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Best Fiction of 2020, According to The Guardian
Guardian critics pick the year’s best novels.
Published on December 7, 2020
The Silence
Don DeLilloDon DeLillo (“White Noise,” “Underworld”) finished “The Silence” just weeks before the Covid-19 outbreak, which makes this novella all the more eerie and prescient. Friends gather for dinner in New York City on Super Bowl Sunday when suddenly, mysteriously all digital connections are cut, trapping the group in a tech blackout while the world as they know it seems to crumble around them.
Summer
Ali SmithIn the “Best fiction of 2020” article, Jordan writes, “‘Summer’ completed Ali Smith’s rapid-response Seasonal quartet: four novels written over four years that have encompassed Brexit, climate change, corporate takeover and the refugee crisis along with the bracing consolations of art and nature. Reuniting characters from previous volumes and juxtaposing second world war internment with today’s migrant detention centres, ‘Summer’ brought a much needed note of hope and resilience to the finale of a landmark series that explores how we live in and out of time.”
The Shadow King
Maaza MengisteInspired by real women soldiers whose histories have largely been erased, this novel sets out to shine a light on the contributions of the Ethiopian women who fought Benito Mussolini’s army in the 1930s. “Lyrical, furious and meticulously researched, it is a necessary act of historical reclamation,” wrote Justine Jordan for The Guardian.
Jack (Oprah's Book Club): A Novel
Marilynne RobinsonPulitzer Prize winner Marilynne Robinson continues her acclaimed “Gilead” novels with the moving story of star-crossed lovers set in a segregated, post-WWII America that deemed their love illegal and dangerous. When Jack, a white prodigal son of a preacher, falls for Della, an upstanding Black teacher, their bond proves that love conquers all — but at a price.
Exciting Times: A Novel
Naoise Dolan“Exciting Times” tells the story of Ava, an Irish expat working as an English teacher for rich children in Hong Kong. She quickly finds herself entangled in a love triangle with wealthy banker Julian and dynamic attorney Edith (who Ava both wants to be like and be with). Fascinating geopolitics, dissections of class, and old fashioned romance make this debut by Naoise Dolan shine.
Shuggie Bain: A Novel (Booker Prize Winner)
Douglas StuartWinner of the 2020 Booker Prize. A deeply sympathetic story about poverty and addiction in 1980s Glasgow, and a cutting look at the impact of Thatcherism in Scotland. The titular character, the young Shuggie Bain, is desperate to escape the trappings of being poor and attain that elusive status of “normal”; his mother, Agnes, wants to stay sober but keeps falling back into alcoholism. “Challenging, intimate and gripping … anyone who reads it will never feel the same,” said the Booker Prize judges.
The New Wilderness
Diane CookShortlisted for the 2020 Booker Prize, “The New Wilderness” is a suspenseful dystopian novel from the author of “Man V. Nature.” In the not too distant future, humans are dropping like flies due to climate change, pollution, and overpopulation. Five-year-old Agnes is failing fast, so when an experimental government study opens up, her mother jumps at the chance to join a small group of survivalists in the last patch of unfettered nature.
Your House Will Pay: A Novel
Steph Cha“Crime fiction continues to provide an excellent tool for shining a light on social issues, with racial tension and cultural burdens explored to great effect in ‘Your House Will Pay,’ Steph Cha’s novel of violence, revenge and redemption,” writes Wilson. Two teenage strangers in Los Angeles deal with the destructive fallout from racial injustice years after a shocking shooting bound their Black and Korean American families’ fates together.
When No One Is Watching: A Thriller
Alyssa ColeKnown and loved for her historical romances starring diverse characters, Alyssa Cole turns her talents to mystery in this propulsive psychological thriller. As her neighborhood rapidly gentrifies, a Brooklyn native makes a deadly discovery: her neighbors’ disappearances are due to something way more sinister than rising rents.
Leave the World Behind: A Novel
Rumaan AlamA simple premise belies the provocative racial themes that unfold in this slow burn thriller nominated for the National Book Award in Fiction. A white Brooklyn family rents a luxurious house in the Hamptons for a weeklong getaway, but they’re barely settled in when there’s a late-night knock at the door. It’s an older Black couple claiming to be the owners who rented the house out, but they’re back due to a severe power outage in the city. With no internet or cell phone access in this remote area, it’s difficult to verify what’s really going on. The tension keeps ratcheting up until the pulse-pounding end. Netflix has already scooped up the movie rights with Julia Roberts and Denzel Washington to star.
Blacktop Wasteland: A Novel
S. A. CosbyBuckle up and brace yourself for a thrilling ride with this cinematic page-turner. Beauregard “Bug” Montage put his former life as the best getaway driver on the East Coast behind him. But his new life as a loving father and small business owner is starting to unravel, so when his criminal past reappears to lure him back for “one last job,” he thinks it might be the answer to his financial woes. “Blacktop Wasteland” is shaping up to be a modern classic.
Broken
Don WinslowThis thrilling collection of six novellas from “The Cartel” author Don Winslow is packed full of cops, drug dealers, high- and low-level robbers, and all the shady underworld characters you’ve come to love from the Winslow. Lauding “The Last Ride” as “the most powerful novella of the six,” Wilson calls it “the story of a Trump-supporting border patrol agent who undergoes a change of heart and vows to reunite a forcibly separated mother and child.”
Summer of Reckoning
Marion Brunet“Dysfunctional families are a key theme in quite a few of this year’s standout psychological thrillers, including … Marion Brunet’s award-winning ‘Summer of Reckoning,’ which takes place in a Provence that holidaymakers never see, where poverty, boredom and casual racism are the norm,” writes Wilson.
The Last Protector
Andrew Taylor“It’s been a good year for historical crime fiction, with another strong outing for Andrew Taylor’s Restoration sleuths James Marwood and Cat Lovett in ‘The Last Protector,’” according to Wilson, who raves in her review for The Guardian: “With expert storytelling, memorable characters, emotional depth and some nice touches of humour, this is well up to Taylor’s usual high standard.”
The Devil and the Dark Water
Stuart TurtonAfter winning the Costa Award for “The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle,” author Stuart Turton’s second historical mystery novel wowed its way onto The Guardian’s “Best crime and thrillers of 2020” list. According to Wilson, “‘The Devil and the Dark Water,’ a fiendish maritime mystery, involves a lot of secrets and a great deal of swash and buckle.”
Sources
- Best fiction of 2020
- 2020, The Guardian
- Best crime and thrillers of 2020
- 2020, The Guardian
- The best recent crime and thrillers – review roundup
- 2020, The Guardian
- Best science fiction and fantasy books of 2020
- 2020, The Guardian