Enter your email Address

ENTROPY
  • About
    • About
    • Masthead
    • Advertising
    • Submission Guidelines
    • Info on Book Reviews
  • Essays
    • All Introspection
      Creative Nonfiction / Essay

      The Animal Form

      January 22, 2021

      Creative Nonfiction / Essay

      On Fantasy and Artifice

      January 19, 2021

      Creative Nonfiction / Essay

      Tales From the End of the Bus Line: Aging Ungraciously

      January 18, 2021

      Creative Nonfiction / Essay

      Salt and Sleep

      January 15, 2021

      Introspection

      The Birds: A Special Providence in the Fall of a Sparrow

      January 2, 2020

      Introspection

      Returning Home with Ross McElwee

      December 13, 2019

      Introspection

      The Birds: In Our Piety

      November 14, 2019

      Introspection

      Variations: Landslide

      June 12, 2019

  • Fiction
    • Fiction

      The Birds: Little Birds

      December 11, 2020

      Fiction

      The Birds: Perdix and a Pear Tree

      December 9, 2020

      Fiction

      The Birds: A Glimmer of Blue

      November 23, 2020

      Fiction

      The Birds: Circling for Home

      November 13, 2020

      Fiction

      The Birds: The Guest

      November 9, 2020

  • Reviews
    • All Collaborative Review Video Review
      Review

      Review: Dear Marshall, Language is Our Only Wilderness by Heather Sweeney

      January 21, 2021

      Review

      Review: Shrapnel Maps by Philip Metres

      January 18, 2021

      Review

      Perceived Realities: A Review of M-Theory by Tiffany Cates

      January 14, 2021

      Review

      Review: Danger Days by Catherine Pierce

      January 11, 2021

      Collaborative Review

      Attention to the Real: A Conversation

      September 3, 2020

      Collaborative Review

      A Street Car Named Whatever

      February 22, 2016

      Collaborative Review

      Black Gum: A Conversational Review

      August 7, 2015

      Collaborative Review

      Lords of Waterdeep in Conversation

      February 25, 2015

      Video Review

      Entropy’s Super Mario Level

      September 15, 2015

      Video Review

      Flash Portraits of Link: Part 7 – In Weakness, Find Strength

      January 2, 2015

      Video Review

      Basal Ganglia by Matthew Revert

      March 31, 2014

      Video Review

      The Desert Places by Amber Sparks and Robert Kloss, Illustrated by Matt Kish

      March 21, 2014

  • Small Press
    • Small Press

      Gordon Hill Press

      December 8, 2020

      Small Press

      Evidence House

      November 24, 2020

      Small Press

      death of workers whilst building skyscrapers

      November 10, 2020

      Small Press

      Slate Roof Press

      September 15, 2020

      Small Press

      Ellipsis Press

      September 1, 2020

  • Where to Submit
  • More
    • Poetry
    • Interviews
    • Games
      • All Board Games Video Games
        Creative Nonfiction / Essay

        How Zelda Saved Me: The Inspiration, Feminism, and Empowerment of Hyrule

        November 2, 2020

        Board Games

        Session Report: Victoriana and Optimism

        December 14, 2019

        Games

        Best of 2019: Video Games

        December 13, 2019

        Games

        Hunt A Killer, Earthbreak, and Empty Faces: Escapism for the Post-Truth Era

        September 21, 2019

        Board Games

        Session Report: Victoriana and Optimism

        December 14, 2019

        Board Games

        Ludic Writing: Lady of the West

        July 27, 2019

        Board Games

        Session Report: Paperback and Anomia

        July 27, 2019

        Board Games

        Ludic Writing: The Real Leeds Part 12 (Once in a Lifetime)

        November 10, 2018

        Video Games

        How Zelda Saved Me: The Inspiration, Feminism, and Empowerment of Hyrule

        November 2, 2020

        Video Games

        Best of 2019: Video Games

        December 13, 2019

        Video Games

        Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is the Spirit of Generosity

        December 31, 2018

        Video Games

        Best of 2018: Video Games

        December 17, 2018

    • Food
    • Small Press Releases
    • Film
    • Music
    • Paranormal
    • Travel
    • Art
    • Graphic Novels
    • Comics
    • Current Events
    • Astrology
    • Random
  • RESOURCES
  • The Accomplices
    • THE ACCOMPLICES
    • Enclave
    • Trumpwatch

ENTROPY

  • About
    • About
    • Masthead
    • Advertising
    • Submission Guidelines
    • Info on Book Reviews
  • Essays
    • All Introspection
      Creative Nonfiction / Essay

