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Books in the Media: newspapers reveal their best books of the year
In the lead up to Christmas, many publications, including the Guardian, Times, Telegraph, Daily Mail, Evening Standard, Financial Times, New York Times and iNews, have released their best book of the year articles.
Six books dominated the lists: Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro (Faber), Oh William! by Elizabeth Strout (Viking), The Promise by Damon Galgut (Chatto), No One is Talking About This by Patricia Lockwood (Bloomsbury), Crossroads by Jonathan Franzen (Fourth Estate) and Detransition Baby by Torrey Peters (Serpent’s Tail).
The Guardian’s Anne Enright described Kazuo Ishiguro’s Klara and the Sun as a novel that “probes the limits of emotion in the story of a sickly girl and her “artificial friend.” The novel also featured in the Telegraph, Times, Daily Mail, Evening Standard and New York Times best books list.
Oh William! by Elizabeth Strout featured in the Guardian,Telegraph, Times Daily Mail, New York, Times and iNews. Claire Allifree included Strout’s novel on her list for the Daily Mail describing the book as: “A terrific novel about loss, self-knowledge and the impact of time passing.”
The Promise by Damon Galgut featured in the Guardian, Telegraph, Times Daily Mail and iNews. The Times’ Patricia Nicol praised the novel for being “a novel of substance”.
No One is Talking About This by Patricia Lockwood featured in the Telegraph, Times, Daily Mail and Evening Standard. The Telegraph’s Sameer Rahim explained his decision for including the book by saying: "Written in short paragraphs that could almost be tweets themselves, the novel’s first half can be read – or should I say scrolled through? – with addictive ease. The darker second half asks tough questions about whether some things simply cannot be shared online.”
Crossroads by Jonathan Franzen featured in the Guardian, Telegraph, Financial Times, Daily Mail, New York, Times and iNews. Author Maggie Shipstead chose the novel as her book of the year while writing for iNews: “I was blown away by the depth of thought and empathy and the clarity of expression.”
Detransition Baby by Torrey Peters featured in the Times, Evening Standard, New York Times and iNews. Madeleine Feeny writing for the Evening Standard praised Peters novel for marking “a watershed in queer literature”.
Other books frequently highlighted across publications were Beautiful World, Where Are You by Sally Rooney (Faber), Bewilderment by Richard Powers(Cornerstone), In My Phantoms by Gwendoline Riley (Granta), Burntcoat by Sarah Hall(Faber), Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead (Doubleday), Free by Lea Ypi (Allen Lane) and Matrix by Lauren Groff (William Heinemann).
