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Kirkus-Reviews-Best-Books-Of-2020 Featuring 279 Industry-First Reviews of Fiction, Nonfction, Children's and YA books KIRKUS VOL. LXXXVIII, NO. 24 | 15 DECEMBER 2020 REVIEWS THE BEST BOOKS OF 2020 SPECIAL ISSUE The Best 100 Indie Books of the Year + Our Full December 15 Issue from the editor’s desk: The Things That Carried Us Through 2020 Chairman HERBERT SIMON President & Publisher BY TOM BEER MARC WINKELMAN # Chief Executive Ofcer MEG LABORDE KUEHN [email protected] John Paraskevas Are you ready to say goodbye to 2020? I certainly am. Editor-in-Chief TOM BEER While this “annus horribilis”—to borrow a phrase from Queen Elizabeth—has [email protected] Vice President of Marketing been marked by a devastating pandemic, an economic crisis, and a divisive election, SARAH KALINA there have been bright spots. When we could manage to stop doomscrolling and [email protected] Managing/Nonfction Editor actually focus on reading, the books we spent time with offered respite from the real ERIC LIEBETRAU world—or helped make better sense of it. I was struck, while watching the National [email protected] Fiction Editor Book Awards ceremony last month, when young people’s literature judge Joan Trygg LAURIE MUCHNICK remarked on the “possibly sanity-saving privilege of having a large stack of books to [email protected] Young Readers’ Editor read” and the lively literary discussions that she shared with fellow judges. “When VICKY SMITH I look back on the year 2020, a year I’m sure we’d all like to edit, I’m grateful I will [email protected] To m B e e r Young Readers’ Editor have these memories to keep,” Trygg said. Most bibliophiles can relate. LAURA SIMEON [email protected] In a previous column, I shared a list of some of the books that brightened my year. This time around, Editor at Large I’d like to recognize some of the other literary phenomena that made 2020 bearable: MEGAN LABRISE [email protected] E-books and audiobooks. I make every effort to order books from indie bookstores and frequently Vice President of Kirkus Indie request physical galleys from publishers when I need that tactile sensation. But living and working out of KAREN SCHECHNER [email protected] a small Brooklyn apartment means I simply don’t have the space to house every galley or finished book I Senior Indie Editor might need in the course of doing my job for Kirkus (even with the snazzy wall-mounted Ikea bookshelves DAVID RAPP [email protected] I installed this summer). Reading things digitally became a necessity—and I discovered that I actually Indie Editor enjoyed the ability to immediately summon whatever title I needed (not to mention search within it). MYRA FORSBERG [email protected] Meanwhile, audiobooks provided a welcome hiatus from eyestrain. My first love is and always will be the Associate Manager of Indie KATERINA PAPPAS printed book. But isn’t it nice to have options? [email protected] Online author events. There’s no substitute for seeing your favorite writer in Editorial Assistant JOHANNA ZWIRNER person and getting a signed copy of their latest book. And surely we’ve all reached [email protected] maximum Zoom fatigue. But when bookstore events moved Mysteries Editor online in the spring, it did open up a world of possibilities, no THOMAS LEITCH Contributing Editor matter where you resided. How else could I have made it to GREGORY McNAMEE Houston’s Brazos Bookstore to see Edmund White discuss A Copy Editor Saint From Texas (Bloomsbury, Aug. 4) with Kirkus contributor BETSY JUDKINS Designer Michael Schaub? Would I have jetted all the way to Portland, ALEX HEAD Oregon, to catch Kerri Arsenault in conversation with editor Kirkus Editorial Production Editor ROBIN O’DELL at large Megan Labrise about Mill Town: Reckoning With What [email protected] Remains (St. Martin’s, Sept. 1) at Powell’s Books? Can’t keep up Kirkus Editorial Associate Production Editor with all these virtual opportunities? BuzzFeed’s Arianna Rebolini rounds up some of STEPHANIE SUMMERHAYS [email protected] the best every week. Website and Software Developer Literary podcasts. Once you’re done reading books and attending virtual author events, what’s a PERCY PEREZ [email protected] quarantined bibliophile to do? Listen to a podcast. Kirkus’ own Fully Booked, convivially hosted by Megan Advertising Director Labrise, is required listening, of course. (Stick around after the featured author interview for the editors’ MONIQUE STENSRUD [email protected] roundtable, where my colleagues recommend their favorite new books each week.) But why stop there? Advertising Associate Some podcasts that feature among my regular downloads are The Maris Review, hosted by friendly, in-the- TATIANA ARNOLD [email protected] know Maris Kreizman (her guests this year included David Sedaris, Silvia Moreno-Garcia, and Brandon