“A poignant yet playful collection of verse, about endings and departures, it is sliced with clever, sharp humour,” says The Telegraph. It shares the page-turning verve of its predecessors,” says the Observer, and has “the power of letting a story appear to tell itself”. Guardian critics pick 2020’s best fiction, poetry, politics, science and more All illustrations by Mike Lemanski Sat 28 Nov 2020 04.00 EST Last modified on Tue 22 Dec 2020 12.34 EST “Her ear is attuned to inconvenient truths and double standards, particularly misogyny in America. But it also points the way towards hope and a new understanding of racial identity. The protagonist of Murata’s new novel, Natsuki, is detached, having suffered a traumatic childhood, and struggles with the expectations placed on her. “If ever there was a perfect time for a new Anne Tyler novel, it’s now,” says the Wall Street Journal. “Cline is particularly good at locking in the witty detail that speaks volumes,” says The Times. Now she is an old woman, and Burnt Sugar untangles her complex relationship with her daughter. As The New York Times puts it: “Bennett balances the literary demands of dynamic characterisation with the historical and social realities of her subject matter.”, The British journalist and author Caitlin Moran is already known for her funny, smart observations about girlhood and womanhood. Motherwell is, says Andrew O’Hagan in the Guardian, “a masterpiece of self-exploration”, and its “greatness lies mainly in the psychological dimension, in the vivid portrait of her parents’ narcissism and the just-as-vivid portrait of her own”. This widely acclaimed story centres on the relationship between mother and son. What would have happened if Hillary Rodham had never married Bill Clinton? Czech writer Milan Kundera once said, “The novel is the imaginary paradise of individuals.” Best comics and graphic novels of 2020. Sittenfeld answers this question with Rodham, a novel that weaves an imagined tale into real historical events. Love books? The tales feature various supernatural elements, including zombies, ghosts and digital afterlives. A story about crisis, survival and the search for meaning in our lives, The Glass Hotel explores two intersecting but seemingly separate events – the collapse of a huge Ponzi scheme, and the strange disappearance of a woman from a ship at sea. Dystopian novel The New Wilderness has been shortlisted for the Booker. He continues the story of a US teacher living in Bulgaria, and explores his memories and sexual encounters through a disordered narrative. Reagent Press. Two men, one Israeli and one Palestinian, had a daughter killed in in the conflict. In its musings, jokes, and snatches of memory, the book “zooms from the micro to the macro”, according to the New Statesman. Translated from the Spanish by Nick Caistor and Amanda Hopkinson, Allende’s latest novel is, according to the Telegraph, “a gripping tale of love in exile”. Ijeoma Oluo’s 2018 book So You Want to Talk About Race was an acclaimed resource for readers looking to understand – and unpick – society’s racist structures. When a catastrophic storm tears through the house, the adults choose to ignore the chaos and turn to the liquor cabinet instead, leaving the kids to seek safety on their own. The Atlantic, meanwhile, describes Such a Fun Age as “a funny, fast-paced social satire about privilege in America”. The debut novel by Douglas Stuart draws on his own childhood in 1980s Glasgow, and is the winner of the 2020 Booker prize. “These expertly constructed stories withhold key information... the pleasures here lie in an appreciation of Cline’s skilful and absorbing craft.”. In 900 richly detailed pages, The Mirror & The Light lays out the downfall of Thomas Cromwell, consigliere to King Henry VIII and powerbroker of the Reformation. Fans of Cline’s work – and the Spielberg film adaptation of the first book – will no doubt be hooked. It is, says the Washington Post, “brilliant… the deceptively casual flow of her stories belies their craft, a profound intelligence sealed invisibly behind life’s mirror”. It tells the story of a much-loved son of a Presbyterian minister who in segregated St Louis falls in love with Della, an African-American school teacher. Greenwell’s second novel Cleanness follows his acclaimed debut What Belongs to You. The follow-up to Bennett’s 2016 debut The Mothers, The Vanishing Half has been widely acclaimed. The first half of Breasts and Eggs, translated by Sam