The 44 best books of 2024

An intimate look at love, grief, and family, 'Conversations With Friends' author Rooney’s fourth novel explores the relationship between two estranged brothers who have drifted apart in the wake of their father’s death. Moving between narrators, it follows Peter, a successful lawyer in his early 30s who is caught between his first love and his younger girlfriend, and Ivan, an awkward 22-year-old chess champion who falls in love with a significantly older woman — much to his brother’s chagrin.

In this dual biography, Anolik attempts to better understand two late literary titans through their complicated relationship: the legendary Joan Didion and L.A. writer and society figure Eve Babitz, who met in 1967 and became fast friends — until a falling-out over Didion’s harsh critiques of Babitz’s first book drove them apart. Through interviews with Babitz (whom Anolik biographed in 2019’s Hollywood’s Eve) and letters the women exchanged, the book traces their convergence, divergence, and singular personas.

In her sophomore novel, award-winning author Rachel Khong crafts an inter-generational saga that asks timely questions about trauma, identity, assimilation, and destiny. 'Real Americans' is split into three different perspectives: twenty-something Lily Chen, a recent NYU graduate who falls in love with the heir to a pharmaceutical dynasty; teenage Nick Chen, Lily’s son who is struggling to fit into the isolated small town he grew up in; and Mei Ling, Lily’s mother who immigrated to the U.S. following Mao’s Cultural Revolution. Part sci-fi and part coming-of-age, the book weaves their storylines together to paint a modern portrait of what it means to fulfil the American Dream.

'Adam and Evie’s Matchmaking Tour' is the perfect rom-com novel for travel bugs. Following the death of her Auntie Hảo, poet Evie Lang is set to inherit her beloved San Francisco row house — on the condition that she embarks on a pre-paid matchmaking tour in their ancestral homeland of Vietnam. Meanwhile, Adam Quyền is busy working as the CMO of his sister’s tour guide company, Love Yeu. Despite the premise of Love Yeu, Adam has totally sworn off any prospect of romance — that is, until he comes face to face with the unpredictable and charismatic Evie.

In the 1950s, Reno was the country’s divorce capital. Women seeking to escape their marriages would seek residency at so-called “divorce ranches” for six weeks, the length of time required to establish residency in Nevada and subsequently file for divorce. In Rowan Beaird’s gripping debut novel, Lois is one such woman who finds herself in the company of fellow divorcées-to-be at the Golden Yarrow. At first, the weeks seem to pass by uneventfully, with daily horse-riding tours or trips to the local casino. But, when the mysterious and enigmatic Greer arrives at the ranch with a blistering bruise across her face, the women of the Golden Yarrow quickly find themselves liberated under her influence.

In this laugh-out-loud coming-of-age novel (which will soon be adapted into an Apple TV+ series starring Nicole Kidman, Elle Fanning, and Michelle Pfeiffer), 20-year-old Margo reconnects with her estranged father, an ex pro wrestler, in order to get free childcare help for her newborn baby. In the process, she also rekindles a relationship with her mother, a former Hooters waitress, and kickstarts a new project to make quick money.

Short-story writer Kelly Link weaves a captivating tale of friendship and magic in her debut novel. Teenagers Laura, Daniel, and Mo return to their hometown — a small coastal community called Loveland — after an unexpected figure brings them back from the dead. Now, as they attempt to reclaim their lives, they will have to fight off supernatural creatures and solve a longstanding mystery.

At the start of Donald Trump’s presidential administration, investigative journalist Emily Witt immersed herself in New York City’s vibrant underground nightlife scene. Her entry into this brand new world was electrifying — full of experimental psychedelics, pulsing techno music, and dark warehouse venues. But, as she chronicles in this memoir, it also showed her a different lens through which to look at how people embrace hedonism to cope with dysfunction.

When 13-year-old Barbara Van Lear goes missing at the Adirondacks summer camp that her dynastic family owns, it prompts a panicked search — not least of all because her older brother disappeared in a similar fashion 14 years before. The mystery unravels long-kept family secrets.

The 'Fleishman Is in Trouble' author’s much-anticipated follow-up opens in 1980, when a wealthy businessman is snatched from his home and held for ransom. Once his kidnappers are paid off, he is returned within a week. But decades later, it becomes apparent that the lasting trauma from the abduction has affected him and his family in ways that he, his wife, and their three kids have just begun to reckon with — and have left them irrevocably changed.

