During the lockdown years, I kept reading articles by novelists saying how unproductive they were feeling, how virus narratives had colonised their subconscious minds, destroying the creative impulse. 2023’s novels – or at least those of them I’ve read – suggest otherwise. It’s an extraordinary crop, with memorable books from both celebrated and lesser-known authors. As usual, I’ve concentrated on those released in the first half of the year and have left first novels to the New Review’s best debut novelists feature.
Let’s start with some big names. There’s inevitable excitement surrounding a new Bret Easton Ellis. The Shards (Swift, January) is a riotous tale of privilege and psychosis at a swanky prep school. After the horrors of last year, it’s splendid that Salman Rushdie has a new novel out – Victory City (Jonathan Cape, February). Better still, it’s a cracker. Purportedly a rediscovered ancient epic, it’s about the transformative power of human creativity, the enduring ability of art to shape the world. Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton (Granta, March) comes 10 years after the Booker-winning The Luminaries and is worth the long wait. Full of wit, big ideas and the most beautiful writing, it’s the story of a group of guerrilla gardeners who clash with a billionaire prepper. I loved it.
To be honest, 2023 feels like a month-by-month parade of my favourite writers. There’s new work from Benjamin Myers – Cuddy (Bloomsbury, March), Max Porter – Shy (Faber, April), Deborah Levy – August Blue (Hamish Hamilton, May) and Amanda Craig – The Three Graces (Abacus, June). There’s Richard Ford’s fifth and final Frank Bascombe book, Be Mine (Bloomsbury, June), in which Bascombe, now entering his own last years, takes his terminally ill son on a trip to Mount Rushmore. There’s also a new novel from the great Paul Murray. The Bee Sting (Hamish Hamilton, June) is the tale of a dysfunctional family trying to hold things together. It’s a thing of beauty, a novel that will fill your heart. Another welcome return is Lorrie Moore’s I Am Homeless If This Is Not My Home (Faber, June). Her first novel since A Gate at the Stairs (2009), this is an uncanny tale stretched between the 19th century and the present.
I’m always interested in second novels, in the vulnerability of the follow-up. Ayòbámi Adébáyò was shortlisted for the Women’s prize for her debut, Stay With Me. Now, with A Spell of Good Things (Canongate, February), she has delivered a poised and luminous love story set against the backdrop of a violent contemporary Nigeria. New Review best debut alumnus Caleb Azumah Nelson’s Open Water was a slim masterpiece. His second novel, Small Worlds (Viking, May), is a similarly lapidary coming-of-age story set over three years in the life of an extraordinary young man. Another New Review pick, Guy Gunaratne, won a host of prizes with their first novel, In Our Mad and Furious City. Their enthralling second, Mister Mister (Tinder, May), is about the enigmatic Yahya Bas, sitting mute in a government detention centre after being captured in Syria. Finally, perhaps spurred by his brother Richard’s success, Mat Osman has written a superb second novel. The Ghost Theatre (Bloomsbury, May) finds its way into the hidden corners of Elizabethan London, telling the story of a group of misfit actors. Beautifully written and completely convincing.
A few more to look out for: there’s a blast from the past in the form of Michael Bracewell, whose Unfinished Business (White Rabbit, January) is his first novel in more than two decades. The story of a put-upon everyman, it is a sad and quietly devastating portrait of middle-aged life in suburbia. Meg Clothier is best known for her YA historical novels, but her first adult work, The Book of Eve (Wildfire, March), is a wonderfully rich and absorbing tale. With nods to Umberto Eco, it tells the story of Beatrice, the librarian of a convent who comes into possession of a book of dark and stunning power. Chinese author Wang Xiaobo died aged just 44 in 1997, but his masterpiece, Golden Age (Penguin, April), has now been translated into English for the first time by Yan Yan. It’s a scabrous, bawdy novel set in the years of the Cultural Revolution. It’s also very moving. Han Kang is back with Greek Lessons (Hamish Hamilton, April), beautifully translated by Deborah Smith and Emily Yae Won. Lastly, James Hynes is well-known in the US but the 67-year-old has never been published in the UK before. Sparrow (Picador, May) is a stunning work of historical imagination. The story of a young man making his name in the dying days of the Roman empire, Sparrow is masterful in its portrayal of love, sex and friendship.
Finally, two novels to look forward to later in the year. The Fraud by Zadie Smith (Hamish Hamilton, September), is a wonderfully rich historical novel based on a real-life trial. With two memorable central characters, it looks at the darkness that underpinned the triumphant exceptionalism of Victorian Britain. Sebastian Faulks’s Modern Love (Hutchinson, September) is a work of visionary ambition. Set in the future, it’s part-mystery, part-romance, all told with typical panache. Whatever else the year ahead brings, at least we have this collection of supremely good novels to comfort, challenge, instruct and entertain us through it.
