This year didn’t turn out how we expected, but its books were even better than we’d hoped.
The BookPage editors are pleased to present our most highly recommended books of 2020.
In the best middle grade books of 2020, you'll meet an intrepid sleuth, a lonely hedgehog and the members of one of the most famous soccer teams of all time—and their stories are all unforgettable.
10. Premeditated Myrtle by Elizabeth C. Bunce
This series opener charmingly evokes the spirit of Louise Fitzhugh’s Harriet the Spy, if Harriet were a bit more inclined toward afternoon tea.
9. We Dream of Space by Erin Entrada Kelly
We Dream of Space is a celebration of the need for optimism in the face of disasters both individual and communal.
8. Echo Mountain by Lauren Wolk
In Wolk’s signature evocative language, this complex historical novel explores themes of family, social responsibility and modern versus traditional medicine.
7. Land of the Cranes by Aida Salazar
Salazar’s novel-in-verse is a powerful call to recognize the experiences of migrants as well as an intimate portrait of a caring, supportive family fighting for their freedom.
6. The Only Black Girls in Town by Brandy Colbert
Colbert’s light touch with weighty subjects pays off handsomely in her first middle grade novel.
5. Our Friend Hedgehog by Lauren Castillo
"Reading Castillo’s illustrated chapter book is like getting the coziest cup of tea on the coldest day of the year."—Stephanie, Associate Editor
4. King and the Dragonflies by Kacen Callender
This moving, lyrical story is infused with a sense of hope that flutters and glitters like so many delicate dragonfly wings.
3. Fighting Words by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley
Bradley called Fighting Words “the work I was put on this earth to do.” She was right.
2. All Thirteen by Christina Soontornvat
Soontornvat’s chronicle of the rescue of the Wild Boars boys soccer team from a Thai cave is tense, expansive and revelatory.
1. Everything Sad Is Untrue by Daniel Nayeri
"It’s easy to say that a children’s book could change the world, because so many children’s books do by changing the life of one reader. But I’m still going to say it: This book could change the world."—Stephanie, Associate Editor
ALSO IN BOOKPAGE: Discover all of BookPage’s Best Books of 2020.
The originator of the adage that life doesn't come with an instruction manual must never have picked up a picture book. When we're young, everything about life is new, uncertain, challenging and seemingly incomprehensible, without rhyme or reason—rather like 2020 has turned out to be. That's why we're so fortunate to have picture books like these. They offer us wisdom, laughter, comfort and wonder for every age, in any age.
10. Prairie Days by Patricia MacLachlan, illustrated by Micha Archer
"Archer’s extraordinary illustrations deliver a new thrill with every turn of the page. This is the most beautiful book of the year."—Allison, Children's Books
9. The Paper Kingdom by Helena Ku Rhee, illustrated by Pascal Campion
"The power of imagination to enliven any task is on full display in this gently told tale of a child who accompanies his parents to their job as night janitors."—Trisha, Publisher
8. I Talk Like a River by Jordan Scott, illustrated by Sydney Smith
Drawn from Scott’s personal experience with stuttering, I Talk Like a River is compassionate without resorting to sentimentality and dazzlingly brought to life by illustrator Smith.
7. The Little Mermaid by Jerry Pinkney
Pinkney breathes new life into Hans Christian Andersen’s familiar tale. This is an impressive addition to the already excellent body of work of one of the most acclaimed children’s book creators of all time.
6. Sugar in Milk by Thrity Umrigar, illustrated by Khoa Le
"This story about the sweetness that comes when we invite new people into our hearts is beautifully crafted."—Stephanie, Associate Editor
5. In a Jar by Deborah Marcero
The story of a little bunny who collects tangible reminders of special moments, In a Jar captivates, entertains and leaves you with a sense of magic still shimmering around the edges.
4. Me & Mama by Cozbi A. Cabrera
"Cabrera perfectly captures the adoration a young girl feels toward her mother, and her acrylic illustrations take my breath away."—Stephanie, Associate Editor
3. 13 Stories About Harris by Amy Schwartz
Schwartz proves herself a master of understated humor in this baker’s dozen of irresistibly charming tales.
2. Rain Before Rainbows by Smriti Prasadam-Halls, illustrated by David Litchfield
Litchfield’s color-saturated illustrations are stunning, and Prasadam-Halls’ spare benediction of gentle comfort will settle quietly into your heart.
1. The Old Truck by Jarrett Pumphrey and Jerome Pumphrey
This debut by two talented brothers is an extraordinary and universally appealing new classic.
ALSO IN BOOKPAGE: Discover all of BookPage’s Best Books of 2020.
Memoir lovers, start your engines. This year's best true stories of tragedy, resilience, transformation and love will fuel you for months to come.
25. The Lady's Handbook for Her Mysterious Illness by Sarah Ramey
Though Ramey has experienced considerable pain while living with a chronic illness and enduring medical professionals' skepticism, contempt and even misogyny over the years, she manages to tell the tale with a pointed sense of humor and boatloads of heart.
24. The Sediments of Time by Meave Leakey
It's hard to say which is the more interesting part of this memoir: Leakey's fabulous, colorful life, traveling the globe doing paleontological research, or the amazing discoveries she makes about humanity's past along the way. Luckily for readers, The Sediments of Time includes generous portions of both.
23. Counterpoint by Philip Kennicott
Kennicott's gentle, contemplative account of being consumed by the music of Bach—listening to it, philosophizing about it, even learning to play it—during the decade following his mother's death is a beautiful and unforgettable triumph.
Playwright Adjmi's coming-of-age memoir recounts his life as an outsider—in his family, his school and his Syrian Jewish community in Brooklyn—as he fumbles toward finding himself artistically and personally. Sensitive, insightful and funny, Lot Six is a winning debut.
21. What Is the Grass by Mark Doty
In this elegant blend of literary criticism and personal memoir, one of America’s most perceptive contemporary poets digs deep into the work of Walt Whitman in search of personal—and communal—signposts.
20. Dancing With the Octopus by Debora Harding
With remarkable narrative skill, Harding untangles the lingering effects of family dysfunction and criminal trauma. This is a page-turner with a deep heart and soul, full of forgiveness but demanding of accountability.
Sigh, Gone is the great punk rock immigrant story. Tran is funny and heartfelt as he filters the archetypal high school misfit story through the lens of immigration, assimilation and the ways music and books can bring us together, even when the larger world threatens to tear us apart.
