VOL. LXXXVII, NO. 22 | 15 NOVEMBER 2019 REVIEWS from the Editor’S Desk
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Featuring 320 Industry-First Reviews of Fiction, Nonfiction, Children'sand YA books KIRKUSVOL. LXXXVII, NO. 22 | 15 NOVEMBER 2019 REVIEWS from the editor’s desk: The Best Books of 2019 Chairman HERBERT SIMON President & Publisher BY TOM BEER MARC WINKELMAN # Chief Executive Officer MEG LABORDE KUEHN [email protected] John Paraskevas Editor-in-Chief When you’ve reviewed more than 7,000 titles published in 2019—as TOM BEER Kirkus Reviews did this year—selecting the Best Books of the Year is no [email protected] Vice President of Marketing small undertaking. Our section editors work overtime combing through SARAH KALINA the year’s reviews, giving titles second and third looks, making sure they [email protected] Managing/Nonfiction Editor haven’t overlooked a hidden gem. They inevitably ask for deadline exten- ERIC LIEBETRAU sions—granted, if possible—before setting the final roster in stone. (“OK, [email protected] Fiction Editor I’m done shuffling books around and have committed to my Best of 2019. LAURIE MUCHNICK Now stepping away from the piles!” as children’s editor Vicky Smith wrote [email protected] Children’s Editor when she sent me her list.) VICKY SMITH In this issue we present our Best of Fiction list (100 titles) and Best of [email protected] Tom Beer Young Adult Editor Children’s list (75 picture books and 75 middle-grade titles). In the issues LAURA SIMEON that follow next month, we’ll showcase our Best Nonfiction and Best Young Adult titles as well [email protected] Editor at Large as the Best Indie books of the year. We’re proud of these lists and excited to share them with MEGAN LABRISE readers; it feels a bit like opening night after months of hard work and rehearsals. [email protected] Vice President of Kirkus Indie Before we raise the curtain, I looked back on my own year in reading and identified a few of KAREN SCHECHNER [email protected] my own favorites—a far smaller and more subjective list: Senior Indie Editor Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland by Patrick Radden DAVID RAPP [email protected] Keefe (Doubleday, Feb. 26):This absorbing and edifying narrative about the conflict in North- Indie Editor ern Ireland, known colloquially as the Troubles, spirals out from the 1972 MYRA FORSBERG [email protected] murder of a Belfast widow and mother of 10, suspected by the Irish Repub- Associate Manager of Indie lican Army of passing secrets to the British. It was selected as a finalist for KATERINA PAPPAS [email protected] this year’s Kirkus Prize in Nonfiction. Editorial Assistant JOHANNA ZWIRNER What You Have Heard Is True: A Memoir of Witness and Resistance [email protected] by Carolyn Forché (Penguin Press, March 19): This nonfiction book by an Mysteries Editor acclaimed poet succeeds both as an account of the author’s political com- THOMAS LEITCH Contributing Editor ing-of-age and a vivid portrait of El Salvador on the brink of civil war in GREGORY McNAMEE the late 1970s and early ’80s. The memoir Forché has constructed decades Copy Editor after her initial visit is both lyrical and acute, an elegy and a cautionary tale. BETSY JUDKINS Designer Normal People by Sally Rooney (Hogarth, April ALEX HEAD 16): Some novels come so buffeted by hype they Director of Kirkus Editorial LAUREN BAILEY can’t fail to disappoint. Not this one by the so-called [email protected] millennial wunderkind author of . It’s a closely Production Editor Conversations With Friends CATHERINE BRESNER observed anatomy of the relationship between Connell and Marianne, [email protected] two young Irish people who fall in love as teens in their provincial Irish Website and Software Developer PERCY PEREZ town and find their lives and selves transformed after moving to Dublin [email protected] for university. I never wanted it to end. Advertising Director MONIQUE STENSRUD The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead (Doubleday, July 16): Less [email protected] Advertising Associate wildly innovative than the author’s previous novel, The Underground TATIANA ARNOLD , is more heart-rending and moving—the story of [email protected] Rail road The Nickel Boys Advertising Coordinator a young African American boy wrongly sent to a juvenile reform school in KELSEY WILLIAMS 1960s Florida, where he will be broken both in body and spirit. It won the [email protected] Graphic Designer Kirkus Prize in Fiction. LIANA WALKER I could go on. Instead, I invite you to turn the page and dive into our Best of 2019 coverage, [email protected] Controller where you’ll find outstanding books for every kind of reader. MICHELLE GONZALES [email protected] for customer service or subscription questions, please call 1-800-316-9361 for more reviews and features, Cover design by visit us online at kirkus.com. Liana Walker 2 | 15 november 2019 | from the editor’s desk | kirkus.com | you can now purchase books online at kirkus.com contents special issue: best books of 2019 15 november 2019 issue 2019 KIRKUS PRIZE COVERAGE ....................................................4 2019 GIFT BOOK GUIDE ...............................................................111 best fiction books of 2019 fiction REVIEWS ............................................................................................8 INDEX TO STARRED REVIEWS ................................................... 