The 35 Best (and Most Anticipated) Fiction Books of 2024, So Far

"Hearst Magazines and Yahoo may earn commission or revenue on some items through these links."

There are few pleasures—or responsibilities—I appreciate as much as the chance to survey a whole year’s worth of books. Hundreds of thousands (or millions, depending on what and how you’re counting) of great titles are published each year: Giving each the equal consideration they deserve is impossible, but I’ve stubbornly resolved to try anyway. After digging—in some cases, literally—through as many books as the ELLE office could squeeze in, we decided to split our annual “best of 2024” list into five categories: literary fiction; nonfiction; fantasy and sci-fi; romance; and mystery and thrillers. Those other lists are forthcoming, but for now, you’ll find below the standout fiction we recommend for the first few months of 2024.

There are a lot of remarkable novels out there. (If this is news to you, I implore you to visit your local bookstore expeditiously.) For that reason, we’ll be updating this list every quarter throughout 2024 to add new anticipated titles, revisit those we enjoyed, and include the gems we might have missed earlier. For now, here’s what January through March have to offer—and why you should carve out space for them on your bookshelves.

The Storm We Made by Vanessa Chan

Out now.

“Ambitious” would be a trite term for Vanessa Chan’s outstanding debut, a historical novel that thrums with the commingling tensions of its backdrop: the lead-up to the WWII Japanese invasion of what is now Malaysia. Chan writes her characters—particularly the conflicted protagonist, Cecily Alcantara, a former espionage asset to the Japanese Imperial Army—with a precision that neither flinches from the brutality of war nor ignores the humanity within. This is a book with real staying power.

Nonfiction by Julie Myerson

Out now.

Beginning with the electric line, “There’s a night—I think this is the middle of June—when we lock you in the house,” Julie Myerson’s Nonfiction hurls the reader into a devastating conflict between the narrator (an author herself) and her only child. As this child—the “you” to whom the book is addressed—wrestles with their destructive behaviors, the author confronts her own role in this emotional maelstrom, and what it might mean for her to confront her relationship with her mother. Challenging and entrancing in equal measure, Nonfiction is a short but gutting feat of love.

Sugar, Baby by Celine Saintclare

Out now.

An elegant coming-of-age tale, Sugar, Baby follows Agnes, a 21-year-old sex worker swept up in the supposedly luxurious world of sugar daddies, where she finds a financial foothold if not, exactly, a home. As author Celine Saintclare’s dedication page suggests—quoting the iconic “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend” line, “A kiss may be grand, but it won’t pay the rental”—Agnes has a lot more to worry about than her clients’ proclivities. Saintclare’s language is easy to soak in, even as her nuanced touch pokes and prods and asks—no, demands—real consideration of the reader.

The Fetishist by Katherine Min

Out now.

A posthumous work by the masterful Katherine Min, The Fetishist is a farcical, alarming take on Lolita that plunges headfirst into the depths of objectification and sexualization, and their fraught relationships with race. There is a wicked sense of delight to this book, yet that never diminishes its parallel, clear-eyed sense of justice. Min’s ultimate talent was that she can hold both objectives in the palm of her hand, and deposit them directly on the page.

Behind You Is the Sea by Susan Muaddi Darraj

Out now.

This gorgeous debut, an intergenerational novel-in-stories following three Palestinian-American families in Baltimore, navigates a tricky balance beam: It’s a zoomed-in family drama that simultaneously captures wide-lens truths about cultural differences; the weight of history; and the myriad manifestations of love.

Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar

Out January 23.

Lauren Groff called Martyr! “the best novel you’ll ever read about the joy of language, addiction, displacement, martyrdom, belonging, [and] homesickness,” which captures just how many topics this fascinating book manages to juice for insight. The novel—about a martyr-obsessed son of Iranian immigrants whose journey of self-discovery leads him to the Brooklyn Museum—opens with our washed-up protagonist all but certain he’s been visited by the divine... in the form of a flickering lightbulb. Delightfully, things only get more provocative from there.

