The Best Literary Fiction Books of 2024, So Far

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There are few pleasures—or responsibilities—I appreciate as much as the chance to survey a whole year’s worth of books. Hundreds of thousands (or millions, depending on what and how you’re counting) of titles are published each year: Giving each the equal consideration they deserve is impossible, but it’s fun to try anyway. After digging—in some cases, literally—through as many books as the ELLE office could squeeze in, we decided to split our annual “best of 2024” list into five categories: literary fiction; nonfiction; fantasy and sci-fi; romance; and mysteries and thrillers.

The list you’re reading now focuses on literary fiction, a category stuffed with industry heavy-hitters, major prize nominees, critical darlings, and under-the-radar riches. There are a lot of remarkable novels out there. For that reason, we’ll be updating this list at the end of 2024 to add fall and winter titles, as well as the treasures we might have missed earlier in the year. For now, here are 57 of our favorites from January through August, listed in order of publication date.

The Storm We Made by Vanessa Chan

Out now.

“Ambitious” would be a trite term for Vanessa Chan’s outstanding debut, a historical novel that thrums with the commingling tensions of its backdrop: the lead-up to the WWII Japanese invasion of what is now Malaysia. Chan writes her characters—particularly the conflicted protagonist, Cecily Alcantara, a former espionage asset to the Japanese Imperial Army—with a precision that neither flinches from the brutality of war nor ignores the humanity within. This is a book with real staying power.

Nonfiction by Julie Myerson

Out now.

Beginning with the electric line, “There’s a night—I think this is the middle of June—when we lock you in the house,” Julie Myerson’s Nonfiction hurls the reader into a devastating conflict between the narrator (an author herself) and her only child. As this child—the “you” to whom the book is addressed—wrestles with their destructive behaviors, the author confronts her own role in this emotional maelstrom, and what it might mean for her to confront her relationship with her mother. Challenging and entrancing in equal measure, Nonfiction is a short but gutting feat of love.

Sugar, Baby by Celine Saintclare

Out now.

An elegant coming-of-age tale, Sugar, Baby follows Agnes, a 21-year-old sex worker swept up in the supposedly luxurious world of sugar daddies, where she finds a financial foothold if not, exactly, a home. As author Celine Saintclare’s dedication page suggests—quoting the iconic “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend” line, “A kiss may be grand, but it won’t pay the rental”—Agnes has a lot more to worry about than her clients’ proclivities. Saintclare’s language is easy to soak in, even as her nuanced touch pokes and prods and asks—no, demands—real consideration of the reader.

The Fetishist by Katherine Min

Out now.

A posthumous work by the masterful Katherine Min, The Fetishist is a farcical, alarming take on Lolita that plunges headfirst into the depths of objectification and sexualization, and their fraught relationships with race. There is a wicked sense of delight to this book, yet that never diminishes its parallel, clear-eyed sense of justice. Min’s ultimate talent was that she can hold both objectives in the palm of her hand, and deposit them directly on the page.

Behind You Is the Sea by Susan Muaddi Darraj

Out now.

This gorgeous debut, an intergenerational novel-in-stories following three Palestinian-American families in Baltimore, navigates a tricky balance beam: It’s a zoomed-in family drama that simultaneously captures wide-lens truths about cultural differences; the weight of history; and the myriad manifestations of love.

Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar

Out now.

Lauren Groff called Martyr! “the best novel you’ll ever read about the joy of language, addiction, displacement, martyrdom, belonging, [and] homesickness,” which captures just how many topics this masterful novel manages to juice for insight. The book—about a martyr-obsessed son of Iranian immigrants whose journey of self-discovery leads him to the Brooklyn Museum—opens with our washed-up protagonist all but certain he’s been visited by the divine...in the form of a flickering lightbulb. Delightfully, things only get more provocative from there.

Broughtupsy by Christina Cooke

Out now.

