The Award-Winning Fiction Books of 2023

A mother faces a terrible choice, in Paul Lynch’s exhilarating, propulsive and confrontational portrait of a society on the brink.

The celebrated author’s “murder mystery locked inside a Great American Novel” took home the 10th edition of this important annual prize organized by Kirkus Reviews.

This year, The Poisonwood Bible author won these two major awards for her latest novel, which follows a plucky boy born to a single mother amid the poverty and trailer parks of the southern Appalachia region.

This riveting novel elegantly skips between the roaring 20’s and the Great Depression to deliver an exploration of family, ambition, power and money. Notably, it's the first time in history that two books have jointly received the fiction prize in the same year.

The first Bulgarian book to take home the prestigious award is about a "clinic for the past" that offers Alzheimer's patients the opportunity to revisit another decade. But as these escapes become more convincing, healthy people start seeking out the clinic as a place to avoid the horrors of their present reality.

The bestselling author of We the Animals took home this highly coveted prize for his latest novel, which The National Book Foundation said "considers the gaps in personal and collective queer history, and how stories have the power to keep people alive."

This award recognizes work in any genre that has broken new ground by reshaping the boundaries of its form and signaling strong potential for lasting influence. The 2023 recipient is a madcap James Bond parody that playfully explores the meaning of nothingness.

The Poppy War trilogy author won this year’s Nebula Award for best novel with a provocative fantasy set in an alternate reality 1830s England that explores the relationship between academia and imperialism.

Honoring books that exemplify the spirit of Brooklyn and support the Library’s mission to foster conversations about the social, political, and artistic issues of our time, this year’s prize went to a novel about a mourning widow unraveling the enigma of her late wife—a secretive artist and cultural icon with a hidden past.

One of the mystery world’s most prestigious awards went to this thriller that follows an estranged sibling on a quest to unearth the truth about her half-sister's death, which critic Carole V. Bell praised for painting "a multidimensional portrait of people often overshadowed by stereotype."