90 TIME December 27, 2021/January 3, 2022
1 Great Circle
The beginning of Maggie Shipstead’s
astounding novel, a Booker fi nalist,
includes a series of endings: two plane
crashes, a sunken ship and several
people dead. The bad luck continues
when one of the ship’s young survivors,
Marian, grows up to become a pilot—
only to disappear on the job. Shipstead
unravels her protagonist’s life in glorious
detail through a narrative made to be
devoured, one that is both timeless and
fulfi lling.2 The Prophets
At a plantation in the antebellum South,
enslaved teenagers Isaiah and Samuel
work in a barn and seek refuge in
each other until one of their own, after
adopting their master’s religious beliefs,
betrays their trust. In The Prophets, a
National Book Award fi nalist, Robert
Jones Jr. traces the teens’ relationship
within the complex hierarchy of the
plantation. The result is a crushing
exploration of the legacy of slavery and
a delicate story of Black queer love.3 My Monticello
Jocelyn Nicole Johnson’s searing short-
story collection is one to read in order.
Its narratives dissect an American
present that doesn’t feel at all removed
from the country’s violent past, and
build to a brutal fi nish. The unnerving
standout story—the titular novella—
follows a group of neighbors on the
run from white supremacists. It’s as
apocalyptic as it is realistic, a haunting
portrait of a community trying to survive
in a nation that constantly undermines
its very existence.4 Detransition, Baby
Reese is a 30-something trans
woman who desperately
wants a child. Her ex Ames,
who recently detransitioned,just learned his new lover
is pregnant with his baby.
Ames presents Reese with the
opportunity she’s been waiting
for: perhaps the three of them
can raise the baby together.
In her delectable debut novel,
Torrey Peters follows these
characters as they wrestle with
a life-altering decision.5 The Love Songs of
W.E.B. Du Bois
The debut novel from poet Honorée
Fanonne Jeffers is a piercing epic
spanning 200 years. At its core is the
mission of Ailey Pearl Garfi eld, a Black
woman coming of age in the 1980s and
’90s, determined to learn more about her
family history. What Ailey discovers leads
her to grapple with her identity, particularly
as she discovers secrets about her
ancestors. In 800 rewarding pages,
Jeffers offers a comprehensive account
of class, colorism and intergenerational
trauma. It’s an aching tale told with nuance
and compassion—one that illuminates
the cost of survival.6 The Life of the Mind
Dorothy is an adjunct English professor
enduring the sixth day of her miscarriage.
In Christine Smallwood’s taut debut,
Dorothy relays amusing observations
on her ever collapsing universe.
Languishing in academia, Dorothy
wonders how her once attainable goals
came to feel impossible. Her endlessly
entertaining catalog of thoughts gives
way to a gratifying examination of
ambition and freedom.7 Cloud Cuckoo Land
The fi ve protagonists of Anthony
Doerr’s kaleidoscopic and remarkably
constructed third novel, all living on the
margins of society, are connectedby an ancient Greek story. Cloud
Cuckoo Land, a National Book
Award fi nalist, moves from
15th century Constantinople to an
interstellar ship to a dusty Idaho
library as the characters interact
with the tale. Doerr’s immersive
world-building and dazzling prose
tie together seemingly disparate
threads as he underlines the
value of storytelling and the power
of imagination.8 Afterparties
The nine stories that constitute
Anthony Veasna So’s stirring debut
collection, published after his
death at 28, reveal a portrait of a
Cambodian American community in
California. From a story about two
sisters refl ecting on their father
to another about a high school
badminton coach stuck in the past,
So’s narratives offer a thoughtful view
into the community that shaped him.
While he describes the tensions his
characters navigate with humor and
care, So also refl ects on immigration,
queerness and identity.9 Open Water
In his incisive debut novel, Caleb
Azumah Nelson tells a bruising love
story about young Black artists
in London. His protagonist is a
photographer who has fallen for a
dancer, and Nelson proves masterly
at writing young love, clocking the
small and seemingly meaningless
moments that encompass longing.
He celebrates the art that has
shaped his characters’ lives while
interrogating the unjust world that
surrounds them.10 Klara and the Sun
The eighth novel from Nobel Prize–
winning author Kazuo Ishiguro follows
a robot-like “Artifi cial Friend” named
Klara, who sits in a store and waits to
be purchased. When she becomes
the companion of an ailing 14-year-old
girl, Klara puts her observations of
the world to the test. In exploring the
dynamic between the AI and the teen,
Ishiguro crafts a narrative that asks
unsettling questions about humanity,
technology and purpose.