Reasons abound to be excited about 2021, and among them is a literary landscape full of promise. New work will be released by some of the industry’s most celebrated names, from Jhumpa Lahiri and Kazuo Ishiguro to Haruki Murakami and Viet Thanh Nguyen. The new year also features a roster of new and emerging voices like Morgan Jerkins, Ashley C. Ford and Zakiya Delilah Harris. These most anticipated fiction and nonfiction books of the year offer something for every reader: There’s Bill Gates’ guide to zero greenhouse gas emissions, writing lessons from George Saunders, and a gripping legal thriller from Stacey Abrams. here, the 21 most anticipated books of 2021.
a swim in a pond in the rain: in which four russians give a master class on writing, reading and life, george saunders (January 12)
The Booker Award-winning author of Lincoln in the Bardo invites us to consider what makes fiction tick and why, through his dissection of Russian tales. In seven essays, George Saunders examines the works of Anton Chekhov, Ivan Turgenev, Leo Tolstoy, and Nikolai Gogol to underscore the power of successful narrative writing. A master of the short story, Saunders’s writing tips are comprehensive and cast in witty, accessible prose.
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let me tell you what i mean, joan didion (jan 26)
the 12 essays that make up let me tell you what i mean by joan didion belong mainly to the beginning of her celebrated writing career. although many of the pieces were previously published in magazines, they have never appeared together in a collection and provide new insight into the mind of the essayist at work. didion reflects on her most familiar topics (politics, california, and writing itself) in a refreshingly critical voice ahead of her time.
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Four Hundred Souls: A Communal History of African America, 1619-2019, edited by ibram x. kendi and keisha n. blain (February 2)
An anthology of enormous scope, Four Hundred Soulstraces 400 years of African-American history, beginning in 1619. Historians Ibram X. kendi and keisha n. Blain assembled a team of 90 writers, each tackling a different five-year period, to create a comprehensive narrative of this story from a multitude of perspectives. The result is a stunning and illuminating collection that rejects Blackness in America as a singular experience and instead illustrates the range of Black experiences and voices.
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Avoiding a Climate Disaster: The Solutions We Have and the Breakthroughs We Need, Bill Gates (February 16)
For the past 10 years, Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist Bill Gates has studied the impacts of climate change. In his new book, he describes how and why the world needs to achieve zero greenhouse gas emissions to change the course of the planet’s disastrous future. Gates not only presents his case for zero emissions in persuasive terms, but also outlines a tangible course of action on how to get there.
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klara and the sun, kazuo ishiguro (March 2)
In his first novel since winning the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2017, Kazuo Ishiguro introduces readers to a technologically advanced future filled with dystopian elements. The story centers on an “artificial friend” named Klara who makes observations about the world from her place inside a store, where she hopes that she will soon be chosen by a potential owner. Like her previous groundbreaking fiction, Ishiguro’s latest tackles important questions about love and humanity through a unique and insightful lens.
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the compromised viet thanh nguyen (March 2)
Following the spy in Viet Thanh Nguyen’s 2015 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Sympathizer, The Committed takes the reader on a crime-ridden intellectual journey. After finishing his career as a communist spy, the unnamed protagonist has headed to Paris, where his zest for life is reinvigorated, even as he runs from his past. he and his brother turn to drug dealing and soon find themselves in bigger trouble than they bargained for. As he makes his way through a scheming circle of intellectuals and politicians, the former spy finds himself motivated not only by capitalism but also by French philosophers like Sartre and de Beauvoir.
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how beautiful we were, imbolo mbue (March 9)
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In the fictional African village of Kosawa, the unwelcome presence of an American oil company in the 1980s has unforeseen and irreparable consequences. imbolo mbue traces the damage in his new novel, which explores the intersection of greed and colonialism, and the young woman who finds herself in the middle of it all. Wider in scope than his successful debut behold the dreamers, mbue’s new work promises to be just as moving.
