sunday times book reviews 2023

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Holiday reads: the best books to buy for summer 2023

Our pick of the hottest new novels to start right now (or save for by the pool).

A Little Life , Lessons in Chemistry , Shuggie Bain — every year there’s a certain must-read novel spotted on every other sunlounger. So what will it be this summer? We take a look at the top contenders.

The zeitgeisty one

Hungover at 8am, Ola is struggling to write her next piece for the feminist media company Womxxxn. She has to find “a seamless link between the male founders of Danish CBD-infused sex toy brand ‘Kalmte Kut’ and body positivity”. She spent the night before in a private members’ club in Soho with her fiancé, Michael, surrounded by “London’s shabbily dressed creative elite”. The couple met at a “media networking event for Black Brits” and after struggling through the various stages of 21st-century dating (hooking

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The Best Books of 2023 So Far

These are independent reviews of the products mentioned, but TIME receives a commission when purchases are made through affiliate links at no additional cost to the purchaser.

The best books of the year so far serve as a great reminder to always question the stories we hear. Where do they come from? And who gets to tell them? When we deconstruct history and look at its pieces in a new light, as many of these books do, we see things differently. In his page-turning new biography of Martin Luther King Jr. , Jonathan Eig provides an illuminating window into the activist’s emotional core . In Dyscalculia , Camonghne Felix reconsiders her romantic past to better understand her relationship with love. And in Biography of X , Catherine Lacey reveals how easily the ideas we hold as truths can fall apart through her protagonist’s quest to learn about her wife’s mysterious past. Here, the best books of the year so far.

A Living Remedy , Nicole Chung

In her first memoir, TIME contributor Nicole Chung described her experience growing up as a Korean American adoptee in a predominantly white town. Her follow-up, A Living Remedy , continues her exploration into identity, this time focusing on her grief after losing both of her parents. Chung’s father died of diabetes and kidney disease in 2018. Then, less than a year later, her mother is diagnosed with cancer and later dies during the COVID-19 pandemic. As Chung wrestles with these overwhelming losses in A Living Remedy , she dissects the inequities inherent to American society by recounting the challenges her parents faced in accessing medical care. The result is a moving portrait of a daughter reckoning with her place in a broken world—and making sense of life without her parents in it.

Buy Now : A Living Remedy on Bookshop | Amazon

King: A Life , Jonathan Eig

Jonathan Eig’s book on Martin Luther King Jr. is the first biography of the civil rights icon in decades. It’s a refreshing portrait of King, offering an intimate look inside the life of a man whose massive contributions to American history are known but whose emotional complexities are less so. Eig digs into everything—King’s family origins, his relationship with his wife, the pressures he faced from being so influential so early in his career—to create a portrait of the late activist that captures the dynamic and flawed human that he was. It’s a deftly researched and highly accessible account of a leader, and a new view into the many overlooked parts of King’s story.

Buy Now : King on Bookshop | Amazon

Our Share of Night , Mariana Enriquez

Spanning multiple decades, Argentine author Mariana Enriquez’s weird and wonderful novel, newly translated into English by Megan McDowell, doesn’t fit into just one genre. Oscillating seamlessly between historical fiction and supernatural horror, Our Share of Night centers on Juan and Gaspar, a father and son who are grieving Rosario, the wife and mother they just lost in a car accident. Complicating things is the fact that they are also on the run from the ruthless cult from which Rosario descends. Better known as the Order, the cult will do just about anything to achieve immortality, and Gaspar has developed powers that would make him a valuable asset. Set against a comprehensive backdrop of Argentine history, Our Share of Night offers an absorbing window into a terrifying, fantastical world.

Buy Now : Our Share of Night on Bookshop | Amazon

Dyscalculia , Camonghne Felix

In her debut memoir, poet Camonghne Felix details how a devastating breakup propels her into deep despair, forcing her to confront lingering childhood trauma and struggles with her mental health. Throughout, she returns to the learning disorder she faced as a child, “dyscalculia,” which made it difficult for her to understand math. In holding her dissolved relationship to the light, Felix wonders about the miscalculations she’s made when it comes to love. Her memoir is a striking meditation on pain, heartbreak, and what it takes to truly heal.

