Here are our picks for the best novels of 2024:
‘James’ by Percival Everett
It was a big year for the writer whose publisher used to be Minnesota-based Graywolf Press. “Erasure,” which Graywolf released before Everett’s move to Doubleday, was adapted for the movie “American Fiction,” winning an Oscar for screenwriter Cord Jefferson. And then came “James,” a spin on “Huckleberry Finn” that does just about everything a novel can do. It starts with the provocative idea that Huck’s enslaved pal Jim (who prefers to go by James) was much smarter and better educated than anyone knew. “James,” which closely follows events from Mark Twain’s original story, finds the title character on the lam after he’s accused of murder in a page-turner that features vivid characters, breathless plotting, wizardly experiments and a moving conclusion. Expect lots of awards for “James.”
‘Time of the Child’ by Niall Williams
We don’t get new novels from the “Four Letters of Love” and “This Is Happiness” writer as often as I’d like, but when they appear, they always are worth the wait. “Time of the Child” returns to the fictional Irish village of Faha, where many of Williams’ works are set. Its main characters are a 70ish doctor and his adult daughter, who lives with him in a home that also houses his medical practice. Their lives are upended by the discovery of an abandoned child, whom they secretly care for while not looking very hard for a permanent home for the baby. “Time of the Child” wears its magical realist flourishes lightly — the story takes place at Christmastime, and there are echoes of biblical tales — and finds unexpected, moving ways to figure out what’s best for a bunch of people in an impossible situation.
‘Headshot’ by Rita Bullwinkel
I don’t care about boxing. I don’t know many teenage girls. I’m not interested in Reno, Nev. All of these things are true of me and are crucial to “Headshot,” but that just goes to show how sometimes the book you need is one you’d never think of. Each chapter in “Headshot” covers a different bout in a round-robin boxing tournament for adolescent girls, and Bullwinkel dives deeply into their minds. We learn what they’re thinking when they box, whether they like boxing, what drew them to the sport, what might make them quit, what they think about their opponents, and what troubles them about their families and friends. By the end of the book, you feel like you know the contestants intimately — and like these pugilists are not as different from you as they seem.
‘Table for Two’ by Amor Towles
It’s my new favorite Towles book, and that’s saying something: His “A Gentleman in Moscow” was a blockbuster, and his “The Lincoln Highway” was a they-don’t-write-’em-like-they-used-to gem of an adventure. These seven cinematic tales introduce us to endearing and confounding people like the title character of “The Ballad of Timothy Touchett,” who accidentally becomes involved in plagiarism and fraud. Or small-time actor (and friend of Olivia de Havilland) Evelyn, who was in Towles’ snappy “Rules of Civility” and returns for a novella in “Table for Two” that’s called “Eve in Hollywood.” Most of the stories nod to screwball comedy and other movie genres of the 1930s, but “Eve in Hollywood” is an atmospheric dive into 1940s film noir. Each of the tales is so rich that it feels like “Table for Two” is giving you seven books in one handsome package.