13 Must-Read Fiction Books Hitting Shelves in January 2024

The author of the Booker-longlisted and Reese's Book Club pick Such A Fun Age returns with a tense tale of money, indiscretion, and bad behavior set at the University of Arkansas. Named to Time’s Most Anticipated Books of 2024, which praised a “twisty narrative full of observations about class and power.”

Recently spotted in Sarah Jessica Parker's "blissfully transportive" reading list, this poet’s debut novel follows the orphaned son of Iranian immigrants on a quest that leads him to a terminally ill painter living out her final days in the Brooklyn Museum. "Akbar creates scenes of psychedelic opulence and mystery, emotional precision, edgy hilarity, and heart-ringing poignancy as his characters endure war, grief, addiction, and sacrifice, and find refuge in art and love," raved Booklist.

Your Utopia: Stories

The author of the surrealist story collection Cursed Bunny, which was a finalist for the Booker and National Book award, returns with another “fantastic collection translated from Korean that combines big topics such as technology, human absurdity, and mortality. And she does it in the most amazing ways,” according to BookRiot.

Ilium

After falling for a mysterious older man, the young female protagonist of this international espionage thriller is thrust into a covert operation on a heavily-guarded compound in Cap Ferret. The Red, White, Blue author’s latest is a “masterful literary novel posing as a spy novel, and succeeds brilliantly on both levels," according to an early review from BookPage.

My Friends

From the Booker Prize-nominated and Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Return comes a luminous tale of friendship, family, and exile set against the backdrop of the Arab Spring. “Khaled’s elegiac ruminations never throttle the suspense as the characters continuously risk their lives for Libyan liberation. This is both a melancholic examination of the horrors of repression and a powerful ode to the freedom of speech,” raved Publishers Weekly.

Old Crimes: And Other Stories

The beloved Life After Life author’s latest story collection explores the pivotal moments when lives are forever changed through lies, secrets and other misdeeds with “plenty of humor and heartache... and often pushes her stories toward empathetic and surprising climaxes. McCorkle fans will gobble this up," remarked Publishers Weekly.

Dead in Long Beach, California

A California woman impersonating her dead brother descends into madness, blurring the lines between reality and fiction in a debut novel that Kirkus praised as “intelligent, bizarre, and brilliantly written,” adding that “Blackburn shares a deep intellect and odd sensibility with authors like George Saunders and Rion Amilcar Scott, but this novel is its own thing.”

The Fury

Start the year with a new psychological thriller from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Silent Patient. In his latest stylish caper, a reclusive movie star's gathering on a private Greek island takes a deadly turn that “will keep readers guessing until the satisfying ending,” remarked Library Journal.

Good Material

You're probably aware of the British journalist, author, and podcaster from her BookTok hit Everything I Know about Love. Her latest is a hilarious novel about a heartbroken man struggling after a brutal breakup, which The Guardian found "warm and generous... Alderton captures the myopia and obsessiveness that sudden heartbreak can bring, using both satire and compassion... A writer very much in control of her material."

Hard by a Great Forest

A Georgian family returns to their war-ravaged homeland to confront their haunted past in this “sweeping, ambitious, and almost unbelievably assured debut. Exploring the long shadow of trauma cast by any war, Vardiashvili's novel pummels the reader with an emotional force that few can match,” declared Booklist.