18. When Time Stopped by Ariana Neumann
Neumann's father once told her, “Sometimes you have to leave the past where it is—in the past.” Fortunately for readers, Neumann ignored her father’s admonition and shares the results of her meticulous research in a brilliantly heart-wrenching memoir.
17. The Erratics by Vicki Laveau-Harvie
Laveau-Harvie’s debut memoir is a beautifully crafted, unblinkingly honest, often darkly funny lament for a loving family that never was, dotted with precious moments of rueful levity and fleeting beauty.
16. Places I've Taken My Body by Molly McCully Brown
Brown's careful and poetic attention—to the world and the way her body moves through it—shines in this essay collection about travel, sex, work and cerebral palsy.
15. The Escape Artist by Helen Fremont
When Fremont's father died and her mother and sister legally excised her from the family, it opened up a lifetime's worth of secrets, betrayal, trauma and lies. As far as family memoirs go, The Escape Artist is as twisted, insightful and beautifully rendered as they come.
14. Uncanny Valley by Anna Wiener
When Wiener left the world of New York publishing and dove headfirst into San Francisco's startup tech industry, she became an anthropologist of venture capital, coding and big data. Her book is the definitive account of the topsy-turvy world of Silicon Valley, told with the wit and skepticism of a humanities major.
13. A Honeybee Heart Has Five Openings by Helen Jukes
Jukes' memoir of learning to keep bees in her Oxford garden is full-to-bursting with warmth, wildness and visions of the gleaming, humming natural world. It's the perfect antidote to corporate stress and modern anxiety.
This is a read-in-one-sitting kind of memoir. Danler's beautifully crafted tale of childhood trauma, addiction, illness, toxic relationships and, ultimately, new beginnings is set against the backdrop of her native state of California, in all its dangerous beauty.
11. Minor Feelings by Cathy Park Hong
In biting essays that cover topics as broad as intergenerational trauma, art, colonization and stand-up comedy, Hong dismantles reductionist stereotypes and showcases the textured complexities of Asian American identity.
10. Once I Was You by Maria Hinojosa
Thirty years of award-winning journalism culminate in Hinojosa’s beautiful and passionate memoir, which combines her personal story with the history of U.S. immigration policy and its damning effects on the lives of real people.
9. Wow, No Thank You. by Samantha Irby
“Samantha Irby is one of the funniest writers working today, but her frankness about things like chronic illness and depression make her so much more than just the Midwest’s patron saint of poop jokes.” —Christy, Associate Editor
Inferno is uniquely, breathtakingly beautiful. As Cho recounts her experience of postpartum psychosis, she moves maternal mental illness out of the shadows and offers a vision of motherhood that is honest, complicated and refreshing.
7. Nobody Will Tell You This but Me by Bess Kalb
“Family memoirs are usually about dysfunction, so it’s refreshing to read one that’s inspired by a soul-deep bond. The special kinship between Kalb and her grandmother, Bobby, is at the heart of this carefully crafted story. I laughed, I cried, I passed my copy on to someone I loved.” —Trisha, Publisher
6. World of Wonders by Aimee Nezhukumatathil
Fireflies, wrens and ribbon eels are strung together like glittering jewels in this collection. In essays that explore the love for nature that has sustained her throughout her life, poet Nezhukumatathil finds a sense of connection to the world and a way to soften its sharp edges.
5. Children of the Land by Marcelo Hernandez Castillo
“Whatever ideas you hold about families who cross the border without documentation, this memoir will complicate them. Castillo seems to crack open his own chest to reveal the human cost and personal injury of immigrating to the U.S.” —Christy, Associate Editor
4. Conditional Citizens by Laila Lalami
Lalami’s first work of nonfiction considers who has access to the rights and freedoms America is known for and whose citizenship is restricted. It’s a gigantic question that, in the hands of this gifted storyteller, becomes deeply personal.
3. Is Rape a Crime? by Michelle Bowdler
Among the horde of books about assault in America, Is Rape a Crime? stands apart. Bowdler’s candid recounting of her own mishandled legal case swells into a stinging indictment of the criminal justice system’s failure to treat sexual violence as a crime.
2. Memorial Drive by Natasha Trethewey
“Trethewey’s ability to translate the bone-crushing tragedy of her mother’s murder into art borders on alchemy.” —Christy, Associate Editor
1. Notes on a Silencing by Lacy Crawford
Crawford’s story of sexual assault and institutional cover-up is harrowing, but her elegant writing and propulsive narrative structure keep readers from ever sinking into despair. It’s a rare and brilliant achievement, and readers will be both gripped and challenged by this remarkable book.
When the BookPage editors finished creating our lists of the Best Books of 2020, we found we just couldn't stop! Here we've rounded up amazing 2020 books we love for very specific reasons. They're all Most Likely to Succeed in providing you with even more great reading experiences.
Most gasp-worthy prose
Luster
By Raven Leilani
Raven Leilani offered the most jaw-droppingly slick prose of the year in her debut novel, the story of a young Black woman who begins a relationship with a white married man and, after running into financial trouble, moves in with his family. Leilani looks right into the hearts of her complicated characters, and her writing can be cutting, cool and kind from one moment to the next, never giving the reader a chance to get too comfortable. This is a master prose artist at work.
Best book about books
Eight Perfect Murders
By Peter Swanson
Everyone loves a book about books, but maintaining the perfect balance can be surprisingly tricky. You want to pay proper homage to the classics you love, but you also don’t want their enormous shadows to dwarf the story you’re trying to tell. Peter Swanson gets it precision-point right in Eight Perfect Murders, in which bookseller Mal Kershaw’s blog post on the eight best murders of crime fiction appears to be inspiring an equally literarily inclined killer.
Most stereotypes busted
A Measure of Belonging
Edited by Cinelle Barnes
The South’s violent, regressive history looms large in America’s popular imagination. But in truth, there’s much more to this humid, deep-fried region than controversies over Confederate memorials and buttermilk biscuits. A Measure of Belonging breaks through stereotypes established by white Southerners by showcasing the perspectives, stories and voices of 21 writers of color from across the South. What emerges is a picture of Southern life that is vibrant, joyful, challenging and much closer to the truth.