Broughtupsy by Christina Cooke

Out January 23.

An aching, charged account of one woman’s trip to her native Jamaica in pursuit of her disconnected relatives, Christina Cooke’s Broughtupsy borrows its title from a Caribbean term addressing good manners and upbringing. Cooke’s protagonist is an LGBTQ woman, increasingly unmoored as she mourns the loss of her brother while digging for a connection to the land—and family—that should feel like her own. This is a deft debut overflowing with emotion.

Hard by a Great Forest by Leo Vardiashvili

Out January 30.

Hard by a Great Forest is both a thrilling mystery-adventure hybrid and the sort of war-devastated drama that leaves your chest heaving, all folded into one precious debut. The story sees Saba, a Georgian refugee living in London, return to what was once the Soviet republic of Georgia after his father, Irakli, makes his own trek home—and winds up missing.

Come and Get It by Kiley Reid

Out January 30.

I love how Liz Moore put it in her blurb for Kiley Reid’s latest, Come and Get It: “Reading a Kiley Reid novel is like watching a docuseries designed exactly for you.” This particular series—er, novel—is set against the never-not-fascinating backdrop of the University of Arkansas, where an R.A. and a visiting professor become entangled as their mirroring money concerns catalyze into a plot to eavesdrop on the R.A.’s classmates. Juicy—naturally—but poignant, this highly anticipated return from the Such a Fun Age author is sure to get tongues wagging this winter.

Good Material by Dolly Alderton

Out January 30.

The celebrated Dolly Alderton—of Everything I Know About Love—returns this year with Good Material, a novel built around a predictably catastrophic romance. Sparkling with Alderton’s well-known wit, Good Material follows the lovesick Andy as he attempts to piece together why his relationship with the once-so-adoring Jen fell apart. But, of course, Jen has her own thoughts on that.

Greta & Valdin by Rebecca K. Reilly

Out February 6.

Within the first few pages of Greta & Valdin, I was already struggling not to laugh aloud in my crowded office. I wanted to tap my colleagues on the shoulders and read lines to them, in the hopes they, too, would cherish Rebecca K. Reilly’s little kernels of humor and truth. Already a bestseller in New Zealand, the book centers around the titular brother and sister pair, and the urgent family dramas—and hilarious millennial crises—that underscore their winding heartaches in Auckland.

The Blueprint by Rae Giana Rashad

Out February 13.

A book in an intense, boundary-pushing conversation with The Handmaid’s Tale, Rae Giana Rashad’s work of dystopian fiction drops the reader into an alternate United States, where a young Black Texan has her life determined by an algorithm: She will become the concubine of a white government official. As she commits the story of one of her ancestors to paper, Rashad’s protagonist finds courage in their story—and starts searching for the means to break free in her own present-day. Inventive, ferocious, and laser-focused, The Blueprint promises to skewer the hypocrisies that already punctuate our reality.

I Love You So Much It's Killing Us Both by Mariah Stovall

Out February 13.

The “complicated friendship novel” is one of my favorite literary sub-genres, so Mariah Stovall’s I Love You So Much It’s Killing Us Both immediately captured my attention. Nostalgic yet fiercely relevant, the book has all the tricky emotion of the mixtapes around which Stovall’s crafted her narrative. Following protagonist Khaki Oliver as she debates reconnecting with the former best friend who confused and enthralled her in her youth, this book is a coming-of-age treasure.

Acts of Forgiveness by Maura Cheeks

Out February 13.

A visionary exploration of how public policy might—and already does, every day—shape our most intimate relationships, Acts of Forgiveness posits the Forgiveness Act: a policy in which Black families can claim up to $175,000 from the government if they can trace (and prove) their connections to enslaved ancestors. Protagonist Willie Revel sees these reparations as an essential opportunity... but not everyone in the family is as interested as Willie is to dig into a painful history.

