THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR

THE YEAR IN CULTURE - BEST BOOKS

- MARIS KREIZMAN, LEWIS GORDON

1. The Anthropologists, by Aysegül Savas

The third novel from Turkey's Savas follows a couple in an unnamed city in an unnamed country where neither were born as they experience the quiet yet colossal beauties of their daily lives. Each sentence sings, and watching Manu and Asya find a home in each other is defiantly, explicitly hopeful.

2. An Image of My Name Enters America, by Lucy Ives

Part criticism, part personal essays, part intellectual jubilation, this is the most inventive and exciting work of nonfiction this year.

3. The Book of Love, by Kelly Link

Link has been writing exquisite, fantastical short stories for years, so it was a new delight to watch her take on capacious, messy, and magical subject material in her supersize debut novel (it's 642 pages). She transports us to a small New England town where a trio of teenagers are there but not - caught in a liminal space somewhere between life and death.

4. There's Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension, by Hanif Abdurraqib

Abdurraqib spent his childhood on the neighborhood courts in Columbus, Ohio, and amid all of the mythology that surrounded them, and he places his own experiences parallel to the rise of local hero turned international superstar LeBron James.

5. Say Hello to My Little Friend, by Jennine Capó Crucet