Best sentient inanimate object
Bess the Barn Stands Strong
By Elizabeth Gilbert Bedia
Illustrated by Katie Hickey
Children's literature has a long tradition of books that give human qualities to ordinary objects, from forms of transportation and construction equipment to to art supplies and items of clothing. Bess the Barn Stand Strong is a luminous addition to this very specific canon. When we're young, the idea that the world existed before we were born and will continue to exist after we're gone can be a big and sometimes frightening concept to grasp. This simple tale of a beloved barn that falls into disrepair but still provides shelter is a beautiful reminder that although our journeys through life will be full of many changes, love can help us weather every storm.
Best breakup book
The Regrets
By Amy Bonnaffons
Everyone’s got their own post-breakup remedy, but reading about a woman shaking herself free of a toxic relationship is a particularly great way to feel validated and seen. All the better that Amy Bonnaffons' debut novel has ghost sex, and that the protagonist is literally haunted by her ex. This is a completely different kind of love story, one in which fighting for yourself leads to the best kind of happily ever after.
Most creatively creepy villain
Emerald Blaze
By Ilona Andrews
One of the many joys of Andrews’ paranormal romance series is its breathtaking creativity when it comes to the uses of magic. You’ve got elemental mages and telekinetics, of course, but also weapons mages and summoners, i.e., people who can bring creatures from other realities into our world. When a terrifying arcane hive mind is summoned and takes over an (also terrifying) automaton, it is truly the worst of both worlds. Think Annihilation but welded to magical technology controlled by a consciousness increasingly obsessed with our heroine, Catalina Baylor. Such is the stuff of nightmares.
Best book for millennials
Can't Even
By Anne Helen Petersen
Anne Helen Petersen’s 2019 Buzzfeed article about millennial burnout sent a shudder through a generation trying to get their careers off the ground and hitting obstacle after obstacle. From the 2008 financial crisis to the rise of the gig economy to the ever-present messaging that our jobs should give our lives meaning, millennials’ relationships with work have always been complicated. Petersen’s book reveals that this strained relationship isn’t a passing trend, however. It’s the foundation on which their professional lives are all built, and the implications are damning. Well researched and totally engrossing, Can’t Even will make every millennial (not to mention generations X and Z) reexamine their exhaustion in the struggle to get ahead.
Best graphic novel for young readers
Twins
By Varian Johnson
Illustrated by Shannon Wright
It's wonderful to see young readers devouring graphic novels with enthusiasm. To satisfy their seemingly insatiable hunger, pick up Coretta Scott King Honor author Varian Johnson and talented illustrator Shannon Wright's first foray into graphic storytelling. Twins is a fresh but classical-feeling story about the growing pains of sisterhood, set against the backdrop of the first year of middle school. It'll be irresistible to readers who love the relatable and authentic graphic novels of Raina Telgemeier, Shannon Hale and LeUyen Pham, and Newbery Medalist Jerry Craft. Be sure not to miss the fantastic childhood photo of Johnson and his twin brother, Brad, complete with matching baseball uniforms, on the author's acknowledgements page.
Best social media novel
Little Eyes
By Samanta Schweblin
Imagine a Furby on wheels that’s being controlled by an unknown person somewhere else in the world. That’s the fabulously “Black Mirror”-esque premise of Samanta Schweblin’s latest novel. People can participate in this new trend in two different ways: You can buy a “kentuki” and let it live in your house, or you can sign up to control a random person’s kentuki. There’s a power imbalance to exploit from either side, and Schweblin reveals several different kentuki connections—and just how dark they can get. By the end, you’ll feel especially grateful for that tiny piece of tape on your laptop’s camera . . .
Deepest read
Thin Places
By Jordan Kisner
Jordan Kisner thinks deeply about the world, and her debut collection of essays reflects an experience of life that is beautiful, stimulating and complex. If you’re looking for an exploration of faith, love, loss, science, psychology, religion, mental health and spiritual transformation—one that allows these things to be as difficult and complicated as they truly are instead of polishing their surfaces until they shine—look no further than Thin Places.
Dopest read
This Is Major
By Shayla Lawson
This book's subtitle says it all: "Notes on Diana Ross, Dark Girls, and Being Dope." Shayla Lawson’s innovative style and sharp mind for cultural criticism complement each other perfectly in This Is Major, making for one of the freshest essay collections of the year. She drills down into popular tropes like “Black girl magic” and the “strong Black woman,” rejecting ideas of Black womanhood that are rooted in an inherently supernatural or superhuman disposition and celebrating the more nuanced, grounded reality of being Black and femme.
Best series finale
The Burning God
By R.F. Kuang
R.F. Kuang’s ambitious Poppy War trilogy came to a magnificent and fiery end in The Burning God. The author never shied away from the more devastating aspects of her war-torn world (inspired by 20th-century China) while creating characters that inspired love, hate and fascination.
Best novel with a time constraint
Today Tonight Tomorrow
By Rachel Lynn Solomon
In a letter to Fanny Brawne, the poet John Keats once wished "we were butterflies and liv'd but three summer days—three such days with you I could fill with more delight than fifty common years could ever contain." Rachel Lynn Solomon's third novel, Today Tonight Tomorrow, one-ups Keats as it packs a love story for the ages into just 24 hours on the last day of high school. In addition to depicting the best enemies-to-lovers romance of the year, it's also a master class in characterization and pacing.
When the BookPage editors finished creating our lists of the Best Books of 2020, we found we just couldn't stop! Here we've rounded up amazing 2020 books we love for very specific reasons. They're all Most Likely to Succeed in providing you with even more great reading experiences.
2020 has been a year full of surprises, but one thing has remained constant: great books! As the year comes to a close, it's time to look back on the titles BookPage readers have enjoyed the most.
20. All Adults Here by Emma Straub
Emma Straub’s writing is witty, informal and deceptively simple, drawing readers in as if they’re having a conversation with a close friend.
19. The Mercies by Kiran Millwood Hargrave
This exceptional work of historical fiction offers insight into the rippling effects of extremism.
18. The Book of V. by Anna Solomon
The Book of V connects its three characters’ stories not only thematically but also narratively, with a surprising yet inevitable and satisfying conclusion.
17. The Distant Dead by Heather Young
The suspense is slow and steady in this meditative, artistic take on the murder mystery.
16. The Lost Book of Adana Moreau by Michael Zapata
As intriguing as the plot may sound upfront, it can’t speak to the otherworldly beauty of Michael Zapata’s writing.
15. We Are Not Free by Traci Chee
We Are Not Free is a superb addition to the canon of works of literature that chronicle a shameful chapter of American history.
