A landmark year for literary fiction, with two Pulitzer winners, a wildly celebrated Booker, and the book that BookTok made inescapable.
A war photographer murdered during Sri Lanka's civil war has seven moons in the afterlife to expose who killed him and protect his loved ones. Written in second person with furious energy. One of the most formally adventurous Booker winners in years.
Two game designers, Sadie Green and Sam Masur, whose creative partnership spans three decades. A novel about art, ambition, collaboration, love, and loss — told through the history of video games. One of the most celebrated novels of the decade so far.
A retelling of David Copperfield set in Appalachian Virginia during the opioid crisis. Kingsolver's most ambitious and devastating novel — it won the Pulitzer and the Women's Prize. Essential reading for anyone who cares about contemporary America.
A chemist in the 1960s who ends up hosting a cooking show. Funnier than it sounds; sharper about gender politics than it appears. One of those books that spreads by word of mouth — it was everywhere in 2022, became a television series with Brie Larson.
Oxford University in the 1830s, a tower that powers the British Empire through the magic of translation, and a student who becomes a revolutionary. A complex, angry, brilliant fantasy novel about colonialism, language, and what institutions ask us to sacrifice.
A woman working the night shift at an aquarium, and Marcellus the giant Pacific octopus who narrates alternate chapters. A gentle, warm debut about grief and connection. The octopus chapters are extraordinary — Van Pelt finds exactly the right voice.
CoHo's most discussed novel — originally published in 2016 but it went viral on BookTok in 2022, redefining what mass-market romance could do. A romance that honestly depicts domestic abuse. More difficult and more important than its reputation suggests.
Molly the maid discovers a body in a hotel room. A cozy mystery with a neurodivergent protagonist who misses social cues in ways both funny and poignant. Prose creates one of the genre's most original characters in recent years.
Technically 2021 but it won the Hugo in 2022. A tea monk questions their purpose and encounters a robot who asks what people need. Chambers at her most distilled — pure hopepunk, meditative and gentle. Short enough to read in one sitting.
Again — technically 2020 — but it was the biggest commercial fiction book of 2022 in the UK. Nora Seed finds a library between life and death where she can explore all her unlived lives. Haig writes about mental health with unusual directness.
A sweeping novel about the Booth family — the famous theatrical dynasty that produced both Edwin Booth (the greatest American stage actor of the 19th century) and John Wilkes Booth. Fowler finds tragedy in a family that already knew tragedy was coming.
A wealthy couple on a space cruise — one a former detective, the other a genius cocktail creator — solve a murder mystery. Nick and Nora Charles in space, done with love for the genre. Smart, light, and exactly the book it sets out to be.