Your Presence Is Mandatory (2024) Sasha Vasilyuk "Wonderfully written, elegiac and necessary, Sasha Vasiyuk uncovers the history behind the recent headlines with great skill and grace."
Help Wanted (2024) Adelle Waldman "I can't think of a book more necessary. Adelle Waldman takes us into the universe of American labor with generosity and compassion. It has been a while since workers have been portrayed through the lens of a novelist with such insight and attention to the details of service industry life. Simply enthralling."
Ways and Means (2024) Daniel Lefferts "A work of enormous wit, humor, and passion that captures life in turbo capitalist America with compassion and grace."
The Golem of Brooklyn (2023) Adam Mansbach "Adam Mansbach's latest did not put me the F**k to Sleep. Quite the opposite, this is the update to the Golem legend I've been dreaming of since I survived Jewish Day School. Run don't schlepp to the nearest bookstore and get ready to split your kishkes laughing."
Farrell Covington and the Limits of Style (2023) Paul Rudnick "This is precisely the novel I've been dying for this year, a case study in elegant, honest tragicomedy. And it's also by the genuinely hilarious Paul Rudnick, so you know at least every other sentence is going to lay you out on your side, gasping for air, or at least another martini."
Calling Ukraine (2023) Johannes Lichtman "A book full of unexpected laughter, strangeness and delight, plus one of the most demented workplace tragicomedies ever written."
Flux (2023) Jinwoo Chong "A smart and stylish addition to the tech thriller genre with interesting things to say about family, society and, indeed, reality itself."
Victory City (2023) Salman Rushdie "No one, and I mean no one, can bring an entire world to life... [like] Salman Rushdie."
The Survivalists (2023) Kashana Cauley "The brilliant and outrageously funny Kashana Cauley shines her laser on all the things that make our country suck, but her wit and calm intelligence make The Survivalists such a warm hot toddy of a novel."
Signal Fires (2022) Dani Shapiro "I don't know of anyone who writes about family with the same generous understanding and gem-cut sentences as Dani Shapiro. Signal Fires confirms her as an artist of the highest order."
The Unfolding (2022) A M Homes "How can a book be hilarious and chilling at the same time? A.M. Homes's The Unfolding is a modern masterpiece, a scary immersion deep into the heart of American power."
The Boys (2022) Katie Hafner "A brilliant, thoughtful novel that comes with perhaps the greatest shocker in recent literature (no spoiler alert). A superb meditation on loneliness and community."
Woman of Light (2022) Kali Fajardo-Anstine "A rare and wondrous kind of novel that assembles the universe from mere words, whose unforgettable characters haunt like long shadows in the southwestern light."
Vigil Harbor (2022) Julia Glass "Julia Glass gives us exactly what we need during these trans-apocalyptic times, a novel of heart and humanity set against the growing insanity. I ate it up."
Everything Abridged (2022) Dennard Dayle "This is one of the most useful books on the current American berserk that I have read in a long time. Kudos, Dennard. You said what we were all trying to say while we were very (angrily) chewing on our kale salads."
Sleepwalk (2022) Dan Chaon "Dan Chaon's future America may be truly wrecked but it's also familiar and perhaps quintessential. Out of this wreckage Chaon has constructed a gloriously entertaining page-turner of a novel. Bravo!"
The Violin Conspiracy (2022) Brendan Slocumb "Finally, classical music gets the complex treatment it deserves. A wide-eyed look at the art form and its discontents."
Last Resort (2022) Andrew Lipstein "A brilliant take on what it means to be an artist in a world of endless compromises. Look out, Faust, there's a new sheriff in town."
A Calling for Charlie Barnes (2021) Joshua Ferris "Arresting, ground-shifting, beautiful and tragic. This is the book a new generation of writers will answer to. No one in America writes like this."
Jacobo's Rainbow (2021) David Hirshberg "A beautiful novel set in the past but perfectly, scarily, relevant to our current moment."
Abundance (2021) Jakob Guanzon "A searing and truthful portrait of American life full of beauty, honesty and unexpected grace."
The Bad Muslim Discount (2021) Syed M Masood "Take it from a bad Jew, this is one of the bravest and most eye-opening novels of the year. Masood is a whiz at characters and knows the way the world works inside out. A future classic."
The Orchard (2020) David Hopen "A tremendous read, a brilliant excursion into the world of orthodox Jews, both thrilling and philosophical."
A Trick of Light (2019) (Stan Lee's Alliances, book 1) Stan Lee and Kat Rosenfield "For lovers of Stan Lee this is nothing short of a publishing event! (And, honestly, who the hell doesn’t love Stan Lee?) Beguiling, cinematic, operatic, A Trick of Light is a bracing espresso first thing in the morning and the thrum of a familiar love deep at night."
Disappearing Earth (2019) Julia Phillips "A genuine masterpiece, but one that is easily consumed in a feverish stay-up-all-night bout of reading pleasure. It's as much a portrait of humanity as of a small Kamchatka community."
The Altruists (2019) Andrew Ridker "Andrew Ridker has a lot to say about the way we live now. The result is one of those super-brilliant, super-funny novels one enjoys in the manner of a squirrel with an especially delicious acorn. I found myself trying to get out of every activity and responsibility just to come back to this novel."
The Lonesome Bodybuilder (2018) Yukiko Motoya "This may well give Your Duck Is My Duck a run for its money as best title of the century. People around the world have been whispering Motoya’s name in my ear. Now she’s translated into English!"
A Spy in Time (2018) Imraan Coovadia "Imraan Coovadia is one of the best novelists to come out of South Africa in a long time. His prose is charming, clever and sly. A must read."
If You Leave Me (2018) Crystal Hana Kim "An unforgettable story of family, love, and war set against the violent emergence of modern Korea."
Gork, the Teenage Dragon (2017) Gabe Hudson "Gabe Hudson may well be the funniest writer working today, and the most likely to break your heart."
The Windfall (2017) Diksha Basu "The funniest novel to come out of India in years, Diksha Basu's Delhi Riche is a timely snapshot of Delhi families on the way up, down and sideways."
Reservoir 13 (2017) (Reservoir) Jon McGregor "John McGregor is one of the UK's most fascinating and versatile writers. The fact that most American readers have never heard of him does not speak well of us. Let's all buy his book NOW."
You & Me (2012) Padgett Powell "You & Me, mixed with 750ml of fine bourbon, is the most vfun you can have in many states without getting arrested."
The Sugar Frosted Nutsack (2012) Mark Leyner "America should treasure its rare, true original voices and Mark Leyner is one of them. So treasure him already, you bastards!"
Twenty Grand (2007) Rebecca Curtis "A book as delightful as it is disturbing. In a world of smug lies, Curtis writes exactly what needs to be written, and she writes it beautifully."
Home Land (2004) Sam Lipsyte "Genius. As eloquent and delirious a rant I've heard since Henry Miller."
More recommendations
Books containing stories by Gary Shteyngart
By the Book (2014) Writers On Literature and the Literary Life edited by Pamela Paul
(b.1972)
