reading fiction in 2020 was an act of defiance: diverting our attention from the catastrophes unfolding around us to engage in a calm and imaginative act. and the best fiction of the year offered many paths to greater understanding and meaningful escape. whether in the tumultuous halls of power in tudor england with the mirror & light, a storm-ravaged mansion in a children’s bible or a ghost-ridden japan with where the wild ladies are, readers may find distractions cheerful and exciting, models of resilience and empathy and challenges that somehow made ours more bearable.
here, the best fiction books of 2020.
You are reading: Fun books to read 2020
10. breasts and eggs, mieko kawakami
In her first novel published in English, Japanese author Mieko Kawakami follows three women and their relationships with their changing bodies. She is 30-year-old Natsu, Ella Makiko’s older sister, and Makiko Midoriko’s daughter. The first half of Breasts and Eggs, translated by Sam Bett and David Boyd, focuses on Makiko’s quest to plan a breast augmentation procedure and Midoriko’s recent refusal to talk to her. Their interactions are conveyed through Natsu’s dry voice in scenes filled with witty and frank dialogue. kawakami then shifts the story forward, picking up 10 years later and focusing on natsu, since she is single but she is considering motherhood. while natsu was measured and critical in telling the story of her sister’s obsession with perfecting her image, she is now insecure and confused by her own fears about her aging. Describing these anxieties, Kawakami takes a poignant look at the expectations the world and themselves place on women.
buy now:breasts and eggsin store | Amazon
9. where are the wild ladies, aoko matsuda
In Where the Wild Ladies Are, Japanese author Aoko Matsuda guides readers through supernatural events and introduces them to otherworldly characters as if they were completely ordinary. That understated, witty touch is what makes this collection of short stories, translated into English by Polly Barton, so special. matsuda updates traditional Japanese ghost stories for the contemporary era, bringing previously voiceless female characters to the forefront and playfully breaking down gender roles and stereotypes that are still so pervasive in Japanese culture today. As a translator, Matsuda knows how to play with language, infusing the narrators with memorable idiosyncrasies of her own. while each chapter is its own short story contained within it, some are interrelated. the result is a reinvention of traditional tales as part of a larger narrative about women and power.
shop now:where the wild ladies arein bookstore | Amazon
read more: the 100 essential books of 2020
8. deacon king kong, james mcbride
See Also: Dianne Harman – Book Series In Order
It’s September 1969 when Sportcoat, the grumpy old deacon of a church in Brooklyn’s Causeway Houses project, shoots a local drug dealer in the face. the whole neighborhood is in an uproar over the news: sportcoat pulled a .38 out of his pocket and blew out the ear of the kid he used to coach baseball. why the hell would he do such a thing? even the deacon himself doesn’t seem to know. National Book Award-winning author James McBride reveals the answer in this tale of comedy and compassion, which pays loving attention to a wide cast of characters. mcbride depicts his world with densely packed rhythmic specifics, drawing on the rich local history of the community and the voices that populate it.
shop now: deacon king kong in bookstore | Amazon
7. a fiery, megha majumdar
after witnessing a terrorist attack, jivan, a poor muslim woman living in the slums of kolkata, makes a comment on facebook criticizing her government’s response to the tragic event. it is an action with terrible consequences, as she is arrested and accused of aiding the attackers. In her exquisitely plotted first novel, Megha Majumdar writes with absorbing urgency as she details Jivan’s plight. Beyond Jivan, Majumdar introduces two key perspectives: the protagonist’s former gym teacher, pt sir, who has ties to the right-wing political party seeking to seal his fate, and Enchantress, an outcast with dreams of being an actress and the only person who can prove the innocence of jivan. Moving between her three voices, Majumdar reveals the intersections of her ambitions and fears, merging into a puzzling investigation of corruption, class and tragedy.
shop now: a bookstore on fire on | Amazon
6. I grab a wolf by the ears, Laura van den berg
The 11 stories that make up Laura van den Berg’s beautiful and bold collection feature a cast of contemplative women facing strange, sad, and unsettling situations. They include the “grief freelancer” who generates additional income by posing as the dead, the wife who is unknowingly being drugged by her husband with sedative-enriched seltzer, and the daughter who accompanies her sick mother at a bittersweet final tour of italy. each of the characters in these narratives is broken in different ways, but they all struggle in silence with life’s biggest questions: the meaning of loneliness and loss, the durability of love. I’m holding a wolf by the ears is short fiction at its finest: van den berg captures the cruelest traumas on one page, then provides a healing dose of humor on the next.