A charged account of one woman’s trip to her native Jamaica in pursuit of her disconnected relatives, Christina Cooke’s Broughtupsy borrows its title from a Caribbean term addressing good manners and upbringing. Cooke’s protagonist is an LGBTQ woman, increasingly unmoored as she mourns the loss of her brother while digging for a connection to the land—and family—that should feel like her own. This is a deft debut overflowing with emotion.

Hard by a Great Forest by Leo Vardiashvili

Out now.

Hard by a Great Forest is both a thrilling mystery-adventure hybrid and the sort of war-ravaged drama that leaves your chest heaving, all folded into one precious debut. The story sees Saba, a Georgian refugee living in London, return to what was once the Soviet republic of Georgia after his father, Irakli, makes his own trek home—and winds up missing.

Come and Get It by Kiley Reid

Out now.

I love how Liz Moore put it in her blurb for Kiley Reid’s latest, Come and Get It: “Reading a Kiley Reid novel is like watching a docuseries designed exactly for you.” This particular series—er, novel—is set against the never-not-fascinating backdrop of the University of Arkansas, where an R.A. and a visiting professor become entangled as their mirroring money concerns catalyze into a plot to eavesdrop on the R.A.’s classmates. Juicy—naturally—but poignant, this highly anticipated return from the Such a Fun Age author had tongues wagging this winter.

Good Material by Dolly Alderton

Out now.

The celebrated Dolly Alderton—of Everything I Know About Love—returned this year with Good Material, a novel built around a predictably catastrophic romance. Sparkling with Alderton’s well-known wit, Good Material follows the lovesick Andy as he attempts to piece together why his relationship with the once-so-adoring Jen fell apart. But, of course, Jen has her own thoughts on that.

Greta & Valdin by Rebecca K. Reilly

Out now.

Within the first few pages of Greta & Valdin, I was already struggling not to laugh aloud in my crowded office. I wanted to tap my colleagues on the shoulders and read lines to them, in the hopes they, too, would cherish Rebecca K. Reilly’s little kernels of humor and truth. Already a bestseller in New Zealand, the book centers around the titular brother and sister pair, and the urgent family dramas—and hilarious millennial crises—that underscore their winding heartaches in Auckland.

The Blueprint by Rae Giana Rashad

Out now.

A book in an intense, boundary-pushing conversation with The Handmaid’s Tale, Rae Giana Rashad’s work of dystopian fiction drops the reader into an alternate United States, where a young Black Texan has her life determined by an algorithm: She will become the concubine of a white government official. As she commits the story of one of her ancestors to paper, Rashad’s protagonist finds courage in their story—and starts searching for the means to break free in her own present-day. Inventive, ferocious, and laser-focused, The Blueprint promises to skewer the hypocrisies that already punctuate our reality.

I Love You So Much It's Killing Us Both by Mariah Stovall

Out now.

The “complicated friendship novel” is one of my favorite literary sub-genres, so Mariah Stovall’s I Love You So Much It’s Killing Us Both immediately captured my attention. Nostalgic yet fiercely relevant, the book has all the tricky emotion of the mixtapes around which Stovall’s crafted her narrative. Following protagonist Khaki Oliver as she debates reconnecting with the former best friend who confused and enthralled her in her youth, this book is a coming-of-age treasure.

Acts of Forgiveness by Maura Cheeks

Out now.

A visionary exploration of how public policy might—and already does, every day—shape our most intimate relationships, Acts of Forgiveness posits the Forgiveness Act: a policy in which Black families can claim up to $175,000 from the government if they can trace (and prove) their connections to enslaved ancestors. Protagonist Willie Revel sees these reparations as an essential opportunity... but not everyone in the family is as interested as Willie is to dig into a painful history.

The American Daughters by Maurice Carlos Ruffin

Out now.

Interspersed with documents and transcripts that give the novel the feel of something sacred and discovered—which, of course, is exactly the point—Maurice Carlos Ruffin’s The American Daughters is a compelling tribute to his female ancestors, as the author notes in his acknowledgments. This work of historical fiction plants the reader in a much older version of Ruffin’s hometown, New Orleans, where protagonist Ady meets a group of spies known as the Daughters, whose work for liberation amidst the Civil War instills Ady with the conviction—and power—to shape a new reality.