14. Code Name Hélène by Ariel Lawhon
Nancy Grace Augusta Wake is a woman so extraordinary that your first instinct might be to believe she is imaginary, like James Bond.
13. Everything Sad Is Untrue by Daniel Nayeri
Everything Sad Is Untrue is a deeply personal book that makes a compelling case for empathy and hope.
12. Happy and You Know It by Laura Hankin
This is a romp with substance, consumed as easily as a beach read but offering ample opportunities for self-reflection.
11. The Henna Artist by Alka Joshi
Rich in detail and bright with tastes and textures, The Henna Artist is a fabulous glimpse into Indian culture in the 1950s.
10. The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett
In her second novel, Bennett writes like a master, creating rich worlds filled with memorable moments both big and small.
James Nestor’s work reveals the importance of our breath and promises us a changed life if only we’ll take a moment to stop, slow down and breathe.
8. Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid
Smart, witty and even a bit sly, this penetrating social commentary is also one of the year’s most enjoyable novels.
Max Brooks deals not only with the end of humanity; he also shows us our further course toward a new, ineluctable, absolute brutality.
6. The Bright Lands by John Fram
The Bright Lands is a fresh and frightening take on the small-town thriller.
5. The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel
More complicated, weirder and far more haunted than Station Eleven, the new novel from Emily St. John Mandel defies all expectations.
4. A Time for Mercy by John Grisham
John Grisham’s mastery of the courtroom thriller is never in question, and once again, he presents as smooth a read as you’ll ever experience.
If this is not Sue Miller’s best novel, it is surely among her very best. One measure of that is how the experience of it deepens with each reading.
2. When No One Is Watching by Alyssa Cole
Cole leverages her strengths to great effect, incorporating history, biting social observation and even a little romance into this brilliant thriller debut.
1. The Inevitability of Tragedy by Barry Gewen
Barry Gewen's intellectual biography of Henry Kissinger is meticulously researched, consistently stimulating and deeply insightful.
2020 has been a year full of surprises, but one thing has remained constant: great books! As the year comes to a close, it's time to look back on the titles BookPage readers have enjoyed the most.
Getting excited about a year of new books fills us with a blind optimism for which we will never apologize. As we look ahead at what 2021 will offer—at least where books are concerned—our hopes are high!
Check out all the fiction, nonfiction, mystery, romance, SFF, YA and children’s books that the editors of BookPage are most excited to discover this year.
Private Eye July gives us so many opportunities to recommend our favorite thrilling, 100% entertaining, purely pleasurable reads. As mystery and thriller fans know, there’s nothing quite like a book that gets under your skin and ruins any chance of a good night’s sleep. Here are our favorite twisty novels that shook us to the core.
Single mom Louise meets a man, David, at a pub one night. They kiss, it’s great, what a night—but it turns out he’s her new boss. Then Louise meets a gorgeous woman named Adele while out for coffee. Adele is new in town, looking for a friend—and is married to David. Such drama! But what starts as an addicting love triangle thriller— the kind of domestic drama that seems a bit run-of-the-mill in this golden era of suspense fiction—becomes something completely different. It’s character-driven, flawlessly written, and it swept me along to an ending that made my brain into soup. In her 2017 interview with BookPage, Sarah Pinborough called her novel a “Marmite book,” as not everyone will love it. Color me obsessed.
—Cat, Deputy Editor
If you love books (obviously you do, you’re reading BookPage) and haven’t yet read The Thirteenth Tale, I am legitimately jealous. This delightfully eerie tale of a reclusive author and her biographer is a love letter to bibliophiles and books, specifically the gothic masterpieces of the Brontë sisters and Daphne du Maurier. Echoes of Jane Eyre and Rebecca swirl in Diane Setterfield’s elegant, evocative prose as Margaret Lea, bookseller and biographer, listens to what Vida Winter says is the unvarnished truth of her life. I thought about this book whenever I wasn’t reading it and, upon reaching its moving conclusion and truly shocking final twist, felt as if I had been jolted out of a vivid dream.
—Savanna, Assistant Editor
A serial killer in Stalinist Russia? If this premise sounds fresh to you, there’s a historical reason: Soviet propaganda. Stalin asserted that social problems like crime were a byproduct of capitalism. Therefore, in a socialist workers’ paradise, they couldn’t exist. Which puts MGB officer Leo Demidov in an awkward position, since he’s seen the files on dozens of children who died by similar, violent means. Though he’s sure one person is responsible, Demidov knows the consequences of questioning the state. In a society ruled by silence, fear and the inability to tell the truth, can a crime ever be solved? This tension gives the novel a depth that complements Tom Rob Smith’s talent for jaw-dropping twists. Child 44 is an attention-grabbing, one-sitting read.
—Trisha, Publisher
The Cat Who Saw Red
The last time I read a truly heart-stopping, hair-raising novel was . . . never. I’m a huge wuss, and when I settle in with a good book, my aim is to escape the horrors of the real world rather than to approach them. Cue Lilian Jackson Braun’s cozy, low-stakes murder mystery series starring reporter Jim Qwilleran and his two Siamese cats, Koko and Yum Yum. Full disclosure: My grandma recommended this series to me when I was in middle school, and my level of literary courage hasn’t increased even a little bit since then. So to my fellow scaredy-cats out there, I recommend The Cat Who Saw Red for a charming murder mystery that will raise your curiosity more than your blood pressure.
—Christy, Associate Editor
Perhaps this is an unpopular opinion, but I dislike about 90% of the horror novels out there. They often just don’t work as well as horror films can. One book that attempted to enter into the grand tradition of slasher movies—and in my opinion, pulled it off—is Security, Gina Wohlsdorf’s genre-rattling debut. It’s set in a luxe 20-story hotel in Santa Barbara 24 hours before its grand opening, and a masked killer is taking out members of the staff one by one. But the audacity of this thriller is that Wohlsdorf sometimes splits her narrative into columns, signifying different security cameras, allowing the reader to visualize different scenes at once. The stakes stay high, the horror never flags, and I have yet to come across another novel to surprise me in such a way.
—Cat, Deputy Editor
During Women’s History Month, we honor the contributions of women who have gone before, but we also celebrate the work that women are creating now. These female authors are going places, and we can’t wait to follow them.
Dawnie Walton, author of The Final Revival of Opal & Nev
37 Ink • March 30
Walton splits the difference between Taylor Jenkins Reid and James McBride with her debut novel, an oral history about a 1970s rock ’n’ roll duo. With stints at Essence, Entertainment Weekly and Getty Images on her resumé, as well as a handful of fellowships and an MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, where her thesis adviser was Ayana Mathis, Walton’s going to be big, no question.
