Best international fiction of 2023
Every year our staff vote for their favourite books of the past 12 months. Here are the best international fiction books of the year, as voted by Readings' staff, and displayed in alphabetical order by author.
Chain-Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
Imagine a Squid Game-style gladiator program that combines elements of the ‘reality’ TV show and the ancient ‘sport’, but is run as a fight-to-the-death competition for freedom in the, near future, US prison system – and is livestreamed to millions of paid subscribers. This is the astonishing premise of Chain-Gang All-Stars, the latest novel from Friday Black author Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah. A hotly anticipated release, it landed like one of its character’s hammers and has continued to imprint itself upon minds ever since. Dystopian fiction it may be, but its excoriating insights into the actual US prison system are all too real, and with a cast of memorable characters and a gripping plot, it’s impossible to put down or forget.
The Postcard by Anne Berest & Tina Kover (trans.)
At last translated from French into English, The Postcard was a bestseller in France, and was shortlisted for the Prix Goncourt. Based on extraordinary true events, the novel begins in 2003 with the arrival of a strange postcard at the Berest household: on the front, the image of the Opera Garnier; on the back, just four names – all relatives who were murdered in Auschwitz. The initial family response is horror and avoidance. The postcard is put away. Many years later, Anne Berest has not forgotten the postcard, and decides to find out who sent it, and why. So begins an epic literary detective tale encompassing history, family, culture, and art that has captivated and devastated Readings staff ever since its publication.
Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton
In her first book since the Booker Prize-winning The Luminaries, Eleanor Catton moves in a completely different, yet equally brilliant, direction with Birnam Wood, a psychological thriller with eco-guerillas and an end-of-days-curious billionaire. Birnam Wood is a financially endangered activist-gardening group founded by Mira Bunting, who has just come upon an opportunity: a landslide has closed off a farm from the town of Thorndike and it seems to lie abandoned, as if waiting for Birnam Wood to take it over. An American billionaire, Robert Lemoine, seems to have claimed it for himself and has taken an interest in their operation, inviting them to work the land. It could be the game-changing paradigm shift they need to be truly sustainable. Or it could be the beginning of the end.
Yellowface by Rebecca F. Kuang
In one of the most talked about books of the year, Rebecca F. Kuang has peeled back the curtain from modern literary publishing to reveal the questions we should all be asking – and to which her protagonist, Juniper Hayward, should certainly have given at least some consideration before she decided to pass off her brilliant (and recently deceased) friend Athena Liu’s manuscript as her own. Worse still, she publishes it under a deliberately ambiguous pseudonym – June Song. What could possibly go wrong? Yellowface has kept readers enthralled and mortified all year – it is not to be missed, and neither are its superb observations about racism and representation in publishing.
The Bee Sting by Paul Murray
Shortlisted for this year’s Booker Prize, Paul Murray’s outstanding family drama is a tragicomedy that will stay with you.
Set in the Irish Midlands and told from multiple perspectives, The Bee Sting centres around the Barnes family, who it’s no secret – though there are many other secrets – are not doing well. Dickie’s once thriving car business is going under, though he insists on keeping his head firmly in the sand. His wife Imelda is selling jewellery online to ensure their immediate survival and solvency, though it can’t last. And meanwhile, their eldest child Cass has stopped studying and started drinking, and their youngest child PJ is disappearing into video games and a particularly dubious friendship. Where did their troubles really begin? This family saga stands with the very best. Murray has crafted a novel full of wit, compassion, reckonings and hope.
The Vulnerables by Sigrid Nunez
Set in 2020 during the early days of Covid-19 lockdown, The Vulnerables follows the story of the narrator, a solitary female writer, who looks after a friend of a friend’s lively pet macaw in a luxurious Manhattan apartment. They are grateful for the company and wile away the hours observing and entertaining each other. When the previous bird-sitter, a student at NYU, arrives back unexpectantly they gradually grow accustomed to the other’s habits and become confidantes.
With wit and humour, The Vulnerables explores the fears, loneliness, disconnection and vulnerability of this complex time as well as the purpose of art, friendship and love.
The Last Devil to Die (The Thursday Murder Club, Book 4) by Richard Osman
The latest book in the Thursday Murder Club series, does not disappoint. By now most of us are familiar with the easy charm of Osman's writing, and his equally charming leads. We join Elizabeth, Joyce, Ron and Ibrahim as they investigate the murder of their friend, an antique dealer, who was looking after a package, a package that has since gone missing. In their efforts to solve the murder the gang encounter a wide range of people from heroin dealers, art forgers, less than honorable antique dealers and gentleman crooks. Replete with all the wit, drama, and the healthy dose of obstinance that we expect from Thursday Murder Club, this is Osman at his best.
Shy by Max Porter
Award-winning author of Grief Is the Thing with Feathers Max Porter’s fourth book is about troubled teenage boy, Shy. Shy is a student at Last Chance boarding school for ‘very disturbed young men’. He’s done all manner of things: snorted, stolen, been arrested, stabbed his stepdad, trashed a house and been expelled from two schools. Shy loves drum ‘n’ bass and jungle and all he wants is for the teasing from the boys at school, the noise in his mind and the night terrors, to stop. Set during a night in 1995, Shy is running from Last Chance with a plan but as he stumbles in the dark accompanied by his fears, the voices and memories, he starts to question everything.
Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld
It’s the story of Sally Milz, a successful comedy writer for a late-night skit show called Saturday Night Li–, sorry, The Night Owls, who inverts the average-Joe-dating-a-supermodel trend to find herself romantically involved with globally-adored pop idol Noah Brewster. Starting in 2018, before running smack-bang into the global pandemic, this witty and razor-sharp novel was a remarkably satisfying bit of escapism. Funny, smart, with plenty of heart and a Happily Ever After to satisfy even the most jaded reader.
Let Us Descend by Jesmyn Ward
Let Us Descend is a lyrical historical novel set during the time of American slavery, written by an author at the top of her game. The novel follows the story of Annis, a young slave who is sold south by the white enslaver who fathered her. She, along with a group of other slaves, roped and chained together, travel by foot from the Carolinas to a New Orleans slave market. It is a gripping, and often harrowing read, full of unforgettable characters who are learning how to live in the worst circumstances, finding emotional and spiritual strength in family and community.
As in her earlier works, there are many layers to this novel, but Ward's imagining of how the human spirit could survive the worst inhumanities an individual and a society could inflict upon other humans, it is possibly unmatched.