Whether you can believe it or not, we’re almost halfway through 2023. Luckily, it’s already shaping up to be another year of stellar books. Sure, half of them are already out, like debuts from the likes of activist Munroe Bergdorf and Griefcast host Cariad Lloyd, as well as American Pyscho writer Bret Easton Ellis’ first novel in 13 years. But there’s still a plethora of exciting releases to come, from Zadie Smith’s imaginative, immersive fiction set against the real-life backdrop of a late 1800s English trial, meticulous explorations of some of our modern obsessions – think: NFTs and Web3 – and a shocking investigation into the world of waste.
Here are the best books of 2023 so far, and the ones you still have to look forward to.
The Shards by Bret Easton Ellis
The bestselling author of Less Than Zero and American Psycho is back with a novel that fuses fact and fiction. Ellis draws on some themes from his earlier works and tracks a group of privileged Los Angeles high school friends as a serial killer stalks the city. Seventeen-year-old Bret, a senior at the exclusive Buckley prep school, finds himself becoming obsessed with Robert Mallory, a new student who becomes part of his friendship group. Meanwhile The Trawler, a murderer on the loose, is getting closer and closer to him and his friends. The Shards, Ellis' first novel in 13 years, is suspenseful and darkly funny.
You Are Not Alone by Cariad Lloyd
Cariad Lloyd losing her father at 15 inspired her award-winning podcast, Griefcast, in which she talks to celebrities about navigating their own experiences of loss. In her debut book, You Are Not Alone, the comedian and writer explores society’s reluctance to talk about death and the impact that has on those left behind. Amid stories from those she’s interviewed, including Stephen Mangan, Sara Pascoe, and Adam Buxton, are Lloyd’s own thoughts on therapy, friends (both good and bad), and coping with the moments where you miss – or perhaps don’t miss – the person who’s gone. Debunking stereotypes – such as the “five stages of grief” – You Are Not Alone sees Lloyd appraise grief in all its unexpected forms.
Toy Fights by Don Paterson
Toy Fights – the forthcoming memoir by Don Paterson – is named after the game kids used to play when Paterson was a boy growing up in late '60s Dundee. Specifically, a game that the poet and writer had to avoid, as those playing it wanted to kill him. When he wasn’t dodging his peers in the council estate he grew up in, Paterson was doing what most kids were: learning guitar, falling in love, obsessing over fleeting hobbies, and working with his dad (who happened to be a country western singer). Documenting the first 20 years of his life, Toy Fights also explores Paterson’s descent into madness, as well as his involvement in the Scottish club scene and eventual move to London. Earning comparisons to Shuggie Bain, Toy Fights is a story of family, the working class, money, and all the things in between that we do to avoid boredom.
If I Survive You by Jonathan Escoffery
The debut from author Jonathan Escoffery, If I Survive You follows a Jamaican family in Miami navigating recession, racism and Hurricane Andrew, and has seen the writer heralded as a bold new voice in fiction. The novel tells the stories of Topper and Sanya, who flee to Miami as political violence consumes their native Kingston; Trelawny, their youngest son, who comes of age in a society which regards him with suspicion; and their eldest son Delano, who longs for a better future for his own children but is reckless in attempting to achieve that reality.
Hungry Ghosts by Kevin Jared Hosein
In his debut adult novel, Hungry Ghosts, Trinidadian writer and poet Kevin Jared Hosein immerses the reader in 1940s Trinidad, via a fictional story that’s rooted in real events, as told to Hosein by the elders from his childhood village. The book follows the story of two families – one a wealthy couple and the other living in the poverty-stricken barracks below them – whose wildly different lives collide following a mysterious disappearance. As they become increasingly intertwined, they watch their communities immeasurably change around them. Touching on religion, class, and historical violence, Hungry Ghosts explores generational trauma, powerlessness, and lingering resentments, with a Parasite-esque framing of class conflict.
Transitional by Munroe Bergdorf
Trans activist and writer Munroe Bergdorf’s debut book, Transitional, is a manifesto on gender and an exploration of transitioning, which she calls “one of the most fundamental aspects of the human condition”. Drawing on her own experience of gender transition, as well as the history of gender and current discussions about it, Bergdorf reflects on how the universal experience of transition binds us – and how that can be used as a tool to construct a better society.