The American Daughters by Maurice Carlos Ruffin

Out February 27.

Interspersed with documents and transcripts that give the novel the feel of something sacred and discovered—which, of course, is exactly the point—Maurice Carlos Ruffin’s The American Daughters is a compelling tribute to his female ancestors, as the author notes in his acknowledgments. This work of historical fiction plants the reader in a much older version of Ruffin’s hometown, New Orleans, where protagonist Ady meets a group of spies known as the Daughters, whose work for liberation amidst the Civil War instills Ady with the conviction—and power—to shape a new reality.

Ours by Phillip B. Williams

Out February 20.

In my humble opinion, there’s nothing that hits like a truly magnetic work of magical realism, and Ours by Phillip B. Williams has all the makings of a stunner. Set in the mid-19th century and spanning four decades, the book follows a mysterious woman with even more mysterious abilities, which she uses to free the enslaved across Arkansas and shuttle them to a magically hidden community in Missouri—called Ours. But this insulation from the outside world creates its own questions, conflicts, and threats. Williams is unabashedly brilliant; I’m begging to get my hands on a copy as soon as possible.

Wandering Stars by Tommy Orange

Out February 27.

Tommy Orange’s debut, There There, set the literary world aflame in 2019, and his highly anticipated follow-up, Wandering Stars, seems just as likely to capture attention (and acclaim). Set across centuries and bringing characters from There There back to the page, Wandering Stars is a beautiful-but-wrenching tale of the ways in which violence perpetuates itself, particularly against the Indigenous communities of which Orange and his characters are a part. No touchpoint is left unexamined—or un-condemned—as Orange works his way through the decades to address cultural erasure; institutionalized abuse; school shootings; addiction; forgotten heritage; spiritual healing; and how, miraculously, love persists through it all.

Piglet by Lottie Hazell

Out March 5.

That sumptuous cheeseburger on the cover is feast enough, but Piglet has so much more to offer within its short, compulsively readable pages. Within paragraphs, the titular Piglet—stuck with that particular nickname since she was a kid—is scooping up ingredients for wondrously described recipes (feta salads, roast chicken, espresso semifreddo) as she marches into her new life as fiancée to her upper-class partner, Kit. But Kit has a bombshell to drop 13 days before they’re due to be married, and it’ll send Piglet into a food-filled fever dream as she works out what, precisely, it means to be a woman who wants. Delicious, in every sense of the word.

Anita de Monte Laughs Last by Xochitl Gonzalez

Out March 5.

I devoured Xochitl Gonzalez’s Olga Dies Dreaming during a vacation two years ago, and I think I might have actually gasped when I read the news that Anita De Monte Laughs Last would be published in 2024. Gonzalez has that particular penchant for navigating perspectives in a voice that’s at once delightfully humorous and sobering. Anita demonstrates that penchant from its earliest sentences, flowing right into the New York City art world of the ’80s and ’90s with enviable ease.

Pelican Girls by Julia Malye

Out March 5.

A tale of female friendship unlike any I’ve come across before, Julia Malye’s inspired-by-a-true-story Pelican Girls is as incredible a feat of research as it is a daring work of fiction. In the mid-18th century, a group of women “of childbearing age” are sent from La Salpêtrière asylum in Paris to wed settlers in New Orleans, where three unlikely friends must band together to survive abuses of both the body and the heart.

Ellipses by Vanessa Lawrence

Look, I’ll admit media folks love books about... media folks. And that Sally Rooney-like cover certainly has its charm. But even without the job connection and the Rooney influence, I’d be drawn to Vanessa Lawrence’s Ellipses, which navigates a nuanced conversation about power imbalances; our infatuations with so-called “accomplished” women; and why society seems so incapable of holding intersectional identities in both hands. The protagonist (a writer not unlike Lawrence in her WWD and W Magazine days) feels stuck: in her relationship with her girlfriend; in her office culture; in her position against the rising tide of digital dominance. But when a beauty mogul—who else?!—injects her life with new vitality, the real dangers come to the fore.