Buy Now : Dyscalculia on Bookshop | Amazon

The Wager , David Grann

In 1740, a British vessel called His Majesty’s Ship the Wager departed England on a mission to capture a Spanish galleon. But the Wager wrecked near the coast of Patagonia, and those who survived endured months of starvation and hardship. At least, that’s what the 30 sailors who made it out alive explained when they eventually arrived in Brazil. But months later, when a trio of castaways from another ship land in the same spot, they share a very different version of the events that took place in Patagonia. David Grann, author of Killers of the Flower Moon and The Lost City of Z , peels back the layers of a complex maritime drama in a masterfully drawn work of narrative nonfiction.

Buy Now : The Wager on Bookshop | Amazon

This Other Eden , Paul Harding

Inspired by real-life events that took place on Maine’s Malaga Island, one of the first racially integrated communities in the Northeast, Pulitzer Prize winner Paul Harding tells a grueling tale of isolation and injustice. In 1792, a formerly enslaved man and his Irish wife first arrived on the fictional Apple Island. More than a century later, the couple’s descendants are still there, and while their lives aren’t easy, they are at least far from the dangers happening inland. But any measure of peace they’ve secured is upturned by the presence of a missionary. The residents face eviction—and the threat of being institutionalized on the mainland. Harding follows a cast of characters through this horrifying upheaval as they grapple with what it means to belong.

Buy Now : This Other Eden on Bookshop | Amazon

The Half Known Life , Pico Iyer

Does paradise really exist? The question is at the center of Pico Iyer’s dazzling new work of nonfiction, which examines the many ways different cultures search for purposeful existence, and the paradoxical struggle for peace in a violent and fractured world. From Japan’s mountain temples to the streets of Belfast, Iyer wonders where utopia begins and how we can access it. In doing so, he suggests that paradise may not be a destination, but instead a journey.

Buy Now : The Half Known Life on Bookshop | Amazon

Greek Lessons , Han Kang

After losing her mother and custody of her son, the unnamed narrator of Han Kang’s stirring novel, newly translated into English by Deborah Smith and Emily Yae Won, decides to learn a new language. Then, one day while in her Greek class, she attempts to say something, but no words come out. Her voice is gone. In the same moment, across the room, her teacher is facing a battle against his depreciating vision. As the two bond over their puzzling sensory losses, they form an intense connection. Kang captures their relationship—and the relationships they both have with language and love—in quietly beautiful detail.

Buy Now : Greek Lessons on Bookshop | Amazon

Biography of X , Catherine Lacey

X is one of the most iconic and prolific artists and writers of the 20th century. The world is familiar with her work as a creative visionary—though no one, not even her wife, knows her real name or where she was born. After X suddenly dies, her wife, CM, decides she’s overdue to learn that information, and attempts to find answers to the questions that have been haunting her. X is a fictional character, but Catherine Lacey’s propulsive and kaleidoscopic novel makes her story feel plausible, piecing together the character’s life with an engrossing alternate history of the United States that’s full of references to real-life artists and writers. As CM uncovers more of X’s delectably illustrated past, Lacey unfurls a wholly original celebration of art, identity, and grief.

Buy Now : Biography of X on Bookshop | Amazon

Lone Women , Victor LaValle

It’s 1915 and mystery is swirling around Adelaide Henry, the daughter of Black farmers in California. When Victor LaValle introduces the character in his bruising fifth novel, she’s just set her family’s home ablaze. She’s on her way to Montana as a homesteader to collect on the promise of free land being offered by the government to “lone women” who are able to make it habitable. As Adelaide makes the trek, she brings with her a large trunk containing a secret that threatens to upend her life. Blending magical realism, history, and suspense, LaValle unravels a startling narrative about a woman running away from her troubled past and the horrors she faces as she tries to forge a better future.

