ from functools import lru_cache
 from polyglot.builtins import environ_item, hasenv
 
 __appname__   = 'calibre'
-numeric_version = (8, 7, 101)
+numeric_version = (8, 8, 0)
 __version__   = '.'.join(map(str, numeric_version))
 git_version   = None
 __author__    = 'Kovid Goyal <kovid@kovidgoyal.net>'