Parasol Against the Axe by Helen Oyeyemi

Out March 5.

Like so much of Helen Oyeyemi’s acclaimed work, Parasol Against the Axe defies a simple logline—which, of course, is to its credit as an immersive, variegated study of a city and the people within: in this case, the Czech capital of Prague. In looping, conversational prose, Oyeyemi introduces us to a pair of estranged friends at a bachelorette weekend in Prague, a place which, Oyeyemi writes, “distributes its insults and outrages indiscriminately.” Those insults become increasingly surreal as the book progresses; you’ll want to do all you can not to tear your eyes from the page.

Fruit of the Dead by Rachel Lyon

Out March 5.

A Greek myth retelling! That’s already sales pitch enough for a number of readers—and that cover is just exquisite—but Fruit of the Dead is a good long trip from Hadestown. Here, Rachel Lyon’s taken exceptional pains to reimagine the Persephone-and-Demeter myth for the modern day, casting a young camp counselor as Persephone; her distracted, high-achieving single mother as Demeter; and a pharmaceutical tycoon as the Hades who shuttles our Persephone to his private island. There, wonders—and risks—abound.

The Great Divide by Cristina Henríquez

“Sweeping” is a descriptor thrown at a lot of novels, good and bad, but Cristina Henríquez’s The Great Divide actually earns the adjective: A genuine epic, the book takes us into the build site of the under-construction Panama Canal, where we’re introduced to myriad characters with overlapping schedules, backgrounds, and skills—but with wants and desires uniquely their own. Henríquez’s ability to juggle them all with gentleness and care is a wonder; for those who love historical fiction, this is a certain treat.

Help Wanted by Adelle Waldman

After her beloved tale of the Brooklyn literati, The Love Affairs of Nathaniel P., took over the cultural conversation in 2013—as covered by this very magazine—Adelle Waldman has finally come back to us with a much different project. Help Wanted takes on the Walmart and Amazon era through the lens of big-box store retail workers, each of whom are barely making ends meet when their manager announces his job will soon be open. That dangling carrot represents an opportunity (and a temptation) that Waldman’s endearing characters find impossible to resist.

But the Girl by Jessica Zhan Mei Yu

Out March 5.

Originally published in Australia, acquired by author Brandon Taylor, and now in the U.S. through indie publisher Unnamed Press, Jessica Zhan Mei Yu’s debut is a rich work of literary introspection—and blistering honesty. (Bonus: It has a killer cover.) But the Girl is about the titular Girl, a Ph.D. candidate studying Sylvia Plath and writing a postcolonial novel—even if, Girl admits, she’s iffy on the definition of a “postcolonial novel”—as she wrestles with the competing motivations of honoring her Malaysian family and exploring an interior life of her own... especially when that means letting Sylvia Plath have a home in her head.

Great Expectations by Vinson Cunningham

Out March 12.

Speaking of astounding covers... New Yorker writer Vinson Cunningham’s Great Expectations draws on the author’s own experiences as an Obama Administration staffer to weave a story of race, politics, religion, and moral compromise. The protagonist, David, finds himself absorbed into the campaign of a charismatic Illinois “Senator,” whose own race to the White House clarifies for David what it really means to be a young Black father in America.

Green Frog: Stories by Gina Chung

Out March 12.

Sprinkled in folkloric wisdom and speculative darkness, Gina Chung’s story collection, Green Frog, humors and haunts with thoughtful precision. The stories within incorporate Korean American women; fox demons; talking dolls; memory-warping AI; and an edible heart to demonstrate not only Chung’s imaginative range, but her ability to cut to the quick no matter the medium.

James by Percival Everett

Out March 19.