buy now: I have a wolf by the ears in bookstore | Amazon
5. elegies of the motherland, ayad akhtar
every once in a while we’re gifted with a novel that combines deep intelligence, meticulous prose, and something profound to say about the state of our world. In Elegies of the Fatherland, pulitzer prize winner ayad akhtar gives readers just that in the story of a man much like himself, who shares his name and was born to pakistani immigrants in the midwest. American like akhtar. From the opening chapters when Ayad’s fictional father treats Donald Trump for a heart condition in the 1990s, it’s clear we’re in a world that’s recognizable but not necessarily real. That’s all part of Akhtar’s point: his project uses fiction as a filter through which to tell an essential story about a man facing the turmoil of post-9/11 American life and the attendant family struggle. of him to define himself. it is a delicate balancing act between what is real and what may not be; Yet in Akhtar’s brilliant book, the complexities of the American dream have never been clearer.
buy now: elegies of the country in bookstore | Amazon
4. a children’s bible, lydia millet
See Also: Jeff Carson – Book Series In Order
On a vacation like no other, a group of families share a lakeside summer home, where parents care little what their children do. when a catastrophic storm sweeps through the house, the adults decide to ignore the chaos and instead turn to the liquor cabinet, leaving the kids to find safety on their own. In the lean and propulsive novel, teenage Evie chronicles the group’s struggles amid apocalyptic levels of devastation. Her thoughts on the growing natural disaster capture the dual personalities of a moody teenager, fed up with her parents, and a young woman forced to grow up too fast. The novel by pulitzer prize finalist lydia millet, who was a national book award finalist, is an adventure story reminiscent of the classics and a cautionary tale of a bleak future told through the eyes of an all too comfortable generation. with the catastrophe.
buy now: a children’s bible in bookstore | Amazon
3. the mirror & the light, hilary shelf
Few novels were as highly anticipated this year as the mirror & the light, the conclusion to the successful wolf hall trilogy by british author hilary mantel. Tablecloth’s evocation of Tudor England and her ear for political drama were as immersive as ever, and the book rose to the top of the bestseller lists in the United States. and UK in 900 richly detailed pages, the mirror & the light exposes the fall of thomas cromwell, consigliere to king henry viii and influential agent of reform. it is historical fiction, but dazzlingly literary in its ambitions and dramatic in the cut and thrust of its dialogue. Mantel’s Cromwell is a character for the story: tough but introspective, with a mind as sharp as an axe. his henry, meanwhile, is a fitting reminder that self-pitying men with oversized egos enjoyed power long before the present.
buy now: the mirror & bookstore the light on | Amazon
2. shuggie bain, douglas stuart
Douglas Stuart’s acclaimed debut novel draws heavily on his upbringing in 1980s Glasgow, where, like Stuart, Hugh “Shuggie” Bain grows up with an alcoholic mother and grapples with a culture of homophobia that makes him feel like an outcast. His father and his two older brothers have left home long before him. Against the backdrop of a government-abandoned and declining city, Shuggie and Agnes struggle for control of their lives, often swept up in the waves of their addiction. While the setting is grim, littered with descriptions of quiet indignities (agnes’ late-night calls to her ex-husband’s taxi company, lingering mugs filled with yesterday’s beer), the novel’s guiding light is the child’s abiding love. for her mother. . stuart beautifully observes the inner lives of both characters, capturing shuggie’s devotion to her sometimes vivacious and glamorous mother, and the pain that comes from seeing her transformed into an unpredictable, hate-filled stranger through drinking. The novel, a national book award finalist and booker award winner, is impressive.
shop now: shuggie bain on bookshop | Amazon
1. the fading half, brit bennett
brit bennett’s the vanishing half lives just outside the realm of realism, in that space where a touch of fantasy serves to underline the strangeness of reality. In his second novel, Bennett invents the small black town of Mallard, Louisiana, where the residents take pride in their fair skin, and identical twins Stella and Desiree Vignes grow up in the 1950s, all too aware of the violence and racial oppression. It feels almost inevitable, then, as the girls run off together in search of better opportunities, and soon Stella makes the decision, easy at first and harder over time, to pass herself off as white. Suddenly, she’s gone, leaving behind a ravaged desire. Bennett weaves a satisfying, layered narrative that shifts through time and the perspectives of multiple characters to trace the impact of a single decision on Stella, her family, and the next generation. an eloquent new entry into literature on that most vital of subjects, identity, the vanishing half is the novel of the year.
buy now: the half that disappears in the bookstore | Amazon
read coverage of the best of 2020 from the rest of the times:
- The 10 Best Nonfiction Books of 2020
- The 10 Best Books for Children and Young Adults of 2020
- The 100 Must-Read Books of 2020
- top 10 movies of 2020
- top 10 movie performances of 2020
- top 10 TV series of 2020
- top 10 albums of 2020
- the 10 best songs of 2020
- the 10 best podcasts of 2020
- the 10 best video games of 2020
more of the time
email lucy feldman at lucy.feldman@time.com, annabel gutterman at annabel.gutterman@time.com, and ciara nugent at ciara.nugent@time.com.
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