Maureen Corrigan

Nell Freudenberger's gorgeous new novel tells the story of a middle-aged woman who receives messages sent from her college friend's cell phone — even after her friend has died.

Marianne is a social pariah, Connell is a football player. Sally Rooney's nuanced, flinty love story opens in a small town in Ireland, where two teens who "get" each other get together.

The short chapters in Laila Lalami's novel are narrated by a rotating cast of characters. They conjure a murder mystery, a cross-cultural romance, an immigrant saga, war stories and family dramas.

Squeeze into the rumble seat — Yuval Taylor brings readers along on a 1927 summer road trip taken by Zora Neale Hurston and Langston Hughes. Their friendship turned out to be a very bumpy ride.

The Lady from the Black Lagoon tells the story of Milicent Patrick, who designed the Creature's monster suit. Giraffes on Horseback Salad was a Marx Brothers script scenario written by Salvador Dalí.

Patrick Radden Keefe's new book begins with the 1972 disappearance of a 38-year-old widowed mother in Belfast, then spins into an epic account of Northern Ireland's bloody sectarian conflict.

Valeria Luiselli's Lost Children Archive centers on a family's tense road trip to the Southwestern U.S. border. Critic Maureen Corrigan says it's an epic and elegant work.

Emily Bernard was recovering from a knife attack — a "bizarre act of violence" — when she decided to write a book of essays rooted, autobiographically, in the blackness of her own body.

Seventeen-year-old Lucy Adler loves basketball but struggles to fit in with her peers. Critic Maureen Corrigan says Dana Czapnik's protagonist reminded her of Francie from A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.

Sarah Moss' beautifully written novel is set in the 1970s in the rugged countryside of the far north of England, where a group of campers are reenacting the daily lives of Iron Age Britons.

Sophie Mackintosh's debut novel centers on four women living in a decrepit hotel on an isolated island. Critic Maureen Corrigan says The Water Cure is "everything this age seems to be demanding."

Find everything our critics loved this year, all in one place: Maureen Corrigan's book list, movie pairings from Justin Chang, music recommended by Ken Tucker and David Bianculli's must-see TV list.

Fresh Air's book critic recommends her 10 favorite books of the year, including The Great Believers, Rebecca Makkai's sweeping story about the AIDS epidemic of the 1980s.

Helen Schulman splices together an old-school family drama with high-tech fantasy in her new novel, a rich, closely observed story about regrets and risk-taking in the Internet age.

A charismatic young writer poaches plot points from the lives of established authors in John Boyne's new novel. Critic Maureen Corrigan calls A Ladder to the Sky "erudite and ingeniously constructed."

Historian Elliott J. Gorn's new book revisits the 1955 death and public funeral of the African-American teen. Critic Maureen Corrigan says it's a timely story about the fragility of collective memory.

For 20 years, Roosevelt answered reader questions on topics monumental, mundane and everywhere in between. A new book presents a selection of her essential advice and practical wisdom.

Esi Edugyan's new novel centers on a boy who escapes slavery via hot air balloon — before crashing down to hard historical realities. Critic Maureen Corrigan calls Washington Black "a wonder."

Sarah Smarsh grew up as a member of the white working class in rural Kansas. In a new memoir, she examines the crushing ways in which class shapes possibility in the U.S.

Sarah Weinman's The Real Lolita offers a compelling argument that Nabokov's 1955 novel had its roots in the 1948 abduction of 11-year-old Sally Horner — despite the author's claim to the contrary.