Lauren Hough, author of Leaving Isn’t the Hardest Thing
Vintage • April 13
Before her HuffPost essay “I Was a Cable Guy. I Saw the Worst of America.” went viral in 2019, Hough was an Air Force airman, a bouncer, a member of a cult and many other things. In April, she’ll add another identity to her roster—author—with a debut book that combines all of her fragmented lives into one impossible-to-ignore volume.
Michelle Zauner, author of Crying in H Mart
Knopf • April 20
Fans of the band Japanese Breakfast may already know Zauner, its frontwoman, for her skill as a lyricist who captures subjects like trauma, sexuality and grief in ways that are both frank and tender. In 2018, Zauner revealed herself to be a skilled prose writer, too, when The New Yorker published the essay “Crying in H Mart” about Zauner’s relationship to her Korean heritage following her mother’s death. Zauner’s debut memoir, which expands on this premise, will showcase her talents to an even wider audience, and we can promise that this is excellent news.
Elissa Washuta, author of White Magic
Tin House • April 27
As the author of two previous memoirs and co-editor of Shapes of Native Nonfiction, a critically acclaimed anthology of contemporary Native essayists, Washuta has already made a name for herself as an undeniable cultural critic and artist. Her third book, White Magic, about rediscovering the power and magic of Indigenous spiritual traditions (among other things), confirms this reputation, and then some. It’s unlike any other book out there and will certainly launch Washuta’s meteoric rise.
Lilly Dancyger, author of Negative Space
Santa Fe Writer’s Project • May 1
A contributing editor and creative writing instructor at Catapult, the editor of the 2019 anthology Burn It Down and a prolific essayist, Dancyger has been a fixture within the narrative nonfiction scene for years. With Negative Space, chosen by Carmen Maria Machado as a winner of the 2019 Santa Fe Writer’s Project Literary Awards, Dancyger will burst onto the scene as a memoirist for the first time, no doubt to a resounding round of applause.
Claire Fuller, author of Unsettled Ground
Tin House • May 18
Sometimes it’s the slowest growers that have the strongest roots. A former sculptor who began writing at the age of 40, Fuller’s been quietly cultivating a devoted following throughout the publication of three previous psychologically sharp novels. Her fourth novel is the tale of two 50-something twins in contemporary rural England whose lives spiral after their mother dies. It’s a dark tale, no doubt—but if you’re a reader who lives for contemplative storytelling and perfectly wrought characters, this author is for you.
Kristen Arnett, author of With Teeth
Riverhead • June 1
If you love a bit of irreverence with your heartbreak, now is the time to join our fan club for academic librarian and writer Arnett. It’s only through a steady stream of hilarity from the author’s Twitter account that we’ve been able to survive the two years since her bestselling debut novel, Mostly Dead Things, which swooped in with its uniquely dark comedy to explore grief with tenderness and courage. Queer family dynamics are at the heart of Arnett’s follow-up, and the buzz is building.
Ashley C. Ford, author of Somebody’s Daughter
Flatiron • June 1
Y’all know Ashley C. Ford? If not, you’re about to. She’s already been on Forbes’ 30 under 30 list, Brooklyn Magazine’s Brooklyn 100 list and Time Out New York’s New Yorkers of the Year list—and that was all before she’d even published a book. In June, Ford’s debut memoir about reconnecting with her incarcerated father will enter the world at last, and her list of accolades—not to mention her fanbase—is sure to grow.
Tasha Suri, author of The Jasmine Throne
Orbit • June 8
Suri’s beautifully written and effortlessly absorbing debut, Empire of Sand, won rave reviews from fellow fantasy authors such as S.A. Chakraborty and R.F. Kuang, and its Mughal India-inspired setting gratified fans hungry for non-Eurocentric fantasy. This summer Suri will start a new trilogy with The Jasmine Throne, in which a captive princess and a maidservant who is secretly a powerful priestess team up to take down a dictator.
Honorée Fanonne Jeffers, author of The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois
Harper • July 27
History and poetry met at the table of Jeffers’ The Age of Phillis, where, after 15 years of research, the writer played host to the story of Phillis Wheatley, America’s first published Black female poet. Jeffers, who has five poetry collections to her name, is turning to prose in perhaps the most exciting poet-becomes-novelist shift of the year, with a family saga that stretches from the Colonial slave trade to contemporary times.
Walton photo © Rayon Richards; Zauner photo © Barbora Mrazkova; Washuta photo © KR Forbes); Fuller photo © Adrian Harvey; Arnett photo © Maria Jones; Ford photo © Heather Sten; Suri photo © Shekhar Bhatia
Six memoirists share their experiences of transforming memory and truth, joy and pain, into captivating stories. Read our reviews of all six memoirs, as well as Q&As with their authors, and discover your next favorite first-person narrative.
Blindfold: A Memoir of Capture, Torture, and Enlightenment by Theo Padnos
Read the review:
Theo Padnos recounts being kidnapped and imprisoned by operatives of al-Qaida.
Read our Q&A with Theo Padnos:
"Some people will have difficulty believing I wasn’t killed."
Floating in a Most Peculiar Way: A Memoir by Louis Chude-Sokei
Read the review:
Louis Chude-Sokei captures the prejudices and tensions, pain and promise of being African in Jamaica and the United States.
Read our Q&A with Louis Chude-Sokei:
"There is often great hostility toward those who refuse conventional racial expectations."
Raceless: In Search of Family, Identity, and the Truth About Where I Belong by Georgina Lawton
Read the review:
Georgina Lawton was born to a white mother and father. And yet, as we learn in the first pages of her eloquent memoir, Lawton is not white.
Read our Q&A with Georgina Lawton:
"No one prepares you for the emotional time travel that a memoir necessitates."
Speak, Okinawa: A Memoir by Elizabeth Miki Brina
Read the review:
Elizabeth Miki Brina searches for whether love can heal a family traumatized by racism and colonization.
Read our Q&A with Elizabeth Miki Brina:
"I grew up trying to believe that race, family history and cultural history were inconsequential. I’m glad I don’t believe that anymore."
Plunder: A Memoir of Family Property and Nazi Treasure by Menachem Kaiser
Read the review:
As Menachem Kaiser searches for the story of his Polish Holocaust survivor relatives, he wanders deep into the shadowy realm of Nazi treasure hunters.
