The Best Books of 2023

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From buzzy biographies to literary fiction, mysteries, memoirs, and everything in between, here are the best books of 2023.

Age of Vice

Deepti Kapoor's sprawling novel, Age of Vice, centers on the wealthy Wadia family. There's the playboy heir, Sunny; his servant, Ajay, who was born in poverty; and a journalist, Neda, who falls into Sunny's orbit. Kapoor takes the readers through each of their stories, and what results is a fast-paced, compelling novel that is part thriller, part family drama, and part look at modern Indian politics.

Big Swiss

Jen Beagin's novel is, in the simplest terms, about the transcriptionist for a sex therapist who falls for one of his clients after transcribing her sessions. Really, though, the funny, offbeat story (which is already in the works to become an HBO series) asks questions about telling the truth, falling in love, and who we really are when no one else is looking—or so we think.

Unscripted: The Epic Battle for a Media Empire and the Redstone Family Legacy

For fans of Succession, this biography of the Redstone family should scratch any itch to learn more about the inner workings of a rich, powerful, and very complicated family. Here, journalists James B. Stewart and Rachel Abrams document the battle for control of the media behemoth Paramount Global and the ways money and influence have changed the Redstone family, whose control of the firm (which owns movie studios, TV networks, and publishing houses) has made them one of the world's richest and most watched clans.

Brotherless Night: A Novel

The best historical fiction novels don't just tell a great story—they reveal a side of history that their readers may not be familiar with. V. V. Ganeshananthan's Brotherless Night does just that. Set in Sri Lanka during the civil war, the novel follows Sashi, a young Tamil woman who has dreams of becoming a doctor. Her four older brothers are all impacted by the growing violence in the country, and swept into the conflict in various ways. Brotherless Night is a powerful work of fiction; one that reminds the reader what it means to live through war, and stand as a witness to history.

Hello Beautiful: A Novel

After reading Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano, we understand why Oprah chose it as her historic 100th book club pick. The story follows four Italian American sisters: Julia, Sylvie, Cecilia, and Emeline, and a young basketball player named William, as they navigate love, loss, and secrets. If that sounds vague, trust us: It's best reading this novel without knowing too much. "Not since Jo and Meg and Amy and Beth have we seen sisters like this, with this kind of connection, and written so vividly that you feel like you’re in that home," Oprah Winfrey said. Hello Beautiful is aware of its connection to Little Women, with the sisters referencing who gets to be Beth, or Jo—and just like Louisa May Alcott's classic, Napolitano's novel will make you think deeply about sisterhood and what we choose to share with those we love.

The Great Reclamation: A Novel

Rachel Heng's stupendous novel follows Ah Boon Lee, a young boy growing up in a rural fishing village in Singapore. The reader is with Ah Boon as he grows up under British rule into a newly independent Singapore—the title takes its name from the Great Reclamation Project, about the transformation of the island nation's coastline. "I always wanted to write something about how Singapore became Singapore," Heng says. And oh does she succeed: The Great Reclamation a masterful work of historical fiction that makes the larger sweep of history intimate.

You Could Make This Place Beautiful

Maggie Smith might be best known as a poet, but in this beautifully written memoir—which touches on the end of her marriage, her dedication to motherhood, and the ways in which she begins to reclaim her own power—makes the case strongly that she should be just as celebrated for her prose.

The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder

When a British ship on a secret mission wrecked in the 1740s, it seemed like a miracle that a group of survivors washed up in Brazil. At least until a second group of survivors also appeared and told a very different story about what had happened aboard the Wager—one that would lead to life-and-death stakes for one group, if only it could be discerned who was telling the truth. David Grann (Killers of the Flower Moon, The Lost City of Z) specializes in telling true stories that are stranger than fiction, and this latest addition to his oeuvre won't disappoint.

Crook Manifesto

Two-time Pulitzer Prize–winner Colson Whitehead revisits the main character from his 2021 book, Harlem Shuffle, in this exciting new novel set in 1970s New York City. Ex-fence/current furniture store owner Ray Carney has gone on the straight and narrow and hopes to stay that way despite persistent efforts of his former partners in crime. Whitehead takes Carney through a series of thrilling escapades and along the way illuminates a neighborhood and community that is changing rapidly around him.

Young and Restless: The Girls Who Sparked America's Revolutions

In her fascinating and keenly observed new book, T&C contributor Mattie Kahn turns her watchful eye to the role that teenage girls have played in the history of American social progress. She finds truly incredible stories from the front lines of the Civil Rights Movement to one of the U.S.'s first labor strikes. It's an engrossing, important book to read—and to give to any young person in your life.

