2024 was a fantastic year for both fiction and nonfiction, with thousands of new and diverse narratives exploding onto the scene from all sides. We’ve collected our top picks below, featuring stories from all across the globe that highlight the struggles and victories of the many cultures that make up our world.
Fiction
1. Wandering Stars
Revisiting one of the most tragic periods in American history, Tommy Orange’s “Wandering Stars” pulls from both past and future to staunchly indict the United States’ genocide against the Native American people. The novel follows both a young survivor of the Sand Creek Massacre forced to conform to white culture at the expense of his heritage and a family struggling to recover from a school shooting that nearly claimed their youngest son’s life in 2018. This brilliant sequel to Orange’s “There There” expands on the previous novel’s grim reminder of the oppression that Native Americans have faced throughout history, showing how much has — and hasn’t — changed in the centuries since.
2. Martyr
Kaveh Akbar’s “Martyr!” provides readers with an enlightening reflection on the endless search for meaning. Protagonist Cyrus Shams, a displaced Iranian immigrant with an alcohol addiction and a talent for poetry, uncovers his family’s history through his obsession with historical martyrs. This search leads Cyrus to an ailing artist at the end of her life and a painting that seems to raise more questions than answers. Akbar’s humorous and profound debut novel is exactly the kind of explosive new voice the genre has been waiting for.
3. Forest of Noise
Palestinian poet Mosab Abu Toha provides readers with a shocking and brutally honest window into the ongoing siege on Gaza. After the obliteration of his home forced the author to flee with his family, Abu Toha continued to write, crafting poetry confronting the chaos of war. Memories of childhood joy and air raid survival instructions mingle in these incredibly charged poems, revealing the world inside of a battered, war-torn nation.
4. Ghostroots: Stories
Collecting twelve short stories by Nigerian author ‘Pemi Aguda, “Ghostroots” is a terrifying and gripping horror anthology. In a supernatural Lagos, Nigeria, the living are in a constant battle to escape the vengeful history of the dead. The stories center on mundane everyday events, transforming them into menacing yet gripping narratives that open one’s eyes to Nigerian mythos, history, and culture from a wholly unexpected and refreshingly original angle.
5. Aednan: An Epic
After winning the most prestigious literary award in her home country of Sweden, Linnea Axelsson bursts onto the American scene with an epic novel that spans a century. The novel follows a multigenerational history of Sámi culture, traversing across 100 years. The title, “Aednan” ( Northern Sámi for “the land”, “the earth”, and “mother”), brilliantly encapsulates the flexibility and durability of language, and how the Sámi culture has survived in a world eager to brush it aside.
6. Playground
An eye-opening visualization of humanity’s destructive expansion, Richard Powers’ “Playground” is the story of four separate lives coming together at the precipice of change. As humanity aims to launch completely self-sustaining cities in the open ocean, only the small island of Makatea in French Polynesia can decide whether the project will move forward. Four individuals will be at the forefront of one of the most promising — and possibly destructive — innovations in the history of human colonization. Brilliantly interweaving environmental fears and the endless advance of technology, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author presents an exploration of humanity’s shared nature that no reader should ignore.
7. Someone Like Us
Protagonist Mamush, a former journalist seeking a new life in Paris, finds himself in a failing marriage. Returning to his home in Washington, DC, Mamush reenters the Ethiopian immigrant community of his childhood, discovering his mother and father at the helm. But just after his arrival, Mamush’s good-natured, charming father is found dead. This begins Mamush’s quest to confront the life and memory not only of his late father but of himself. Dinaw Mengestu’s “Someone Like Us” is a vibrantly commanding glimpse into the lives of Ethiopian Americans and how the nation in which they live has treated them.