Read our Q&A with Menachem Kaiser:
"It is so hugely rewarding to investigate your story. It is so much stranger, more complicated, more beautiful, more tragic than you thought."
Spilt Milk: Memoirs by Courtney Zoffness
Read the review:
Courtney Zoffness uses layered storytelling to plait her life experiences with larger observations about society.
Read our Q&A with Courtney Zoffness:
"When I revisited these experiences years later, I saw them all through the lens of motherhood. It’s a thread that binds Spilt Milk."
BookPage readers look forward to Private Eye July all year long, and this year we’re getting swept away in the spirit of the (somewhat grisly) celebration, too. Here are the mysteries, thrillers and good old-fashioned whodunits on our reading lists this July.
When No One Is Watching
I’ve finally finished putting myself back together after reading Zakiya Dalila Harris’ next-level debut novel, The Other Black Girl, and it feels vital that I finally check out Alyssa Cole’s first thriller, which emerged—kicked in the door, more like—as the literary answer to the seminal Black horror film Get Out, by way of Rear Window. Cole uses the premise upon which countless domestic thrillers are built: A woman who questions her own sanity starts to wonder if something is very, very wrong in her neighborhood. Mortgage and rental rates are skyrocketing, and then strange stuff—bad stuff—starts happening to longtime Black residents who don’t want to sell their homes to predatory realtors. Because Cole has a background in writing historical romance, she also illuminates how the gentrification of predominantly Black neighborhoods is preceded by a long racist history of displacement, redlining and social control. Horror and reality are definitely shacking up in this tale, and I’m ready for the whole ride.
—Cat, Deputy Editor
I’m Thinking of Ending Things
One of my favorite films of 2020 was Charlie Kaufman’s I’m Thinking of Ending Things, a weird, wild movie that gets stranger and bolder with each passing minute and that provided one of the absolute best “What on earth did I just watch?” viewing experiences I’ve had in a long while. I had always planned to read the book, but I bumped up Iain Reid’s wintry 2016 thriller to the top spot on my reading list once I learned its ending reportedly goes in a different direction than the film’s. I usually prefer my Private Eye July picks to be on the fluffier end of the spectrum, as I do my best summer reading poolside, but I think I’ll have to make an exception to see where Reid takes me. There’s a perverse pleasure to be found in reading books set in frigid environments while enjoying the summer heat, but hopefully I’ll get goosebumps all the same.
—Savanna, Associate Editor
15 Minutes of Flame
I wanted to read this book before I even knew what it was about. I took one look at the cover, said aloud, “I would like to live inside this picture of a New England candle store steeped in autumnal frivolity,” and added it to my TBR. Other books have since buried it on my bedside table, but I’m digging it out for Private Eye July. 15 Minutes of Flame is the third in Christin Brecher’s Nantucket Candle Maker Mystery series, about Stella Wright’s idyllic life as a candle store owner and, of course, the murders she solves along the way. In true cozy mystery fashion, Brecher’s series keeps the pages turning without raising the stakes high enough that your pulse quickens, which is the exact right speed for my anxiety. And since it takes place in October, I’m hoping the fictional nip in the air will help get me through the rest of summer.
—Christy, Associate Editor
Truly Devious
I wasn't reading many mysteries in 2018 when bestselling YA author Maureen Johnson published Truly Devious, her first book about teen detective Stevie Bell. So when I picked up The Box in the Woods, Johnson’s fourth book featuring Stevie, to consider it for this issue of BookPage (check the YA review section for more), it wasn't as a committed fan but as a novice. Needless to say, I'm a fan now. Johnson's sparkling prose and Stevie’s droll humor had me cackling and eager to read aloud especially delightful passages to my very patient partner. This July, I can’t wait to bury myself in the story of Stevie’s first great triumph against a decades-old cold case at the exclusive Ellingham Academy. Best of all, I know the story of the investigation unfolds across three whole books, and for a reader who's always a little sad that great books have to end, there's nothing better.
—Stephanie, Associate Editor
Big Little Lies
Typically, if you’re a hardcore bibliophile, you’re supposed to read the book before you watch the adaptation. In this case, I came to the TV series first—and with career-defining performances from Reese Witherspoon, Laura Dern and Nicole Kidman, how could I resist? From what I’ve heard, the show and the book are actually very different. Several characters in the book, including Madeline and Renata, had roles that were too small for such powerful actors, so the adaptation expanded their involvement—and their flaws—to make them more dynamic on the screen. Even if this is true, the book had to run in order for the show to fly. I’m interested in seeing whether the book provides a clearer motive for the main murder and if the story’s concern with domestic abuse is more pronounced. I may even try reading the book and watching the show at the same time to spot the differences. Only then will I decide which I think is better.
—Eric, Editorial Intern
When the weather cools down, autumn’s big releases start to heat up. Here are the titles BookPage's editors are most anticipating this fall.
Battle Royal by Lucy Parker
Avon, August 17
Lucy Parker is known for her absolutely gold-standard rom-coms, including the delightful London Celebrities series. Her latest, the first in a new series, combines two extremely popular trends—baking and royalty—in a story of rival British bakers competing for the opportunity to make a cake for a royal wedding.
Velvet Was the Night by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Del Rey, August 17
One of the best things about Silvia Moreno-Garcia, the bestselling author of Mexican Gothic, is that she does something new with each book. Instead of a gothic novel, this is a loose, fun noir set in turbulent 1970s Mexico City.
The Heart Principle by Helen Hoang
Berkley, August 31
There’s a lot of excitement around this one, as Helen Hoang’s latest romance novel was delayed by a year and stars a fan-favorite character. Said character's name is Quan, and he is a sweet, adorable teddy bear in the body of a bad boy. We can’t wait to see who he ends up with.
Beautiful Country by Qian Julie Wang
Doubleday, September 7
Debut memoirist Qian Julie Wang shares her story of growing up in New York City as an undocumented immigrant from China, coping with fear and precarity but also discovering joy in books. The writing is sparse, stylish, sometimes harrowing and sometimes humorous as she narrates experiences that are incredibly common but rarely captured with this level of artful control. It’s shaping up to be one of the best memoirs of the year.