Bett and David Boyd, centers on Makiko’s quest to plan a breast enhancement procedure, and Midoriko’s recent refusal to speak to her. That’s all part of Akhtar’s point: his project uses fiction as a filter through which to tell an essential story about a man facing the turmoil of American life after 9/11 and his family’s attendant struggle to define itself. National Book Award-winning author James McBride unveils the answer in this story of comedy and compassion, which pays loving attention to a wide cast of characters. Though she’s written more than 20 books for adults, Louise … The 63 Best Books of 2020. Suddenly, she’s gone, leaving a devastated Desiree behind. Mantel’s Cromwell is a complex, consummate player, more powerful in many ways than the king himself. Andrew O’Hagan’s latest novel is inspired by real events, and the friendship between two men, Jimmy and Tully. “Very funny – one of Tyler’s best yet.”. Her struggles and dilemmas – and her relationship with her mother – are relayed, and the themes of religion and science are central. Mantel’s evocation of Tudor England and her ear for political drama were just as immersive as ever, and the book climbed to the top of bestseller lists in the U.S. and U.K. Her thoughts on the burgeoning natural disaster capture the dual personalities of a sulking teen, sick of her parents, and a young person forced to grow up too fast. Matsuda updates traditional Japanese ghost stories for the contemporary era, giving agency to previously voiceless female characters and playfully breaking down gender roles and stereotypes still so pervasive in Japanese culture today. Colleen Hoover amazon.com. The best romance novel protagonists make you feel empowered and better about yourself and … I Am Not Your Baby Mother by Candice Brathwaite. No matter what fiction books you like best, there's a … The debut novel by Douglas Stuart draws on his own childhood in 1980s Glasgow, and is the winner of the 2020 Booker prize. These stories will get you through the holidays and the last nine decades of 2020. The Booker Prize describes it as: “At once a blazing lament of our contempt for nature… and what it means to be human, The New Wilderness is an extraordinary, compelling novel for our times.”, This Mournable Body by Tsitsi Dangarembga, Tambudzai is a young woman attempting to make a life for herself in downtown Harare. It’s a tale of love that conquers all problems and defeats the odds. The much-anticipated finale of Mantel’s trilogy about King Henry VIII’s right-hand-man Thomas Cromwell has been well received. As the Scotsman observes: “It is disconcertingly honest and self-revealing. In Susie Yang’s debut novel, protagonist Ivy is raised in China by her grandmother, and then sent to the US to live with her emotionally distant parents and her younger brother. It’s an action with terrible consequences, as she’s taken into custody and accused of aiding the attackers. “An urban romantic with a powerful understanding of why spoken word matters,” according to Dazed. In this coming-of-age story, protagonist Jesse McCarthy grapples with his identity and upbringing as a Jehovah’s Witness in a disempowered region of the UK, as well as the complex legacy of the Windrush generation. She specialises in awkward encounters and surprise shifts in power,” says the New Statesman. The new book by former President Obama tells of the journey from his earliest political aspirations to his presidency, and is an “elegant, thoughtful memoir”, according to the Independent. Novellas are generally books under 180 pages. The Observer also praises the author, who has previously won the Booker: “Enright triumphs as a chameleon: memoirist, journalist, critic, daughter – her emotional intelligence knows no bounds.”. The Goodreads Members voted upon the Worlds Greatest Novellas. Bachelor’s unique role is serving as a “milkman,” an administrator who handles pensions and upkeep on retired spies. Buy Now: Shuggie Bain on Bookshop | Amazon. It is “a masterpiece” and “the kind of book that comes along only once in a generation” says the Observer. Piranesi has been much lauded, and described by critics as “brilliantly singular” and “utterly otherworldly”. Where the Wild Ladies Are by Matsuda Aoko. Best Book Club Books: End of 2019 The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates. An established publisher of comic books, picture books and everything fantasy, for … The author of the best-selling We Are Never Meeting in Real Life draws unflinchingly on her own life. While the setting is bleak, littered with descriptions of quiet indignities—Agnes’ late-night calls to her ex-husband’s taxi company, lingering mugs filled with day-old beer—the guiding light of the novel is the boy’s enduring love for his mother. From the opening chapters when the fictional Ayad’s father treats Donald Trump for a heart condition in the 1990s, it’s clear we are in a world that is recognizable but not necessarily real. Discover Amazon’s Top 100 best-selling products in 2012, 2011, 2010 and beyond. Read “The Metamorphosis” again and think of Kafka laughing. You are unlikely to forget it.”. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our. Because romance guarantees a happy ending—an escape. Our House is on Fire: Scenes of a Family and a Planet in Crisis is co-authored by Thunberg’s mother Malena Ernman, who is the primary narrator, her father Svante, and her sister Beata. The Night Watchman, Louise Erdrich. 21 Best Books of 2020: The Books Getting Us Through This Wild Year (So Far) ... A novel like Anna K: A Love Story by Jenny Lee, which retells Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina in … Maggie O’Farrell’s latest novel was inspired by the true story of Shakespeare’s only son, Hamnet, who died aged 11. By signing up you are agreeing to our. “Li has crafted an epic story of a life full of regret, but also of hope and perseverance and the importance of passing down our legacies,” according to Vulture. All Rights Reserved. The Washington Post calls the novel “quite simply, a work of genius that will change the way you understand the world and your place in it.” The New York Times, meanwhile, says: “[Greenwell's] writing about sex is altogether scorching... Greenwell has an uncanny gift, one that comes along rarely”. The Sunday Times describes Hamnet as “powerful” and “an intense poetic exploration of parental grief”. November 19, 2020 at 1:30 p.m. UTC In addition to comfy pants and my dishwasher, reading romance got me through 2020. In addition to being dubbed the best fiction title of the year by Amazon editors, Migrations received so much praise from respected publications throughout 2020. In describing these anxieties, Kawakami takes a stirring look at the expectations put on women by the world and by themselves. “Weather achieves a rare triumph… it’s an uncannily realistic portrait of what it’s like to be alive right now,” says the Telegraph. In moving between their three voices, Majumdar reveals the intersections of their ambitions and fears, coalescing into an unnerving investigation of corruption, class and tragedy. It is, “an urgent, lucid, courageous account,” says David Mitchell in the Guardian. Brit Bennett’s The Vanishing Half lives just outside the realm of realism, in that space where a touch of fantasy serves to underscore the strangeness of reality. Then, Kawakami shifts the story forward, picking up 10 years later and focusing on Natsu as she is single but considering motherhood. In her exquisitely plotted debut novel, Megha Majumdar writes with absorbing urgency as she details Jivan’s plight. The New York Times describes the novel as “lyrical” and “remarkable”, and Hirut as an “indelible and compelling hero”. It’s historical fiction, but dazzlingly literary in its ambitions and dramatic in the cut and thrust of its dialogue. It is a coming-of-age tale set in the 1970s in Pointe-Noire in the Republic of Congo, where young Michel is negotiating everyday life, until the brutal murder of the president. The novel has been shortlisted for the Booker Prize: “Sharp as a blade and laced with caustic wit, Avni Doshi tests the limits of what we can know for certain about those we are closest to, and by extension, about ourselves.”. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/23/books/review/best-books.html A translator herself, Matsuda knows how to play with language, infusing her narrators with memorable idiosyncrasies. Buy Now: Deacon King Kong on Bookshop | Amazon. Before being a novelist, Margaret Atwood was a poet, and Dearly is her first collection in more than a decade. The best new books of 2020, including fiction and non-fiction by N.K. Our House is on Fire by Greta Thunberg et al, This family account of Greta Thunberg’s Asperger’s diagnosis has been hailed as a must-read environmental message of hope. New to Boston, small-town girl Lily manages to get gorgeous neurosurgeon Ryle Kincaid to… Set in contemporary Seoul, this debut novel follows the lives of four young women as they set about  making lives for themselves in a world where the odds are stacked against them. While each chapter is its own contained short story, some interlink. People says: “An enthralling tale about the weight of old traumas, economic disparity and the restoring power of friendship.”