The Best Books of Fall 2023

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If you’re anything like us here at Esquire, there’s something about fall that sends you diving between the covers of a good book. But in a season so jam-packed with buzzy new releases, it’s easy for anyone to feel overwhelmed by the deluge of must-reads coming down the pike. Lucky for you, that’s where we come in.

To help you sort through this year’s bumper crop of fall books, we’ve rounded up twenty of our favorites below. This season’s slate of new releases boasts a raft of extraordinary new novels by landmark writers like Jesmyn Ward, Tim O’Brien, and Alice McDermott, but it also marks the continued rise of ascendent talents like C Pam Zhang, Bryan Washington, and Safiya Sinclair. Our list has wellness cults, car chases, funhouse mirrors, and a viral sheep named Ayn Ram. What more could you want?

Not all of these books have hit shelves yet, so if you see something you like, do yourself a favor and pre-order it now. When you find it on your doorstep amid a scattering of crunchy fall leaves, you’ll be thanking Past You.

The Vaster Wilds, by Lauren Groff

Groff’s seventh novel begins with a high-octane escape: under the cover of darkness, a young woman flees colonial Jamestown, bound for parts unknown. Pursued by English soldiers and menaced by the brutal New England winter, her frantic flight threatens to kill her at every turn—but to remain in the settlement, riven by plague and famine, would be unbearable. Though the white-knuckled tale of this young woman, known only as “the girl,” Groff enlivens the dark crevices of colonial history. But the ambitions of The Vaster Wilds are loftier than this—in fact, they’re downright cosmic. As the girl heads north on foot, she questions everything she’s been taught about the new world, its Indigenous people, and how to understand God. Deranged with hunger and cold, she receives a hard-won education from the woods. The result is an ecstatic transformation—one that’s a haunting and holy experience to read and behold. Read an interview with the author here at Esquire.

Wednesday's Child, by Yiyun Li

One of our finest practitioners of the short story form returns with a dazzling new collection about the themes that have always obsessed her: loss, longing, and loneliness. Though Li’s characters are distinctive and finely drawn, mothers and children recur; in one story, an immigrant woman working as a postpartum nanny imagines running away with the baby, while in another, the mother of an autistic boy contemplates the differences between their minds. In another standout, a mother grieving her son’s suicide opens a spreadsheet of everyone she’s known who has died, prompting a new bout of grief for her long-dead grandfather. As the collection’s title suggests, Wednesday’s Child is full of woe, but Li’s fictions are never one-note—rather, they capture the full tapestry of the human condition. Packed with extraordinary beauty and quiet devastation, these stories cut quick and deep, like a knife in the dark.

Doppelganger, by Naomi Klein

Doppelgänger began when Naomi Klein, the liberal activist and blockbuster writer, became regularly mistaken for Naomi Wolf, the liberal feminist author turned conspiracy theorist and anti-vaxxer. Amid a decade of defending her own reputation against Wolf’s escalating conservatism, Klein tail-spinned into obsession, tracking Wolf’s right-wing media appearances in a quest to understand her “flight from reality.” But this book’s outlook is far broader than Klein’s own doppelgänger trouble; rather, it opens outward onto a roving survey of how doubling organizes our social and political lives. The concept of the doppelgänger, Klein insists, can help us understand our uncanny political moment, where “millions of people have given themselves over to fantasy.” Doppelgänger is a lucid frame on conspiracy movements and digital doubling, and a powerful implication of the double lives we choose to ignore. Read an interview with the author here at Esquire.

Rouge, by Mona Awad

Awad takes aim at the predatory wellness industry in this delicious Gothic fairy tale about a mother and daughter obsessed with the pursuit of ageless beauty. When Belle’s estranged mother Noelle dies under mysterious circumstances, she’s soon drawn into the cultish spa to which Noelle was dangerously devoted. Like her mother before her, Belle becomes obsessed with mirrors—and the surreal abyss that lies beyond them. As Belle seeks her “Most Magnificent Self,” she undergoes increasingly bizarre “treatments,” from applying electric shocks to her face to warping her memories. In this sinister fever dream of a novel, Awad explores how our vanity-obsessed culture distorts our fragile selfhood.