It’s difficult to overstate Percival Everett’s already profound impact on American fiction—after all, one of his books was adapted into this year’s Oscar-nominated film American Fiction. That makes the announcement of James, an inspired take on Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, seem simultaneously a foregone conclusion and an unexpected thrill. The novel will dive into the heinously underexplored perspective of Huck’s enslaved friend Jim, as the two raft down the Mississippi in a story so many of us recognize—but have never understood so well.

Memory Piece by Lisa Ko

Out March 19.

The Leavers author Lisa Ko has brought us one of those rare, sumptuous tales of art and friendship that feels both universal and inimitable. Memory Piece traverses the ’80s and ’90s—and even a speculative peek at the 2040s—on the backs of three forever friends whose mutual interest in creativity takes them into the worlds of performance art, tech, and activism. But as an increasingly dystopian future looms, their understandings of what it’s all for begin to warp.

The Morningside by Téa Obreht

Out March 19.

Téa Obreht’s known for her wild takes on magical realism, and The Morningside entices with its transparent scope: As one Goodreads reviewer aptly put it, this book is a “hybrid of a post-apocalyptic climate refugee drama and a Balkan folktale of dark sorcery.” Take a deep breath as you digest that sentence, because The Morningside itself is an even more sprawling, imaginative experience: It recounts a flooded Manhattan and the government-repopulated inhabitants who fill one of its former luxury condos, where the penthouse just might be home to a sorceress.

The Divorcées by Rowan Beaird

Out March 19.

“Look what kind of mess you get into when you’re left alone,” Lois’s father tells her when he sends her off to one of Nevada’s famed “divorce ranches.” In Rowan Beaird’s The Divorcées, the 1950s-era women deposited at the Golden Yarrow are waiting out the six-week residency that the state of Nevada requires for divorce, only for one of them (the aforementioned Lois) to encounter the entrancing Greer Lang. Their ensuing trip through sun-baked desert and neon-lit casinos tempts Lois to shed the restraints of her former self—even if she isn’t sure who she’ll be on the other side.

All the World Beside by Garrard Conley

Out March 26.

As author Garrard Conley himself has described it, All the World Beside is a pioneering “queer Scarlet Letter,” revisiting the Puritan New England we remember from Nathaniel Hawthorne’s classic with a new cast of conflicted lovers. In Cana, Massachusetts, Reverend Nathaniel Whitfield leads his congregation with the compelling words of Scripture, in the process drawing the attention of Christian physician Arthur. Soon, the men are bonded in romantic love as well as religious brotherhood, cracking open a door that could lead to revelation or ruin as the world squeezes in around them.

Like Happiness by Ursula Villarreal-Moura

Out March 26.

Like a few other titles on this list, Ursula Villarreal-Moura’s Like Happiness captures an imbalanced relationship that grows intense and then outright dangerous. A young Tatum Vega begins working with and around a famous author—one “[whose] web hits ranked in the 8.5 million range” in 2012—with whom she develops an obsessive bond over the course of a decade. In 2015, that same author is under investigation for assault—and Tatum is called to give her side of the story, reopening old wounds she’s sewed up since she left New York for Chile. A quick but consuming read, Like Happiness is elegant, complex, and altogether familiar.

A Great Country by Shilpi Somaya Gowda

Out March 26.

With engrossing dialogue and a premise that would (and should) translate well to a prestige television series, Shilpi Somaya Gowda’s A Great Country takes a familiar narrative of cultural assimilation and infuses it with domestic suspense. In their new home in Pacific Hills, California, the Shahs finally feel as if the American Dream might bear fruit. But their children are not so certain, and when their 12-year-old, Ajay, is arrested one evening, the family—and everything they’d once believed about the glittering promise of their community—is thrown into crisis.

You Might Also Like

• The 15 Best Organic And Clean Shampoos For Any And All Hair Types

• 100 Gifts That Are $50 Or Under (And Look Way More Expensive Than They Actually Are)