Top Reads of the 2020s (Thus far)
Ayesha Safia Chaudhry
2023 is set to bring us a whole host of talent, from established heavyweights like Peace Adzo Medi and debuts from authors Cecile Pin, Jessica George and Gothataone Moeng. With all the top fiction reads promised over the next year also comes the moment to reflect and celebrate the biggest hits from the previous years. This article will delve into all recommendations for the upcoming year, plus some must-reads from the last. Make sure to have your notes app ready because you’ll definitely be wanting to pick these all up.
2023 recommendations
Maame by Jessica George
“Maame (ma-meh) has many meanings in Twi, but in my case, it means to be a woman or a mother.”
Jessica George’s first novel is the perfect coming-of-age story to sink your teeth into. Readers follow twenty-something Maddie Wright as she struggles to make her own way in the world. With her mother constantly in Ghana and her brother off living his life—Maddie is forced to grow up all too soon, left to pick up the pieces and care for her ill father. Tackling themes of heartbreak, grief, love and complex family relationships, it packs a punch!
This one is for all the eldest daughters out there who know the rite of passage that is sacrifice and never fully being able to put yourselves first. Maame is one of next year’s highly anticipated reads, and for good reason. Deeply tender and utterly relatable, this novel is for those who have found themselves later in life.
Expected Release: 31st of January, 2023
Wandering Souls by Cecile Pin
Launching a new literary voice comes the extraordinary and heartbreaking debut charting the journey of three siblings fleeing from a war-torn Vietnam and seeking refuge in Thatcher’s Britain. Told through an experimental prose and lyrical narrative, Wandering Souls captures the lives of a family wracked by loss, war and grief - yet offering a tender insight into human resilience, uncompromising hope and the pursuit of a better future far from home.
Masterfully written with incredible care and precision and inspired by a mix of archival research and her own family history, Cecile weaves a tender portrait of one family, the struggles of the Vietnamese diaspora and the inherited traumas that can span generations.
Expected Release: 21st of March, 2023
Nightbloom by Peace Adzo Medie
By the best-selling author of His Only Wife comes a moving novel about the unbreakable power of female friendship. Nightbloom traces the story of Selasi and Akorfa, from their inseparable friendship in Ghana to their strained relationship into adulthood. Offering a compelling insight into class and family in Ghana, the reality of rampant xenophobia in the US and an ode to the power and strength of female bonds in the face of societies that would seek to silence them. Perfect for fans of Abi Dare’s The Girl with the Louding Voice and Gabriela Garcia’s Of Women and Salt, Peace’s next novel is surely one to pick up.
Expected Release: 13th of June, 2023
Mandem edited by Iggy London
From award-winning publisher Jacaranda Books and edited by filmmaker, artist and writer Iggy London comes an insightful exploration into Black British manhood. Featuring essays from prominent Black British figures like Yomi Sode, Caleb Femi, Christian Adofo and Jordan Stephens, this collection has been marked “a powerful, collective reclamation of the narrative governing Black manhood in contemporary Britain.”
Touching on everything from first heartbreaks to the incarceration of friends, Mandem investigates the often swept-under vulnerabilities of masculinity and is set to be an unmissable anthology of Black male thought and expression.
Expected Release: 9th of March, 2023
Call and Response by Gothataone Moeng
Newly emerging writer Gothataone Moeng shares her debut short story collection about the lives of ordinary women living in contemporary Botswana. From a young widow struggling with grief to older sisters weighed down by familial expectations, Moeng explores each woman's journey as they navigate love, loss, tradition and independence in a rapidly changing world.
Expected Release: 7th of February, 2023
2022 Recommendations
You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty by Akwaeke Emezi
Akwaeke Emezi is a master at their craft, with their New York Times bestseller The Death of Vivek Oji, young adult novels Bitter and Pet and critically acclaimed debut Freshwater receiving notable accolades. There was no doubt that their romance debut would follow the same path.