Ours by Phillip B. Williams

Out now.

In my humble opinion, there’s nothing that hits like a deft work of magical realism, and Ours by Phillip B. Williams is precisely that sort of story. Set in the mid-19th century and spanning four decades, the book follows a mysterious woman with even more mysterious abilities, which she uses to free the enslaved across Arkansas and shuttle them to a magically hidden community in Missouri—called Ours. But this insulation from the outside world creates its own questions, conflicts, and threats.

Wandering Stars by Tommy Orange

Out now.

Tommy Orange’s debut, There There, set the literary world aflame in 2019, and his highly anticipated follow-up, Wandering Stars, seems just as likely to capture attention (and acclaim). Set across centuries and bringing characters from There There back to the page, Wandering Stars is a beautiful-but-wrenching tale of the ways in which violence perpetuates itself, particularly against the Indigenous communities of which Orange and his characters are a part. No touchpoint is left unexamined—or un-condemned—as Orange works his way through the decades to address cultural erasure; institutionalized abuse; school shootings; addiction; forgotten heritage; spiritual healing; and how, miraculously, love persists through it all.

Piglet by Lottie Hazell

Out now.

That sumptuous cheeseburger on the cover is feast enough, but Piglet has so much more to offer within its short, compulsively readable pages. Within paragraphs, the titular Piglet—stuck with that particular nickname since she was a kid—is scooping up ingredients for wondrously described recipes (feta salads, roast chicken, espresso semifreddo) as she marches into her new life as fiancée to her upper-class partner, Kit. But Kit has a bombshell to drop 13 days before they’re due to be married, and it’ll send Piglet into a food-filled fever dream as she works out what, precisely, it means to be a woman who wants. Delicious, in every sense of the word.

Anita de Monte Laughs Last by Xochitl Gonzalez

Out now.

I devoured Xochitl Gonzalez’s Olga Dies Dreaming during a vacation two years ago, and I think I might have actually gasped when I read the news that Anita De Monte Laughs Last would be published in 2024. Gonzalez has that particular penchant for navigating perspectives in a voice that’s at once delightfully humorous and sobering. Anita demonstrates that penchant from its earliest sentences, flowing right into the New York City art world of the ’80s and ’90s with enviable ease.

Pelican Girls by Julia Malye

Out now.

A tale of female friendship unlike any I’ve come across before, Julia Malye’s inspired-by-a-true-story Pelican Girls is as incredible a feat of research as it is a daring work of fiction. In the mid-18th century, a group of women “of childbearing age” are sent from La Salpêtrière asylum in Paris to wed settlers in New Orleans, where three unlikely friends must band together to survive abuses of both the body and the heart.

Ellipses by Vanessa Lawrence

Out now.

Look, I’ll admit media folks love books about...media folks. And that Sally Rooney-like cover certainly has its charm. But even without the job connection and the Rooney influence, I’d be drawn to Vanessa Lawrence’s Ellipses, which navigates a nuanced conversation about power imbalances; our infatuations with so-called “accomplished” women; and why society seems so incapable of holding intersectional identities in both hands. The protagonist (a writer not unlike Lawrence in her WWD and W Magazine days) feels stuck: in her relationship with her girlfriend; in her office culture; in her position against the rising tide of digital dominance. But when a beauty mogul—who else?!—injects her life with new vitality, the real dangers come to the fore.

Parasol Against the Axe by Helen Oyeyemi

Out now.

Like so much of Helen Oyeyemi’s acclaimed work, Parasol Against the Axe defies a simple logline—which, of course, is to its credit as an immersive, variegated study of a city and the people within: in this case, the Czech capital of Prague. In looping, conversational prose, Oyeyemi introduces us to a pair of estranged friends at a bachelorette weekend in Prague, a place which, Oyeyemi writes, “distributes its insults and outrages indiscriminately.” Those insults become increasingly surreal as the book progresses; you’ll want to do all you can not to tear your eyes from the page.

Fruit of the Dead by Rachel Lyon

Out now.

