No matter what else happened, 2021 was a banner year for incredible novels. 2021 has brought us some amazing novels that shifted our perspectives, uncovered essential truths, and encouraged us forward. Throughout the year, we’ve been updating you on the best novels our editors and writers have read, we’re sharing our final verdicts, and offering some great reads for the slowed-down days and weeks ahead. Rather than a definitive “best of the list,” this is simply what we’ve loved this year—and we hope that you do too.
Best Novels to Read of 2021
Title
Author
Great Circle
Maggie Shipstead
Infinite Country
Patricia Engel
Sankofa
Chibundu Onuzo
The Four Winds
Kristin Hannah
What’s Mine And Yours
Naima Coster
The Lincoln Highway
Amor Towles
Cloud Cuckoo Land
Anthony Doerr
Harlem Shuffle
Colson Whitehead
Our Country Friends
Gary Shteyngart
Crossroads
Johnathan Franzen
Count the Ways
Joyce Maynard
Klara and the Sun
Kazuo Ishiguro
Dava Shastri’s Last Day
Kirthana Ramisetti
The Sentence
Louise Erdrich
What Storm, What Thunder
Myriam J.A. Chancy
Bewilderment
Richard Powers
The Prophets
Robert Jones R
The Book of Form and Emptiness
Ruth Ozeki
Beautiful World, Where Are You
Sally Rooney
How Lucky
Will Leitch
The Lincoln Highway
Amor Towles
The Lost Apothecary
Saram Penner
Fault Lines
Emily Itami
The Paper Palace
Miranda Cowley Heller
Beautiful World, Where Are You
Sally Rooney
Bewilderment
Richard Powers
Cloud Cuckoo Land
Anthony Doerr
Harlem Shuffle
Colson Whitehead
The Sentence
Louise Erdrich
The Other Black Girl
Zakiya Dalila Harris
the Seed Keeper
Diane Wilson
Mary Jane
Jessica Anya Blau
The Rib King
Ladee Hubbard
What You Can See From Here
Mariana Leky
Sorrow and Bliss
Meg Mason
The Five Wounds
Kirstin Valdez Quade
Cloud Cuckoo Land
Anthony Doerr
Matrix
Lauren Groff
The Sentence
Louise Erdrich
Detransition, Baby
Torrey Peters
Harlem Shuffle
Colson Whitehead
The love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois
Honoree Fanonne Jeffers
The Committed
Viet Thanh Nguyen
I love You But I’ve Chosen Darkness
Claire Vaye Watkins
Milk Fed
Melissa Broder
The Atmospherians
Alex McElroy
Concrete Rose
Angie Thomas
Harlem Shuffle
Colson Whitehead
the Final Revival of Opal & Nev
Dawnie Walton
Palmares
Gayl Jones
Virtue
Hermione Hoby
How Beautiful We Were
Imbolo Mbue
Repreive
James Han Mattson
A Calling for Charlie Barnes
Joshua Ferris
Harrow
Joy Williams
Libertie
Kaitlyn Greenidge
Early Morning Riser
Katherne Heiny
Klara and the Sun
Kazuo Ishiguro
Matrix
Lauren Groff
Fake Accounts
Lauren Oyler
Great Circle
Maggie Shipstead
Appleseed
Matt Bell
What’s Mine and Yours
Naima Coster
No One is Talking About This
Patricia Lockwood
Infinite Country
Patrician Engel
Mona
Pola Oloixarac
Nightbitch
Rachel Yoder
Beautiful World, Where Are You
Sally Rooney
Detransition, Baby
Torrey Peters
The Other Black Girl
Zakiya Dalila Harris
The Last Thing He Told Me
Laura Dave
The Maidens
Alex Michaelides
Lore
Alexandra Bracken
The Love Hypothesis
Ali Hazelwood
Hail Mary
Andy Weir
The Push
Ashley Audrain
One last Stop
Casey McQuiston
The Spanish Love Deception
Elena Armas
People We Meet on Vacation
Emily Henry
Klara and the Sun
Kazuo Ishiguro
The Four Winds
Kristin Hannah
Apples Never Fall
Liane Moriarty
The Wife Upstairs
Rachel Hawkins
Beautiful World, Where Are You
Sally Rooney
A Court of Silver Flames
Sarah J. Maas
The Lost Apothecary
Sarah Penner
Malibu Rising
Taylor Jenkins Reid
Matrix
Lauren Groff
Second Place
Rachel Cusk
Palmares
Gayl Jones
The Book of Form and Emptiness
Ruth Ozeki
China Room
Sunjeev Sahota
A Shock
Keither Ridgway
Sorrow and Bliss
Meg Mason
Assembly
Natasha Brown
The Manningtree witches
AK Blakemore
Treacle Walker
Alan Garner
Cloud Cuckoo Land
Anthony Doerr
Open Water
Caleb Azumah Nelson
The Magician
Colm Toibin
Harlem Shuffle
Colson Whitehead
The Promise
Damon Galgut
Light Perpetual
Francis Spufford
My Phantoms
Gwendoline Riley
Crossroads
Jonathan Franzen
Klara and the Sun
Kazuo Ishiguro
Oh William!
