• The Best Fiction of 2022: The Booker Prize Shortlist - Glory: A Novel by NoViolet Bulawayo
  • The Best Fiction of 2022: The Booker Prize Shortlist - The Trees by Percival Everett
  • The Best Fiction of 2022: The Booker Prize Shortlist - Treacle Walker by Alan Garner
  • The Best Fiction of 2022: The Booker Prize Shortlist - The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Shehan Karunatilaka
  • The Best Fiction of 2022: The Booker Prize Shortlist - Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan
  • The Best Fiction of 2022: The Booker Prize Shortlist - Oh William! by Elizabeth Strout

The Best Fiction of 2022: The Booker Prize Shortlist, recommended by Neil MacGregor

The Booker Prize is awarded each year to the best original novel written in the English language. We asked the art historian Neil MacGregor, chair of this year’s judging panel, to talk us through the six novels that made the 2022 shortlist—and why fiction can be a most effective means of engaging us emotionally in social and political crisis elsewhere.

  • The Best Novels of 2021 - Detransition, Baby: A Novel by Torrey Peters
  • The Best Novels of 2021 - The Manningtree Witches by A. K. Blakemore
  • The Best Novels of 2021 - little scratch by Rebecca Watson
  • The Best Novels of 2021 - Open Water by Caleb Azumah Nelson
  • The Best Novels of 2021 - Several People Are Typing by Calvin Kasulke

The Best Novels of 2021, recommended by Cal Flyn

It’s been another vintage year for fiction. As book sales continue to soar, Five Books deputy editor Cal Flyn talks us through her personal highlights: the best new novels to be released in 2021. Her recommendations include a workplace comedy that unfolds through the medium of Slack, a “darkly sardonic” story of a 17th-century witch trial, and a witty novel-of-ideas examining trans parenthood.

  • The Best Fiction of 2021: The Booker Prize Shortlist - No One is Talking About This by Patricia Lockwood
  • The Best Fiction of 2021: The Booker Prize Shortlist - The Promise by Damon Galgut
  • The Best Fiction of 2021: The Booker Prize Shortlist - Bewilderment: A Novel by Richard Powers
  • The Best Fiction of 2021: The Booker Prize Shortlist - A Passage North by Anuk Arudpragasam
  • The Best Fiction of 2021: The Booker Prize Shortlist - The Fortune Men: A Novel by Nadifa Mohamed
  • The Best Fiction of 2021: The Booker Prize Shortlist - Great Circle: A Novel by Maggie Shipstead

The Best Fiction of 2021: The Booker Prize Shortlist, recommended by Maya Jasanoff

This year the Booker Prize finalists include new work from previous shortlistees Richard Powers and Damon Galgut, a sweeping historical novel by Maggie Shipstead, and a fragmentary account of a life lived ‘extremely online.’ Maya Jasanoff, Harvard historian and chair of the 2021 judging panel, talks us through the best fiction of the past year.

  • The Best Science Fiction of 2021: The Arthur C Clarke Award Shortlist - The Infinite by Patience Agbabi
  • The Best Science Fiction of 2021: The Arthur C Clarke Award Shortlist - Edge of Heaven by R B Kelly
  • The Best Science Fiction of 2021: The Arthur C Clarke Award Shortlist - Chilling Effect by Valerie Valdes
  • The Best Science Fiction of 2021: The Arthur C Clarke Award Shortlist - The Animals in That Country by Laura Jean McKay
  • The Best Science Fiction of 2021: The Arthur C Clarke Award Shortlist - The Vanished Birds by Simon Jimenez
  • The Best Science Fiction of 2021: The Arthur C Clarke Award Shortlist - Vagabonds by Hao Jingfang, translated by Ken Liu

The Best Science Fiction of 2021: The Arthur C Clarke Award Shortlist, recommended by Tom Hunter

Every year, the director of the Arthur C Clarke Award talks us through their six book shortlist. The 2021 crop of the best science fiction books features a “deliciously pulpy” space opera, a time travel story for young adults, and a cacophonous tale of talking animals. What they all have in common is that they are by debut authors, says Tom Hunter: they represent a new generation of sci fi writing.