Wellness, by Nathan Hill

In this warm and wise satire about marriage, aging, and modern life, two onetime bohemians fight to keep their romance alive amid their discontents. Two decades into their marriage, Jack and Elizabeth are no longer the youthful idealists they once were; now, as they raise a young son and plan a move to the Chicago suburbs, they fight to sustain their connection while grappling with their own personal disappointments. Through the narrow lens of this one marriage, Hill skewers modern life in all its ridiculousness, taking aim at everything from academia to wellness culture to social media. Bruising and bittersweet, Wellness achieves what only the very finest fictions do: it’s a novel that contains the world

Land of Milk and Honey, by C Pam Zhang

In a near future ravaged by climate disaster, smog has blotted out the sun, killing most of Earth’s crops. Our narrator, a nameless young chef, is left to cook with lackluster bioengineered ingredients as she muses, “Chef had lost its meaning.” Everything changes when she accepts a head chef position at a secretive food research community on the French-Italian border, where she encounters unimaginable bounty. But her job is not what it seems, and her billionaire employer’s plans for the future raise questions about just who gets to eat well. Land of Milk and Honey is a sensory fantasia, rich in luscious descriptions of food, sex, and nature. In these beguiling pages, Zhang tells a powerful story about the thorny intersections of privilege and pleasure. Read an essay by the author here at Esquire.

American Gun, by Cameron McWhirter and Zusha Elinson

When firearms designer Eugene Stoner invented the AR-15 in his garage during the 1950s, he never envisioned the agonizing price it would later exact on American life. In this riveting history, two Wall Street Journal reporters trace the AR-15’s lethal path through our nation’s history, from its early adoption by the military to its embrace by mass shooters to its jingoistic symbolism on the far right. Through this single weapon, “the fulcrum of America’s great gun divide,” the authors trace how gun violence has transformed the nation. Yet it’s the stories of the AR-15’s human toll that appall and astound; through harrowing testimony from survivors of gun violence, the authors convincingly argue how “a device created to protect America is wounding it.” This book is not to be missed.

The Spice Must Flow, by Ryan Britt

What’s a spicehead to do while counting the days until Dune: Part Two hits theaters in March 2024? We suggest diving into The Spice Must Flow, a gripping guide to the past, present, and future of Frank Herbert’s science fiction epic. Britt traces Dune’s journey to ubiquitousness, from its humble beginnings with an automotive repair manual publisher to its flurry of adaptations by the likes of David Lynch and Denis Villeneuve. The Spice Must Flow also interrogates why Dune endures, with Britt advancing a compelling argument that Herbert laid the groundwork for strains of feminist and ecological science fiction yet to come. Exhaustively researched and entertainingly told, The Spice Must Flow will keep Dune fans more than satisfied until March. Read an exclusive excerpt here at Esquire.

How to Say Babylon, by Safiya Sinclair

With her astounding debut memoir, Sinclair proves that her gifts extend far beyond the poetry for which she’s been so highly lauded. In How to Say Babylon, she recounts her difficult childhood in Jamaica as the child of a strict Rastafarian father, who confined his daughters to strict gender roles and terrorized the family with beatings. But everything changed for a young Sinclair when her mother gifted her a poetry book at age ten; “in the chaos of our rented house, the poem was order,” she remembers. Here, she traces how she wrote her way into her own bright future, from a private school in Jamaica to college in America. Writing now with time and distance on her side, Sinclair masterfully excavates how our childhood traumas live on within us, and how art can be a liberating force.