Lucy Barton
Painting Time
Maylis de Kerangel
A Burning
Megha Majumdar
The Fortune Men
Nadifa Mohamed
The Books of Jacob
Olga Tokarczuk
Women of Troy
Pat Barker
No One is Talking About This
Patricia Lockwood
How to Kidnap the Rich
Rahul Raina
Luster
Raven Leilani
Pity the Beast
Robin McLean
Mrs Death Misses Death
Salena Godden
Beautiful World, Where Are You
Sally Rooney
The Hummingbird
Sandro Veronesi
Burntcoat
Sarah Hall
Bina
Anakana Schofield
Damnation Spring
Ash Davidson
Wayward
Dana Spiotta
The Final Revival of Opal & Nev
Dawnie Walton
Winter in Sokcho
Elisa Shua Dusapin
Our Country Friends
Gary Shteyngart
The love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois
Honoree Fanonne Jeffers
The Fugitivities
Jesse McCarthy
Three Rooms
Jo Hamya
My Monticello
Jocelyn Nicole Johnson
The Sentence
Louise Erdrich
No One is Talking About This
Patricia Lockwood
Second Place
Rachel Cusk
Foregone
Russell Banks
Beautiful World, Where Are You
Sally Rooney
Detransition, Baby
Torrey Peters
The Committed
Viet Thanh Nguyen
Build Your House Around My body
Violet Kupersmith
Skinship
Yoon Choi
The Other Black Girl
Zakiya Dalila Harris
Hell of a Book
Jason Mott
Shadow Life
Hiromi Goto
Light from Uncommon Stars
Ryka Aoki
She Who Became the Sun
Shelley Parker-Chan
Act Your Age, Eve Brown
Talia Hibbert
All Her Little Secrets
Wanda M Morris
Beautiful World, Where Are You
Sally Rooney
Cloud Cuckoo Land
Anthony Doerr
Crossroads
Jonathan Franzen
No One is Talking About This
Patricia Lockwood
The love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois
Honoree Fanonne Jeffers
The Sentence
Louise Erdrich
Detransition, Baby
Torrey Peters
Bewilderment
Richard Powers
The Magician
Colm Toibin
Wayward
Dana Spiotta
Our Country Friends
Gary Shteyngart
A Calling for Charlie Barnes
Joshua Ferris
One Last Stop
Casey McQuiston
My Year Abroad
Chang-rae Lee
The Promise
Damon Galgut
How Beautiful We Were
Imbolo Mbue
Libertie
Kaitlyn Greenidge
The Prophets
Robert Jones Jr
Something New Under the Sun
Alexandra Kleeman
The War for Gloria
Atticus Lish
Light Perpetual
Francis Spufford
Appleseed
Matt Bell
What Strange Paradise
Omar El Akkad
The Trees
Percival Everett
Razorblade Tears
S.A. Cosby
Build Your House Around My body
Violet Kupersmith
The Lincoln Highway
Amor Towles
Invisible Child
Andrea Elliott
Burnt Sugar
Avni Doshi
When We Cease to Understand the World
Benjamin Labatut
The Sun Collective
Charles Baxter
Harlem Shuffle
Colson Whitehead
Oh William!
Elizabeth Strout
The love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois
Honoree Fanonne Jeffers
How Beautiful We Were
Imbolo Mbue
The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels
India Holton
The Plot
Jean Hanff Korelitz
Ghosts of New York
Jim Lewis
The Netanyahus
Joshua Cohen
The Morning Star
Karl Ove Nausgaard
Intimacies
Katie Kitamura
Intimacies
Katie Kitamura
Klara and the Sun
Kazuo Ishiguro
Send for Me
Lauren Fox
No One is Talking About This
Patricia Lockwood
A Lie Somone Told You About Yourself
Peter Ho Davies
Velvet Was the Night
Silvia Moreno-Garcia
The Book of Mother
Violaine Huisman
Chronicles From the Land of the Happiest People on Earth