Matrix by Lauren Groff
Riverhead, September 7
It’s been six years since Lauren Groff’s previous novel, Fates and Furies. In Matrix, she’s reimagined the life of 12th-century poet Marie de France, who transforms an impoverished abbey into a utopia. It’s a common misconception that medieval women were powerless, but Groff has found their power here, as she celebrates nuns as the literary feminist icons that they truly were.
Never Saw Me Coming by Vera Kurian
Park Row, September 7
We love a sociopath character, but we hate cliche sociopaths. Thankfully, debut author Vera Kurian knocks it out of the park in Never Saw Me Coming. Her sociopath narrator, Chloe, is funny and endearing without losing her edge (and Kurian gets major bonus points for portraying a college atmosphere without being cringey).
Apples Never Fall by Liane Moriarty
Holt, September 14
You know her, you love her: Liane Moriarty, the Australian superstar author of Big Little Lies, The Husband’s Secret, Truly Madly Guilty and more. We love a messy family drama, and Apples Never Fall fits the bill. It’s an exploration of marriage and sibling rivalry that follows four grown siblings who grapple with the disappearance of their mother and the likely culpability of their father.
Fuzz by Mary Roach
Norton, September 14
Mary Roach wrote Stiff about cadavers, Gulp about human digestion, Bonk about the science of sex . . . and now Fuzz, about what happens when animals encroach on human civilizations and laws. She’s one of the funniest science writers working today, as well as one of the best at making mundane topics fascinating and digestible enough that anyone can pick up one of her books, regardless of their interests, and become engrossed.
Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead
Doubleday, September 14
A two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize, Colson Whitehead is one of those gems who’s prolific, consistently excellent and always trying something new. The protagonist of his new novel helps criminals launder their stolen goods and finds himself involved in several heists during the 1950s and ’60s. After The Underground Railroad and The Nickel Boys, this is a real change of pace for Whitehead, and it’s clear he had a lot of fun writing it.
Unbound by Tarana Burke
Flatiron, September 14
Activist Tarana Burke had been working with Black girls in her community who were recovering from abuse and sexual assault for years when she coined the phrase “Me Too” in 2006—long before it became a viral hashtag in 2017. Unbound is the story of Burke’s own survival from sexual abuse, how she pieced herself back together and how her work to cultivate empathy for herself and others has empowered survivors everywhere.
A Soft Place to Land by Janae Marks
Katherine Tegen, September 14
Janae Marks’ 2020 middle grade debut, From the Desk of Zoe Washington, received four starred reviews and became an indie bestseller. Her second novel, A Soft Place to Land, confirms Marks’ status as one of the brightest new stars of contemporary middle grade. Whereas Zoe Washington explored injustice and systemic racism, A Soft Place to Land explores class in a story-driven way that never feels heavy-handed.
The Book of Form and Emptiness by Ruth Ozeki
Viking, September 21
It’s been eight years since Ruth Ozeki published A Tale for the Time Being, which was a finalist for the 2013 Booker Prize, and her latest explores themes similar to those in her earlier novel. It’s the story of a 14-year-old boy who, after his father dies, starts to hear voices emanating from objects. Eventually, he finds a Book that tells the boy the story of his life. It’s certainly a great premise, one that perfectly captures how it feels to be a child falling into a lifelong love of reading.
Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr
Scribner, September 28
Anthony Doerr’s bestselling novel All the Light We Cannot See won the 2015 Pulitzer Prize, the Carnegie Medal and the Alex Award. His latest is a novel of past, present and future that explores books as technology, delivering information and voices across generations. It follows the stories of five people in different eras who are connected by a fictional ancient Greek text. As stewards of this text, the characters are all, in a way, librarians. Fittingly, the novel is dedicated to “librarians then, now, and in the years to come.”
The Man Who Died Twice by Richard Osman
Pamela Dorman, September 28
This is the sequel to Richard Osman's hit cozy mystery, The Thursday Murder Club, which was somehow both hilarious and, by the end, rather touching. In this installment, the sleuths of Cooper’s Chase retirement village get tangled up in a diamond heist gone wrong.
The Matzah Ball by Jean Meltzer
MIRA, September 28
Jean Meltzer’s romance is about a Jewish woman who has a secret life as a Christmas romance novelist, and who must rediscover the magic of Hanukkah when her publisher asks her to write a Hanukkah-themed romance. We’re hoping this will be a trendsetter in holiday romances, a subgenre that sometimes feels like a collection of stale Christmas cookies.
Black Birds in the Sky by Brandy Colbert
Balzer + Bray, October 5
Brandy Colbert is a critically acclaimed and beloved YA and middle grade author whose novel Little & Lion won a Stonewall Book Award in 2018. It’s exciting to see writers challenge themselves by working in new genres and categories, so Colbert’s shift to YA narrative nonfiction is noteworthy. Black Birds in the Sky is expansive, well-researched and, at times, deeply personal as it brings vital history about the Tulsa Race Massacre to a teen readership.
The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles
Viking, October 5
Our 2016 interview with Amor Towles about his novel A Gentleman in Moscow is one of our all-time most popular features, and in The Lincoln Highway, he once again brings his signature blend of freshness and old-fashioned charm to a cast of unforgettable characters. This novel is set in 1954, when two brothers plan to make a new life for themselves, with nudges from some tricksters along the way.
Taste by Stanley Tucci
Gallery, October 5
In addition to being everyone’s favorite character in every movie he’s ever been in, Stanley Tucci is the author of two cookbooks and now, with Taste, one memoir. From growing up in an Italian American family, to starring in food-centric films like Big Night and Julie & Julia, to cooking for his own family, Taste explores the ways that food has been an important presence during the high and low points of Tucci’s life. There’s plenty to savor here for any and all lovers of witty, heartfelt food writing.
Everybody in the Red Brick Building by Anne Wynter, illustrated by Oge Mora
Balzer + Bray, October 12
Oge Mora is one of the most exciting new picture book talents of the past five years. Her debut picture book as an author and illustrator, Thank You, Omu!, received a Caldecott Honor in 2019. Here she partners with debut author Anne Wynter for a cumulative story about one night in a very noisy apartment building. Together, they create the stuff that storytime dreams are made of.
The Heartbreak Bakery by A.R. Capetta
Candlewick, October 12
In previous novels, A.R. Capetta has transported readers backstage at a prestigious New York theater, thousands of years into the future and light-years away from Earth and to a fantastical kingdom inspired by Renaissance Italy. Their latest YA novel, The Heartbreak Bakery, is an irresistible story of love and found family set against the backdrop of a quirky independent bakery in Austin, Texas. We don’t recommend reading it if you are even the slightest bit hungry.
