The Bee Sting
Paul Murray
The New Yorker
Best books of 2023
The New Yorker’s books of 2023: 24 main picks and 333 more recommendations, across fiction, poetry and nonfiction.
Main picks
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Biography of X
Catherine Lacey
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Birnam Wood
Eleanor Catton
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The Country of the Blind
Andrew Leland
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A Day in the Life of Abed Salama
Nathan Thrall
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Fear Is Just a Word
Azam Ahmed
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Fire Weather
John Vaillant
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The Fraud
Zadie Smith
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Grand Tour
Elisa Gonzalez
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The Guest
Emma Cline
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I Am Homeless If This Is Not My Home
Lorrie Moore
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Judgment at Tokyo
Gary J. Bass
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King
Jonathan Eig
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The Lights
Ben Lerner
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Liliana’s Invincible Summer
Cristina Rivera Garza
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Master Slave Husband Wife
Ilyon Woo
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Ordinary Notes
Christina Sharpe
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The Rediscovery of America
Ned Blackhawk
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Some People Need Killing
Patricia Evangelista
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Y/N
Esther Yi
Also recommended
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The Dictionary People
Sarah Ogilvie
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How to Build a Boat
Elaine Feeney
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Orbital
Samantha Harvey
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Time’s Echo
Jeremy Eichler
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Wrong Way
Joanne Mcneil
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State of Silence
Sam Lebovic
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The Money Kings
Daniel Schulman
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About Ed
Robert Gluck
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The Fund
Rob Copeland
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Prophet Song
Paul Lynch
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Collision of Power
Martin Baron
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Treacle Walker
Alan Garner
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The Berry Pickers
Amanda Peters
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The Manuscripts Club
Christopher de Hamel
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Correction
Ben Austen
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Holler, Child
LaToya Watkins
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Yesterday
Tobias Becker
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Night Watch
Jayne Anne Phillips
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In the Shadow of Quetzalcoatl
Merilee Grindle
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The Book at War
Andrew Pettegree
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Foreign Bodies
Simon Schama
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Brooklyn Crime Novel
Jonathan Lethem
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Earlier
Sasha Frere-Jones
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Klan War
Fergus M. Bordewich
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A History of Fake Things on the Internet
Walter Scheirer
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Charlie Chaplin vs. America
Scott Eyman
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Let Us Descend
Jesmyn Ward
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Beyond the Wall
Katja Hoyer
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Naked in the Rideshare
Rebecca Shaw and Ben Kronengold
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Flee North
Scott Shane
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Mapping the Darkness
Kenneth Miller
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A Council of Dolls
Mona Susan Power
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The Long Form
Kate Briggs
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The Necessity of Exile
Shaul Magid
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A Haunting on the Hill
Elizabeth Hand
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The House of Doors
Tan Twan Eng
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The Vulnerables
Sigrid Nunez
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Romney
McKay Coppins
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The Dimensions of a Cave
Greg Jackson
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Baumgartner
Paul Auster
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How to Be Multiple
Helena de Bres
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Going Infinite
Michael Lewis
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The Mysteries
Bill Watterson
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The Chapter
Nicholas Dames
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The Lumumba Plot
Stuart A. Reid
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On Marriage
Devorah Baum
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The Revolutionary Temper
Robert Darnton
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What the Taliban Told Me
Ian Fritz
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Monica
Daniel Clowes
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The Two-Parent Privilege
Melissa S. Kearney
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Artificial
Amy Kurzweil
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Omega Farm
Martha McPhee
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Pandora’s Box
Peter Biskind
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A City on Mars
Kelly Weinersmith and Zach Weinersmith
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The Pensive Citadel
Victor Brombert
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Crossings
Ben Goldfarb
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The Lies of the Land
Steven Conn
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American Poly
Christopher M. Gleason
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This Is Salvaged
Vauhini Vara
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The Boy from Kyiv
Marina Harss
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This Country
Navied Mahdavian
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This Won’t Help
Eli Grober
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The Genius of Their Age
S. Frederick Starr
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Black Friend
Ziwe
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Our Hideous Progeny
C. E. McGill
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Blood in the Machine
Brian Merchant
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The Burning of the World
Scott W. Berg
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Emperor of Rome
Mary Beard
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Pet
Catherine Chidgey
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A Man of Two Faces
Viet Thanh Nguyen
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American Visions
Edward L. Ayers
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I Must Be Dreaming
Roz Chast
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Revolutionary Spring
Christopher Clark
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The Upstairs Delicatessen
Dwight Garner
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Fire in the Canyon
Daniel Gumbiner