9. Rakesfall
Sri Lankan author Vaira Chandrasekera crafts a brilliant science-fiction epic that spans infinite lifetimes, where two endlessly repeating souls seek to right the wrongs enacted on their worlds since the beginning of time. Annelid and Leveret met in the wake of a massive war; their souls are bound together and thrust through centuries, continuously reincarnating as they seek to overcome the tyrants that have taken control of reality behind the curtains. A dark and gritty narrative, “Rakesfall” is a shockingly groundbreaking work that has taken its place as one of the contemporary sci-fi greats.
10. Praiseworthy
An epic story set in northern Australia, Alexis Wright’s “Praiseworthy” is a scathing criticism of the oppression and pain inflicted on Aboriginal peoples. In a village beset by the climate crisis, the members of a fractured family each seek to find solace at the expense of their own people. A father seeks to solve the Aboriginals’ dependency on donkeys. His wife scours the Internet in search of a way to emigrate her half-Chinese family to their other homeland. One son is fixated on ending his own life, while the other goads him on to pursue his own goal of becoming white. Wright’s novel is an impassioned cry of outrage against a world that has forgotten its people and a grim prediction for the end of all.
11. The Silence of the Choir
This expansive and emotional story from award-winning author Mohamed Mbougar Sarr follows the lives of 72 immigrants deposited in the middle of Sicily. Their arrival throws the small town into chaos, as the men are faced with an unfamiliar culture that is struggling to adapt to in turn. With absolutely no control over their new home, the men are forced to simply stand by while the community is thrown into turmoil. Sarr sweeps up a chaotic cacophony of voices and characters that must each reflect on their cultural conflicts and the underlying humanity that connects them all.
12. You Dreamed of Empires
Reinterpreting Aztec history, “You Dreamed of Empires” by Mexican author Alvaro Enrigue reimagines the fate of Tenochtitlan as a colonial revenge story. The invading Hernan Cortés and his army are welcomed into the Aztec capital by the emperor Moctezuma II, who is hopelessly addicted to hallucinogens and awaiting guidance from silent gods. As the time of conquest nears, Enrigue discards history in favor of a fiery, fantastical counter-attack that brilliantly portrays the anti-colonial resilience of the Aztec population.
13. Smoke Kings
Jahmal Mayfield’s “Smoke Kings” invites readers to imagine the consequences of reparations in a world without justice. After Nate Evers witnesses the murder of his cousin, his devasting grief transforms into a desire for vengeance. Evers and three friends embark on a journey of revenge, kidnapping the descendants of those who once committed hate crimes and forcing them to pay reparations. But when the four friends accidentally kidnap the wrong man, they are beset by a white supremacist organization, a corrupt lawyer, and the reality of a nation that still refuses to acknowledge its own mistakes. Mayfield’s work provides a glimpse into the injustice that perpetually faces Black Americans, while also inviting us to imagine what would happen if justice was taken into the hands of a few.
14. Godwin
A novel about a soccer agent seeking out the next Lionel Messi might be the last place one would expect to be confronted with colonialism and the history of transatlantic trade, but Joseph O’Neill’s “Godwin” masterfully combines modern-day sporting with hundreds of years of injustice. Mark Wolfe, a technical writer living in Pittsburgh, is dragged on a cross-continent adventure with his soccer agent half-brother Geoff in search of a well-hidden prospect by the name of Godwin. O’Neill simultaneously examines the history of colonialism, migration, and the ties of family in this masterpiece of global proportions.
15. Behind You is the Sea
Susan Muaddi Darraj’s debut novel presents the world of Palestinian immigrants through the lens of three families in Baltimore. The wealthy Ammar family employs the Baladis to clean up after their teens, as Marcus Salameh struggles to confront his father in his sister’s defense. Brilliantly encapsulating the struggle and conflict between these generations, Darraj confronts stereotypes and prejudices against Palestinian culture. Pulling together a tapestry of family narratives, Darraj reflects an overall sense of unity despite division. Funny, touching, and inspiring, “Behind You is the Sea” is one of the best debut novels of 2024.