  • The Best of World Literature: The 2021 International Booker Prize Shortlist - At Night All Blood Is Black by David Diop, translated by Anna Moschovakis
  • The Best of World Literature: The 2021 International Booker Prize Shortlist - The Dangers of Smoking in Bed: Stories by Mariana Enríquez, translated by Megan McDowell
  • The Best of World Literature: The 2021 International Booker Prize Shortlist - When We Cease to Understand the World by Benjamin Labatut, translated by Adrian Nathan West
  • The Best of World Literature: The 2021 International Booker Prize Shortlist - The Employees: A workplace novel of the 22nd century by Olga Ravn, translated by Martin Aitken
  • The Best of World Literature: The 2021 International Booker Prize Shortlist - In Memory of Memory by Maria Stepanova, by Sasha Dugdale
  • The Best of World Literature: The 2021 International Booker Prize Shortlist - The War of the Poor by Éric Vuillard, translated by Mark Polizzotti

The Best of World Literature: The 2021 International Booker Prize Shortlist, recommended by Lucy Hughes-Hallett

Every year the International Booker Prize judges read dozens of novels from around the world, which are newly translated into English. Here Lucy Hughes-Hallett—award-winning author and chair of this year’s judging panel—talks us through the six books that made their 2021 shortlist of the best world literature.

  • Editors’ Picks: Notable Novels of Fall 2020 - Luster: A Novel by Raven Leilani
  • Editors’ Picks: Notable Novels of Fall 2020 - All Men Want to Know by Nina Bouraoui
  • Editors’ Picks: Notable Novels of Fall 2020 - Sisters: A Novel by Daisy Johnson
  • Editors’ Picks: Notable Novels of Fall 2020 - Jack: A Novel by Marilynne Robinson
  • Editors’ Picks: Notable Novels of Fall 2020 - Earthlings: A Novel by Sayaka Murata

Editors’ Picks: Notable Novels of Fall 2020, recommended by Cal Flyn

After coronavirus-induced chaos threw publishing schedules out of whack earlier this year, fall 2020 is shaping up to be a bumper book season. But with hundreds of new titles flooding onto the shelves, it can be hard to identify those that are most deserving of your time. Here, Five Books deputy editor Cal Flyn highlights some of the most anticipated new novels of the coming weeks.

  • Editors’ Picks: Notable Novels of Summer 2020 - Starling Days: A Novel by Rowan Hisayo Buchanan
  • Editors’ Picks: Notable Novels of Summer 2020 - Rainbow Milk by Paul Mendez
  • Editors’ Picks: Notable Novels of Summer 2020 - Exciting Times by Naoise Dolan
  • Editors’ Picks: Notable Novels of Summer 2020 - Pew by Catherine Lacey
  • Editors’ Picks: Notable Novels of Summer 2020 - Blue Ticket: A Novel by Sophie Mackintosh

Editors’ Picks: Notable Novels of Summer 2020, recommended by Cal Flyn

No writer could resent you losing track of the new novels being published into the chaos of summer 2020 – with the world on lockdown and protestors taking to the streets. But fiction can offer respite from a relentless news cycle, writes Five Books deputy editor Cal Flyn – and an opportunity to consider our own lives and choices through the prism of others’.

  • The 2020 Audie Awards: Audiobook of the Year - The Only Plane in the Sky: An Oral History of September 11, 2001 by Garrett Graff
  • The 2020 Audie Awards: Audiobook of the Year - Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes by Tony Kushner
  • The 2020 Audie Awards: Audiobook of the Year - Becoming by Michelle Obama
  • The 2020 Audie Awards: Audiobook of the Year - Charlotte's Web by E.B. White & Garth Williams (illustrator)
  • The 2020 Audie Awards: Audiobook of the Year - The Dutch House by Ann Patchett
  • The 2020 Audie Awards: Audiobook of the Year - The Testaments: A Novel by Margaret Atwood

The 2020 Audie Awards: Audiobook of the Year, recommended by Mary Burkey & Robin Whitten

Every year, the Audie Awards celebrate the best audiobooks published over the previous year. Veteran audiobook reviewer Robin Whitten of AudioFile Magazine and Mary Burkey, who has served on multiple audiobook judging panels, explain what makes a good audiobook and talk us through the brilliant books that were finalists in the 2020 ‘Audiobook of the Year’ category.