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The Life and Times of Hannah Crafts
Gregg Hecimovich
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Ladies’ Lunch
Lore Segal
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The English Experience
Julie Schumacher
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The Hive and the Honey
Paul Yoon
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American Gun
Cameron McWhirter and Zusha Elinson
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Reproduction
Louisa Hall
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The Unsettled
Ayana Mathis
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How to Be
Adam Nicolson
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The End of Eden
Adam Welz
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The Wren, The Wren
Anne Enright
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How to Say Babylon
Safiya Sinclair
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The Civic Bargain
Brook Manville and Josiah Ober
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A Flat Place
Noreen Masud
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Live to See the Day
Nikhil Goyal
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Paris Notebooks
Mavis Gallant
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Sparks
Ian Johnson
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Loved and Missed
Susie Boyt
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The Glint of Light
Clarence Major
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The Pole
J. M. Coetzee
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Glossy
Marisa Meltzer
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Pockets
Hannah Carlson
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India’s Techade
Nalin Mehta
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Console
Colin Channer
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The Rigor of Angels
William Egginton
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Digital Empires
Anu Bradford
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Emergency
Kathleen Alcott
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The Women of NOW
Katherine Turk
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The Caretaker
Ron Rash
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Up Home
Ruth J. Simmons
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Betty Friedan
Rachel Shteir
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Cosmic Scholar
John Szwed
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Young Queens
Leah Redmond Chang
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Anansi’s Gold
Yepoka Yeebo
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Wednesday’s Child
Yiyun Li
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The Suicide Museum
Ariel Dorfman
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Unreliable Narrator
Aparna Nancherla
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I’m a Fan
Sheena Patel
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Some Unfinished Chaos
Arthur Krystal
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24/7 Politics
Kathryn Cramer Brownell
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A Word or Two Before I Go
Arthur Krystal
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Witness
Jamel Brinkley
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Father and Son
Jonathan Raban
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The Marriage Question
Clare Carlisle
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The Philosopher of Palo Alto
John Tinnell
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The Great White Bard
Farah Karim-Cooper
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The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store
James McBride
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All Souls
Saskia Hamilton
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Why the Bible Began
Jacob L. Wright
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This Is Wildfire
Nick Mott and Justin Angle
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Terrace Story
Hilary Leichter
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Hangman
Maya Binyam
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The Deadline
Jill Lepore
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Temple Folk
Aaliyah Bilal
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Brave the Wild River
Melissa L. Sevigny
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Disruptions
Steven Millhauser
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The Plague
Jacqueline Rose
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The Peacock and the Sparrow
I. S. Berry
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Schoenberg
Harvey Sachs
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The Five Sorrowful Mysteries of Andy Africa
Stephen Buoro
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The Ferguson Report
Nicole Sealey
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August Wilson
Patti Hartigan
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Information Desk
Robyn Schiff
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War and Punishment
Mikhail Zygar
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Last of the Lions
Clarence B. Jones and Stuart Connelly
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The Migrant Chef
Laura Tillman
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The Centre
Ayesha Manazir Siddiqi
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A Most Tolerant Little Town
Rachel Louise Martin
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Tom Lake
Ann Patchett
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The Parrot and the Igloo
David Lipsky
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Hope
Andrew Ridker
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Dykette
Jenny Fran Davis
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Ultra-Processed People
Chris van Tulleken
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Last Call at Coogan’s
Jon Michaud
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Rhythm Man
Stephanie Stein Crease
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Grand Delusion
Steven Simon
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Nothing Special
Nicole Flattery
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Fire Rush
Jacqueline Crooks
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Eight Bears
Gloria Dickie
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Thunderclap
Laura Cumming
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So to Speak
Terrance Hayes
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Snow Road Station
Elizabeth Hay
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Elsewhere
Yan Ge
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A Madman’s Will
Gregory May
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Tabula Rasa
John McPhee
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Fires in the Dark
Kay Redfield Jamison
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After the Funeral and Other Stories
Tessa Hadley
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Wasteland
Oliver Franklin-Wallis
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Natural Light
Julian Bell
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I Do Everything I’m Told
Megan Fernandes
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The Lost Sons of Omaha
Joe Sexton
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The 272
Rachel L. Swarns
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A History of Burning
Janika Oza
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The Art Thief
Michael Finkel
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Winnie & Nelson
Jonny Steinberg
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Tiger Work
Ben Okri
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The Covenant of Water
Abraham Verghese