Buy Now : Lone Women on Bookshop | Amazon

After Sappho , Selby Wynn Schwartz

Longlisted for the 2022 Booker Prize and published in the U.S. this January, After Sappho is a tale of creativity, desire, and sexuality. Though it’s technically a novel, to categorize it as such would undermine Selby Wynn Schwartz’s thrilling reimagination of history and literary criticism, which culminates in a work of fiction that is deeply rooted in reality. In the book, Schwartz revisits the lives of groundbreaking early 20th-century feminists, from writers to actors to dancers, to explore the challenges they faced as queer artists with great contributions to make to the world. Schwartz weaves a tapestry of their voices to create a timeless yet timely narrative.

Buy Now : After Sappho on Bookshop | Amazon

The Covenant of Water , Abraham Verghese

Abraham Verghese, the best-selling author of the 2009 novel Cutting for Stone , returns with another epic tale, this time focusing on the fate of a cursed family in southern India. The Covenant of Water begins in 1900 as a 12-year-old girl marries a 40-year-old widower with a young son. Some years after their wedding, the girl discovers her husband’s son drowned in a ditch. It’s a cruel suffering that the family can’t seem to shake—they keep losing more of their own to the same fate—and they become determined to figure out the source of this strange affliction. Verghese follows the family over the course of nearly 80 years in this powerful and sweeping story about love, loss, and the strength of the human spirit.

Buy Now : The Covenant of Water on Bookshop | Amazon

Y/N , Esther Yi

The unnamed narrator of Esther Yi’s electric debut novel is obsessed with a K-pop idol named Moon. Bored with her life in Berlin, the narrator writes fan fiction about Moon, describing an imagined relationship with one of the most famous musicians in the world. Then the lines of reality start to blur: as the protagonist of her stories travels to Seoul to be with Moon, the narrator decides to make the journey, too. Yi weaves these threads together in sharp prose, offering an inventive novel about the strange and surprising stakes of worshiping a pop idol.

Buy Now : Y/N on Bookshop | Amazon

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The best books of 2023

From Paul Murray’s brilliant tragicomedy to Barbra Streisand’s epic memoir, Guardian critics pick the year’s best fiction, politics, science, children’s books and more. Tell us about your favourite books in the comments

Zadie Smith’s first foray into historical fiction, medieval magical realism from Salman Rushdie and Paul Murray’s Booker-shortlisted tragicomedy – Justine Jordan looks back on the year in fiction.

Read all fiction

Children’s books

From poignant stories of love and grief to picture books about rockets and ogres, Imogen Russell Williams picks the best books for children, including titles by Carnegie-winning Katya Balen and children’s laureate Joseph Coelho.

Read all children’s books

Young adult books

Imogen Russell Williams highlights five of the best books for teenagers, including a superb graphic memoir, a poignant family saga and a chilling murder mystery.

Read all young adult books

Crime and thrillers

Laura Wilson ’s pick of the year’s page-turners, from cosy crime by Richard Osman and Janice Hallett to spy novels, historical crime and psychological thrillers.

Read all crime and thrillers

Science fiction and fantasy

A Booker-longlisted story of cosmic exploration, a historical multiverse novel and a military tale in space – Adam Roberts chooses five of the best science fiction and fantasy books.

Read all science fiction and fantasy

Translated fiction

John Self ’s top five novels in translation, including a colourful and eccentric South Korean tale and the late Spanish author Javier Marías’s final page-turner.

Read all translated fiction

Jilly Cooper’s take on the world of football, a film tie-in edition of Red, White & Royal Blue, and Rebecca Yarros’s romantasy bestseller – Jenny Colgan showcases five of the best novels about love and romance.

Read all romance

Biography and memoir

From vivid accounts of siblings and grief to Barbra Streisand’s doorstopper, Fiona Sturges selects the best books about people’s lives.

Read all biography and memoir

Gaby Hinsliff on memoirs and biographies across the political spectrum, an insider account of Trump’s White House and a humorous take on the tumultuous last two years in No 10.

Read all politics

Emma John picks five of the year’s best sport books, including the story of how Graham Taylor and Elton John turned Watford Football Club around, a biography of tennis heroine Althea Gibson and an oral history about the brutality of horse racing.

Read all sport

Feminism, the climate crisis, artificial intelligence and vaccines are just some of the topics explored in Steven Poole ’s roundup of books that take on the world’s big questions.

