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The Best Books to Read in January 2023
The month's 12 hot titles include the latest from Brett Easton Ellis, a new Rachael Hawkins and a supernatural horror story from Jessica Johns / BY Nathalie Atkinson / January 2nd, 2023
Literary Brat Packer Bret Easton Ellis is back with a gripping autobiographical thriller in our picks of the best fiction to read in January. Many of the novels are deeply personal, and inspired by history and true events, from the rise of fascism in Europe and an engrossing story about the fate of inhabitants of an isolated island (one of the first racially integrated communities in the northeastern U.S.) to the stylish world of post-war Paris couture and an unassuming heroine inspired by Olivia Colman.
Obsessive Book Buyers: Zoomer editors have carefully curated our book coverage to ensure you find the perfect read. We may earn a commission on books you buy by clicking on the cover image.
1Age of ViceThere’s a touch of Crazy Rich Asian in this dark crime saga of the ultra-rich Wadia family (a book so buzzy it has its own teaser trailer) by way of The Godfather. The tale of a powerful New Delhi clan is also a portrait of contemporary India, with split timelines and plots about the innocent onlookers sucked into the family’s violent vortex. Greed, corruption and revenge are a great way to start the New Year. (Jan. 3)
There’s a touch of Crazy Rich Asian in this dark crime saga of the ultra-rich Wadia family (a book so buzzy it has its own teaser trailer) by way of The Godfather. The tale of a powerful New Delhi clan is also a portrait of contemporary India, with split timelines and plots about the innocent onlookers sucked into the family’s violent vortex. Greed, corruption and revenge are a great way to start the New Year. (Jan. 3)
2The VillaFor her latest suspense tale, the Alabama-based author of The Wife Upstairs was influenced by Fleetwood Mac, the Manson murders and – unexpectedly – the Lake Geneva summer holiday of 1816 that inspired Mary Shelley to write Frankenstein. It all unfolds at a high-end Italian villa in Orvieto that once served as the 1970s refuge of a rock star, where, in the present day, two friends stumble across something sinister as they’re reconnecting on a girls’ trip. I can’t get enough of novels like this that are animated by the cultural zeitgeist of the past. (Jan. 3)
For her latest suspense tale, the Alabama-based author of The Wife Upstairs was influenced by Fleetwood Mac, the Manson murders and – unexpectedly – the Lake Geneva summer holiday of 1816 that inspired Mary Shelley to write Frankenstein. It all unfolds at a high-end Italian villa in Orvieto that once served as the 1970s refuge of a rock star, where, in the present day, two friends stumble across something sinister as they’re reconnecting on a girls’ trip. I can’t get enough of novels like this that are animated by the cultural zeitgeist of the past. (Jan. 3)
3The New LifeThe London Review of Books editor makes his debut with this “visceral novel about love, sex and the struggle for a better world,” with Crewe being likened to Allan Hollinghurst and Colm Toibin. Two men in late-Victorian England collaborate on a book defending inversion (a.k.a homosexuality, which at the time was a crime) — risking their well-ordered marriages and lives in the process. The insightful story begins around the time of Oscar Wilde’s arrest for gross indecency, and the characters are based on real-life figures John Addington Symonds and Havelock Ellis, who published the 1911 essay, “Love and the New Morality.” (Jan. 3)
The London Review of Books editor makes his debut with this “visceral novel about love, sex and the struggle for a better world,” with Crewe being likened to Allan Hollinghurst and Colm Toibin. Two men in late-Victorian England collaborate on a book defending inversion (a.k.a homosexuality, which at the time was a crime) — risking their well-ordered marriages and lives in the process. The insightful story begins around the time of Oscar Wilde’s arrest for gross indecency, and the characters are based on real-life figures John Addington Symonds and Havelock Ellis, who published the 1911 essay, “Love and the New Morality.” (Jan. 3)
4The Three Lives of Alix St. PierreA Second World War spy becomes a doyenne in the glam world of Paris couture when she joins the House of Dior just as it launches. Insider knowledge of the Parisian post-war fashion landscape comes across on the page in this intriguing historical novel, in part because the international bestselling Australian author (The Paris Orphan) was a marketing executive with cosmetics giant L’Oreal before she became a writer. (Jan. 10)