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Tomorrow Perhaps the Future
Sarah Watling
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The House Is on Fire
Rachel Beanland
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The Sullivanians
Alexander Stille
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The Late Americans
Brandon Taylor
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Instructions for the Drowning
Steven Heighton
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A Stranger in Your Own City
Ghaith Abdul-Ahad
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Easily Slip into Another World
Henry Threadgill and Brent Hayes Edwards
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Lament for Julia
Susan Taubes
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V Is for Victory
Craig Nelson
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Be Mine
Richard Ford
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A Life of One’s Own
Joanna Biggs
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The Wounded World
Chad L. Williams
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The Talk
Darrin Bell
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Samuel Barber
Howard Pollack
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Commitment
Mona Simpson
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Monsters
Claire Dederer
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Take What You Need
Idra Novey
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The World
Simon Sebag Montefiore
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The Plot to Save South Africa
Justice Malala
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Mozart in Motion
Patrick Mackie
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My Father’s Brain
Sandeep Jauhar
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Gravity and Center
Henri Cole
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The Earth Transformed
Peter Frankopan
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Paved Paradise
Henry Grabar
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Biting the Hand
Julia Lee
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When the World Didn’t End
Guinevere Turner
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Carmageddon
Daniel Knowles
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The Weeds
Katy Simpson Smith
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Hungry Ghosts
Kevin Jared Hosein
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Actual Malice
Samantha Barbas
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Girl Juice
Benji Nate
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Holding the Note
David Remnick
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Parfit
David Edmonds
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Go Back and Get It
Dionne Ford
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We the Scientists
Amy Dockser Marcus
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A Small Sacrifice for an Enormous Happiness
Jai Chakrabarti
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Traffic
Ben Smith
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In the Orchard
Eliza Minot
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Camera Girl
Carl Sferrazza Anthony
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Shy
Max Porter
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Hit Parade of Tears
Izumi Suzuki
Translated by Sam Bett, David Boyd, Helen O’Horan and Daniel Joseph
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Waco
Jeff Guinn
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Waco Rising
Kevin Cook
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Writers and Missionaries
Adam Shatz
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Impossible People
Julia Wertz
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Stealing
Margaret Verble
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Skip to the Fun Parts
Dana Jeri Maier
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Nothing Stays Put
Willard Spiegelman
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Still Life with Bones
Alexa Hagerty
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Chain-Gang All-Stars
Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
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Romantic Comedy
Curtis Sittenfeld
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To Anyone Who Ever Asks
Howard Fishman
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We Should Not Be Friends
Will Schwalbe
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Künstlers in Paradise
Cathleen Schine
-
Fatherland
Burkhard Bilger
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The Best Minds
Jonathan Rosen
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Small Mercies
Dennis Lehane
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The Blazing World
Jonathan Healey
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Spoiled
Anne Mendelson
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The Cult of Creativity
Samuel W. Franklin
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Psychonauts
Mike Jay
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Benjamin Banneker and Us
Rachel Jamison Webster
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Spring Rain
Marc Hamer
-
In Memoriam
Alice Winn
-
Tenacious Beasts
Christopher J. Preston
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Is It Hot in Here (or Am I Suffering for All Eternity for the Sins I Committed on Earth)?
Zach Zimmerman
-
The Wager
David Grann
-
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Raving
McKenzie Wark
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The Laughter
Sonora Jha
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The Diary Keepers
Nina Siegal
-
Steady Rollin
Fred Noland
-
Pineapple Street
Jenny Jackson
-
Courting India
Nandini Das
-
Skeletons
Deborah Landau
-
There Will Be Fire
Rory Carroll
-
A Spell of Good Things
Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀
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White Cat, Black Dog
Kelly Link
-
The Great Reclamation
Rachel Heng
-
-
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How Data Happened
Chris Wiggins and Matthew L. Jones
-
Spoken Word
Joshua Bennett
-
-
Bottoms Up and the Devil Laughs
Kerry Howley
-
Ringmaster
Abraham Riesman
-
The Kingdom of Prep
Maggie Bullock
-
Ghosts of the Orphanage
Christine Kenneally
-
Milton Glaser
Steven Heller, Mirko Ilić and Beth Kleber
-
-
We Were Once a Family
Roxanna Asgarian
-
An Autobiography of Skin
Lakiesha Carr
-
Old God’s Time
Sebastian Barry
-
The Dog of the North
Elizabeth McKenzie
-
Users
Colin Winnette
-
I Am Still with You
Emmanuel Iduma
-
Poverty, by America
Matthew Desmond
-
The Nature Book
Tom Comitta
-
A Stone Is Most Precious Where It Belongs
Gulchehra Hoja
-
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Big Swiss
Jen Beagin
-
The Great Displacement
Jake Bittle
-
The Real Work
Adam Gopnik
-
The Half Known Life
Pico Iyer
-
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The Sun Walks Down
Fiona McFarlane
-
Iron Curtain
Vesna Goldsworthy
-
-
Life on Delay
John Hendrickson
-
The Devil’s Element
Dan Egan
-
Brooklyn’s Last Secret
Leslie Stein
-
I Have Some Questions for You
Rebecca Makkai
-
-
Three Roads Back
Robert D. Richardson
-
Cobalt Red
Siddharth Kara
-
Daughter in Exile
Bisi Adjapon
-
Oscar Wars
Michael Schulman
-
This Other Eden
Paul Harding
-
The Wife of Bath
Marion Turner
-
When the News Broke
Heather Hendershot
-
After Sappho
Selby Wynn Schwartz
-
Victory City
Salman Rushdie
-
Why You’ll Never Find the One
Sarah Akinterinwa
-
Skull Water
Heinz Insu Fenkl
-
The Wandering Mind
Jamie Kreiner
-
The Sense of Wonder
Matthew Salesses
-
The Guest Lecture
Martin Riker
-
The New Life
Tom Crewe
-
The Scythian Empire
Christopher I. Beckwith
-
Pirate Enlightenment
David Graeber
-
Spare
Prince Harry
-
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Professing Criticism
John Guillory
-
Wade in the Water
Nyani Nkrumah
-
Still Pictures
Janet Malcolm
