Best of 2023: If You Love Great Novels, Read These Books
Happy New Year, readers!
2023 was a weirdly slow reading year for me — you’d think that working in publishing would mean reading more, not less — and maybe that’s true if you’re not also working on your own novel and having a lot of your time eaten by a London commute. But I’ve read some great books nonetheless — including among those published by Gallic Books. So after the usual existential crises about compiling a favourites-of-the-year list, here are my top 3 — the first of which, in particular, had me absoutely gripped.
Yellowface by Rebecca F Kuang
As far as I’m concerned, the hype for this book is entirely deserved. It had me in its grip so hard that all I wanted to do was read — including at 5.30 am on a Monday morning, which is firmly sleeping time as far as I’m concerned. It’s an intelligent, compulsively readable, all-too-realistic satire (but only barely) of the publishing industry and how it feels to be an author, especially one whose ambitions for success aren’t quite being realised. If you want to retain a sense of the magic and loveliness of the book world, I’d stay firmly away from this. But if you are, or love, someone who lives in this world, I could not recommend this more highly. Hands down the most absorbing book I’ve read in a long time — and I found it extremely cathartic.
Bookshop US | Bookshop UK | Blackwell’s | Libro FM
Queuing for the Queen by Swéta Raina
I haven’t seen anything like enough love for his compassionate, emotionally intelligent book. It’s not really about the queen, so don’t let that put you off if you’re not a royalist. Rather, it’s about the people that a national event like her funeral throws together — humanity in all its messy combinations. At the heart of this story are a mother and a daughter who’ve never understood each other, and how this extended time together brings them closer, as we learn more about each of them and their struggles and stories. A lovely, uplifting but emotionally complex read.
Bookshop US | Bookshop UK | Blackwell’s | Libro FM
Clara Reads Proust by Stéphane Carlier, transl. Polly Mackintosh
I read this one in the original French, fell in love with it, and lobbied hard for us at Gallic Books to publish it next year (March in the UK, May in the US). I can’t wait for English-speaking readers to discover it. Clara Reads Proust is the story of a twenty-something hairdresser who feels a bit stuck in her life and her relationship with her boyfriend — even her cat seems to be shunning her. But everything changes when a customer leaves behind a copy of the first volume of In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust, leading her to an unexpected friendship with a fellow reader, a new love of books, and inspiration to make big life decisions. It’s an enchanting tale of Girl Meets Book with Amélie vibes, perfect for fans of novels about the power of reading.
Want more?
It’s always hard to choose just a few books to define your reading year. There’s lots more books I really enjoyed — bit shout out to these five in particular.
More books I enjoyed in 2023 and highly recommend can be found here (US) and here (UK). I’d love to hear about yours in the comments!
Feedback is welcome on the format of this newsletter, and please feel free to comment with the thing you love, so I can recommend relevant books for you!
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