The 63 Best Books of 2020

The best short stories not only deftly transport you into other people's lives and psyches, but have the ability to conjure tiny planets of experience with a few words. Danielle Evans is a master of the form, and her new collection is a sharply observed and perfectly aligned universe. With wry observation and an ear for the inner and outer monologue, Evans vividly creates microclimates that examine the ponderous nature of grief, the infinitesimal line between micro- and macroaggressions, and the fog of relationships. An essential read. —R. Eric Thomas 

James McBride’s latest brings to light one of the most vivid communities in literature and a heartbreaking yet often comic protagonist. In 1969 Brooklyn, Sportcoat, an elderly church deacon, becomes the talk of the town when he shoots a local drug dealer in full view of the neighborhood. The why behind the crime, which Sportcoat can’t recall, is unraveled in a story that demonstrates the power of human connections, memories, and compassion. —AG

K-Ming Chang’s debut is a poetic marvel, a feat of form that explodes the novel to capture the magical and utterly heartbreaking saga of one Taiwanese American family. Told from the perspective of three generations—Mother, Daughter, and Grandmother—Bestiary recounts one family’s journey through lands familiar and unknown as they untangle the truths and myths entwined in their lineage. —Julie Kosin

They say sophomore novels are the hardest to write, but Yaa Gyasi makes it look easy with this follow-up to Homegoing. The story follows Gifty, a talented PhD student studying neuroscience in a desperate attempt to understand human suffering as it ravages her own family. This is a can't-miss, breathtaking story of faith, science, and where the two intertwine. —Lauren Puckett

In a unique spin that vaguely recalls George Saunders's Lincoln in the Bardo, Maggie O'Farrell turns to a historical figure and his heartbreaking loss to craft Hamnet. Set, of course, in Stratford-Upon-Avon, the story weaves a portrait of the Shakespeares, their fascinating marriage, and the death of a child whose name still resonates today. —LP

Deesha Philyaw’s first collection heralds the arrival of an urgent new talent. In nine stunning short stories, she captures the needs, desires, and contradictions of modern Black womanhood in honest, loving prose. —JK

A New York Times Notable Book of the Year that was also longlisted for the Booker Prize, How Much of These Hills Is Gold is an astonishing debut that lives up to the hype and more. Set in the West during the American gold rush, the story centers on two young orphans, the children of Chinese immigrants, as they search for a new future in a foreign landscape. —LP

“Delightful” may not be the first word that springs to mind when it comes to gothic horror, but Noemí, the narrator of Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s latest, is just that—a confident socialite hell-bent on discovering the cause of her cousin’s deterioration following her marriage to a mysterious Englishman. You’ll want to devour this in one sitting, but try to pace yourself—Moreno-Garcia’s storytelling is all the more vivid when you really immerse yourself in her fantastical settings. —JK

An instant classic, novelist and TV writer Charles Yu’s fourth novel gorgeously marries both writing forms in a wry, heartfelt story of a young man with dreams of stardom beyond the tropes assigned to Asian actors.  —JK

Amber Sparks’s work is transportive, delivering readers to other worlds and realities in just a few sentences. This slim, 22-story collection comprises fairytales and modern fables about womanhood infused with awe, grief, and redemption, inspiring fury and hope in equal measure. —JK

Cho Nam-Joo’s debut novel inspired a feminist revolution when it was published in Korea in 2016, and this year, English-language readers could finally immerse themselves in the stifling, stilted life of Kim Jiyoung—a young woman who wants more than the misogyny society delivers her at life’s every turn. —JK

Bryan Washington's protagonists, Benson and Mike, are ostensibly in love, but their relationship is surviving on fumes and faded memories. When Mike sets out for Japan to find his ailing father, Benson turns elsewhere for comfort, but even from miles apart, the two find a way to understand each other like never before. This lovely novel is an unexpected treat—hilarious, confounding, and tender. —LP

The Puritans of Plymouth have never felt more vivid—or devastatingly human—than in TaraShea Nesbit’s second novel, which examines the conventions and machinations that encouraged and oppressed inside the pre-American settlement. —JK

A vacation reuniting dozens of college friends and their offspring turns increasingly, viscerally dark in Lydia Millet’s haunting and oddly funny tale of humanity’s effect on the earth and the legacy our children will be forced to reckon with. —JK

This superb psychological thriller chronicles a Brooklyn neighborhood transformed by gentrification with a twist: The motivation to "revitalize" this community might be far more sinister than it appears. —LP

Want is a story about traumas, though not the obvious kind. It's the saga of Elizabeth, who, of course, wants things: a life where she needn't go bankrupt in spite of two jobs, two kids, a husband, and a PhD. With humor and critique, Strong exposes what happens when women dare to desire—and are forced to look elsewhere to satisfy it. The result is a novel both electric and consuming without ever shedding its subtlety. —LP

The protagonist of Hilary Leichter’s spare, riveting debut is obsessed with work—that is, moving beyond a temp placement into one of permanence—and her position within a surreal, strictured society creeps into disturbing familiarity as she scrambles for survival. —JK

When Margot returns to her childhood home and finds her mother Mina dead, she realizes she knows nothing about the life of the woman who raised her. A dual narrative traces Mina’s post-Korean War youth and struggles as an immigrant and single mother in Los Angeles alongside Margot’s effort to learn the things she never asked her mother. Kim’s compelling debut novel moves like a mystery but is filled with much more grace.—AG

Before becoming a face of the resistance, Maxine Waters spent decades in Congress. Helena Andrews-Dyer and ELLE’s R. Eric Thomas render her life in beautiful detail. —AG

Raised in a small, insular Southern town in the 1950s, twins Desiree and Stella Vignes make their escape as soon as they can. Though Desiree eventually returns, Stella settles in Los Angeles, where she passes for white. As both raise daughters in different worlds, Bennett beautifully explores how each sister's decisions impact herself and her daughter—and how all their lives remain inextricably connected. —AG