Read all ideas

Rishi Dastidar chooses the year’s best collections, from a new translation of The Iliad to Forward prize winners that examine race and identity.

Read all poetry

Graphic novels

A new memoir from Pulitzer winner Darrin Bell, a story about an imagined world in which wishes can be granted and an affecting collection of manga – James Smart picks out the finest comics and graphic books.

Read all graphic novels

Alexis Petridis chooses his five favourite music books of the year, from homages to dance music and 90s/00s pop to a look at the role LGBTQ people played in the early days of blues.

Read all music

Rachel Roddy on five of the best food books of the year, which include a study of food’s role in national identity, a brilliant vegetarian cookbook and an engrossing history of rice.

Read all food

To browse all of the Guardian and Observer’s best books of 2023 visit guardianbookshop.com . Delivery charges may apply.

• 2023 in Culture
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Book Reviews

The summer we crossed europe in the rain; ireland 1970-2020; car bombs and barrack busters.

Brief reviews of new books by Kazuo Ishiguro; Colum Kenny; and Dan Harvey

An African History of Africa by Zeinab Bedawi: A richly rewarding sweep that challenges preconceptions

Quibbles about the Yoruba notwithstanding, readers of this magnificent book will find a huge cast of African greats worthy of another look or who deserve to be better known

Spirit of Revolution. Ireland from Below 1917-23: working-class rebels

This valuable collection of regional and local case studies explores class struggles in the revolutionary period

What Will Survive of Us by Howard Jacobson: Giving up the cover of comedy with patchy results

The author has spoken of confronting the ‘taboo on tenderness’ in his latest novel, in which he is admirably attuned to how lukewarm other people’s love can seem but does not always grip the reader convincingly

The Husbands by Holly Gramazio: a world of endless possible husbands

The author’s wit and humour keep the reader engaged as curiosity outweighs any irritations with the concept

Sparks of Bright Matter by Leeanne O’Donnell: An exceptionally promising debut novel

This cracking page-turner draws on two distinct spiritual traditions – European alchemy and ancient Irish pagan animism – to form something new

Mr and Mrs American Pie: brilliant tale of a spurned housewife

This 2018 novel is a fine example of comedy with bite

The Bishop and the Butterfly. Murder, Politics and the End of the Jazz Age: an engrossing crime story

This deeply researched page-turner sheds light on Manhattan’s seedy underworld, offering a ringside seat to battles between reformers and crooked politicians at the outset of the Great Depression

Fighting Retreat: Winston Churchill and India by Walter Reid - An interesting exploration of a moral black hole

Walter Reid has an excellent grasp of his subject and leaves no doubt that Churchill was a racist who could not abide Hindus

The Axeman’s Carnival by Catherine Chidgey: an imaginative and well-executed novel

Chidgey elegantly weaves together social commentary, magic realism, folklore and myth, and her treatment of serious themes is deft

Old Romantics by Maggie Armstrong: An audacious debut collection with a personality all its own

A dozen short stories are linked by a protagonist called Margaret, who is hapless, often bewildered, at times mean. You will love her

You Are Here by David Nicholls: A highly relatable love story of significance

This novel is vintage Nicholls and shows that a journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step

Choice by Neel Mukherjee: Novel of important themes hampered by didactic tone

Three socially conscious and moral storylines are interwoven with mixed results in Choice by Neel Mukherjee

The Amendments by Niamh Mulvey: What it means to be female through different generations

Novel with big cast of characters bursts with things to say but needs more character description and less social contextualising

Two valuable studies of Ireland’s relationship with the EU

Irish academics offer insights into Ireland’s increasingly outward-looking place in the world as mediated through the EU and its institutions

The Voyageur by Paul Carlucci: Vivid tale of body experiments in 19th-century Canada

Physical reality all too often masked by history is dragged out in gory details not for the squeamish in Paul Carlucci's debut novel

Nuclear War: A Scenario: Meticulously researched fictional account of N Korea attacking US

Annie Jacobsen weaves a terrifyingly believable tale of a thermonuclear weapon destroying civilisation in mere minutes

From Tip to Top: The Journey of a Lifetime, From Chile to Alaska is an inspiring and absorbing read

