The New York Times Announces its 100 Notable Books of 2024

Kelly Link has been astonishing readers with her brilliant speculative short stories for over two decades, so of course, her debut novel was one of 2024’s most anticipated books! The Book of Love is a spectacular story of magic, love, family, and loss. It’s set in a small Massachusetts seaside town, where three teens are brought back from the dead by their music teacher (although they don’t remember dying.) Agreeing to complete a series of magical tasks, the teens will face supernatural dangers and all the complications that accompany being alive. It’s a heart-squeezing tale of wonder and life that hugs your brain in the best way. —Liberty Hardy

Award-winning author Danzy Senna is back with a biting story of ambition, middle age, and identity. Jane is an author desperate to finish her second novel while she is on sabbatical with her family in Los Angeles. Instead, she falls for the siren’s call of Hollywood and finds herself working with a hotshot producer on a comedy, what he assures her will be a huge hit. Jane has high hopes that the show will impart important views on race while delivering laughs. But nothing turns out how she expects it to go. Senna delivers a darkly funny novel about the Hollywood machine rolling over another writer who dared to stand in front of it with their dreams. (Related: today I learned that Senna is married to author Percival Everett. That is a lot of talent under one roof!) —Liberty Hardy

Young Mieczyslaw comes to this health resort in what is now western Poland to recover from the lung issues he’s struggled with for far too long. His days are full of getting to know the strange residents of the guesthouse and being exposed to their philosophical and political debates. But as all these questions of gender, humanity, and money circulate, Mieczyslaw begins to wonder if something is profoundly wrong with the town and their surroundings — and if there’s actually a chance of getting better here. This greenery/herbology-filled, historical fiction/mystery/thought-provoking novel mixes all sorts of things together and comes out fascinating thanks to Tokarczuk’s Nobel Prize-winning writing. —Leah Rachel von Essen

This is a bestseller and one of the biggest books of the year that comes highly recommended by authors like Tommy Orange, Lauren Groff, John Green, Clint Smith, and more. It follows Cyrus, a twenty-something queer poet who has been numbing his pain with drugs and alcohol. His mother was killed when her plane was shot down over Tehran in a senseless act of violence by the U.S. military. His father recently died of a heart attack. As he becomes sober, Cyrus goes looking for meaning, and he finds it by researching martyrs. When he hears about an artist dying of cancer in an exhibition at a museum, he is determined to meet her. —Danika Ellis

Multi-award-winning Erdrich’s latest follows messy lives against a backdrop of resources being sucked dry through climate changes and the 2008 recession. Gary is a young man about to inherit two farms and is set on marrying lapsed Goth Kismet Poe, while Hugo’s messy, red-headed behind wants to steal her for himself. Amidst the drama, the people of the Red River Valley try their best to survive, while things like visions of angels and drastic changes complicate things. —Erica Ezeifedi

We finally have the sequel to this celebrated graphic novel, and it was worth the wait. Intricately etched with full, exciting pages and a bold story, it picks up where the last left off: Karen, a young monster, is investigating her neighbor’s murder in the Uptown apartment where she’s grown up. But the secrets she’s discovered aren’t the ones she was looking for, and in this book, she’ll have to fight hard to avoid coming apart at the seams. This bold coming-of-age tale about queerness, difference, family, and the city of Chicago is impactful, emotional, and bold, and I was both overjoyed and very sad to see the story of Karen Reyes come to its conclusion. —Leah Rachel von Essen