114 EDITOR’S NOTE ............................................................................... 10 REVIEWS ........................................................................................ 114 AUTHOR SPOTLIGHT: MARLON JAMES ...................................... 14 MYSTERY........................................................................................ 141 AUTHOR SPOTLIGHT: NAMWALI SERPELL ................................ 18 SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY ....................................................150 AUTHOR SPOTLIGHT: MIRIAM TOEWS .......................................22 ROMANCE ......................................................................................152 AUTHOR SPOTLIGHT: OCEAN VUONG .......................................26 nonfiction best picture books of 2019 INDEX TO STARRED REVIEWS ................................................... 154 REVIEWS ........................................................................................ 154 REVIEWS .......................................................................................... 52 EDITOR’S NOTE ...............................................................................54 children’s AUTHOR SPOTLIGHT: KATHERENA VERMETTE ........................60 INDEX TO STARRED REVIEWS ....................................................193 AUTHOR SPOTLIGHT: SUSIN NIELSEN .......................................64 REVIEWS .........................................................................................193 AUTHOR SPOTLIGHT: JORGE & MEGAN LACERA .....................66 BOARD & NOVELTY BOOKS ........................................................ 223 AUTHOR SPOTLIGHT: KYLE LUKOFF ........................................... 70 CONTINUING SERIES ...................................................................231 best middle-grade books of 2019 young adult INDEX TO STARRED REVIEWS ....................................................233 REVIEWS .......................................................................................... 81 REVIEWS .........................................................................................233 EDITOR’S NOTE ...............................................................................82 CONTINUING SERIES ..................................................................245 AUTHOR SPOTLIGHT: YOON HA LEE ..........................................86 AUTHOR SPOTLIGHT: PADMA VENKATRAMAN ........................90 indie AUTHOR SPOTLIGHT: TONY JOHNSTON & MARÍA ELENA INDEX TO STARRED REVIEWS ...................................................246 FONTANOT DE RHOADS ..............................................................94 REVIEWS ........................................................................................246 AUTHOR SPOTLIGHT: SHARON ROBINSON ..............................98 INDIE BOOKS OF THE MONTH ................................................... 267 | kirkus.com | contents | 15 november 2019 | 3 the 2019 kirkus prizes It’s that time of year again—when Kirkus Reviews announces the winners of the Kirkus Prizes in fiction, non- fiction, and young readers’ literature. This year’s ceremony, the sixth annual, took place in the light-filled special event center of the Central Library in Austin, Texas, as waitstaff passed hors d’oeuvres, wine flowed, and literary folk min- gled. This year’s winners were chosen from among the 1,264 titles that received Kirkus Stars between Nov. 1, 2018, and Oct. 31, 2019. Each winner received a $50,000 cash prize and a trophy by London-based designers Vezzini & Chen. (l-r) Young Readers’ Literature winner Jerry Craft accepts his trophy from judges Pauletta Brown Bracy and Hanna Lee Finalists for the Young Readers’ Literature Prize: The Undefeated by Kwame Alexander & illustrated by Kadir Nelson (Versify/HMH); Imagine by Juan Felipe Herrera & illustrated by Lauren Castillo (Candlewick); On the Come by Angie Thomas (Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins); Nonfiction winner Saeed Jones with the trophy designed by Up The Vezzini & Chen Other Side: Stories of Central American Teen Refugees Who Dream of Crossing the Border by Juan Pablo Villalobos, trans- lated by Rosalind Harvey (FSG); Gen esis Begins