Nothing Special by Nicole Flattery
Following her 2019 critically-acclaimed short story collection, Irish writer Nicole Flattery made her novel debut this year with Nothing Special, a story set against the backdrop of Andy Warhol’s iconic Factory studio. It follows two young women as they come of age in 1960s New York, navigating the complexities of life in the city. Flattery, boasts fans including Sally Rooney and Jon McGregor, is a brilliantly insightful writer who illuminates the parts of ourselves that are often hard to see.
Deep Down by Imogen West-Knights
Journalist Imogen West-Knight's debut novel, Deep Down, is the story of two siblings and how their shared childhood has marked them in different ways. In the shadow of grief, Billie and Tom spend three days together in Paris, unpacking memories of the past and sharing a distinctly sibling kind of closeness made up of irked bickering and comfortable silences. Oscillating between present bereavement and flashbacks to growing up, we go deep down as the pair attempt to repair old wounds.
Biography of X by Catherine Lacey
Catherine Lacey’s Biography of X looks like a real biography, complete with footnotes, photos, and images of its subject’s, a late writer, artist, and musician known as X, oeuvre. Except, it’s all fiction. X isn’t real, nor is the biography’s supposed author, CM Lucca, X’s widow, In this convincing simulacrum, Lucca, living in an alternate America, delves into her partner’s mysterious life after her sudden death, only to uncover a series of secrets, betrayals, and an unknown past.
Pathogenesis by Jon Kennedy
After recent years you don't need us to tell you that infectious diseases have the power to change history, but in Jon Kennedy's forthcoming book he makes the case for how they have in fact shaped humanity at every stage of history. Kennedy, a director at Barts hospital and the London Medical School, makes a compelling case for this thesis in his book, Pathogenesis. From the first success of Homo sapiens to the fall of Rome and the rise of Islam, Kennedy takes us on a long and winding tour of humankind's health record.
Who Gets Believed by Dina Nayeri
"If you are a good storyteller you will be trusted, get a life, and escape from hell. But what do you need to do to be trusted, if telling the truth is not enough?" Dina Nayeri's Who Gets Believed takes readers inside courtrooms, newsrooms, boardrooms, classrooms and the Home Office to show how trust and belief are institutionalised and codified. Having fled Iran to a refugee centre outside Rome at the age of eight, the issue is personal for Nayeri. Here she asks: if telling a story in the right way, and being believed, is the result of privilege, what does this mean for those outside the system?
Shy by Max Porter
Set over just a few hours, Max Porter’s Shy follows its eponymous teenage character as he heads to the river with a rucksack full of rocks. He’s snuck out of the rural boarding school he lives at, and, as we join him for his journey, he replays his memories in his head, painting a picture of a boyhood characterised by rage, loneliness, and sadness. As he walks and the reader listens, Shy reflects on his troubled past and uncertain future.
Traffic: Genius, Rivalry, and Delusion in the Billion-Dollar Race to Go Viral by Ben Smith
Traffic tracks the dizzying rise of digital media and the age of disinformation by someone front and centre. Ben Smith, Buzzfeed News' editor-in-chief from 2011 to 2020 and former New York Times media columnist, is well-placed to explore the overzealous and ambitious characters like Buzzfeed’s Jonah Peretti and Gawker’s Nick Denton and their focus on clicks. His thesis is that digital media's harnessing of virality opened the door for right-wing populism, and figures like Steve Bannon and Andrew Breitbart, making for a modern tale of Icarus told through the internet.
Yellowface by R.F. Kuang
R.F. Kuang’s buzzy book Yellowface is a darkly comic thriller that explores diversity and racism in the publishing industry. The novel tells the story of literary darling Athena Liu and her friend – “basic white girl” nobody – June Hayward. After Liu’s untimely death, Hayward steals her unfinished manuscript, passing it off as her own – alongside an “ambiguously ethnic author photo”.
