{"id":230670,"date":"2023-12-10T04:48:58","date_gmt":"2023-12-10T09:48:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lithub.com\/?p=230670"},"modified":"2023-12-23T09:46:54","modified_gmt":"2023-12-23T14:46:54","slug":"the-best-reviewed-fiction-of-2023","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lithub.com\/the-best-reviewed-fiction-of-2023\/","title":{"rendered":"The Best Reviewed Fiction of 2023"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Book<\/a><\/p>\n

The points are tallied, the math is done, and the results are in.<\/p>\n

Yes, all year long the diligent and endearingly disgruntled Book Marks elves have been mining reviews from every corner of the literary internet. Brows furrowed, stomachs growling, they’ve worked from break of dawn to blink of dusk, seven days a week, scouring the book review sections of over 150 publications\u2014from the New York Times<\/em> to the Sydney Morning Herald<\/em>, the Toronto Star<\/em> to the London Review of Books<\/em>\u2014all so that we can\u00a0now say with certainty that these<\/em> are the best reviewed fiction titles of 2023.<\/p>\n

Happy reading!<\/p>\n

Brought to you by Book Marks<\/a>, Lit Hub\u2019s home for book reviews.<\/em><\/p>\n

*<\/p>\n

\"Anne<\/p>\n

1. The Wren, the Wren<\/em><\/a> by Anne Enright
\n(W.W. Norton & Company)<\/strong><\/p>\n

18 Rave \u2022 2 Positive
\nRead an interview with Anne Enright here<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cSo convincingly has Ms. Enright conjured the archetype of the wandering Irish bard who leaves behind him a legacy of abandoned women and melodious, honey-tongued verse \u2026 Is it possible for poems to be fictitious? In fact, these nostalgic odes to love and Ireland are limpid, lilting, wholly credible stand-alone works \u2026 One of Ms. Enright\u2019s remarkable feats is to write believably across three generations, capturing epochal differences but also a buried, or even repressed, continuity. The fullness of Ms. Enright\u2019s talent is reflected as well in her treatment of what has come to be known, a bit glibly, as the \u2018art monster.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013Sam Sacks (The Wall Street Journal<\/em><\/a>)<\/p>\n

\"Ann<\/p>\n

2. Tom Lake<\/em><\/a> by Ann Patchett
\n(Harper)<\/strong><\/p>\n

19 Rave \u2022 4 Positive \u2022 1 Mixed
\nRead an interview with Ann Patchett here<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cNot that a heart is not broken at some point, but it breaks without affecting the remarkable warmth of the book, set in summer\u2019s fullest bloom \u2026 This generous writer hits the mark again with her ninth novel \u2026 Knowing Patchett\u2019s personal history with motherhood makes the fullness of the maternal feelings she imagines for Lara Kenison particularly poignant.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013Marion Winik (The Washington Post<\/em><\/a>)<\/p>\n

\"Tessa<\/a><\/p>\n

3. After the Funeral<\/em><\/a> by Tessa Hadley
\n(Knopf)<\/strong><\/p>\n

15 Rave \u2022 6 Positive
\nRead an interview with Tessa Hadley here<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThis new collection is a great introduction to her work and for those of us already familiar with Hadley, it\u2019s a great addition. Throughout the collection, Hadley spins out character studies of (mostly) women at odds with themselves, their partners, their families, or life in general \u2026 Hadley does a wonderful job of weaving past and present together as the sisters are forced to confront their memories and relationships. And, of course, there are those moments of shining prose \u2026 Rife with deft and often beautiful prose, and astute but compassionate characterization, this is a wonderful collection.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013Yvonne C. Garrett (The Brooklyn Rail<\/em><\/a>)<\/p>\n

\"Lorrie<\/p>\n

4. I Am Homeless If This Is Not My Home<\/em><\/a> by Lorrie Moore
\n(<\/strong>Knopf)<\/b><\/p>\n

20 Rave \u2022 9 Positive \u2022 6 Mixed \u2022 1 Pan
\nRead an\u00a0interview with Lorrie Moore here<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cMoore excels in\u2026[the] neurotic but intimate conversations that go nowhere, and the scenes in the hospice are viscerally done \u2026 Moore shows that grief and ghosts can be written about persuasively, and wittily, without turning a novel into a horror story \u2026 A triumph of tone and, ultimately, of the imagination. For Moore, death doesn\u2019t necessarily mark the end of a story.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013Abhrajyoti Chakraborty (The Guardian<\/em><\/a>)<\/p>\n

\"Kairos<\/p>\n

5. Kairos<\/em><\/a> by Jenny Erpenbeck
\n(New Directions)<\/strong><\/p>\n

15 Rave \u2022 9 Positive<\/strong>
\nRead an excerpt from Kairos<\/em> here<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cA cathartic leak of a novel, a beautiful bummer, and the floodgates open early \u2026 If Kairos<\/em> were only a tear-jerker, there might not be much more to say about it. But Erpenbeck, a German writer born in 1967 whose work has come sharply to the attention of English-language readers over the past decade, is among the most sophisticated and powerful novelists we have. Clinging to the undercarriage of her sentences, like fugitives, are intimations of Germany\u2019s politics, history and cultural memory \u2026 She is writing more closely to her own unconscious \u2026 I don\u2019t generally read the books I review twice, but this one I did \u2026 Profound and moving.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013Dwight Garner (The New York Times<\/em><\/a>)<\/p>\n