The Art Thief: A True Story of Love, Crime, and a Dangerous Obsession

If you can't afford an art collection, just steal it. At least, that's what Stéphane Breitweiser thought in between the years of 1995 to 2001 when he accumulated 239 artworks from 200 museums and galleries while traveling around Europe. Interestingly, these heists were not motivated by profit. But, rather an insatiable desire to acquire beautiful things. In Finkel's fourth book, Breitwieser offers a series of exclusive interviews, the first that he has granted to an American journalist, about how and why.

Loot

This charming, intricately built, and supremely satisfying novel follows a young man who's plucked from obscurity to work for a sultan, apprenticing for a great master and helping to make great toys to delight the finicky royal. When the kingdom finds itself in turmoil, however, Loot becomes a story about heroes' journeys, unimaginable loss, the power of love, and the immortality of art. It's an engrossing, delightful, and masterfully told tale that readers won't soon forget.

The Bee Sting

Paul Murray's ability to tell a sad story with a smirk is on display once again in this brainy, compelling, and exceedingly enjoyable novel about a family experiencing more than their fair share of bad luck. This book is more than just a witty tale of woe, however, but instead a contemplation of how fortune doles out its favors that makes a reader wonder, how fast does one need to be to outrun fate?

The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store

James McBride, author of Deacon King Kong and The Good Lord Bird, returns with another powerful novel. The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store is set in Chicken Hill, a neighborhood of Jews and African Americans in Pottstown, Pennsylvania. The heart of the story is Chona, who runs the novel's eponymous grocery store, who helps Nate, a Black usher at her husband's theater, protect a young orphan. It's a story McBride, as a Black Jewish man, is uniquely suited to tell, and makes you want to revisit all his past works.

How to Say Babylon

Safiya Sinclair won the Whiting Writers’ Award and numerous other prizes for her 2016 collection of poetry Cannibal. In this penetrating new memoir she describes her childhood in Montego Bay, Jamaica, growing up under the increasingly paranoid eye of her strict Rastafarian father who forbade her and her siblings access to what he deemed the corrupting and oppressing influences of Western culture. Books of poetry given to her by her mother provided Sinclair an escape and ultimately served as inspiration for communicating her own perceptions of the world.

Glossy: Ambition, Beauty, and the Inside Story of Emily Weiss's Glossier

Beauty isn't so different from any other giant business. That much is clear in Glossy, a fascinating, revealing, and deliciously dishy new book about the rise of Glossier. T&C contributor Marisa Meltzer dives deep into how founder Emily Weiss launched the massively popular beauty brand, and the wild ride on which it took Weiss and nearly everyone around her. It's a story about ambition and drive, and what happens to a dream when big money gets involved; hint: things go a bit sideways.

The Fraud

When a trial captivates Victorian England—after all, a serious inheritance is at stake—it brings together people whose paths might not otherwise cross. Zadie Smith's spellbinding new novel, based in part on real events, follows both a Scottish housekeeper (an intimate of a once-great novelist) and a formerly enslaved man from Jamaica, both of whom find their fortunes changed by the courtroom drama—giving readers a look inside a long-gone period, and a chance to think about how its struggles can still persist today.

Going Infinite: The Rise and Fall of a New Tycoon

The author of Moneyball and Liar's Poker has found an ideal subject in his latest work: one-time crypto boy wonder Sam Bankman-Fried. Here, Lewis turns his singularly observant eye toward the now-disgraced financial whiz kid to examine how the world's youngest billionaire rose to the top of his field and the ways in which his kingdom came crashing down around him.

Land of Milk and Honey: A Novel

In a not-so-distant future, climate change has led a cloud of smog to envelop the Earth, killing most of the planet's crops. A young chef decides to take a job at a mountaintop research community where the superrich dine on lavish meals. Zhang said Land of Milk and Honey is about "the sticky-sensual necessity of finding one's own pleasure in a world gone to shit. The joy of writing this was a lifeline in dark times; I hope it brings you joy to read, too." Deeply original and provocative, Land of Milk and Honey not to be missed.

Tom Lake

Ann Patchett's newest novel is a moving and tender story of family and love. It's set in spring 2020, when Lara's three daughters return to their Northern Michigan home during the pandemic. As they deal with the cherry harvest, they beg Lara to tell her the story of her relationship with Peter Duke, a famous actor whom she dated briefly at a summer theater company called Tom Lake. It's magnificent.

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