The year 2021 was meant to be a great one for established authors and fan favorites. We’re blessed with new work from an animated roster of titans, from Colson Whitehead to Lauren Groff to Kazuo Ishiguro. But while they, along with several others, didn’t disappoint (check out Time’s list of the 100 must-read books of 2021), it was the debut authors who really shined. In an industry that has long been criticized for exclusion, and where it’s increasingly difficult to break out of the crowd, a crop of bright new voices have risen to the top. From Anthony Veasna So to Torrey Peters to Jocelyn Nicole Johnson and more, these writers presented the world with fiction that surprised us, challenged our perspectives, and kept us satisfied. here, the 10 best fiction books of 2021.
10. klara and the sun, kazuo ishiguro
The eighth novel by Nobel Prize-winning author Kazuo Ishiguro, shortlisted for the Booker Prize, follows a robot-like “artificial friend” named Klara, who sits in a store and waits to be bought. When she becomes the partner of a sick 14-year-old girl, Klara tests her observations of her world. Exploring the dynamic between the ai and the adolescent, Ishiguro creates a narrative that raises disturbing questions about humanity, technology, and purpose, and offers a vivid glimpse of a future that may not be so far away.
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buy now: klara and the sun in bookstore | Amazon
9. open water, caleb azumah nelson
in his incisive debut novel, caleb azumah nelson tells a painful love story about young black artists in london. Its protagonist is a photographer who has fallen in love with a ballerina, and Nelson proves to be a master at writing young love, recording the small and seemingly meaningless moments that encompass longing. In just over 150 intimate pages, Nelson celebrates the art that has shaped the lives of his characters as he interrogates the unjust world around them.
buy now: open waters in bookstore | Amazon
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8. afterparties, anthony vasna so
The nine stories that make up Anthony Veasna So’s poignant debut collection, published after his death at age 28, reveal a portrait of a Cambodian American community in California. one follows two sisters in her family’s 24-hour donut shop as they reflect on the father who left them. another focuses on a high school badminton coach who is stuck in the past and desperate to win a match against the local star, a teenager. there’s also a mother with a secret, a love story with a huge age gap, and an after-wedding party gone horribly wrong. Together, so’s narratives offer a thoughtful look at the community that shaped him, and while depicting the tensions his characters go through with humor and care, he also offers penetrating insights into immigration, queerness, and identity.
See Also: 6 Free & Cheap Ways to Read Great Books – The (mostly) Simple Life
buy now: afterparties in bookstore | Amazon
7. land of cuckoos in the clouds, anthony doerr
The five protagonists of anthony doerr’s extraordinarily constructed and kaleidoscopic third novel, all living on the fringes of society, are connected by an ancient Greek story. In cloud cuckoo land, a national book award finalist, a current story anchors a sweeping narrative: in a library, a former prisoner of war rehearses a stage adaptation of the Greek story with five schoolchildren, and a lonely teenager just hid a bomb. doerr catapults the land of the cloud cuckoo back and forth from this moment on, from 15th century constantinople to an interstellar spaceship and back to this dusty library in idaho where death looms. imminent crisis. her immersive worldbuilding and his dazzling prose weave together seemingly disparate threads as he underscores the value of storytelling and the power of imagination.
buy now: cloud cuckoo land in bookstore | Amazon
6. the life of the mind, christine smallwood
The landscape of contemporary fiction is littered with protagonists like Christine Smallwood’s Dorothy: white millennial women struggling with their privilege and their existence in a world that constantly feels on the brink of collapse. the plot is secondary to whatever is going on inside their heads. But Dorothy, an English adjunct professor suffering on the sixth day of her miscarriage, stands out. In Smallwood’s taut debut, this charming yet insightful storyteller delivers amusing insights into her ever-collapsing universe. Languishing in academia, Dorothy wonders how her once attainable goals became impossible, and her ramblings, never irritating or exhausting but satirical and bizarre, give way to a rewarding examination of ambition, freedom and power.
buy now: life of the mind in bookstore | Amazon
5. the love songs of w.e.b. du bois, honoree fanonne jeffers
The debut novel from honoree poet Fanonne Jeffers, shortlisted for a national book award, is a penetrating epic that follows the story of an American family from the colonial slave trade to the present day. At the heart of it is the mission of Ailey Pearl Garfield, a black woman who came of age in the 1980s and 1990s, determined to learn more about her family’s history. what ailey discovers about her leads her to grapple with her identity, particularly when she discovers secrets about her ancestors. In 800 gratifying pages, Jeffers offers a comprehensive account of class, colorism, and intergenerational trauma. it’s a painful story told with nuance and compassion, one that illuminates the cost of survival.
buy now: the love songs of w.e.b. du bois in bookstore | Amazon
4. detransition, baby, torrey peters
reese is a trans woman in her thirties who desperately wants a child. Her ex-lovers, who recently transitioned out, have just found out that her new lover is pregnant with her baby. ames presents reese with the opportunity she’s been waiting for: maybe the three of them can raise the baby together. In her delightful debut novel, Torrey Peters follows these characters as they become entangled in a messy emotional web as they consider this potentially catastrophic proposal, while also making thought-provoking comments about gender, sex, and desire.
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buy now: detransition, babyon bookstore | Amazon
3. my monticello, jocelyn nicole johnson
jocelyn nicole johnson’s gripping collection of short stories is a must read in order. her narratives dissect an American present that doesn’t feel far removed from the country’s violent past, and build to a brutal ending. The unnerving standout piece, the titular novel, follows a group of neighbors who seek refuge on Thomas Jefferson’s plantation while on the run from white supremacists. Johnson’s narrator is college student Da’naisha, a black descendant of Jefferson who questions her relationship to the land and the people she finds occupying it. the story is as apocalyptic as it is realistic, a disturbing portrait of a community trying to survive in a nation that constantly undermines its very existence.
buy now: my monticello in bookstore | Amazon
2. the prophets, robert jones, jr.
on a plantation in the antebellum south, enslaved teenagers isaiah and samuel toil in a barn and seek refuge in each other until one of their own, after adopting his master’s religious beliefs, betrays your confidence. in The Prophets, National Book Award Finalist, Robert Jones, Jr. traces the teens’ relationship, as well as the lives of the women who raised them, surround them, and have been the backbone of the plantation for generations. moving between his stories, jones reveals a complex social hierarchy unbalanced by young people’s rejection of romance. the result is a crushing exploration of the legacy of slavery and a delicate story of black queer love.
buy now: the prophetson bookstore | Amazon
1. great circle, maggie’s shipyard
The beginning of Booker finalist Maggie Shipstead’s amazing novel includes a series of endings: two plane crashes, a sunken ship, and several dead people. 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 parallel narratives, Marian’s and another woman whose life is changed by Marian’s story, in glorious detail. each character, whether mentioned once or 50 times, has a specific and necessary presence. it’s a narrative made to be devoured, one that is timeless and satisfying.
buy now: great circle in the bookstore | Amazon
write to annabel gutterman at annabel.gutterman@time.com.
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