      The Animal Form

      January 22, 2021

      Creative Nonfiction / Essay

      On Fantasy and Artifice

      January 19, 2021

      Creative Nonfiction / Essay

      Tales From the End of the Bus Line: Aging Ungraciously

      January 18, 2021

      Creative Nonfiction / Essay

      Salt and Sleep

      January 15, 2021

      Introspection

      The Birds: A Special Providence in the Fall of a Sparrow

      January 2, 2020

      Introspection

      Returning Home with Ross McElwee

      December 13, 2019

      Introspection

      The Birds: In Our Piety

      November 14, 2019

      Introspection

      Variations: Landslide

      June 12, 2019

  • Fiction
    • Fiction

      The Birds: Little Birds

      December 11, 2020

      Fiction

      The Birds: Perdix and a Pear Tree

      December 9, 2020

      Fiction

      The Birds: A Glimmer of Blue

      November 23, 2020

      Fiction

      The Birds: Circling for Home

      November 13, 2020

      Fiction

      The Birds: The Guest

      November 9, 2020

  • Reviews
    • All Collaborative Review Video Review
      Review

      Review: Dear Marshall, Language is Our Only Wilderness by Heather Sweeney

      January 21, 2021

      Review

      Review: Shrapnel Maps by Philip Metres

      January 18, 2021

      Review

      Perceived Realities: A Review of M-Theory by Tiffany Cates

      January 14, 2021

      Review

      Review: Danger Days by Catherine Pierce

      January 11, 2021

      Collaborative Review

      Attention to the Real: A Conversation

      September 3, 2020

      Collaborative Review

      A Street Car Named Whatever

      February 22, 2016

      Collaborative Review

      Black Gum: A Conversational Review

      August 7, 2015

      Collaborative Review

      Lords of Waterdeep in Conversation

      February 25, 2015

      Video Review

      Entropy’s Super Mario Level

      September 15, 2015

      Video Review

      Flash Portraits of Link: Part 7 – In Weakness, Find Strength

      January 2, 2015

      Video Review

      Basal Ganglia by Matthew Revert

      March 31, 2014

      Video Review

      The Desert Places by Amber Sparks and Robert Kloss, Illustrated by Matt Kish

      March 21, 2014

  • Small Press
    • Small Press

      Gordon Hill Press

      December 8, 2020

      Small Press

      Evidence House

      November 24, 2020

      Small Press

      death of workers whilst building skyscrapers

      November 10, 2020

      Small Press

      Slate Roof Press

      September 15, 2020

      Small Press

      Ellipsis Press

      September 1, 2020

  • Where to Submit
  • More
    • Poetry
    • Interviews
    • Games
      • All Board Games Video Games
        Creative Nonfiction / Essay

        How Zelda Saved Me: The Inspiration, Feminism, and Empowerment of Hyrule

        November 2, 2020

        Board Games

        Session Report: Victoriana and Optimism

        December 14, 2019

        Games

        Best of 2019: Video Games

        December 13, 2019

        Games

        Hunt A Killer, Earthbreak, and Empty Faces: Escapism for the Post-Truth Era

        September 21, 2019

        Board Games

        Session Report: Victoriana and Optimism

        December 14, 2019

        Board Games

        Ludic Writing: Lady of the West

        July 27, 2019

        Board Games

        Session Report: Paperback and Anomia

        July 27, 2019

        Board Games

        Ludic Writing: The Real Leeds Part 12 (Once in a Lifetime)

        November 10, 2018

        Video Games

        How Zelda Saved Me: The Inspiration, Feminism, and Empowerment of Hyrule

        November 2, 2020

        Video Games

        Best of 2019: Video Games

        December 13, 2019

        Video Games

        Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is the Spirit of Generosity

        December 31, 2018

        Video Games

        Best of 2018: Video Games

        December 17, 2018

    • Food
    • Small Press Releases
    • Film
    • Music
    • Paranormal
    • Travel
    • Art
    • Graphic Novels
    • Comics
    • Current Events
    • Astrology
    • Random
  • RESOURCES
  • The Accomplices
    • THE ACCOMPLICES
    • Enclave
    • Trumpwatch
FeaturedFictionList

Best of 2016: Best Fiction Books

written by Entropy December 2, 2016

Continuing with our series of “Best of 2016″ lists curated by the entire CCM-Entropy community, we present some of our favorite selections as nominated by the diverse staff and team here at Entropy, as well as nominations from our readers.

This list brings together some of our favorite novels & books of fiction published in 2016.