A Greek myth retelling! That’s already sales pitch enough for a number of readers—and that cover is exquisite—but Fruit of the Dead is a good long trip from Hadestown. Here, Rachel Lyon’s taken exceptional pains to reimagine the Persephone-and-Demeter myth for the modern day, casting a young camp counselor as Persephone; her distracted, high-achieving single mother as Demeter; and a pharmaceutical tycoon as the Hades who shuttles our Persephone to his private island. There, wonders—and risks—abound.

The Great Divide by Cristina Henríquez

Out now.

“Sweeping” is a descriptor thrown at a lot of novels, good and bad, but Cristina Henríquez’s The Great Divide actually earns the adjective: A genuine epic, the book takes us into the build site of the under-construction Panama Canal, where we’re introduced to myriad characters with overlapping schedules, backgrounds, and skills—but with wants and desires uniquely their own. Henríquez’s ability to juggle them all with gentleness and care is a wonder; for those who love historical fiction, this is a certain treat.

Help Wanted by Adelle Waldman

Out now.

After her beloved tale of the Brooklyn literati, The Love Affairs of Nathaniel P., took over the cultural conversation in 2013—as covered by this very magazine—Adelle Waldman has finally come back to us with a much different project. Help Wanted takes on the Walmart and Amazon era through the lens of big-box store retail workers, each of whom are barely making ends meet when their manager announces his job will soon be open. That dangling carrot represents an opportunity (and a temptation) that Waldman’s endearing characters find impossible to resist.

But the Girl by Jessica Zhan Mei Yu

Out now.

Originally published in Australia, acquired by author Brandon Taylor, and now in the U.S. through indie publisher Unnamed Press, Jessica Zhan Mei Yu’s debut is a rich work of literary introspection—and blistering honesty. (Bonus: It has a killer cover.) But the Girl is about the titular Girl, a Ph.D. candidate studying Sylvia Plath and writing a postcolonial novel—even if, Girl admits, she’s iffy on the definition of a “postcolonial novel”—as she wrestles with the competing motivations of honoring her Malaysian family and exploring an interior life of her own... especially when that means letting Sylvia Plath have a home in her head.

Great Expectations by Vinson Cunningham

Out now.

Speaking of astounding covers... New Yorker writer Vinson Cunningham’s Great Expectations draws on the author’s own experiences as an Obama Administration staffer to weave a story of race, politics, religion, and moral compromise. The protagonist, David, finds himself absorbed into the campaign of a charismatic Illinois “Senator,” whose own race to the White House clarifies for David what it really means to be a young Black father in America.

Green Frog: Stories by Gina Chung

Out now.

Sprinkled in folkloric wisdom and speculative darkness, Gina Chung’s story collection, Green Frog, humors and haunts with thoughtful precision. The stories within incorporate Korean American women; fox demons; talking dolls; memory-warping AI; and an edible heart to demonstrate not only Chung’s imaginative range, but her ability to cut to the quick no matter the medium.

Headshot by Rita Bullwinkel

Out now.

A critical favorite that deserves the lavish praise, Rita Bullwinkel’s debut novel is as slim and fierce as the teenage boxers that occupy its pages. Each chapter of Headshot homes in on a match at a national 18-and-under boxing championship in Reno, where eight young women converge to trade blows, fighting for something much more slippery than a winning title. Bullwinkel’s writing is immersive but never self-indulgent; you can read her debut in one sitting, but you’ll want to make the pleasure of it last much longer.

James by Percival Everett

Out now.

As writer Cree Myles put it in her interview with Percival Everett for ELLE.com, it would be “imprecise to call James a retelling of Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. A reimagining doesn’t quite fit the bill either. It really is a re-centering of Jim, Huck’s enslaved companion throughout the novel, and a de-centering of Huck and all of the whiteness, privilege, and oblivion that surrounds him.” One of the most celebrated books of the year—already a favorite of Barack Obama’s, as well as a major prize nominee—Percival Everett’s James is the sort of “masterpiece that not only becomes instant canon but also sets a brush fire to the current ones it stands upon.”

