The 12 best books of 2016

The Underground Railroad, $35 

Colson Whitehead takes the metaphoric Underground Railroad and turns it literal: There’s an actual train spiriting fugitive slaves away to northern freedom. Lots of critics called this book necessary and brave, and it is; it’s also thrilling, genre-bending and hopeful.

A Disappearance in Damascus, $32

A thoroughly reported and deeply felt book, A Disappearance in Damascus starts in 2007, when Deborah Campbell arrives, undercover, to report on Iraqi refugees in Syria. But once her local guide, Ahlam, is arrested, this memoir becomes something else: an exploration of friendship, obsession and belonging. It also provides essential context for Syria’s civil war, now approaching its sixth year.

Virgin and Other Stories, $33

Set in the especially Gothic-y parts of the American South, this fantastic debut from April Ayes Lawson offers stories filled with sex, religion, humour, trauma, mystery, desire and people hoping desperately to connect.

Commonwealth, $35  

This novel follows the four parents and six kids of the Keating and Cousins families through five decades, two affairs and one accident. It’s a lot to manage, but Ann Patchett’s a pro at drawing out the tender, intimate moments within major drama.

Brown, $33

To investigate what it means to have brown skin today, Kamal Al-Solaylee takes off for 10 countries, speaking with Filipina nannies in Hong Kong, Arab immigrants in France, undocumented Latino workers in America. The result is a deft exploration of how people of colour have been exploited for work and mined for political ammunition—while also bringing to life their very human stories.

The Vegetarian, $14 

Okay, this chilling, unsettling three-part novella was actually written in 2007. And, yes, it came out last year in Canada. But 2016 was the year that author Han Kang broke out, winning the Man Booker International Prize for her tale of an ordinary housewife who all of a sudden decides she won’t eat meat—unleashing a series of startling consequences.

Flannery, $13

What begins as the story of a teenager’s fierce crush on a dark-lashed bad boy becomes, thanks to Lisa Moore’s abundant skill and imagination, a meditation on poverty, feckless friendship, parental responsibility and self-worth. Like The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime, this YA book will charm and captivate adults as well.

Imagine Me Gone, $32

When a father’s depression finally overwhelms him, his family responds in different ways: one doles out advice and money; another retreats into hyper-responsibility; a third takes to social issues and Donna Summers songs. Adam Haslett navigates the fallout in an honest and deeply empathetic novel about mental health.

All The Single Ladies, $36 

Over at New York Magazine, Rebecca Traister produced clear-eyed, crucial insight into the American election and, especially, the vast and entrenched misogyny it exposed. Her non-fiction bestseller from earlier this year is every bit as sharp, examining the political, social and economic achievements women make when they aren’t absorbed with wifely duties.

Moonglow, $34

Filled with characteristically beautiful sentences, this latest novel from Michael Chabon is a fact-and-fiction mash-up, with details drawn from his own family history. In it, a writer (who also happens to be named Michael Chabon) keeps watch over his dying (but suddenly chatty) grandfather. What unspools is a good chunk of the 20th century told through a single life.

The Mothers, $35
The Mothers of Brit Bennett’s novel appear at the start of each chapter—church elders who chatter, complain, make predictions and issue warnings. They have plenty to gossip about in this enthralling debut, about a smart teen who must navigate her own ambition, a shifting love triangle and the aftermath of her mother’s suicide.

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