Family Meal, by Bryan Washington

The author of Memorial returns with another tender tale about food, family, and love. Family Meal tells the story of two former best friends reunited after loss: Cam, grieving the death of his partner and struggling with addiction, returns to his hometown of Houston, where he collides with TJ, his childhood best friend. Cam accepts a job in TJ’s family bakery, where TJ is navigating his own complicated web of personal entanglements. Disparate characters come together for nourishment in this poignant story about how grief and food make family of us all.

Let Us Descend, by Jesmyn Ward

A new novel from Jesmyn Ward is always a reason for celebration. In Let Us Descend, the author tells the wrenching story of Annis, a teenage girl living on a North Carolina rice farm owned by the man who both fathered and enslaved her. When he attempts to rape her, her mother intervenes, only to be sold away as punishment. Annis, meanwhile, is sold to a sugar plantation in Louisiana, then marched hundreds of miles south through harrowing hellscapes, along with other enslaved women. On the grueling journey, spirits guide her, another plane of existence beguiles her, and the truths of her family history are revealed. In this magical realist masterwork, Ward writes with lyric brilliance about women’s resilience in the face of heartbreaking odds.

America Fantastica, by Tim O'Brien

O’Brien’s first novel in two decades was well worth the wait. In 2019, a “lying infection” has taken hold of the nation, and our narrator Boyd Halverson, a disgraced journalist, now makes a living flooding the internet with “fresh untrue truth content.” Pushed to the brink of despair, he robs a bank, kidnaps the teller, and lights out across America’s highways with his hostage, bound for Mexico. The getaway morphs into a quest for revenge on the man who tanked Boyd’s journalism career, and soon enough, these unlikely bandits are dodging uproarious brushes with danger. In the age of “mythomania,” O’Brien takes aim at the lies that power this country, and how and why they sustain us. America Fantastica peers straight into the dark heart of the American psyche, and it's unafraid of the comedy and tragedy staring back.

Julia, by Sandra Newman

In this feminist retelling of 1984, the story centers on Julia—formerly a foil to Winston Smith known only by her first name, George Orwell described her as “a rebel from the waist down.” Newman reimagines her as Julia Worthing, a gutsy and complex mechanic working in the Ministry of Truth’s Fiction Department, where she’s become a master of avoiding Big Brother’s watchful eye. When Julia becomes romantically entwined with her colleague Winston Smith, whom she nicknames “old Misery,” she’s drawn into the familiar plot of 1984. Newman compellingly expands Orwell’s Oceania through a female lens, as when she considers the implications of carrying a pregnancy for the good of the state. Packed with sex, surprises, and a shocking plot twist, Julia is a welcome reminder of just how vital Orwell’s text still is—and how much fun can be had in its unexplored corners.

Absolution, by Alice McDermott

For four decades now, McDermott has written one exquisite novel after another, but her latest, a poignant tale of women and girls living on the periphery of the Vietnam War, may just be her masterpiece. Absolution takes place in Saigon circa 1963, where a small community of American corporate wives consider their own moral obligations as they live in privileged luxury against a backdrop of unimaginable horrors. As some of the women shrink into their prescribed roles, others break the rules to perform radical acts of altruism for the people of Vietnam. Decades later, one woman’s daughter is left to wonder: did they do good, or not? In this richly imagined novel, packed with unforgettable characters, McDermott soars in a profound quest of moral inquiry.

Same Bed Different Dreams, by Ed Park

Fans of the speculative epic will fall hard for Same Bed, Different Dreams, an astonishing postmodern puzzle box that imagines an alternate history of Korea—and by extension, the world writ large. The novel’s narratives nest together like matryoshka dolls: in one strand, a disillusioned tech worker reads an “unfinished masterpiece” called Same Bed, Different Dreams, authored by the obscure Korean writer Echo. Echo writes of the Korean Provisional Government, a nationalist group founded in 1919, then disbanded in 1945—or was it? Through Echo’s narration, Park tells a whiplashing tale of the KPG’s clandestine efforts to form a unified Korea, including the various political and cultural figures entangled in that alternate history, from Ronald Reagan to Marilyn Monroe. Ingeniously plotted, astoundingly original, and often wickedly funny, Same Bed, Different Dreams is a singular work from a singular mind.