Small Worlds by Caleb Azumah Nelson
The acclaimed author of Open Water is back with his second book, Small Worlds. The novel is an intimate and powerful exploration of a son-father relationship, music, and searching for meaning. Small Worlds place over three summers, from London to Ghana and back again, as Stephen, who finds comfort in dancing, suddenly has to find new ways to feel free.
The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece by Tom Hanks
Following his literary debut in 2017 with collection of short stories, beloved two-time Oscar winner Tom Hanks is back with a long-form novel. The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece spans eight decades as a host of characters come together in an attempt to make Hollywood magic.
The Guest by Emma Cline
If Netflix has profited off anything, it's our culture's obsession with a grifter tale. Anyone infatuated with the tales of the Tindler Swindler or Anna Delvey will be glad to know Emma Cline, (the novelist best known for her breakthrough debut – and 2016's it book – The Girls) is back with a story along these very lines, though this time told through the eyes of the deceiver. Cline's power is capturing the unsettling in environments that appear safe, and The Guest explores the “potential danger of a summer that could go either way for a young woman teetering on the edge”.
Big Swiss by Jen Beagin
As an audio transcriber for a sex therapist, Greta – the protagonist of Jen Beagin’s dark comedy Big Swiss – hears a lot of voices. Mostly they live inside her computer, separate from their bodies, but sometimes she’ll recognise them in passing, and catch a real-life glimpse of the person behind the familiar sound. It's fairly nondescript work, or it is until she hears the patient she’s dubbed Big Swiss – who, during transcriptions, she’s developed a particular interest in – in a chance meeting that soon becomes explosive.
Pageboy by Elliot Page
In his hotly-anticipated memoir, Pageboy, actor Elliot Page looks back at his early experience as a Hollywood star, and how, cast as a glossy young starlet, he felt trapped in a binary role he wasn’t born to play. Now, three years after coming out as trans, Page reflects on his life so far, sharing intimate details about love, trauma, relationships, and mental health, and ruminating on what it’s like being trans today, for him and the wider community.
Out June 2023 via Flatiron
Wasteland: The Secret World of Waste and the Urgent Search for a Cleaner Future by Oliver Franklin-Wallis
In Wasteland, GQ editor Oliver Franklin-Wallis dives into the shocking truth behind the waste industry, a secretive multi-billion dollar world that underpins the modern economy and quietly profits from what we leave behind. The writer travels to India, where he meets waste-pickers on the front line of the plastic crisis; Ghana, where he follows the after-life of our tech products, and in the UK, comes face to face with nuclear waste. Along the way, he speaks to innovators and campaigners fighting for a cleaner and less wasteful future.
Out June 2023 via Simon & Schuster
Ordinary Human Failings by Megan Nolan
Following her bestselling novel Acts of Desperation, Megan Nolan's second book Ordinary Human Failings, explores the real stories behind tabloid headlines. Set in 1990s, ambitious reporter Tom Hargreaves stumbles across a scoop: a dead child on a London estate, with the suspicion of one reclusive family of Irish immigrants swirling in the background.
Out July 2023 via Penguin Random House
The Fraud by Zadie Smith
Zadie Smith’s first historical novel, The Fraud, centres on the Tichborne Trial, a real-life case about a disputed identity, and one that captivated England in the late 1800s, including, in Smith’s novel, a widowed housekeeper called Eliza Touchet. Via the parallel stories of Touchet and the case’s star witness Andrew Bogle, Smith explores the difficulty of unearthing the truth in a world of hypocrisy and deception.
Out September 2023 via Penguin
Tokens: The Future of Money by Rachel O’Dwyer
Still unsure what an NFT is? In Tokens: The Future of Money, digital culture lecturer Rachel O’Dwyer offers an introduction to the politics of modern tech darlings: from cryptocurrency to Web3. The book explores the future of money, which O’Dwyer points out is increasingly “being replaced by tokens”, and questions what it means when digital platforms become the new banks. While these tokens offer new types of relationships, ownership, and governance, O’Dwyer warns that they also usher in novel forms of surveillance and discipline.
Out October 2023 via Verso Books
