Top new literary-fiction books in January 2024
Last updated:
November 29, 2023
January 2024 featuring new releases by Laurie Frankel, Madeline Miller, Rina Kent, Emily R. Austin, Kaveh Akbar, Amy Jo Burns, Anna Smaill, Katie M. Flynn, Elizabeth Gonzalez James, Alexander Sammartino and many more.
-
Family Family by Laurie Frankel
From New York Times bestselling author, Laurie Frankel, comes a propulsive, sharply funny, and strikingly tender novel about how families are sometimes formed in the most unexpected ways.India Allwood grew up wanting to be an actress... -
![Untitled by Madeline Miller]()
Untitled by Madeline Miller
In an interview with Bustle, she said, "I’m working on a retelling of Shakespeare’s [The] Tempest right now. I’ve learned so much about storytelling from theater, and specifically from directing Shakespeare’s plays, and I always love working with his characters. That said, I think I’m drawn to The Tempest precisely because I wouldn’t want to direct it...historical-fiction · retellings · fiction · fantasy · myths · historical · literary-fiction · book · adult -
![God of War by Rina Kent]()
God of War by Rina Kent
Royal Elite & Mafia World Spinoff Dark New Adult Series.Standalone...new-adult · dark · contemporary · organized-crime · steamy · fiction · gothic · coming-of-age · literary-fiction · crime -
![Interesting Facts about Space by Emily R. Austin]()
Interesting Facts about Space by Emily R. Austin
A fast-paced, hilarious, and ultimately hopeful novel for anyone who has ever worried they might be a terrible person—from the bestselling author of Everyone in This Room Will Someday Be Dead .Enid is obsessed with space. She can tell you all about black holes and their ability to spaghettify you without batting an eye in fear. Her one major phobia? Bald men...romance · contemporary · fiction · wlw · lgbtq · literary-fiction · religion · disability · humor · dark-humor -
![Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar]()
Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar
Kaveh Akbar’s Martyr! is a paean to how we spend our lives seeking meaning—in faith, art, ourselves, others—in which a newly sober, orphaned son of Iranian immigrants, guided by the voices of artists, poets, and kings, embarks on a search that leads him to a terminally ill painter living out her final days in the Brooklyn Museum...fiction · lgbtq · contemporary · literary-fiction · magical-realism · humor · spirituality · family · book · adult -
-
![Mercury by Amy Jo Burns]()
Mercury by Amy Jo Burns
A roofing family’s bonds of loyalty are tested when they uncover a long-hidden secret at the heart of their blue-collar town―from Amy Jo Burns, author of the critically acclaimed novel ShinerIt’s 1990 and seventeen-year-old Marley West is blazing into the river valley town of Mercury, Pennsylvania. A perpetual loner, she seeks a place at someone’s table and a family of her own... -
![Bird Life: A Novel by Anna Smaill]()
Bird Life: A Novel by Anna Smaill
The second novel by Booker Prize-longlisted author Anna Smaill. A lyrical and ambitious exploration of madness and what it is like to experience the world differently.In Ueno Park, Tokyo, as workers and tourists gather for lunch, the pollen blows, a fountain erupts, pigeons scatter, and two women meet, changing the course of one another’s lives...magical-realism · literary-fiction · fiction · grief · friendship · mental-illness · psychological · fantasy · book · adult -
![Island Rule by Katie M. Flynn]()
Island Rule by Katie M. Flynn
From the author of the “urgent and heartfelt” ( San Francisco Chronicle ) novel The Companions , a genre-bending collection of interconnected short stories in the tradition of Jennifer Egan and Karen Russell.An angry mother turns into a literal monster. A company in San Francisco can scrub your entire reputation and create a new one…for a price... -
![The Bullet Swallower by Elizabeth Gonzalez James]()
The Bullet Swallower by Elizabeth Gonzalez James
A dazzling magical realism western in the vein of Cormac McCarthy meets Gabriel García Márquez, The Bullet Swallower follows a Mexican bandido as he sets off for Texas to save his family, only to encounter a mysterious figure who has come, finally, to collect a cosmic debt generations in the making.In 1895, Antonio Sonoro is the latest in a long line of ruthless men...western · historical-fiction · fiction · magical-realism · fantasy · historical · mystery · journey · revenge · religion -
![Last Acts by Alexander Sammartino]()
Last Acts by Alexander Sammartino
A rollicking, satirical debut novel about a gun-store-owning father and son forced to live together after a near-death experience—an unflinching look at the absurdities of contemporary capitalism and what it means to be a family in America today.“Honest, highwire, virtuosic writing that summons up the world with all its charms and hazards... -
![Hard by a Great Forest: A Novel by Leo Vardiashvili]()
Hard by a Great Forest: A Novel by Leo Vardiashvili
"This novel annihilated me. I gasped, laughed, and wept my way through it. Rich with irony and animated with astonishing humanity, this tale of a young Georgian refugee’s odyssey into his birthplace to rescue family left my heart bruised and battered and aching for more... -
![The Djinn Waits a Hundred Years by Shubnum Khan]()
The Djinn Waits a Hundred Years by Shubnum Khan
Rebecca meets Fatima Farheen Mirza in this sweeping, gorgeously atmospheric novel about a ruined mansion by the sea, the djinn that haunts it, and a curious girl who unearths the tragedy that happened there a hundred years previousAkbar Manzil was once a grand estate off the coast of South Africa...asia · south-asia · india · fantasy · horror · fiction · historical-fiction · mystery · historical · literary-fiction -
![Wild and Distant Seas: A Novel by Tara Karr Roberts]()
Wild and Distant Seas: A Novel by Tara Karr Roberts
A gorgeous debut, laced through with magic, following four generations of women as they seek to chart their own futures. Evangeline Hussey’s husband is dead―lost at sea―and she has only managed to hold on to his Nantucket inn by employing a curious gift to glimpse and re-form the recent memories of those around her...historical-fiction · historical · fiction · magic · family · literary-fiction · secrets · retellings · magical-realism · female-mc