Memory Piece by Lisa Ko

Out now.

The Leavers author Lisa Ko has brought us one of those rare, sumptuous tales of art and friendship that feels both universal and inimitable. Memory Piece traverses the ’80s and ’90s—and even a speculative peek at the 2040s—on the backs of three forever friends whose mutual interest in creativity takes them into the worlds of performance art, tech, and activism. But as an increasingly dystopian future looms, their understandings of what it’s all for begin to warp.

The Morningside by Téa Obreht

Out now.

Téa Obreht’s known for her wild takes on magical realism, and The Morningside entices with its transparent scope: As one Goodreads reviewer aptly put it, this book is a “hybrid of a post-apocalyptic climate refugee drama and a Balkan folktale of dark sorcery.” Take a deep breath as you digest that sentence, because The Morningside itself is an even more sprawling, imaginative experience: It recounts a flooded Manhattan and the government-repopulated inhabitants who fill one of its former luxury condos, where the penthouse just might be home to a sorceress.

The Divorcées by Rowan Beaird

Out now.

“Look what kind of mess you get into when you’re left alone,” Lois’s father tells her when he sends her off to one of Nevada’s famed “divorce ranches.” In Rowan Beaird’s The Divorcées, the 1950s-era women deposited at the Golden Yarrow are waiting out the six-week residency that the state of Nevada requires for divorce, only for one of them (the aforementioned Lois) to encounter the entrancing Greer Lang. Their ensuing trip through sun-baked desert and neon-lit casinos tempts Lois to shed the restraints of her former self—even if she isn’t sure who she’ll be on the other side.

All the World Beside by Garrard Conley

Out now.

As author Garrard Conley himself has described it, All the World Beside is a pioneering “queer Scarlet Letter,” revisiting the Puritan New England we remember from Nathaniel Hawthorne’s classic with a new cast of conflicted lovers. In Cana, Massachusetts, Reverend Nathaniel Whitfield leads his congregation with the compelling words of Scripture, in the process drawing the attention of Christian physician Arthur. Soon, the men are bonded in romantic love as well as religious brotherhood, cracking open a door that could lead to revelation or ruin as the world squeezes in around them.

Like Happiness by Ursula Villarreal-Moura

Out now.

Like a few other titles on this list, Ursula Villarreal-Moura’s Like Happiness captures an imbalanced relationship that grows intense and then outright dangerous. A young Tatum Vega begins working with and around a famous author—one “[whose] web hits ranked in the 8.5 million range” in 2012—with whom she develops an obsessive bond over the course of a decade. In 2015, that same author is under investigation for assault—and Tatum is called to give her side of the story, reopening old wounds she’s sewed up since she left New York for Chile. A quick but consuming read, Like Happiness is elegant, complex, and altogether familiar.

A Great Country by Shilpi Somaya Gowda

Out now.

With engrossing dialogue and a premise that would (and should) translate well to a prestige television series, Shilpi Somaya Gowda’s A Great Country takes a familiar narrative of cultural assimilation and infuses it with domestic suspense. In their new home in Pacific Hills, California, the Shahs finally feel as if the American Dream might bear fruit. But their children are not so certain, and when their 12-year-old, Ajay, is arrested one evening, the family—and everything they’d once believed about the glittering promise of their community—is thrown into crisis.

The Stone Home by Crystal Hana Kim

Out now.

Visceral, brutal, but beautiful in its precision and care, Crystal Hana Kim’s The Stone Home digs into South Korean history to bring a cast of characters under the roof of a supposed “reformatory,” known as The Stone Home, in the lead-up to the 1988 Seoul Olympics. There, they are horrifically tortured, made prisoners and slaves. Kim weaves in a secondary narrative taking place thirty years later, one that connects the characters and events of the past with its impacts in the future. The memories Kim evokes here, both real and fictional, are shattering. But she demands we experience them, and her courage in doing so makes The Stone Home not just an important read but a bracing one.

Real Americans by Rachel Khong

Out now.