Graphic Designer So Many Damn Books KYLA NOVAK Taylor); , where hosts Christopher Hermelin and Drew Broussand offer drink recipes [email protected] AAWW Radio and author interviews (Rumaan Alam, Quan Barry, Hilary Leichter); and , the podcast of the Controller MICHELLE GONZALES Asian American Writers Workshop (recent guests included Akwaeke Emezi, Elizabeth Acevedo, K-Ming [email protected] Chang, and Mira Jacob). for customer service or subscription questions, Thanks to all the organizers and creators who sustained us in 2020—and here’s to a brighter 2021. please call 1-800-316-9361 for more reviews and features, Cover design by visit us online at kirkus.com. Kyla Novak 2 | 15 december 2020 | from the editor’s desk | kirkus.com | you can now purchase books online at kirkus.com contents special issue: best books of 2020 young adult best indie books of 2020 INDEX TO STARRED REVIEWS ...................................................169 REVIEWS ........................................................................................169 REVIEWS ............................................................................................4 EDITOR’S NOTE ..............................................................................170 EDITOR’S NOTE .................................................................................6 INTERVIEW: VITOR MARTINS .....................................................176 BEST INDIE FICTION & LITERATURE ...........................................14 BEST INDIE POETRY....................................................................... 18 indie BEST INDIE MYSTERIES & THRILLERS ........................................22 INDEX TO STARRED REVIEWS ...................................................184 15 december 2020 issue REVIEWS ........................................................................................184 INDIE BOOKS OF THE MONTH ................................................... 203 fiction INDEX TO STARRED REVIEWS .....................................................60 The Kirkus Star is awarded to books REVIEWS ..........................................................................................60 of remarkable merit, as determined EDITOR’S NOTE ............................................................................... 62 by the impartial editors of Kirkus. INTERVIEW: EMMA GLASS ...........................................................70 MYSTERY..........................................................................................90 SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY .....................................................96 ROMANCE .......................................................................................98 nonfiction INDEX TO STARRED REVIEWS .....................................................99 REVIEWS ..........................................................................................99 EDITOR’S NOTE .............................................................................100 INTERVIEW: DAVID KATZ ........................................................... 106 children’s INDEX TO STARRED REVIEWS ....................................................132 REVIEWS .........................................................................................132 EDITOR’S NOTE .............................................................................134 INTERVIEW: GAVIN AUNG THAN ..............................................140 Kazuo Ishiguro returns with his first novel ........................................................ 162 BOARD & NOVELTY BOOKS since winning the Nobel Prize in 2017. Read CONTINUING SERIES .................................................................. 168 the review on p. 80. | kirkus.com | contents | 15 december 2020 | 3 special issue: best books of 2020 indie WHERE THE at the intruder. The rabbits wisely and quickly moved deeper CREEK RUNS into the woods to get away from the activity.” Minute descrip- Abraham, Mary tions such as these are the rule, not the exception. Finally, the Greene Woods Publishing (353 pp.) last chapters deliver deep satisfaction, chronicling the fates of $27.95 | $9.99 e-book | May 15, 2017 the various players and bringing readers right up to the 1940s 978-0-692-75923-3 with a Dickensian conclusion. An impressive tale of a fractured Southern family with A debut novel traces the fortunes of richly drawn characters. a Mississippi family from the 1890s to the 1940s. The McMolison family of Leaf Creek IMPOSTOR ALERT! consists of Bill and Kate and their chil- Akpabio Umoren, Uduak dren, Katherine, Hannah, and Samuel. It is Hannah, the middle Dog Ear Publishing (276 pp.) child, who carries the story. Early on, Samuel, while just a tod- $11.99 paper | $5.99 e-book dler, is accidentally
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