Arlene Mckanic

In Quan Barry’s The Unveiling, a group of Antarctic castaways hide terrible secrets, and even the ice itself has ghastly history buried within it.

C.J. Farley’s Who Knows You by Heart follows the exploits of the sharp and indomitable Octavia Crenshaw, a Black coder who goes to work for a tech giant called Eustachian.

One of the pleasures of slender but well-written books like The Old Fire, by Elisa Shua Dusapin, is the opportunity to focus on the quotidian, whether it’s regional French cuisine or the daily exchanges of sisters.

Lily Brooks-Dalton doesn’t just know how to craft a gripping story. She knows much about archaeology, enough to make Ruins a puzzle that rewards attention.

Xochitl Gonzalez’s straightforward prose downplays its subtlety and brilliance, and she is Whartonesque when it comes to describing the folkways of a particular group of people at a particular time.

Whistler is exceptional: a reminder of how some people in your life may cause you pain, but if you love them, and they love you, that’s enough.

The stories in It Will Come Back to You showcase a writer at her best, employing Sigrid Nunez’s genius at turning the anodyne into something unexpected and startling.

Weaving together three storylines set in the same Wyoming town, Tea Obreht’s Sunrise is one of the most unusual, thought-provoking books you’ll read this year.

The brilliant Edwidge Danticat’s Dèy expresses the complicated joys of human connection with les mots justes, while reminding us that in dark times, love and community are everything.