A Second World War spy becomes a doyenne in the glam world of Paris couture when she joins the House of Dior just as it launches. Insider knowledge of the Parisian post-war fashion landscape comes across on the page in this intriguing historical novel, in part because the international bestselling Australian author (The Paris Orphan) was a marketing executive with cosmetics giant L’Oreal before she became a writer. (Jan. 10)
5Bad CreeJohns is a Nehiyaw aunty with English-Irish ancestry and a member of Sucker Creek First Nation in Treaty 8 territory in Northern Alberta. Her debut novel about a Vancouver millennial that discovers she has the ability to take items to and from the dream world is expanded from her short story by the same name, which won the 2020 Writers’ Trust Journey Prize. It’s a mystical story about the relationship between memory and grief, and the urban Indigenous experience, that the jury called “the kind of story that wakes you up in the middle of the night, purposefully and uncomfortably. Not with a question, but with an answer.” (Jan. 10)
Johns is a Nehiyaw aunty with English-Irish ancestry and a member of Sucker Creek First Nation in Treaty 8 territory in Northern Alberta. Her debut novel about a Vancouver millennial that discovers she has the ability to take items to and from the dream world is expanded from her short story by the same name, which won the 2020 Writers’ Trust Journey Prize. It’s a mystical story about the relationship between memory and grief, and the urban Indigenous experience, that the jury called “the kind of story that wakes you up in the middle of the night, purposefully and uncomfortably. Not with a question, but with an answer.” (Jan. 10)
6The Night TravelersWith Correa’s historical fiction – such as his first novel, the international hit The German Girl – the Cuban-born, New York-based journalist (and, until recently, longtime editor-in-chief of People en Español) likes to uncover untold stories that ring true across borders and cultures. This stunning saga about motherhood, racism and what shapes identity and memory charts the fortunes of four generations of women from the rise of fascism in Germany and the Cuban Revolution to the present. (Jan. 10)
With Correa’s historical fiction – such as his first novel, the international hit The German Girl – the Cuban-born, New York-based journalist (and, until recently, longtime editor-in-chief of People en Español) likes to uncover untold stories that ring true across borders and cultures. This stunning saga about motherhood, racism and what shapes identity and memory charts the fortunes of four generations of women from the rise of fascism in Germany and the Cuban Revolution to the present. (Jan. 10)
7The ShardsThe provocative American Psycho author’s first novel in 13 years, initially serialized on his podcast, revisits the Los Angeles terrain covered in his 1985 breakout, Less Than Zero, with a group of drug-fuelled rich kids behaving badly. Set in 1981, it’s more than a little autobiographical: “everyone is real and everything happened,” Ellis claimed on the podcast. The 17-year-old hero, named Bret, attends the same exclusive prep school as the literary Brat Packer, now 58. Add to that his trademark immersive descriptions and the tinge of horror as a serial killer strikes across the city. The coming-of-age tale Ellis says he’s been trying to write for most of his career is an eerie and gripping read. (Jan. 17)
The provocative American Psycho author’s first novel in 13 years, initially serialized on his podcast, revisits the Los Angeles terrain covered in his 1985 breakout, Less Than Zero, with a group of drug-fuelled rich kids behaving badly. Set in 1981, it’s more than a little autobiographical: “everyone is real and everything happened,” Ellis claimed on the podcast. The 17-year-old hero, named Bret, attends the same exclusive prep school as the literary Brat Packer, now 58. Add to that his trademark immersive descriptions and the tinge of horror as a serial killer strikes across the city. The coming-of-age tale Ellis says he’s been trying to write for most of his career is an eerie and gripping read. (Jan. 17)
8Better the BloodHana, an Auckland detective and single parent, is investigating a grisly homicide that she eventually links to a historic crime 160 years prior, when a group of soldiers executed a Maori chief during the British colonization of New Zealand. Bennett, a Maori filmmaker, makes his fiction debut in a compulsively readable procedural that probes the systemic injustices faced by the Indigenous people of New Zealand. (Jan. 20)
Hana, an Auckland detective and single parent, is investigating a grisly homicide that she eventually links to a historic crime 160 years prior, when a group of soldiers executed a Maori chief during the British colonization of New Zealand. Bennett, a Maori filmmaker, makes his fiction debut in a compulsively readable procedural that probes the systemic injustices faced by the Indigenous people of New Zealand. (Jan. 20)
