12 new books to kick off your 2023 reading. ‹ Literary Hub

January 3, 2023, 7:14am

Another year, another batch of new books to look forward to. If any of your resolutions involve reading more, we’ve got you covered.

*

Deepti Kapoor, Age of Vice
(Riverhead)

“Riveting … Kapoor paints a mesmerizing picture of violence and decadence, of struggle and hope, of corruption and redemption.”
–BookPage

Teju Cole, Black Paper: Writing in a Dark Time
(University of Chicago Press)

“These jewel-like essays, developed from a series of lectures that Cole delivered at the University of Chicago in 2019, are testament both to his many talents and to the uncanny acuity with which he observes the world.”
–The Guardian

Parini Shroff, The Bandit Queens
(Ballantine)

“Shroff’s debut is a darkly hilarious take on gossip, caste, truth, village life, and the patriarchy. A perfect match for fans of Oyinkan Braithwaite’s My Sister, the Serial Killer and clever, subversive storytelling.”
–Booklist

V. V. Ganeshananthan, Brotherless Night
(Random House)

“Through this moving story, Ganeshananthan traces the human aspects of war—the physical losses and tragedies as well as the conflicts of values that are often the true battlefields.”
–BookPage

Tracey Rose Peyton, Night Wherever We Go
(Ecco)

“A searing debut…. Peyton weaves through the minds and spirits of her large cast of characters with insight and ease.”
–Kirkus

Hermann Hesse, tr. Kurt Beals, The Steppenwolf
(W.W. Norton)

“Beals has managed the considerable feat of making a cult classic of twentieth-century literature feel completely alive for the twenty-first.”
–Open Letters Monthly

Allegra Goodman, Sam
(Dial Press)

“It’s impressive how much emotional power is packed into this.”
–Publishers Weekly

Alexander Vasudevan, The Autonomous City: A History of Urban Squatting
(Verso)

“Sheds new light on the transformative role of urban squatting in cities across Europe and North America since the Second World War.”
–Times Literary Supplement

Tom Crewe, The New Life
(Scribner)

“[An] auspicious debut … Crewe uses meticulously researched period details to great effect, and rounds out the narrative with solid characters and tight pacing.”
–Publishers Weekly

Martha C. Nussbaum, Justice for Animals: Our Collective Responsibility
(Simon & Schuster)

“A thought-provoking guide to ethical coexistence with the diverse creatures of Earth.”
–Kirkus

Dacher Keltner, Awe: The New Science of Everyday Wonder and How It Can Transform Your Life
(Penguin Press)

“Eye-opening science and Keltner’s appropriate sense of wonder add up to an enlightening take on the importance and potency of awe. Readers will be enchanted.”
–Publishers Weekly

Virginia Woolf, To the Lighthouse
(Vintage)

“I reread this book every once in a while, and every time I do I find it more capacious and startling. It’s so revolutionary and so exquisitely wrought that it keeps evolving on its own somehow, as if it’s alive.”
–Alison Bechdel