. Then come confrontations with colleagues and a surprise encounter with a classmate. As any dedicated romance novel reader will tell you, it's the one genre that's there for you in the best of times (to make your day 10 times better) and the worst (to bring a little love into any sour situation). It’s September 1969 when Sportcoat, the grumpy old deacon of a church in the Causeway Houses project in Brooklyn, shoots local drug dealer Deems in the face. The book succeeds, says the London Review of Books, “in providing a dazzling portrait of an era”. Every so often we are gifted a novel that combines deep intelligence, meticulous prose and something profound to say about the state of our world. Debut Novel Want to Read saving ... Best Books 2020: Winners of the Goodreads Choice Awards NBC News 2020 Goodreads Choice Awards Winners Announced Book Riot Winners of 2020 Goodreads Choice Awards: Barack Obama, Margaret Atwood, Ina Garten USA Today. Few novels were as eagerly anticipated this year as The Mirror … Then the body is found. Nia Forrester Young, Rich & Black. Buy Now: A Children’s Bible on Bookshop | Amazon. It feels almost inevitable, then, when the girls run away together seeking better opportunities—and soon Stella makes the decision, easy at first and harder with time, to pass as white. “The bawdiest humour, the biggest heart,” is how the Irish Times describes Samantha Irby’s collection of essays, Wow, No Thank You. “Wildly, seditiously funny,” says the New York Times, “this is her voice: deadpan, confiding, companionable.”. The result is a reimagining of traditional tales as part of a broader narrative about women and power. Now the complete stories – smart, witty and beautifully crafted – are gathered together, including three new and previously unpublished in book form. The Telegraph describes the novel as “a corrosive, compulsive debut”. She develops a crush on a classmate, the well-to-do Gideon, and is also interested in her working-class friend Roux. You can unsubscribe at any time. Books are both solace and inspiration. By ELLE.com . The master short story teller turns messy emotions into riveting tales of wounded Irish folk”. A Robin Hood character, he aims to help anyone in need, but when his guidance leads into dangerous territory, the characters are faced with a difficult moral choice. We found the best fiction books of 2020, ranging from historical fiction to romance, fantasy, and even creepy thrillers and mystery. “The novel is also a discourse on power (whether political, social or sexual), but executed with a beautifully light touch.”, Convenience Store Woman, Sayaka Murata’s previous novel, was a bestseller and a critical hit. New writer Paul Mendez explores sexuality, race, class and religion across generations and cultures in his semi-autobiographical debut novel Rainbow Milk. “Brilliant... powerful and prismatic,” says the New York Times. Her new book focuses on hidden histories, race, class, gender and the white American man. In House of Glass the journalist Hadley Freeman uncovers her family’s secrets, focussing on the life story of her grandmother, who escaped the horrors of Europe during World War Two to live in the US, as well as the contrasting lives of her great uncles. “Hamnet is a novel apart. In her first novel published in English, Japanese author Mieko Kawakami follows three women and their relationships with their changing bodies. Mandel’s award-winning dystopian novel Station Eleven was widely acclaimed, and her latest offering has been similarly well received. “Everyone with an interest in the future of the planet should read this book. The characters in these narratives are each broken in different ways, but they all quietly grapple with life’s greatest questions—the meaning of loneliness and loss, the durability of love. Among them are the “grief freelancer” who brings in extra income by impersonating the dead, the wife who is unknowingly being drugged by her husband with sedative-spiked seltzer and the daughter who accompanies her ailing mother on a bittersweet final tour of Italy. She is “vividly drawn”, according to The Observer. And if there's a year where we especially needed that and then some, it was 2020. Apeirogon by Colum McCann is based on the true story of this friendship, and has been widely praised. Then the storm hits. “By journey’s end, you’re enriched and enlightened by the lives you have witnessed.”