Class, by Stephanie Land

In her second memoir, the bestselling author of Maid (now a hit series on Netflix) once again proves herself to be one of our most vital voices on poverty, persistence, and the systems that conspire against women. Class picks up post-Maid, with Land pursuing an MFA in writing at the University of Montana while raising her young daughter as a single parent. Land recounts the brutal roadblocks she faced on the road to graduating in her mid-thirties, from food insecurity to custody battles to the predatory student loan system. Class is a vivid and wrenching account of how disadvantaged women scrape through a hostile world, all while caring for their children and fighting to achieve their dreams. Expect to be enraged and inspired.

The Book of Ayn, by Lexi Freiman

What’s a canceled young novelist to do when the literary establishment turns against her? In the case of Anna, the protagonist of this madcap satirical novel, the answer is: get radicalized by Ayn Rand. Deeply in thrall to Rand’s theory of rational selfishness, Anna decamps to Los Angeles to script a television series about her idol, but when the concept doesn’t gel, the money soon runs out. Disappointment and personal tragedy send Anna on a pilgrimage to the island of Lesbos, where her Randian philosophies face the ultimate test in a meditation commune. Biting and bawdy, this is a comic novel full of sound and fury, but it wears its heart on its sleeve: Anna’s desire to be a serious artist is all-too real, as is her search for meaning in a hollowed-out culture. The Book of Ayn captures the full spectrum of what it's like to be alive today, from profanity to profundity and back again.

Wrong Way, by Joanne McNeil

The author of Lurking makes her blistering fiction debut with Wrong Way, a closely observed tale of how individual lives are shattered by Big Tech treachery. After years scraping by in the gig economy, Teresa’s life changes when she’s hired by AllOver, a tech behemoth billing itself as “an experience company.” AllOver’s new rideshare service boasts driverless cars, but the reality is more sinister—instead, contractors like Teresa operate the vehicles while hiding inside a secret compartment. Clinging to the job for financial security, Teresa loses herself in AllOver’s hollow promises. Wrong Way is a chilling portrait of economic precarity, and a disturbing reminder of how attempts to optimize life and work leave us all alienated.

The New Naturals, by Gabriel Bump

What if you could escape into a better world—one free of racism, marginalization, and grief? In this imaginative novel, that’s the compelling thought experiment undertaken by Rio and Gibraltar, two Black academics working at a liberal arts college. Grieving the death of their infant daughter and weary of “teaching Black people to white children,” they flee Boston, secure a wealthy benefactor, and establish their subterranean utopia, the New Naturals. Like-minded individuals flock to the commune, all seeking respite from a world riven with inequality. But wherever we go, there we are—and soon, threats from within and without threaten the experiment’s future. Keenly observed and darkly funny, The New Naturals is a compelling portrait of what happens when our hopes collide with our limitations.

Critical Hits: Writers Playing Video Games, edited by J. Robert Lennon and Carmen Maria Machado

Gamers, lend us your ears. Did you know that your favorite literary writers also enjoy getting lost in games like Call of Duty, The Last of Us, and Halo? In this variety pack of exciting essays, writers make an electric case for the essentiality of video games, both as storytelling aids and as ways of understanding the world. In one standout piece, Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah describes his last goodbye to his father through the lens of Disco Elysium; in another, Charlie Jane Anders reflects on the anti-capitalist leanings of portal fantasies. So too can games be useful lenses on identity, as in Jamil Jan Kochai’s remembrance of killing Afghan Call of Duty characters as an Afghan American teenager, or in nat steele’s reflection on playing Halo as a trans woman. Critical Hits marks the welcome ascendance of an emerging body of gamer literature—someone tell the Esquire Gamer Zone!

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