Inspired by Florence and the Machine’s Hunger, You Made a Fool of Death With Your Beauty follows Feyi Adekola, an artist struggling in the wake of her husband’s death and exploring her own healing through her art, making no apologies for how she chooses to recover. Despite the messiness and chaos, Emezi tells a story of healing, self-discovery and navigating love again after loss. Marked as a delicious romance for the summertime, this story was a bold exploration into a new genre for Emezi and their reimagining the limits of the romance genre.
There are More Things by Yara Rodrigues Fowler
From novelist and activist Yara Rodrigues Fowler, comes a timely novel exploring resistance, revolution and the longstanding power in solidarity.
Born to a well-known political family in Olinda, Brazil, Catarina grows up in the shadow of her dead aunt, Laura. Melissa, a South London native, is brought up by her mum and a crew of rebellious grandmothers. In January 2016, Melissa and Catarina meet for the first time, and, as political turmoil unfolds across Brazil and the UK, their friendship takes flight. Their story takes us across continents and generations – from the election of Lula to the London riots to the darkest years of Brazil’s military dictatorship.
There are More Things tells a tale of community and chosen families, of political movements and collective strength, and most importantly of freedom and hope. Fowler’s writing is expansive in the world and stories it creates, spanning across continents, generations and borders forged by histories of state violence, colonialism and imperialism. With an experimental style and poetic prose, Yara deftly explores the realities of Catarina and Melissa, delving into experiences of both young Britons, young Brazilians and those that sit at the intersect. This is a story that will ultimately leave you hopeful for resistance, appreciative of the power in solidarity and the possibility of revolution.
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow is one of those novels that will completely break you apart, and put you back together again in the space of mere paragraphs. From author Gabrielle Zevin, comes a completely unique and imaginative story that touches on the nature of human love, connection, identity, disability and the transformative power of play.
The novel follows Sadie and Sam, two childhood friends united by their shared love of gaming and the endless possibilities it presents. Decades later, we witness this childlike obsession over Super Mario bloom into something greater, a creative partnership and the launch of their own video game company. An incredibly tender and heartwarming story about platonic love, complicated friendships and the possibility of infinite rebirth.
2021 recommendations
Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner
For non-fiction readers, check out Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner. Her 2018 New Yorker essay about mourning her mother’s death through Korean food left readers captivated and eager to hear more from Zauner’s pen. The inevitable memoir that came after was published merely three years later and has left the literary sphere struck with the raw emotion and honesty Zauner placed inside.
Crying in H Mart showcases all the messy layers of navigating grief and the tethers our mothers often hold to keep us rooted to our culture and identity. Peppered with intimate anecdotes and nostalgic home recipes, this memoir serves as a love letter to Michelle’s heritage, family and how the bond with her mother transcends even death. Instead, it sits in the ways she cooks kimchi jjigae like her mother, in the way she writes and recollects fond summers in Korea, and maps years of memories in this tender recollection.
Butter Honey Pig Bread by Francesca Ekwuyasi
Avid readers of Nigerian literature must read Butter Honey Pig Bread is a generational novel that delves into the lives of one Nigerian family and follows Kambirinachi and her twin daughters, Kehinde and Taiye. Kambirinachi is an Obanje, a spirit that plagues a family with grief through cycles of death and rebirth, but one who has made the choice to stay alive. The consequence of her decision results in devastating childhood trauma, painful familial rifts and complex mother-daughter relationships that follow the twins throughout their separate lives. As both daughters return to Lagos to visit their mother, we witness the fusing of past and present as the three women reunite to address the wounds of their past.
Every line in this novel is beautifully crafted and contains multitudes within mere words. As Ekwuyasi weaves together multiple different timelines, locations and voices to tell the traumatic event that drove them apart, she explores the painful process of healing through hedonism, the act of cooking and the physical act of separation. Serving as an unforgettable debut touching on loneliness, queerness and desire, the spirit and mind and family, Butter Honey Pig Bread is a literary masterpiece.
[Trigger warning: This story contains graphic descriptions of fertility issues, miscarriages, rape of a minor and suicide.]
Ayesha is an avid reader, artist and freelance writer based in the UK. After co-founding literary platform @between2books, she now spends her days curating diverse reading lists, hosting bookish events and celebrating texts by black, brown and indigenous authors. You can follow Ayesha on Twitter @ayeshasafia_