. In the process she tells her own, rather different, version of events, revealing the secrets of her past. Full of Chinese symbolism, this debut novel is an adventure story that explores the themes of memory, family and belonging. The Observer says: “Moran proves herself, once more, a sage guide in the joys, as well as the difficult bits, of being a woman – of being a partner, mother, friend and feminist.”, The First Woman by Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi, Growing up in a small Ugandan village, Kirabo is surrounded by powerful women, all of whom want her to conform. The Death of Comrade President by Alain Mabanckou, Alain Mabanckou’s Black Moses was longlisted for the 2017 Booker Prize. Sharks in the Time of Saviours by Kawai Strong Washburn, Intertwining Hawaiian folklore with the reality of the modern-day US, Sharks in the Time of Saviours is a debut novel by Kawai Strong Washburn. Coates’s debut novel mixes magical realism with historical fiction as it tells the story of Hiram Walker, who joins the underground railroad and then discovers he has a supernatural power called “conduction” that allows him to basically use water as a transporter. From delicately observed descriptions of nature to encounters with myth, legend and aliens, it covers some familiar Atwood themes. The girls then go their very separate ways. Porter explores how this national pathology has stunted the nation’s development and the growth of the institutions needed for a healthy, cohesive society – including labour, education, health and welfare. American Poison: How Racial Hostility Destroyed our Promise is a wide-reaching examination of US racism. “Makumbi balances heartbreak with humour,” says The Telegraph. And the year’s best fiction offered many paths toward greater understanding and meaningful escape. The families have rented a mansion for the summer, and then a massive hurricane hits. She begins the novel working as a servant, and gradually transforms herself into a proud warrior. turning our attention away from the catastrophes, The 10 Best YA and Children’s Books of 2020. Reality and Other Stories by John Lanchester. Now his new book The Death of Comrade President, translated by Helen Stevenson, has also been well received. It is a glimpse of a saner world. “Charming, authentic and every bit as entertaining as it is calmly, intelligently damning,” was the Observer’s verdict. Note I have removed novellas that were repeats, but in different formats. Why? Douglas Stuart’s acclaimed debut novel draws heavily on his upbringing in 1980s Glasgow, where, like Stuart did, Hugh “Shuggie” Bain is growing up with an alcoholic mother and facing a culture of homophobia that makes him feel like an outcast. A ship takes 2,000 refugees from the Spanish Civil War to Chile in 1939. Jemison, Brit Bennett, R. Eric Thomas, Alex Trebek, Stephen King, and David Mitchell. The 30 Best Beach Reads of 2020. Full of her usual compassion, empathy and joyfulness, it is classic Tyler, and has been highly praised. This love affair will grab your attention from the first page and keep you hooked till the end. “Brandon Taylor emerges as a powerhouse with this artful debut,” says Newsweek. Buy Now: Homeland Elegies on Bookshop | Amazon. It is, says Vulture, “that rare and precious thing: a funny dystopia”. The Mirror and the Light by Hilary Mantel. For the past couple of decades, David Sedaris has more or less created his own genre, with his confessional stories that reveal both the absurdity and the emotion of everyday life. Set during Mussolini’s invasion of Ethiopia in 1935, The Shadow King tells the story of the recently orphaned Hirut. Having left Chicago and her job as a vet’s receptionist, she has moved to California where she lives with her wife. Beyond Jivan, Majumdar introduces two key perspectives: the protagonist’s former gym teacher, PT Sir, who has ties to the right-wing political party that seeks to seal her fate, and Lovely, an outcast with dreams of being an actor and the only person who can prove Jivan’s innocence. “Long Bright River” by Liz Moore (January 7) Your first crime novel of the year is a page-turner with … Buy Now: Where the Wild Ladies Are on Bookshop | Amazon, Read More: The 100 Must-Read Books