Non-Fiction
1. Patriot: A Memoir
A stoic, outspoken, and shockingly resilient critic of Vladimir Putin, Alexei Navalny penned a gritty and enlightening memoir. Following his youth and early marriage to the many attempts on his life by a global superpower intent on silencing him, Navalny’s last words are a passionate reminder that the fight for individual freedoms is one of the most righteous causes in history. Recounting his own triumphs and tribulations for the world to see, Navalny calls for the next generation to pick up where he left off and continue in the fight for freedom.
2. The Message
A collection of three interconnected essays, Ta-Nehisi Coates’s brilliant novel examines the lasting effect of centuries of racism and division. Journeying from Senegal to South Carolina and finally to Palestine, Coates narrates his own journey through various stories surrounding the strained relationship between cultures. Penned at a charged period in global life, Coates’s “The Message” forces readers to confront the reality of history and the world’s resistance to the change.
3. Whiskey Tender: A Memoir
A descendant of the Quechan Nation and the Laguna Pueblo tribe, Deborah Jackson Taffa was born in a California reservation and raised among the Navajo in New Mexico. Her memoir chronicles the path by which she discovered her identity, shaking off her parents’ expectations for her to assimilate. She wrestles with ideas of individualism and assimilation, the dichotomy of belonging and resisting oppression, and the United States government’s endless enterprise to destroy Native culture. While lighthearted and humorous, Taffa’s memoirs are nonetheless a sharp analysis of how the US has treated Indigenous peoples and the struggles inflicted upon them .
4. Madness
Chronicling 93 years of missing history, award-winning journalist Antonia Hylton’s “Madness” offers a glimpse into the struggles of Black mental health patients during the Jim Crow era. Maryland’s Hospital for the Negro Insane has been uninvestigated for over a century; Hylton shines a light on the treatment that its patients endured during their time as essentially slaves to the system. Most importantly, Hylton not only brings to light an unjustly obfuscated history but also invites consideration into how society classifies health and who is and isn’t deserving of treatment.
5. Twenty Years: Hope, War, and the Betrayal of an Afghan Generation
Sune Engel Rasmussen, a correspondent with The Wall Street Journal, collects over a decade of reporting to chronicle the fallout of 9/11 from the view of Afghans growing up in the early 2000s. Freedom and safety were tangible concepts when they were born and disappeared before they had the chance to truly experience them. This novel chronicles the titular twenty years following the initial attack against the United States to the failed pullout of American troops that allowed the Taliban to retake Afghanistan. Rasmussen uses two narrators to tell the story in full: Zahra, who returned to Afghanistan just as the Taliban were regaining control, and Omari, who joins up with the Taliban and is confronted with the trauma of war. Through these characters and others like them, Rasmussen gives us a deep insight into a country betrayed, first by the United States and then by the Taliban.
6. The Sullivanians
In the 1950s, the Sullivan Institute for Research in Psychoanalysis opened in New York City. Seeking to destabilize the nuclear family and promote freedom from societal norms, the institute quickly became a hub of polyamory and creativity among patients. By the 1970s, however, it had devolved into a quasi-cult, with therapists exacting complete control over patients. The Sullivan Institute has long been notoriously secretive, but Alexander Stille’s novel has shone a light on its inner workings. Utilizing interviews and long-forgotten personal papers, “The Sullivanians” provides readers with the untold story of a perfect world’s complete collapse.
6. Private Revolutions
This enlightening glimpse behind China’s propaganda curtain reveals the impacts of the country’s industrial revolution. Massive advancement in the 1980s and ‘90s brought about a market vaguely similar to capitalism, generating tremendous gains for China’s economy. But the rapidly ascending market belied a world of mistreatment, authoritarianism, and financial injustice. Following the lives of four young women, author Yuan Yang compiles seven years’ worth of reporting to display the secret humanitarian cost behind China’s economic growth.
