111
Earthlings
SAYAKA MURATA
Natsuki feels so
alienated by society
that she believes
she’s from another
planet—and when
her cousin Yuu says
he believes the same
about himself, the
pair embark on a
rebellious path to
break the chains of
conformity.
Djinn Patrol on
the Purple Line
DEEPA ANAPPARA
When a classmate
goes missing from
their neighborhood
outside an unnamed
city in India,
9-year-old Jai does
what the police
refuse to, even when
bribed: he goes
“detectiving” to
find the boy.
Hitting a Straight
Lick With a
Crooked Stick
ZORA NEALE
HURSTON
This new collection—
published 60 years
after Hurston’s
death—features
eight “lost” stories
set in Harlem, where
she lived in the ’20s
and bonded with
fellow luminaries.
THE 100 MUST-READ BOOKS OF 2020 • FICTION
If I Had Your Face
FRANCES CHA
Cha alternates
among the
perspectives of four
women in Seoul
as they navigate
romantic and
financial crises, filial
expectations, career
aspirations and
deeply held traumas,
each in her own
unique way.
Interior
Chinatown
CHARLES YU
Yu explores
Hollywood’s racism
against Asian
Americans in his
inventive novel,
written in the form of
a screenplay, about
an actor who has
had to suffer through
various dreary
supporting roles.
Cleanness
GARTH GREENWELL
A gay American
teacher navigates
life in the capital of
Bulgaria, a place
still unaccepting of
the love he seeks.
Greenwell precisely
details the physicality
and power at play
in S&M and the
questions that linger
after abuse.
Crooked
Hallelujah
KELLI JO FORD
Ford follows four
generations of
Cherokee women
through decades of
hardship, lingering on
poignant moments
to show how the
family perseveres in
a world that seems
determined to
destroy them.
Jack
MARILYNNE
ROBINSON
Readers of
Robinson’s Gilead
series get to better
know Jack: here he’s
aging, drinking and
self-destructing in
postwar St. Louis—
and eventually
falling in love with a
Black schoolteacher
named Della.
Days of
Distraction
ALEXANDRA CHANG
Between an isolating
cross-country move
with her white
boyfriend and a
disappointing visit
with her father in
China, Jing Jing
searches for a place
where her identity
isn’t subsumed by
someone else’s.
Followers
MEGAN ANGELO
A jaded blogger
orchestrates her
roommate’s social
media stardom.
But soon a disaster
that will come to be
known as the Spill
corrupts the Internet,
leading to the
creation of a society
that even a celebrity
seeks to escape.
A Girl Is a
Body of Water
JENNIFER
NANSUBUGA
MAKUMBI
At 12 years old,
Kirabo discovers
that within her is a
rare embodiment of
women’s “original
state”—a sense of
vitality all but smote
by her culture in rural
Uganda.
- A Burning
MEGHA MAJUMDAR
Moving between three
voices—a Muslim
woman wrongfully
accused of terrorism,
her conflicted alibi
and the teacher
who wants to seal
her fate—Majumdar
crafts a stunning
portrait of modern-day
tensions in India.
- Deacon
King Kong
JAMES MCBRIDE
After he shoots the
local drug dealer in
the face, a troubled
deacon becomes the
neighborhood’s most-
wanted—by police,
local mobsters and
the dealer himself in a
narrative that explores
masculinity and
community.
9. Where the Wild
Ladies Are
AOKO MATSUDA
In these retellings
of traditional
Japanese ghost
stories with a
feminist twist,
otherworldly
situations meet
the mundanity of
everyday life.
10. Breasts
and Eggs
MIEKO KAWAKAMI
The intertwined
journeys of a
woman, her sister
and her niece—
each contending
with growing
older—illuminate
the struggles of
contemporary
womanhood in
Japan and beyond.
THE 10 BEST FICTION BO OKS
How to
Pronounce Knife
SOUVANKHAM
THAMMAVONGSA
Thammavongsa
was born to Laotian
parents in a refugee
camp in Thailand and
raised in Canada, a
path that informed
her stories about the
lives of 14 Laotian
immigrants and
those around them.
