The best fiction books for 2023
The year’s publishing highlights, including new novels by Salman Rushdie, Diana Evans and Eleanor Catton.
ByFiction reviews
Discover the best contemporary literature with the New Statesman’s expert reviews. From debut novels to short stories and literary veterans, get inspired here.
Eleanor Catton and the problem with “literary thrillers”
Her new novel raises the question: is the genre code for a thriller that simply isn’t very thrilling?
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Victory City: Salman Rushdie’s story factory
Rushdie’s new novel, completed before his attack, is a fable that displays his overweening faith in narrative.
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From Cariad Lloyd to Ayòbámi Adébáyò: new titles reviewed in short
Also featuring Tomorrow Perhaps the Future by Sarah Watling and Away From Beloved Lover by Dee Peyok.
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How The Last of Us turns the apocalypse into mindless entertainment
The latest show to profit from our obsession with dystopia reveals the limits of the genre.
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From Don Paterson to Brigitte Reimann: new titles reviewed in short
Also featuring Pegasus by Laurent Richard and Sandrine Rigaud and Sensational by Ashley Ward.
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Bret Easton Ellis’s death wish
The Shards, the author’s first novel in 13 years, is an Eighties-set autofiction thriller that plays on our cultural addiction…
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Yiyun Li’s The Book of Goose: in the shadow of Elena Ferrante
This under-powered story of a morbid teenage friendship in rural France cannot avoid comparisons to the Neapolitan Quartet.
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