Peter Murtagh delivers a pacey, age-defying ride along the Pan-American Highway

Weathering by Ruth Allen: Mapping fascinating points of intersection between rocks and people

This is a convincing, considered read for those who enjoy a deeper exploration of our place within an unromanticised natural world

James by Percival Everett: Reimagining Huck Finn

There is humour and humanity in this recasting of Mark Twain’s flawed classic

Knife by Salman Rushdie review: living to tell the tale of being saved by love

Knife is surprisingly upbeat for a book about being stabbed in the head

Impossible City: Paris in the Twenty-First Century – A place like no other

The author analyses the French art of conversation and ritual of Parisian dinner parties, which can be ‘genuinely joyous’

Hagstone by Sinéad Gleeson: There is a lyricism to this magical and otherworldly debut novel

An island, cut off from the mainland, is a perfect setting for a haunting story such as this

A Body Made of Glass: Unflinching interrogation of hypochondria

The author’s unflinching interrogation of the condition and its evolution leads to fascinating cultural observations

United Kingdoms: Multinational Union States in Europe and Beyond, 1800-1925 - Home rule revisited

Author’s careful, precise narrative describes, for example, the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire

Edel Coffey on My Favourite Mistake by Marian Keyes: Rich, and multilayered storytelling

Author’s humanity as much as her humour keeps readers coming back

YA picks for April: From disordered eating to a believable time-slip mystery

Louder Than Hunger by John Schu, Jenny Ireland’s second book, The Boy Next Door, The Midnight Clock by Jamie Costello, Looking for Lucie by Amanda Addison; and Royal Scandal by Aimee Carter

A Woman’s Story by Annie Ernaux: Writing her mother

French author explores an intimate, complex relationship with hyper-personal objectivity

Filterworld and Code Dependent: potentially devastating outcomes of algorithmic technology

Filterworld by Kyle Chayka; Code Dependent by Madhumita Murgia

The Blues Brothers by Daniel de Visé – Diverting celebration of a puzzling US comedy phenomenon

How did the blokeish creation of supernova-hot comics John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd become a cultural marker?

Wandering Stars by Tommy Orange: Shines in many ways

New book from the author of There, There follows stories of trauma and tragedy

Caledonian Road by Andrew O’Hagan: enjoyable but groans under the weight of its own ambition

The strands of this 700-page novel feel more like a series of loosely-linked narratives than a cohesive whole

Twelve Sheep by John Connell: the magic of life over 12 beautiful chapters

Author of The Cow Book threads personal essay with observations of the natural world

Headshot is a coming-of-age story, a portrait of girlhood seen through competitive contact sport

Bullwinkel has created eight memorably unique teenage girls whose aim is literally to be singular, which is to say, number one

Broken Archangel: The Tempestuous Lives of Roger Casement review

Roland Philipps explores contradictions, complexity and character of an Irish hero in this compelling biography

Best new children’s fiction, from a fairy disguised as a rabbit to a boy who turns into a dinosaur

Valuable offerings from Edwina Guckian, Sinéad O’Hart, Shane Hegarty, Jen Wallace and more

New poetry: John F Deane; Victoria Kennefick; Mícheál McCann; and Scott McKendry

Reviews: Selected and New Poems; egg/shell; Devotion; Gub

Down with the super-rich: Two takes on the dangers of excessive wealth

Enough by Luke Hildyard and Technocapitalism by Loretta Napoleoni

Black Ghosts by Noo Saro-Wiwa: where cultures overlap

Vivid encounters with China’s African diaspora present a portrait of migration in the 21st century

Way Out West: Anthony Glavin’s absorbing read about pursuit of identity

An absorbing read that drifts through the United States of the 1970s and ‘80s

Books in brief: A ‘Proper’ Woman?; Finnegans Wake, Ulster and Partition; and Tearing Stripes off Zebras

Books by Pat O’Connor and Donal Manning, and an anthology of writing by 33 women

Nuclear Family: drama turns on a family DNA test

A brilliant take on the family saga, drawing upon zeitgeist debates around health data and sperm donation

