Bethanne's 2024 Top 10 Fiction

YMMV, and that's as it should be

These aren’t the Best of 2024. How could they be? I’m just one reader. I’m not part of an editorial board or a prize committee. I haven’t had to make a case for these titles. All I can attest to is that, among the many new releases of 2024 I picked up, these are the ones I’m still thinking about. Each is excellent. Each is so different from the others that I’ve given them all tags indicating what stands out for me. The books are listed alphabetically by author.

You can find all of these titles, as well as any of the titles discussed in Season 1 of our podcast, right here on Bookshop.

Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar

— Literary fiction, quest, tragic vibes, queer

You Dreamed of Empires by Álvaro Enrigue

— Historical fiction, hallucinogenic realism, critique of colonialism

James by Percival Everett

— Literary re-telling, literary inversion, enslavement discourse

Small Rain by Garth Greenwell

— Autofiction, pain porn, queer perspective

Leaving by Roxana Robinson

— Literary fiction, midlife sexuality and desire, family ties

Colored Television by Danzy Senna

— Comic novel, bicoastal biracial dual-creative couple, art versus commerce

Rental House by Weike Wang

— Literary fiction, biracial couple, family vacations, relationship growing pains

Ours by Phillip B. Williams

— Magical realism, American racism, the limits of borders

The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden

— Historical fiction, queer, family secrets, the trauma of war

The Coin by Yasmin Zaher

— Literary fiction, obsession, consumer culture, the immigrant experience