The end of the year means “best of” lists: these were my favorite fiction and nonfiction reads of 2023! Enjoy, and let me know which ones you’ve read or want to read 🖤
01:00 Fiction:
Quicksand by Nella Larsen (1928)
Permafrost by Eva Baltasar (trans. Julia Sanches) (2018)
If an Egyptian Cannot Speak English by Noor Naga (2022)
If Beale Street Could Talk by James Baldwin (1974)
I’m a Fan by Sheena Patel (2022)
Katalin Street by Magda Szabó (trans. Len Rix) (1969)
Still Born by Guadalupe Nettel (trans. Rosalind Harvey) (2020)
The Passion According to G.H. by Clarice Lispector (trans. Idra Novey) (1964)
Study for Obedience by Sarah Bernstein (2023)
Que reviennent ceux qui sont loin by Pierre Adrian (2022)
13:23 Nonfiction:
Too Much and Not the Mood by Durga Chew-Bose (2017)
Ugly Feelings by Sianne Ngai (2005)
Close to the Knives: A Memoir of Disintegration by David Wojnarowicz (1991)
In the Margins: On the Pleasures of Reading and Writing by Elena Ferrante (trans. Ann Goldstein) (2021)
Passion simple (Simple Passion) by Annie Ernaux (1992)
A Horse at Night: On Writing by Amina Cain (2022)
Death by Landscape by Elvia Wilk (2022)
Le piccole virtú (The Little Virtues) by Natalia Ginzburg (trans. Dick Davis) (1962)
This Little Art by Kate Briggs (2018)
They Can’t Kill Us Until They Kill Us by Hanif Abdurraqib (2017)
Essayism: On Form, Feeling, and Nonfiction by Brian Dillon (2017)
Violent Phenomena: 21 Essays on Translation ed. by Jeremy Tiang and Kavita Bhanot (2022)
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