\"Deborah<\/a><\/p>\n

6. August Blue<\/em><\/a> by Deborah Levy<\/strong>
\n(Farrar, Straus and Giroux)<\/strong><\/p>\n

13 Rave \u2022 8 Positive \u2022 2 Mixed<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cMs. Levy rewards close readers by packing her sardine-can-slim novels with tight connections \u2026 August Blue,<\/em>which builds to a moving climax, is more emotionally accessible than Ms. Levy\u2019s previous novels. But it too encompasses the cerebral and the sentimental, realism and surrealism, love and loss, the drive to create art\u2014and the ambiguities of human relations.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013Heller McAlpin (The Wall Street Journal<\/em><\/a>)<\/p>\n

\"Paul<\/p>\n

7. The Bee Sting<\/em><\/a> by Paul Murray
\n(Farrar, Straus and Giroux)<\/strong><\/p>\n

18 Rave \u2022 5 Positive \u2022 5 Mixed
\nRead an excerpt from The Bee Sting<\/em> here<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThe Bee Sting<\/em>\u2026ought to cement Murray\u2019s already high standing. Another changeup, it\u2019s a triumph of realist fiction, a big, sprawling social novel in the vein of Jonathan Franzen\u2019s Freedom<\/em>. The agility with which Murray structures the narrative around the family at its heart is virtuosic and sure-footed, evidence of a writer at the height of his power deftly shifting perspectives, style and syntax to maximize emotional impact. Hilarious and sardonic, heartbreaking and beautiful\u2014there\u2019s just no other way to put it: The Bee Sting<\/em> is a masterpiece.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013Jonathan Russell Clark (The Los Angeles Times<\/em><\/a>)<\/p>\n

\"Birnam<\/p>\n

8. Birnam Wood<\/em><\/a> by Eleanor Catton
\n(Farrar,\u00a0Straus and Giroux)<\/strong><\/p>\n

21 Rave \u2022 7 Positive \u2022 3 Mixed \u2022 1 Pan
\nRead an excerpt from Birnam Wood<\/em> here<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cBold, ambitious \u2026 A grand, chilling thriller tightly bound by inescapable concerns \u2026 Birnam Wood<\/em> moves at a faster clip with arguably higher stakes. Make no mistake: It\u2019s a book that grips you by the throat until its final paragraph. Catton successfully scorches the earth with her prose \u2026 Little feels certain or safe. The literary novel binds itself with a genre thriller in Catton\u2019s hands \u2026 Free to play with form, Catton winds methodically through the minds of her characters \u2026 I\u2019ll unabashedly state that Birnam Wood<\/em> is a brash, unforgettable novel.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013Lauren LeBlanc (The Boston Globe<\/em><\/a>)<\/p>\n

\"Colson<\/p>\n

9. Crook Manifesto<\/em><\/a> by Colson Whitehead
\n(Doubleday)<\/strong><\/p>\n

15 Rave \u2022 10 Positive \u2022 4 Mixed \u2022 1 Pan
\nRead an interview with Colson\u00a0Whitehead here<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cBoth deceptively substantive and sneakily funny, a wise journey through Harlem days and nights as lived by Ray Carney, a conscientious furniture salesman and family man who happens to run a little crooked \u2026 Whitehead has always had a sharp instinct for the workings of culture \u2026 Whitehead\u2019s New York of the \u201870s is a fully realized universe down to the most meticulous details, from the constant sirens and bodega drug fronts to a sweltering, abandoned biscuit factory \u2026 A\u2026reminder, as if we still needed one, that crime fiction can be great literature. These books are as resonant and finely observed as anything Whitehead has written.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013Chris Vognar (The Los Angeles Times<\/em><\/a>)<\/p>\n

\"Zadie<\/p>\n

10. The Fraud<\/em><\/a> by Zadie Smith
\n(Penguin Press)<\/strong><\/p>\n

20 Rave \u2022 6 Positive \u2022 9 Mixed \u2022 1 Pan<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cIt offers a vast, acute panoply of London and the English countryside, and successfully locates the social controversies of an era in a handful of characters \u2026 Touchet is the most morally intelligent character Smith has written \u2026 The book\u2019s structure is uneven. One wishes, for instance, that the chapters would signal their time jumps more consistently \u2026 But these infelicities stop mattering when we are deep into the trial and the book turns into a portrait of people with thwarted ambitions, of people who, like Ainsworth, become frauds without knowing \u2026 As always, it is a pleasure to be in Zadie Smith\u2019s mind, which, as time goes on, is becoming contiguous with London itself. Dickens may be dead, but Smith, thankfully, is alive.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013Karan Mahajan (The New York Times Book Review<\/em><\/a>)<\/p>\n

*<\/p>\n

Our System: <\/strong><\/p>\n

RAVE = 5 points \u2022\u00a0POSITIVE = 3 points \u2022\u00a0MIXED = 1 point \u2022\u00a0PAN = -5 points
\nThe ten books with the highest\u00a0points totals are then ranked by weighted average\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The points are tallied, the math is done, and the results are in. Yes, all year long the diligent and endearingly disgruntled Book Marks elves have been mining reviews from every corner of the literary internet. Brows furrowed, stomachs growling, they’ve worked from break of dawn to blink of dusk, seven days a week, scouring […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":873,"featured_media":169370,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[43069,11,43070,43135],"tags":[90002,15654,187,92514],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/lithub.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/Bookspiral.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5rKFr-Y0u","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lithub.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230670"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lithub.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lithub.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lithub.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/873"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lithub.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=230670"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lithub.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230670\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lithub.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/169370"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lithub.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=230670"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lithub.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=230670"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lithub.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=230670"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}