7. The Rebels’ Clinic
Frantz Fanon is one of the most renowned postcolonial activists, providing the framework for radical movements around the world. Adam Shatz’s biography examines Fanon’s shockingly novel-esque life, from his time in the French army during World War II to his work as a strategist and spokesman for the Algerian independence movement. An existentialist who practiced what he termed “dis-alienation,” Shatz’s ensuing works have gone on to influence Black radicalism worldwide. This biography contextualizes Fanon’s writings, informing today’s movement against white supremacy.
8. Everyone Who Is Gone Is Here
A massive, moving epic from New Yorker writer Jonathan Blitzer, “Everyone Who Is Gone Is Here” details the intense and ongoing humanitarian crisis at the United States border with Mexico. Combining stories of Central Americans driven from their homes by violence and those of the government officials directly involved in a hopelessly fraught immigration policy, Blitzer crafts a narrative of resilience in the face of oppression and ostracization. Driven from their homes in the search for freedom and safety, many have been met instead with turbulent and needlessly complex politics, as their stories are inextricably tied up in the future of the nation in which they seek asylum.
9. The Achilles Trap
Best-selling author and historian Steve Coll presents a comprehensive and heavily researched history of one of the most costly and least justified geopolitical conflicts in history. The 2003 invasion of Iraq was initially explained as a means to prevent Saddam Hussein from using weapons of mass destruction and from obtaining nuclear weaponry. After it was discovered that Iraq in fact had no such weapons, the operation was uncovered as an intelligence failure on a global scale. “The Achilles Trap” unravels the impossibly intricate web of power, personality, and persecution that surrounds the invasion and its consequences, striving to answer the one question that has lingered for decades: why did Hussein allow the world to believe he possessed nuclear weapons capability when none existed?
10. Our Kindred Creatures
Just after the Civil War, the United States experienced a massive shift in how it perceived animals. In “Our Kindred Creatures,” New York Times editorial director Bill Wasik and veterinarian Monica Murphy chronicle the rich history of the movement for animal rights. From circuses to meat processing plants, Wasik and Murphy investigate and examine the various stages on which this conflict took place. This moral war that began back in 1866 endures to this day, and never has there been a more comprehensive and enlightening history of the movement and the battles that it spawned for over a century.
11. The Survivors of the Clotilda
The Clotilda was the last slave ship that ever made landfall in the United States, long after the importation of slaves became illegal. Through intensive research by author and historian Dr. Hannah Durkin, readers are presented with the history of the last enslaved people in the United States. The novel documents Black American life during one of the most tumultuous periods in United States history, highlighting the small instances of hope in the face of overwhelming oppression. Dr. Durkin forces readers to look into a historical mirror, acknowledging and confronting the series of injustices that make up American history.
12. Soldiers and Kings
Jason De Leon provides readers with a never-before-seen glimpse into the current world of human smuggling in Latin America. Over seven years, De Leon embedded himself within a community of smugglers in Mexico, shuttling migrants across the country and connecting with the very human individuals at the heart of the market. “Soldiers and Kings” eschews the stereotypical image of smugglers as warlords and bounty hunters in favor of showing the lives of people simply trying to get by, highlighting their humanity. De Leon has created not only the first true examination of the human smuggling trade but also a masterpiece of narrative nonfiction.
13. Hiroshima: The Last Witnesses
A gripping, tense recounting of the events of August 6th, 1945 (the day on which the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima), “Hiroshima: The Last Witnesses” collects the testimonies of the last living witnesses and survivors, known in Japan as hibakusha. Author M. G. Sheftall spent years interviewing hibakusha and collecting their stories to present this minute-by-minute retelling of the dawn of the nuclear age. With stories as personal as they are scarring, “Hiroshima: The Last Witnesses” is an intensely human version of an insurmountable tragedy.
Ryan Livingston
Ryan is a senior at The College of New Jersey, majoring in English and minoring in marketing. Since a young age, Ryan has been passionate about human rights and environmental action and uses his writing to educate wherever he can. He hopes to pursue a career in professional writing and spread his message even further.