The follow-up to Rachel Khong’s celebrated Goodbye, Vitamin is Real Americans, a big, ambitious novel that’s no less readable for its aspirations. The chapters race by in Khong’s engaging family saga, which leaps across decades and continents to follow three generations of a Chinese-American family: May, the eldest, a geneticist who left China for the United States during the Cultural Revolution; Lily, her daughter, an unpaid media intern falling in love in late-90s New York; and Nick, Lily’s son, who doesn’t have a relationship with his white, affluent father. Khong uses these family members (and their respective eras, stretching into the speculative 2030s) to question how much of our lives is predetermined: How many of our stories are decided for us, whether by blood, by privilege, or by other self-fulfilling narratives? And how does that transform the way we see one another?

All Fours by Miranda July

Out now.

A bona fide literary hit—if you haven’t seen the book on your Instagram feed yet, you probably will—Miranda July’s All Fours was nearly impossible to miss this summer. Busting apart the conventions of the midlife-crisis novel, July’s sophomore outing is gleefully explicit, following a 45-year-old “semi-famous” artist who halts her road trip in favor of a transformative affair. When a friend shared All Fours with me, she suggested I pair it with a glass of wine; in hindsight, I’d recommend more than one.

This Strange Eventful History by Claire Messud

Out now.

As writer Bethanne Patrick covered in an interview with Claire Messud for ELLE.com, “though the book isn’t exactly autofiction, This Strange Eventful History evokes much of Messud’s own family history. Observing the imperialism, global conflict, emigration, corporate greed, and art that influenced her own ancestors, she then transmitted those themes to a fictional family, one whose beginnings in French colonial Algeria lead to endings (and then more beginnings) in North America.” In the triumphant resulting novel, Messud “crack[s] open the safe of her family’s history, giving her family’s treasured memories a new life through narrative.”

We Were the Universe by Kimberly King Parsons

Out now.

One of a number of exuberantly sex-positive lit-fic books out this year, We Were the Universe delights. Kimberly King Parsons—whose 2019 story collection Black Light earned a spot on the National Book Award longlist—introduces readers to young mother Kit, still reeling from the death of her sister, and simultaneously combatting an unquenchable libido. Kit can’t seek solace in psychedelics as she once did, but Parsons more than makes up for that with her own prismatic writing in this smart, hysterical, aching novel.

Oye by Melissa Mogollon

Out now.

A risky but inventive formatting choice pays off in Melissa Mogollon’s Oye, told largely through a series of one-sided phone calls (resulting in something akin to an oft-interrupted monologue) by protagonist Luciana, a Florida senior in high school. Luciana’s had her year upended by her Abue, who not only refuses to evacuate in the midst of a hurricane, but has recently received a troubling medical diagnosis. As Luciana cares for her aging grandmother, she relays her Colombian American family’s many dramas to her older sister, Mari, over the phone. The resulting “transcript” is a portrait of love, heartache, and hilarity that transcends its medium.

Exhibit by R.O. Kwon

Out now.

With its hypnotic language and unorthodox punctuation, R.O. Kwon’s Exhibit reads like poetry, its subject matter—race, kink, art, shame, religion, marriage, and motherhood—rendered in a judicious but opulent gloss. In Kwon’s short novel, a married Korean photographer named Jin meets a ballerina named Lidija, and their mutual interest in the interplay of art and suffering results in an experimentation with BDSM. Kwon’s ruminations on devotion are among Exhibit’s finest passages: devotion to God, to creation, and to freeing what was once repressed.

The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden

Out now.

Describing Yael van der Wooden’s The Safekeep in a story for ELLE.com, writer Nicole Young called the novel “at once a gothic horror set in the Dutch countryside; an almost claustrophobic romance between two deeply flawed women; a treatise on displacement and the aftermath of genocide; and a poetic rumination on what is lost when we refuse to acknowledge the truths simmering beneath our everyday lives.”

Swift River by Essie Chambers

Out now.