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caul baby, morgan jerkins (April 6)
After suffering from multiple failed pregnancies, Laila turns to the Melancon family, known for their special protective abilities, to no avail. Ella’s baby is stillborn, but Ella’s niece Amara soon gives birth to a boy with a striking resemblance to the Melancones, and the powerful family raises the girl as their own. As she grows older, she begins to wonder if her real mother is raising her, delving into Morgan Jerkins’ debut novel that blends family drama with magic.
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first person singular: stories, haruki murakami (April 6)
In this long-awaited collection of eight first-person short stories, novelist Haruki Murakami writes about baseball, jazz, childhood memories, young love, and more. Translated from the Japanese by Philip Gabriel, First Person Singular is full of Murakami’s classic use of magical realism. In “Charlie Parker Plays Bossa Nova,” Charlie Parker’s ghost comes to life, and in “Confessions of a Shinagawa Monkey,” a monkey strikes up a deep conversation with a traveler. Murakami blurs the lines between memoir and fiction throughout the collection, leaving it to the reader to decide whether the narrator is an invented character or Murakami himself.
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whereabouts, jhumpa lahiri (April 27)
Nearly a decade has passed since the arrival of Pulitzer Prize winner Jhumpa Lahiri’s latest novel, The Lowland, a sweeping portrait of two brothers from Calcutta who lead very different lives. Her new novel takes a tighter approach: Whereabouts follows a woman as she navigates the complexities of work, love and life. one day at sea she forces her to change the way she sees them all. Lahiri’s novel, the first written in Italian and translated into English, asks what it means to be transformed.
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While Justice Sleeps, Stacey Abrams (May 11)
In addition to serving in the Georgia House of Representatives for 11 years, becoming the first Black woman nominated to run for Governor by a major party in any state, and playing a major role in changing her state in the 2020 election, Stacey Abrams has also somehow managed to nurture a secondary career as a novelist. She has published eight romance novels under the pseudonym Selena Montgomery, and now with While Justice Sleeps, Abrams tells the story of wily young paralegal Avery Crispe. Juggling a demanding career and family problems, Keine’s life is turned upside down when the notorious judge she works for slips into a coma. she becomes his proxy and legal guardian and, as the title suggests, finds out what exactly happens while justice sleeps. When Keine steps into the shoes of her boss, she finds herself in the middle of a controversial merger, a political conspiracy and more, working with the clues he left behind.
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somebody’s daughter, ashley c. Ford (June 1)
ashley c. Ford, co-host of HBO’s Lovecraft Country Radio podcast (and talk correspondent for Time 100), had few childhood memories of his father. but that didn’t stop her from idolizing him and dreaming of his connection. In her first memoir somebody’s daughter, Ford retraces her childhood to tell the story of her father’s imprisonment, for a reason she isn’t told for years. Overcoming the complexities of her relationship with her mother, her changing body, and a boyfriend who turns abusive, Ford delivers a harrowing coming-of-age story.
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the other black woman, zakiya dalila harris (June 1)
nella rogers is the only black employee at wagner books, where she works as an editorial assistant. So she’s thrilled when Wagner finally hires another black assistant, Hazel, and the two start working together. Although they initially bond over natural hair care regimens and share the frustrations of working in an overwhelmingly white industry, Hazel begins to rise through the ranks at Wagner and Nella falls behind. And then there are the notes. Nella finds the first one on her desk, which she says: She leaves Wagner. now. The novel builds on it and is full of twists both unsettling and unexpected, and it’s such a timely read that Zakiya Dalila Harris, a former assistant editor at Knopf, sold the novel in a seven-figure deal after an intense bidding war.
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one last stop, casey mcquiston (june 1)
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In the follow-up to her charming debut red, white & royal blue, casey mcquiston weaves a new kind of love story. Another romantic comedy about queer characters, One Last Stop centers on a pessimistic 23-year-old who has just moved to New York City and falls in love with a woman he sees on his subway ride. . The only problem is that the woman turns out to be lost in time since the 1970s. Mcquiston sets off a dazzling romance, filled with plenty of humor and heart.