9Burial of GhostsThis stand-alone psychological thriller from the creator of the popular Vera, Shetland and Two Rivers series was published in the U.K. more than a decade ago, but is only now being released in Canada. It’s about a 20-something woman who has a holiday affair with a charismatic fellow tourist in Morocco; later, and unexpectedly, he leaves her a legacy in his will. Naturally, it comes with a few unusual conditions. (Jan. 24)
This stand-alone psychological thriller from the creator of the popular Vera, Shetland and Two Rivers series was published in the U.K. more than a decade ago, but is only now being released in Canada. It’s about a 20-something woman who has a holiday affair with a charismatic fellow tourist in Morocco; later, and unexpectedly, he leaves her a legacy in his will. Naturally, it comes with a few unusual conditions. (Jan. 24)
10This Other EdenThe Pulitzer Prize-winning Long Island writer (Tinkers) reimagines the true story of Malaga Island, an isolated island off the coast of Maine that became one of the first racially integrated communities in the northeast (it lasted for a century). As white people arrive in the early 20th century to clear the area, the Black inhabitants are about to be evicted and forcibly resettled by the state. Harding fleshes out a character that appears in his previous novel, and the story is shaped through a Black painter (based on Charles Ethan Porter) who can pass as white and struggles with his sense of displacement. (Jan. 24)
The Pulitzer Prize-winning Long Island writer (Tinkers) reimagines the true story of Malaga Island, an isolated island off the coast of Maine that became one of the first racially integrated communities in the northeast (it lasted for a century). As white people arrive in the early 20th century to clear the area, the Black inhabitants are about to be evicted and forcibly resettled by the state. Harding fleshes out a character that appears in his previous novel, and the story is shaped through a Black painter (based on Charles Ethan Porter) who can pass as white and struggles with his sense of displacement. (Jan. 24)
11The Keeper of StoriesOlivia Colman’s 2019 Oscar acceptance speech, where she recalled her days as a cleaner, inspired Page, a former English floral shop owner, to write this novel. Janice, a 40-something house cleaner in a quiet British village, collects the tales she overhears throughout the day, and when she starts working for inquisitive nonagenarian Mrs. B., she begins to share them. Like her protagonist, Page began soliciting stories from friends, family and customers to shape into this realistic and heartwarming character-driven tale about the foibles of human nature (think: Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine). (Jan. 24)
Olivia Colman’s 2019 Oscar acceptance speech, where she recalled her days as a cleaner, inspired Page, a former English floral shop owner, to write this novel. Janice, a 40-something house cleaner in a quiet British village, collects the tales she overhears throughout the day, and when she starts working for inquisitive nonagenarian Mrs. B., she begins to share them. Like her protagonist, Page began soliciting stories from friends, family and customers to shape into this realistic and heartwarming character-driven tale about the foibles of human nature (think: Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine). (Jan. 24)
12MaameA young British Ghanaian woman, known to her family as Maame, narrates this tender but gut-punching debut about the challenges of straddling two cultures. The Londoner is the primary caregiver to her father, who has advanced Parkinson’s, while juggling her job in the theatre world (where she’s the only Black person in every meeting). Maame is dealing with an absent mother, until she eventually has a bittersweet chance at some freedom. The debut author, an English book editor born to Ghanaian parents, used her own diary entries following the death of her father to write this compelling contemporary novel that was hotly pursued by several publishers. (Jan. 31)
A young British Ghanaian woman, known to her family as Maame, narrates this tender but gut-punching debut about the challenges of straddling two cultures. The Londoner is the primary caregiver to her father, who has advanced Parkinson’s, while juggling her job in the theatre world (where she’s the only Black person in every meeting). Maame is dealing with an absent mother, until she eventually has a bittersweet chance at some freedom. The debut author, an English book editor born to Ghanaian parents, used her own diary entries following the death of her father to write this compelling contemporary novel that was hotly pursued by several publishers. (Jan. 31)