As featured in ELLE’s best books of summer 2024: “An intimate family tale full of grace, beauty and humor, Essie Chambers’ Swift River introduces readers to Diamond Newberry, who—in the summer of 1987—is the only Black person in all of Swift River, her small Northeastern mill town. She roams the landscape with her white single mother for seven years after her Pop’s disappearance, only to receive a mysterious letter from Newberry relatives she’s never met before. Soon, her history begins to come together, teaching her how, as Chambers writes, ‘My body is a map of the world.’”

Enlightenment by Sarah Perry

Out now.

In what the New York Times Book Review described as Sarah Perry’s “aggressively English new novel,” The Essex Serpent author plants us again in Essex—though this time in the fictional town of Aldleigh, where two unlikely friends find their story linked to that of a 19th-century Romanian astronomer. As Enlightenment’s protagonists separate, fall in love, and draw back together, an investigation into the astronomer serves as a backdrop for their questions of faith and sexuality; science and theology; identity and time. Perry’s prose is often breathtaking; her pages are filled with little revelations.

Fire Exit by Morgan Talty

Out now.

As featured in ELLE’s best books of summer 2024: “‘You are who you are, even if you don’t know it,’” writes Morgan Talty in the neatly and powerfully crafted Fire Exit. Here, the acclaimed Night of the Living Rez author introduces us to Charles, who watches his daughter, Elizabeth, roam the Penobscot Reservation from his position on the other side of the riverbank. But Elizabeth does not know Charles is her father—nor does Charles know what has become of Elizabeth when she inexplicably disappears.”

Malas by Marcela Fuentes

Out now.

As featured in ELLE’s best books of summer 2024: “Marcela Fuentes’ remarkable debut is as vibrant and complicated as its focus, a family on the Texas-Mexico border and the intergenerational curse that looms over their loved ones. Jumping between the ’50s and the ’90s to illustrate the unexpected ties between 20-something mother Pilar Aguirre and 14-year-old punk enthusiast Lulu Muñoz, Fuentes immerses readers in the music and romance and frustration of these Tejano women as they discover just what they’re meant to provide for each other.”

Margo’s Got Money Troubles by Rufi Thorpe

Out now.

As featured in ELLE’s best books of summer 2024: “Rufi Thorpe’s latest protagonist does indeed have money troubles, as one might expect from a single mother who, at 20 years old, has lost her job and is about to lose her apartment. But a stroke of brilliance saves her and her infant from eviction: She’ll start an OnlyFans, earning money with some of the self-branding advice gleaned from her ex-pro wrestler father. Soon, Margot’s not on OnlyFans; she’s a hit on OnlyFans. But then her baby daddy—who just so happens to be her former English professor—shows up demanding custody of their son. Endearingly chaotic, this coming-of-age tale [has] score[d] a passionate fanbase...especially with an Apple TV+ adaptation already on the way.”

Evenings and Weekends by Oisín McKenna

Out now.

A lit-girl favorite thanks in part to its (slight) resemblance to Sally Rooney relationship dramas—and the striking photo of London that adorns its cover—Evenings and Weekends by Irish-born Londoner Oisín McKenna is a gem of a debut. The story takes place over a heatwave in the English capital, during which four interconnected characters (and their assorted friends and family) contend with capitalism and climate change, pregnancy and cancer, whale memes and queer sex. Witty and contemporary but with a timeless understanding of the nature of desire, McKenna’s first novel has convinced me to keep a close eye on whatever he writes next.

Long Island Compromise by Taffy Brodesser-Akner

Out now.

As featured in ELLE’s best books of summer 2024: “Taffy Brodesser-Akner’s follow-up to Fleishman Is in Trouble is an outlandish, rollicking family saga, its satirical eye honed in on the rich Fletchers of Long Island. In 1980, patriarch Carl is kidnapped and beaten, only to be returned days later once his wife pays the mystery kidnappers a $200,000 ransom. But as much as the Fletchers would like to pretend the trauma “happened to [Carl]’s body,” not Carl himself, the damage is unavoidable—and it ripples throughout the three Fletcher children. Nathan, a perpetually anxious lawyer, can barely breathe most days. Beamer, a Hollywood screenwriter, is only functioning thanks to the combined effects of sex and drugs. And Jenny, a union organizer, isn’t even sure of her purpose, let alone where she’s meant to call home. As the family styrofoam factory comes under threat and their finances slip away from them, the Fletchers must face how their shared trauma—both personal and intergenerational—defines them, and how much money can really save them.”