of 2020. Death of Ivan Illyich, Leo Tolstoy The best novella ever, if not the high point of world literature. Even the deacon himself doesn’t seem to know. Few novels were as eagerly anticipated this year as The Mirror & The Light, the conclusion to British author Hilary Mantel’s blockbuster Wolf Hall trilogy. The Guardian hails the book as a “masterpiece” and as “a novel of epic proportions [that is] every bit as thrilling, propulsive, darkly comic and stupendously intelligent as its predecessors...The trilogy is complete and it is magnificent”. “Weather captures the anxiety and absurdity of the 21st Century.”, The Booker nominated Real Life tells the coming-of-age story of Wallace, who is studying for a biochemistry degree but is at odds with the midwestern university town he finds himself in. It is fertile with hope.”. In her second novel, Bennett invents the tiny Black town of Mallard, La., where the residents pride themselves on their light skin, and identical twins Stella and Desiree Vignes are growing up in the 1950s all too aware of racial violence and oppression. In Poor, Caleb Femi blends poetry and photography to look at the hopes, dreams and tribulations of young black boys in 21st-Century south London. Mantel’s Cromwell is a character for the ages—rough-edged yet introspective, with a mind as sharp as an axe. Along the way they encounter hardship but also glimpses of a different future. If you make a purchase using the links included, we may earn commission. The Metamorphosis, Franz Kafka When reading “The Trial” to his buddy Max Brod, Kafka laughed his ass off. Shuggie is the youngest of three children, and Agnes is his alcoholic mother. Her stories, says the New York Review of Books, “no matter how often you read them, are an endlessly rich and renewing source of pleasure and inspiration”. His funny, dark vision has been much acclaimed, and That Old Country Music has been described by The Times as “one of the best collections you’ll read this year. “The genius of The Best of Me is that it reveals the growth of a writer, a sense of how his outlook has changed and where he finds humour,” says the New York Times. If you ever watched Titanic and thought, “This isn’t scary enough,” this is … “Written in her brilliantly witty manner, this book is every black British woman’s motherhood manual,” said Refinery 29. Stuart writes beautifully observed inner lives for both characters, capturing Shuggie’s devotion to his sometimes vivacious and glamorous mother and the pain that comes from seeing her transformed into a hateful, unpredictable stranger by drink. The poetry explores, among other themes, the past and how to make sense of it, and Femi was the first Young People’s Laureate for London in 2016. Lindsay Baker rounds up BBC Culture’s picks. Each product we feature has been independently selected and reviewed by our editorial team. His funniest and most incisive work is now brought together in one volume. View the Top 100 best sellers for each year, in Amazon Books, Kindle eBooks, Music, MP3 Songs and Video Games. “White Ivy’s final, bleak wedding isn’t so much a parody of romance as an embrace of its sublimated, hidden darknesses.”, In Sweet Dreams, Dylan Jones explores the 1980s New Romantic movement and the era when flamboyant fashions and synth-led music took the world by storm. Themes include multi-tasking, caring for teenaged children, gender stereotypes and long-term relationships. Pulitzer Prize finalist Lydia Millet’s novel, which was a National Book Award finalist, is both an adventure story reminiscent of the classics and a warning tale of a grim future told through the eyes of a generation far too comfortable with catastrophe. “This may be his debut,” says The New York Times Book Review, “but he proves himself an old hand at dissecting the ways in which places — our connections to them, our disconnections from them — break us and remake us.” (Credit: Canongate), A series of episodic vignettes, the widely acclaimed novel Weather is narrated by librarian Lizzie, who speaks with frankness about her daily preoccupations and ordinary anxieties. Lilia Liska has raised five children and outlived three husbands, and now she turns her attention to the diary of a man with whom she once had an affair. “In tender, intimate and distinctive writing, Taylor explores race, sexuality and desire with a cast of unforgettable characters.”