In no particular order:


1. The Vegetarian by Han Kang (trans. Deborah Smith) (Hogarth)

41hplwo0ohl-_sx330_bo1204203200_

Ferocious…[Han Kang] has been rightfully celebrated as a visionary in South Korea… Han’s glorious treatments of agency, personal choice, submission and subversion find form in the parable. There is something about short literary forms – this novel is under 200 pages – in which the allegorical and the violent gain special potency from their small packages… Ultimately, though, how could we not go back to Kafka? More than ‘The Metamorphosis,’ Kafka’s journals and ‘A Hunger Artist’ haunt this text. —Porochista Khakpour, New York Times Book Review

2. The Girls by Emma Cline (Random House)

the-girls

Spellbinding . . . A seductive and arresting coming-of-age story hinged on Charles Manson, told in sentences at times so finely wrought they could almost be worn as jewelry . . . [Emma] Cline gorgeously maps the topography of one loneliness-ravaged adolescent heart. She gives us the fictional truth of a girl chasing danger beyond her comprehension, in a Summer of Longing and Loss. —The New York Times Book Review

3. Blackass by A. Igoni Barrett (Graywolf Press)

black-ass

[Blackass] vividly captures the frenetic energy of one of the world’s ­fastest-growing cities and provides a perceptive and engaging meditation on the mutability — and the stubborn persistence — of identity. —The New York Times Book Review

4. Problems by Jade Sharma (Coffee House Press)

problems

Jade Sharma is the appalling, hilarious love child of Denis Johnson and Maggie Estep, and Problems is as unrepentant and transgressive a novel as they come. Every coming of age story except this one is a lie. —Elisa Albert

5. What Belongs to You by Garth Greenwell (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

what-belongs-to-you

A rich, important debut, an instant classic to be savored by all lovers of serious fiction because of, not despite, its subject: a gay man’s endeavor to fathom his own heart. ―Aaron Hamburger, The New York Times Book Review

6. The Wangs Vs. the World by Jade Chang (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)

the-wangs-vs-the-world

Jade Chang is unendingly clever in her generous debut novel….As much as THE WANGS VS. THE WORLD is about Asian-American identity, it is also a sprawling family adventure compressed into a road trip novel.  The result is a manic, consistently funny book of alternating perspectives as the Wangs make various cross-country stopovers in their 80s station wagon…[A] compassionate and bright-eyed novel. —New York Times Book Review

7. Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi (Knopf)

homegoing

Gyasi’s characters are so fully realized, so elegantly carved—very often I found myself longing to hear more. Craft is essential given the task Gyasi sets for herself—drawing not just a lineage of two sisters, but two related peoples. Gyasi is deeply concerned with the sin of selling humans on Africans, not Europeans. But she does not scold. She does not excuse. And she does not romanticize. The black Americans she follows are not overly virtuous victims.  Sin comes in all forms, from selling people to abandoning children.  I think I needed to read a book like this to remember what is possible.  I think I needed to remember what happens when you pair a gifted literary mind to an epic task. Homegoing is an inspiration. —Ta-Nehisi Coates

8. Reel by Tobias Carroll (Rare Bird Books)

reel

Carroll is one of those rare authors that combines a fine eye for detail and an understanding of what makes people tick with an admirable command of language and a lyricism that makes some passages tread very close to poetry. The sum of those elements adds up to a debut novel that reads like the latest effort from a veteran author who has already figured out how to deliver a rich, satisfying narrative in less than 200 pages. – Gabino Iglesias, LitReactor

9. Another Brooklyn by Jacqueline Woodson (Amistad)

another-brooklyn

Another Brooklyn joins the tradition of studying female friendships and the families we create when our own isn’t enough, like that of Toni Morrison’s Sula, Tayari Jones’ Silver Sparrow and Zami: A New Spelling of My Name by Audre Lorde. Woodson uses her expertise at portraying the lives of children to explore the power of memory, death and friendship. – Los Angeles Times Book Review

10. The Reactive by Masande Ntshanga (Two Dollar Radio)

the-reactive

[The Reactive is] a searing, gorgeously written account of life, love, illness, and death in South Africa. With exquisite prose, formal innovation, and a masterful command of storytelling, Ntshanga illustrates how some young people navigated the dusk that followed the dawn of freedom in South Africa and humanizes the casualties of the Mbeki government’s fatal policies on HIV & AIDS. —Naomi Jackson, Poets & Writers

11. So Much for that Winter by Dorthe Nors (trans. Misha Hoekstra) (Graywolf Press)

so-much-for-that-winter

Nors’ writing is by turns witty, gut wrenching, stark and lyrical. Her characters seesaw between longing for human connection and the space in which to lick their wounds. That she achieves all this while experimenting with form is something of an impossible feat. . . . Nors has created an exciting and artful literary diptych. —Los Angeles Times

12. Dog Years by Melissa Yancy (University of Pittsburgh Press)

dog-years

Melissa Yancy’s stories make me swoon with recognition. They’re funny and sad in the same breath; they’re incredibly well-executed; they’re about the endlessly fascinating machinery of relationships, about the weird intersections of medical technology and human dignity, and about the ways time catches up with everyone in the end. I’ve been waiting a long time for Yancy’s stories to be collected in a book; Dog Years is cause for celebration. —Anthony Doerr