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Word spreads: a reckoning with the history of slavery in America, clint smith (June 1)
clint smith, author of the poetry collection counting descent, makes his nonfiction debut with how the word is pass. Beginning in Smith’s hometown of New Orleans, the author asks us to take a closer look at the ways in which the legacy of slavery has impacted everyday life today. Smith takes readers to Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello Plantation, Angola Prison in Louisiana, Blandford Cemetery in Virginia, and more as he explores the harrowing histories each holds. By reexamining neighborhoods, holidays, and everyday places, Smith forces us to reconsider what we think we know about American history.
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the president’s daughter, bill clinton and james patterson (June 7)
In 2018, former president bill clinton and mega-author james patterson teamed up to write the president is gone. Now the duo are back with a second presidential thriller, The President’s Daughter, which follows Matthew Keating, a former President and Navy Seal now living in New Hampshire. Keating wants to quietly disappear from the spotlight and immerse himself in rural life, but when his daughter is kidnapped, he must put all of his training and connections to use. Patterson’s storytelling skills combined with Clinton’s deep understanding of the government create a revolutionary synergy.
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Filthy Animals: Stories, Brandon Taylor (June 22)
In his first novel real life, a 2020 booker award finalist, brandon taylor told the harrowing story of a black, queer graduate student who reevaluates his relationships over a long weekend at his midwestern college. Now, it presents a collection of linked short stories, again focused on young adults in the American Midwest. Although the narratives vary in theme (one follows a girl and her babysitter, another explores the complexities of an open relationship), they all explore themes of intimacy, desire, and love.
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the nature of middle earth, j.r.r. tolkien (june 24)
edited by carl hostetter, featured j.r.r. An expert on Tolkien and a specialist in Tolkien’s constructed languages, The Nature of Middle-earth is a collection of unpublished essays by the great master of fantasy. Elvish reincarnation, the geographical wonder of the kingdom of Gondor, and which characters had beards (a long-debated topic in fandom) are all explored in this unofficial addition to the History of Middle-earth series. The collection reveals new information about Tolkein’s fantasy world, while also answering old questions.
participation, megan abbott (July 6)
the durant sisters, dara and marie, have been dancers for as long as they can remember. her mother, who trained and educated them at home, was also the founder of the durant dance school. After she died in a tragic accident years ago, the sisters took over the school with Dara’s husband, Charlie, a beloved former student of her mother’s. Marie takes care of the younger dancers, Dara coaches the older ones, and Charlie runs the office. But their workflow is interrupted when an accident occurs right at the start of the annual The Nutcracker studio presentation, and the presence of a stranger threatens everything they’ve worked for. In The Turnout, Edgar Award-winning author Megan Abbott weaves a compelling tale of family drama, power and womanhood.
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matrix, lauren groff (September 7)
Lauren Groff, a two-time National Book Award finalist, returns with her first novel since her 2015 bestseller Fates and Furies. Set in the 12th century, Matrix follows 17-year-old Marie de France, who has just been banished from the royal court by Eleanor of Aquitaine. Instead of marrying her, she is sent to an impoverished abbey in England, where she becomes prioress. Forced to adapt to a completely different life, Marie is obsessed with paving a new path for the women she must now protect in a world that keeps changing.
harlem shuffle, colson whitehead (September 14)
In his latest novel, The Nickel Boys, Colson Whitehead followed two boys into an abusive reform school in Jim Crow-era Florida. The book earned the author his second Pulitzer Prize and joined a list of works that show the range of him, who has also produced a zombie apocalypse novel and a poker memoir. his next novel demonstrates that versatility again: set in 1960s harlem, harlem shuffle centers on ray carney, a furniture salesman who gets caught up in a heist gone awry . What follows is both a family drama and a crime saga as Carney finds himself leading a double life.
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write annabel gutterman at annabel.gutterman@time.com and anna purna kambhampaty at anna.kambhampaty@time.com.
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