Jade Fire Gold by June CL Tan
HarperTeen, October 12
This debut fantasy will be catnip for YA readers who love expansive, immersive world building, slow burns, reluctant allies and character-driven fantasy. June CL Tan grew up in Singapore, and the novel is informed by Chinese mythology as well as martial arts folklore. It’s not a short book, clocking in at almost 500 pages, but readers who love losing themselves in a fantastical adventure will see that as a positive.
The Troubled Girls of Dragomir Academy by Anne Ursu
October 12, Walden Pond
Anne Ursu is one of the most thoughtful and acclaimed middle grade fantasists working today. Her 2013 novel, The Real Boy, was long-listed for the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature. Readers love Ursu because of her empowering fantasy stories, and The Troubled Girls of Dragomir Academy employs a perennially well-loved trope among middle grade readers: the boarding school story.
The Death of Jane Lawrence by Caitlin Starling
St. Martin’s, October 19
Caitlin Starling is the author of The Luminous Dead, which was a perfectly crafted sci-fi horror thriller that proved she’s pretty much a perfect choice to write this creepy, historical gothic novel, which was inspired by the inarguably fantastic film Crimson Peak.
Our First Civil War by H.W. Brands
Doubleday, November 9
H.W. Brands is known for histories that are timely, fascinating and beautifully written. His latest tackles the Revolutionary War, but rather than focusing on the conflict between the United States and Britain, Brands focuses on the conflicts between those in the U.S. who were loyal to England and those who supported independence. This slice of American history will especially resonate at a time when the United States is locked in another ideological struggle over which is the best path forward.
These Precious Days by Ann Patchett
Harper, November 23
These Precious Days is named for Ann Patchett’s longform essay that was published in Harper’s at the end of 2020, about her friendship with Tom Hanks’ assistant, Sooki Raphael, who stayed with the author while undergoing chemotherapy treatments. The title essay is included in this collection, along with 21 other essays about Kate DiCamillo, Eudora Welty, knitting, dogs and so much more. This will certainly be a worthwhile read for lovers of poignant and masterfully crafted essays about life, love, death and everything in between.
When you consider all the time, effort and hope that goes into writing a book, it only makes a truly great debut that much more impressive. Here are the debuts we’ll never forget.
The first installment in R.F. Kuang’s epic military fantasy trilogy is essentially one book that transforms into another. It begins as an iteration of the well-loved “story set in a magical school,” as the orphaned Rin escapes her abusive, impoverished life in southern Nikan by winning a scholarship to the famous military academy of Sinegard. Sure, it’s a bit more blunt and brutal than you’d expect—Rin burns herself with candle wax to stay awake while studying, and schoolyard brawls between students with martial arts training turn bloody fast—but Kuang’s earthy sense of humor lightens the mood. And then Nikan is invaded, and The Poppy War morphs into a grimdark meditation on whether it’s possible to retain your humanity if you can wield the powers of a god. Neither half would work without the other, and Kuang’s mastery of both proves that her career will be endlessly fascinating.
—Savanna, Associate Editor
The Story of Owen
Canadian author E.K. Johnston’s debut asks an irresistible though not previously unasked question—what if dragons were real?—and its answer is the best I’ve ever read. When Canada’s highest paid dragon slayer retires to Siobhan’s small town of Trondheim, Ontario, to train her teenage nephew, Owen, Siobhan never expects to become part of their story, let alone be invited to become the bard who will tell it. Johnston takes world building to new heights, offering explanations of everything from the rise of corporate-contracted dragon slayers to why postmodernists incorrectly blame “the decline of the dracono-bardic tradition on the sudden and soaring popularity of the Beatles.” The dragons are attracted to carbon emissions, so teens take driver’s education to learn “the more banal aspects of safe driving: four-way stops, three-point turns, small dragon evasion, and the like,” and Michigan’s factories attracted so many of the beasts that humans abandoned the state completely. To read this book is to understand why Johnston has become one of the most consistently surprising YA writers working today.
—Stephanie, Associate Editor
This book came out when I was 10 days old, right at the start of the new millennium. Zadie Smith herself was 25 when her debut landed—young enough to be the voice of a new generation but still old enough to know how silly such a title is. Soon after its release she would become one of the most important authors around. Though I didn’t read it until 20 years after its release, this book still feels as impactful and fresh as it must have felt in 2000. Family dramas were big in literary fiction at the time (e.g., The Corrections, Infinite Jest), but White Teeth, with its ethnic, ideological and thematic diversity, stands out among the pack. From the iconic opening line through each intertwined storyline, Smith tells a story that captures the anxiety and hope of both an older generation entering a new world and young people conquering an old one.
—Eric, Editorial Intern
Sometimes it feels like a debut novelist purges all their best ideas for that first book, using up every resource for their big entrance. After coming out of the gate so hot, they can’t be blamed for not writing another, or for experiencing what we in the book reviewing biz call the “sophomore slump.” I’ll admit that when I read Hanya Yanagihara’s debut back in 2013, I believed that this was the kind of writer she had to be. A novel this complex, profound and imaginative, with writing so visceral and poised—surely this was everything she had, dumped out in the exuberant, chaotic flurry of the new artist. But as proven by her virtuosic follow-up, A Little Life, that was hardly the case. In writing this column, I wondered how well my memory of her first book would hold up, and a return to The People in the Trees has once again left me in awe at her overwhelming descriptions of the Micronesian jungle, her nuanced portrayal of a predatory genius and the fact that this book still, after all these years, has no equal.
—Cat, Deputy Editor
Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight
Serial memoirist (and occasional novelist) Alexandra Fuller has lived quite a life—expansive enough to fill five books, and counting. But her first memoir, Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight, is the one that has haunted me the most. Growing up with her white family in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) during the Rhodesian Bush War, Fuller experienced things that were thrilling, beautiful and dangerous. In the bush of southern Africa, she and her sister learned to shoot guns, kill snakes and avoid landmines and guerrilla fighters. She survived hazards closer to home, as well, such as her mother’s alcoholism and the loss of their family farm to land redistribution after the war. Danger is barely kept at bay throughout this book, and not everyone survives. But the telling is so moving, and the writing so beautiful, you’ll savor even the bitterest parts of this chronicle of a remarkable childhood.
—Christy, Associate Editor
It was love at first sight for the BookPage editors and these five debuts.
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