Dear Friends of The Center,
Thank you, our dear readers, for helping support us through the challenging times of this past year. We appreciate you and send deep gratitude to you for helping make The Center for Fiction Bookstore into a bustling and thriving place for books and ideas. Below is a selection of 21 fiction titles from 2021 that have happily, stubbornly lingered in memory.
The book column returns January 8th. We wish you the happiest and healthiest of holidays!
Happy reading,
Melanie Fleishman
Buyer, The Center for Fiction Bookstore
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Holiday Book Guide:
21 Fiction Highlights from '21
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Afterparties: Stories
ANTHONY VEASNA SO
Because the late So’s extraordinary portraits of Cambodian Americans in California show us a slice of immigrant life we rarely glimpse.
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Beautiful World, Where Are You
SALLY ROONEY
Because Rooney somehow manages to make her young contemporary Irish characters’ foibles, line by memorable line, seem totally relatable and universal.
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Bewilderment
RICHARD POWERS
Because Powers can take an intimate father/son story and open it out to elucidate the state of the world in the best eco-fiction of the year.
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Burnt Sugar
AVNI DOSHI
Because Doshi’s unflinching study of the complicated relationship between a daughter and mother in India never looks away.
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Crossroads
JONATHAN FRANZEN
Because Franzen is the master of domestic angst, aiming his magnifying glass at the undercurrents of modern America.
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The Five Wounds
KIRSTIN VALDEZ QUADE
Because Quade has created a moving, vibrant portrait of a Latinx family in small town New Mexico, for which she received The Center for Fiction 2021 First Novel Prize.
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Fight Night
MIRIAM TOEWS
Because Toews’s tender explorations of women’s relationships to their mothers and grandmothers reminds us of the unbreakable bonds of the generations.
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Heaven
MIEKO KAWAKAMI
Translated by Sam Bett and David Boyd
Because Japanese author Kawakami depicts the horrors of bullying in brutal but beautiful, unforgettable storytelling in this coming-of-age novel.
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Intimacies
KATIE KITAMURA
Because Kitamura’s investigation of big moral questions faced by an interpreter at The Hague packs a quiet, powerful, thought-provoking punch to the gut.
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Klara and the Sun
KAZUO ISHIGURO
Because Ishiguro can take a seemingly cold subject like Artificial Intelligence and create a heartbreaking, intimate story of family and love.
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Lean Fall Stand
JON McGREGOR
Because McGregor uses a cataclysmic weather event in inhospitable Antarctica to delve into a man’s psyche and explore the consequences of choice.
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The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois
HONORÉE FANONNE JEFFERS
Because Jeffers investigates Black, White and Indigenous heritages in this sweeping epic of the American South.
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The Magician
COLM TÓIBÍN
Because Tóibín crystallizes the fascinating life of Thomas Mann and puts the reader into the world of a famous writer at a turning point in history.
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Matrix
LAUREN GROFF
Because Groff can write equally about contemporary and historical life bringing a modern spin to our past, here examining life in a 13th century convent.
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No One Is Talking About This
PATRICIA LOCKWOOD
Because Lockwood pierces the urban social media world with wit and compassion creating a perfect novel for our times.
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Open Water
CALEB AZUMAH NELSON
Because first-time author Nelson renders romantic love between artists in exquisite, poetic prose, shining a light on the challenges of contemporary London Black culture.
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Our Country Friends
GARY SHTEYNGART
Because Shteyngart nails the pandemic novel with equal parts hilarity and pathos, while creating a satire filled with an unforgettable ensemble of characters.
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The Promise
DAMON GALGUT
Because Galgut justifiably won this year’s Booker Prize as the premiere chronicler of South Africa, in a story about the aftermath of a mother’s death.
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The Prophets
ROBERT JONES, JR.
Because Jones’s debut sensitively illuminates the experience of slaves through a forbidden sexual relationship.
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Second Place
RACHEL CUSK
Because Cusk is unmatched in her ability to capture emotion in a few words while confirming the ineffable power of art.
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The Sentence
LOUISE ERDRICH
Because Erdrich’s intricate portrayals of Indigenous characters illuminate Native culture in a complicated landscape (and because she owns an independent bookstore).
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