December 14, 2024
Year-end lists abound now, and it is hard not to duplicate what so many close readers and critics have already selected—because 2024 was a very good year for outstanding fiction. Here are ten novels that (IMHO) should have received even more attention and awards; all should be read for many years to come. Be sure to visit us at the Bookstore this holiday season to shop these titles and more—we’ve got something for everyone on your list.
Happy reading,
Melanie Fleishman
Buyer, The Center for Fiction Bookstore
Featured Books
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The Cemetery of Untold Stories
By JULIA ALVAREZ
Published by ALGONQUIN PRESS
A writer inherits a plot of land on which she decides to bury her unfinished stories. Alvarez synthesizes themes present in many of her equally beautiful novels: storytelling, sisterhood, the violent legacy of the Dominican Republic, the pull of two cultures, and the craft of writing itself.
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Ixelles
By JOHANNES ANYURU
Published by TWO LINES PRESS
Translated by Nichola Smalley
Due to an assignment at work, Ruth and her son return to Antwerp, where her husband disappeared when she was still pregnant. Ruth discovers a recording of his voice that might indicate he is still alive. This is a truly magical Borgesian work by an acclaimed Swedish poet and playwright.
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The Heart in Winter
By KEVIN BARRY
Published by DOUBLEDAY
In late 1800s Montana, our Irish narrator Tom is a ghostwriter for other men’s mail order brides. But when Polly arrives for her husband, it is love at first sight for both Polly and Tom. Soon they are on the run like Bonnie and Clyde in a Coen brothers movie making for an unlikely comic western.
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The Ministry of Time
By KALIANE BRADLEY
Published by AVID READER PRESS
In a near-future England, they’ve discovered time travel and have extracted five ‘expats’ from different time periods in history to be studied and observed. The main character is someone who was lost in a famous Arctic expedition. It is a moving, romantic, funny, and thought-provoking piece of speculative fiction.
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Our Evenings
By ALAN HOLLINGHURST
Published by RANDOM HOUSE
Dave Win has a white mother, an absent Burmese father, and is secretly attracted to men. We meet his lovers, follow his acting career, and observe the racial, sexual, and class tensions he faces throughout his entire life, rising to a shocking finale in the author’s most stunning novel yet.
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This Strange Eventful History
By CLAIRE MESSUD
Published by NORTON
A peripatetic Algerian family creates new ‘homes’ for themselves despite displacement. Their triumphs (enduring love) and tragedies (illnesses, depression, regret) create a tapestry of players on the world stage across generations of the 20th century. It is an incredibly rewarding novel—inspired by the author’s own family.
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Caledonian Road
By ANDREW O’HAGAN
Published by NORTON
Looking for better book sales, a Scottish art historian who specializes in Vermeer decides to write a self-help book under a pseudonym and becomes involved with some very questionable characters. It’s a highly entertaining takedown of the aristocracy, the government, and the art and fashion worlds.
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Neighbors and Other Stories
By DIANE OLIVER
Published by GROVE
After publishing only a handful of stories, Oliver died at 22 in a motorcycle accident while at the University of Iowa. Growing up Black in Jim Crow-era North Carolina, she experienced the toxic racism that informs her fiction. Her social commentary and psychological portraits are dazzling.
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Bear
By JULIA PHILLIPS
Published by HOGARTH
Phillips’s second novel is a profound meditation on the inexorable forces of nature and nurture. Set on the San Juan Islands, a single mother and her two daughters struggle to stay financially afloat. Then an enormous bear arrives in their small, insulated community. A story of the beasts within us all, a revelation of the unbreakable bonds of sisterhood, and a warning that it is almost impossible to halt the natural impulses of survival.
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The Safekeep
By YAEL VAN DER WOUDEN
Published by AVID READER PRESS
This unnerving Dutch tale is set in a house where misanthropic Isabel has been living alone since her parents died. When her brother arrives and leaves his girlfriend there while he is away on business, her life is upended and she experiences a surprising sexual awakening.
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