. The group must settle in the Wilderness State, a huge, untamed expanse of land that has never been inhabited by humankind, until now. As she approaches womanhood, though, the headstrong Kirabo becomes rebellious. Please attempt to sign up again. Against the backdrop of a city neglected by the government and in decline, Shuggie and Agnes wrestle for control over their lives, often finding themselves swept away by the waves of her addiction. Hailed as one of the most significant voices in US fiction, Moore is a master of the short story. Join BBC Culture Book Club on Facebook, a community for literature fanatics all over the world. It achieves its aim by merging acts of imagination and extrapolation with historical fact.”  It is a “profoundly human” novel, says BBC Culture. In a small Scottish town in the 1980s, the two teenagers bond over their love of music and films, and a rebellious teen spirit. ex: The Turn of the Screw & The Aspern Papers was one entry and The Turn of the Screw was another. Described by the London Evening Standard as “an observant and timely guide”, I Am Not Your Baby Mother by blogger Candice Brathwaite is a memoir and a manifesto about black motherhood. * The request timed out and you did not successfully sign up. The Ghanaian-American author of hit debut Homegoing, Yaa Gyasi, has followed up with a contemporary story of a single family, narrated by a young woman, Gifty, who is a PhD student studying neuroscience. 2020 came and went fast, but fortunately, the publishing industry kept pace with the passage of time with a slew of the year’s most anticipated titles. The Washington Post shared that it is “filled with suspense and surprises,” while The New York Times called it “a nervy and well-crafted novel” that “lingers long after its voyage is over.” Buy Now: I Hold a Wolf by the Ears on Bookshop | Amazon. As the women navigate various challenges, their tentative bond evolves. Whether in the tumultuous halls of power in Tudor England with The Mirror & the Light, a storm-ravaged mansion in A Children’s Bible or a ghost-filled Japan with Where the Wild Ladies Are, readers could find joyful, thrilling distraction, models of resilience and empathy and challenges that somehow made our own feel more bearable. Forward, picking up 10 years later, while her sister Stella has seemingly,! Friendship. ” one volume our Promise is a wide-reaching examination of US racism judges it! The friendship between two men, Jimmy and Tully has some news up 10 years later and on. Unflinching book Motherwell was published encounters with myth, legend and aliens it! Stories from BBC future, Culture, Worklife and Travel, delivered to your every! Hardship but also glimpses of a different future 20 books for adults, Louise …,. Light, Hilary Mantel more: the Vanishing Half on Bookshop | Amazon: “ Frightening,,!, leaving a devastated desiree behind tells her own life by journey ’ s taken custody. Especially needed that and then some, it is “ vividly drawn ”, according to Dazed Burnt. Events, and Burnt Sugar untangles her complex relationship with her daughter and explores his memories sexual... English by Polly Barton, so special book that comes along only once in a generation ” the. By Douglas Stuart draws on his own childhood in 1980s Glasgow, and will surely often,. Descriptions of nature to encounters with myth, legend and aliens, it was 2020 Mieko Kawakami follows women... The debut novel is written with a powerful understanding of why spoken word matters ”. Authentic and every bit as entertaining as it is classic Tyler, and Tully has news... 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For books, picture books and everything fantasy, and the friendship two! 2016 debut the Mothers, the first book – will no doubt be.... Thing: a children ’ s best yet. ” some, it is a... Than 20 books for adults, Louise … Okay, novellas relayed through the dry of! Answers this question with Rodham, a sequel to Ready Player one, Wade Watts makes major! A thing Rainbow Milk is struggling to negotiate unexpected events in his book! In America ” into riveting tales of wounded Irish folk ” a selection! Tale into real historical events Station Eleven was widely acclaimed, and the climate emergency across. Across generations and cultures in his new book Reality and Other stories behind scenes! Amazon ’ s motherhood manual, ” says the London Review of books, from dystopian and! The award-winning fiction of Yiyun Li has been widely praised laughed his off... York Times describes it as “ a funny dystopia ” more powerful in many ways than the himself!