House of Hidden Meanings by RuPaul: honest memoir comes clean about humiliations

RuPaul condenses the darkness of 1980s New York with one sentence while spending paragraphs on when Madonna threw him shade

Girl in the Making by Anna Fitzgerald: readers will feel for this sensitive, intuitive child

Debut novel absorbs from the opening chapter, following the story of Dublin girl Jean

Adventures in Democracy. The turbulent world of People Power: A system worth voting for

A lively, accessible account of democracy, its strengths and weaknesses over the past 2,500 years – and the forces threatening it

Collisions by Michael Kimmage: The ripple effects of war in Ukraine

Author examines growing global instability in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022

I Heard Her Call My Name, A Memoir of Transition by Lucy Sante: lives unlived

A story of displacement, post-1960s bohemia and a longing unsatisfied until the author’s seventh decade

What Ireland Can Teach the World About Music: showing the magical power of musicians to soundtrack our lives and times

Insightful essays excavate the magic of music in Ireland and its creative realm

Fiction in translation: from a masterpiece of postwar guilt to femicide in Brazil

Fiction in translation

The Best Way to Bury Your Husband: black comedy about the darkness of domestic violence

The author deliberately creates a completely implausible plot that places the focus on the experience of the victim

A Very Hard Struggle. Lives in the Military Service Pensions Collection – a window on the harshness of Irish life

Contributors take different approaches to tough topics such as gender experience, family histories, language, youth, poverty, illness and crime, while positive outcomes also shine through

Does Counter-Terrorism Work?: a masterful and concise analysis

Masterful analysis of horribly familiar case studies yields deep insights into the flawed tactics of states in their efforts to eradicate terrorists

Eyewitness to War and Peace by Eamonn Mallie: recollections of a passing era

Reporter looks back on a lifetime’s work during the Troubles in Northern Ireland

Unwords by Andrew Gallix and No Judgement by Lauren Oyler: What do you want, encouragement or confrontation?

Gallix is a gentle melancholy guide, more analogue, older, European; Oyler is nervily digital, younger, very American in sensibility. They are equally clever

Scifi and fantasy round-up: From an AI investigator to a Pratchettian satire set in colour-mad England

Reviews: Floating Hotel by Grace Curtis; The Universe Delivers the Enemy You Need by Adam Marek; City of Stardust by Georgia Summers; In the Blink of an Eye by Jo Callaghan; and Red Side Story by Jasper Fforde

Best new music books: A treat for Springsteen fans; a unique angle on Bowie; and a memoir from a cult hedonist

Insights into Jarvis Cocker’s disillusionment with fame; The Brian Jonestown Massacre’s music and drug habits, and more

Until August by Gabriel García Márquez: musical coda to a virtuoso mind

Posthumous novel is constructed as a fugue, with a heroine named after the wife of composer Johann Sebastian Bach

New crime fiction: A Stranger in the Family, The Rumor Game, How to Kill a Guy in Ten Ways, Day One, and What Happened to Nina?

Eve Kellman introduces Millie Masters, a self-righteous serial killer with a dark wit, while there are gripping new offerings from Jane Casey, Thomas Mullen, Dervla McTiernan and Abigail Dean

‘I’m alone pretty much all the time. The older I become, the less hopeful I am this will change’

Irish in London: ‘Nobody was making me stay. I could have left at any time and gone home to Sligo ... That was 24 years ago’

Former taoiseach Leo Varadkar raises concerns about racism in Late Late Show interview

Ozempic changed the lives of obesity patients. And then we had to stop prescribing it

David McWilliams: A small town in Co Kerry and a formula for rejuvenating rural Ireland

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Locus Online

The Magazine of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Field

2023 LA Times Book Prize Winners

Works of genre interest include The Reformatory by Tananarive Due (Saga), which received the Science Fiction, Fantasy & Speculative Fiction Award, Same Bed Different Dreams by Ed Park (Random House), which received the Fiction Award, and Gone Wolf by Amber McBride (Feiwel & Friends) in Young Adult Literature. Jane Smiley received the 2023 Robert Kirsch Award for lifetime achievement.

Winners were announced in a ceremony at USC’s Bovard Auditorium on April 19, 2024. For more information, including the complete list of winners, see the official website .

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