Anyone's Ghost: A Novel

Out now.

August Thompson’s novel—which Kirkus called “a dirtbag Call Me By Your Name”—is a dazing portrait of anxious boyhood, and of equally uncertain sexual awakening. Thompson writes with finesse about the flood of emotion behind friends Theron and Jake, who collide in rural New England one summer, both bored and listless and confused—but united in ways they struggle to define. “I wanted Jake as much as I wanted to be Jake as much as I wanted to be his friend as much as I wanted to be his brother,” Thompson writes in Theron’s voice. The ensuing tragedy of Jake’s death years later, which Thompson reveals at the beginning of the book, makes Anyone’s Ghost a gutting experience, but one with precious insight.

The Coin by Yasmin Zaher

Out now.

As featured in ELLE’s best books of summer 2024: “In tightly wrought prose and quick chapters—most no more than two or three pages—Yasmin Zaher unfurls an astute narrative of a wealthy Palestinian woman’s spiral in New York City. As she stares into the vast divide between luxury and poverty, power and personhood, identity and homeland, she finds herself losing her grip on reality. To retain some control, she obsesses over cleanliness; drapes herself in Alexander McQueen and Brunello Cucinelli; and resells Birkin bags with an unhoused man while her inheritance drips into her bank account slowly. Finally, she begins to break. This is a magnetic debut.”

State of Paradise by Laura van den Berg

Out now.

As featured in ELLE’s best books of summer 2024: “State of Paradise is “a blend of auto and speculative fictions,” as Laura van den Berg herself put it—dreamy and strange. Set, naturally, in Florida, the book traces a ghostwriter as she moves to the state during the pandemic, and is caught up in a web of relentless rain, her mother’s cult, her sister’s disappearance, her father’s illness, and a virtual reality technology called MIND’S EYE. Poetic and claustrophobic and layered, State of Paradise is a book full of clever contradictions, not unlike Florida itself.”

The Wedding People: A Novel

Out now.

Darkly funny with a shimmering take on life, death, and the wedding industrial complex, The Wedding People deposits protagonist Phoebe in a hotel on Rhode Island, where she has arrived with the intention of dying. But everyone else at the Cornwall Inn has landed for the lavish wedding of Lila—to whom Phoebe ultimately confides her plan. But Lila isn’t about to let a death ruin her meticulously planned celebration, and as she wraps Phoebe into her festivities, so do the two women become unexpected friends. Alison Espach’s latest more than earns its spot as a book-club favorite.

Someone Like Us by Dinaw Mengestu

Out now.

As featured in ELLE’s best books of summer 2024: “Mamush is only five years into his marriage to Hannah, and already the life they’ve built in Paris is beginning to fracture. When he returns home to the Washington, D.C., immigrant community in which he was raised, his father—Samuel—is discovered dead in the garage. Mamush then sets out on a trip across the country to better understand his father, himself, and the stories—some true, others less so—they’ve both concocted over the years. Dinaw Mengestu is a one-of-a-kind, dynamic writer, and Someone Like Us is a worthy display of his talents.”

And So I Roar by Abi Daré

Out now.

Abi Daré’s And So I Roar picks up where the author’s first book, The Girl With the Louding Voice, left off, with protagonist Adunni having fled her Nigerian village for an education in Lagos, where she’s living with environmental activist Tia. But the events of Louding Voice chase Adunni to Lagos, and over the next 24 hours, she’s forced back to her village of Ikati, where she must await trial for murder. Told from the alternating perspectives of Adduni and Tia, And So I Roar is a bold follow-up, balancing a deep adoration for the author’s home country with an unflinching eye for the crimes wrought against girls and women.

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