Set in North Dakota against the backdrop of the 2008 recession, this new book from Pulitzer Prize winner Erdrich revolves around a love triangle involving teen Kismet Poe, whose mother hauls sugar beets for a living. Kismet is about to graduate from high school, and two young men are vying for her affection: Gary Geist, who is set to inherit his family’s two farms, and the bookish, homeschooled Hugo Dumach. But determined to avoid marriage and all that it entails, she begins searching for a way out.

National Book Award winner Perry traces the connection between the color blue and its equally harrowing and divine roles in Black history and culture. From the dyed indigo cloths that were traded for human life in the 16th century to the periwinkle flowers that marked the graves of enslaved peoples, and from liberating blues music to the hue of police uniforms, Perry explores the power and potency of the color in a vivid new light.

Keru and Nate are college sweethearts who meet at Yale and ultimately get married. As adults, they host each of their families at a vacation rental on Cape Cod, staggering the visits of Keru’s demanding Chinese immigrant parents and Nate’s white Appalachian working-class parents. Years later, they once again host their families, this time in the Catskills. On both trips, tensions around race, class, and cultural expectations arise, bringing with them questions about what it means to make and sustain a family.

Kim’s sophomore novel follows former Russian prima ballerina Natalia Leonova, who returns to her native St. Petersburg two years after a crushing injury that cut her time performing with the Paris Opera Ballet short. Addicted to painkillers, sleeping pills, and vodka, she hopes to make a comeback dancing with the Mariinsky Ballet. As Leonova attempts to get her mind and body in shape, she reflects on her unlikely rise from poverty to center stage and how hard she’s fought for her craft.

Murakami’s first novel in six years centers on a 17-year-old boy in love with a nameless girl, who transports him to a fantastical city. There, he works as a Dream Reader, reviewing old, backlogged dreams — until the storyline switches back to real life. The boy, now a middle-aged man living alone in Tokyo, decides to leave the city behind and move to a remote Japanese town, where he becomes the local librarian — and meets a pair of new magical friends.

Everett’s Booker Prize-nominated literary retelling of Mark Twain’s controversial 'Adventures of Huckleberry Finn' resets the canonical tale from the perspective of Jim, the Black man escaping enslavement with whom Huck, who is running away from his abusive father, travels down the Mississippi River. Through his narration, Jim reveals how he uses “slave” talk when he’s around white people in order to make them feel comfortable and superior, punctuating a narrative that careens between violence and satire.

Living at home and cleaning houses for a living, 21-year-old Agnes feels like her life is going nowhere. That changes when she meets her client’s daughter, Emily, who works as a sugar baby. Enraptured, Agnes follows Emily into her line of work, thereby estranging herself from her religious mother and setting out on a dark path of self-discovery.

When Kyoko’s mother Emi dies by suicide, Kyoko blames washed-up musician Daniel Karmody — the man who seduced and then abandoned Emi. Now in her twenties, Kyoko is ready to take her revenge. Armed with a knife, she sets out to kidnap and murder Karmody, only for her plans to swiftly go awry.

Cyrus Shams — the Iranian-American protagonist of accomplished poet Akbar’s first novel — may be several years sober, but that doesn’t mean he’s not self-destructive in other ways. Haunted by the deaths of his mother (when he was a child) and father (after his first year of college), Cyrus is nearing 30 and still loitering around his old college town when he decides to try and make sense of his parents’ passing the only way he can think of: by writing a book of poetry about martyrs through history. When he learns of an Iranian artist who has been diagnosed with cancer and has decided to turn her final days into a work of performance art, he sets off across the country to meet her.

In her second novel, the much-lauded author of 2019’s 'Such A Fun Age' takes clever aim at the social stratifications and warped value systems of academia. When a white visiting professor named Agatha offers Black college senior and resident assistant Millie an opportunity to make some money arranging interviews with students for a book Agatha is writing, Millie sees the job as an easy way to make some extra cash. But the enterprise quickly spirals out of hand as the two become wrapped up in the messy lives of three female suitemates living in Agatha’s dorm.