13. On the Edge by Rafael Chirbes (trans. Margaret Jull Costa) (New Directions)

the-edge

This is the great novel of the crisis. The corrosive voice of Rafael Chirbes in On the Edge paints a portrait of a universe of unemployment and disappointment— the long hangover that follows the party of corruption. —El Pais

14. Suite For Barbara Loden by Nathalie Léger (trans. Natasha Lehrer & Cécile Menon) (Dorothy, A Publishing Project)

suite-for

Inventive and affecting, it takes both the novel and the biography to new and interesting places. —Eimear McBride

15. Black Deutschland by Darryl Pinckney (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

black-duetshland

Without a hint of sloganeering, Pinckney evokes in these scenes a melancholia that transcends his narrator, achieving something rare in fiction—an ­honestly-come-by sense of cultural and political sadness. . . . a significant contribution. —Adam Haslett, The New York Times

16. 99 Stories of God by Joy Williams (Tin House Books)

99-stories-of-god-rgb

From “quite possibly America’s best living writer of short stories” (NPR), Ninety-Nine Stories of God finds Joy Williams reeling between the sublime and the surreal, knocking down the barriers between the workaday and the divine.

17. The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead (Doubleday)

the-underground-railroad

[A] potent, almost hallucinatory novel… It possesses the chilling matter-of-fact power of the slave narratives collected by the Federal Writers’ Project in the 1930s, with echoes of Toni Morrison’s Beloved, Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables, Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man, and brush strokes borrowed from Jorge Luis Borges, Franz Kafka and Jonathan Swift…He has told a story essential to our understanding of the American past and the American present. —Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times

18. Neon Green by Margaret Wappler (Unnamed Press)

neon-green

Part historical novel, part alternative history, NEON GREEN captures the suburban-American experience at the cusp of the Internet Age, and asks its readers to consider what unites–and what threatens–a family. Strange yet accessible, goofy yet also, somehow, heartbreaking, this wonderfully original novel made me see everything around me in a new beguiling light: from my own family to the big unknowable sky above me. A debut to be reckoned with.  —Edan Lepucki

19. The Queen of the Night by Alexander Chee (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)

queen-of-the-night

The Queen of the Night is an astonishing universe into which its lucky readers can dissolve completely, metamorphosing alongside its shapeshifting protagonist. Lilliet Berne steals her name from a gravestone and launches into a life of full-throated song; her voice is an intoxicant, and this book is a glorious performance. Chee s enveloping, seductive prose is perfectly matched to the circus world of the opera. —Karen Russell, New York Times

20. Swing Time by Zadie Smith (Penguin Press)

swing-time

Smith’s most affecting novel in a decade, one that brings a piercing focus to her favorite theme: the struggle to weave disparate threads of experience into a coherent story of a self…As the book progresses, she interleaves chapters set in the present with ones that deal with memories of college, of home, of Tracey. It is a graceful technique, this metronomic swinging back and forth in time…The novel’s structure feels true to the effect of memory, the way we use the past as ballast for the present. And it feels true, too, to the mutable structure of identity, that complex, composite ‘we,’ liable to shift and break and reshape itself as we recall certain pieces of our earlier lives and suppress others. —Alexandra Schwartz, The New Yorker

21. The Book of Endless Sleepovers by Henry Hoke (Civil Coping Mechanisms)

book-of-endless-sleepovers

I love how Henry Hoke plays fast and loose with autobiography and genre. The Book of Endless Sleepovers is wry and finely-wrought, a philosophical fever dream studded with the pleasure of proper names and surprising turns of phrase, a lyric page-turner. —Maggie Nelson

22. Private Citizens by Tony Tulathimutte (William Morrow Paperbacks)

private-citizens

Tony Tulathimutte’s brilliant debut novel is hilarious and heartbreaking all at once–a spot-on, satifical portrait of modern San Francisco and the privilege that inhabits it…Brimming with wit and heart, Private Citizens is an impressive debut from a sharp new voice. —Buzzfeed

23. Here Lies Memory by Doug Rice (Black Scat Books)

here-lies-memory

How does memory write us? What fictions haunt our bodies and lives, and what truths do we construct to carry the weight of our selves? Doug Rice designs a brutally beautiful helix from dual narratives woven by and through love and loss. Between blindness and insight there live characters who, like all of us, story a way to go on in the face of buildings decaying, cities disappearing, hearts and bodies slipping toward ghost. Mother, sister, wife, grandfather, grandson, girl, boy…all identities move through desire, love, memory, and language in a place called Pittsburgh. Reading this book made my skin sing, my heart wail, a secular hymn of the body. —Lidia Yuknavitch

24. Grace by Natashia Deon (Counterpoint)

grace

Grace is a swirling wild ride into the sheer terror of slavery and the aftermath, a deep travel into the inexhaustible spirit of survival of her characters, and an eye into fields and forests which remain unforgettable. The women and men in this novel transcend all notions of what we’ve read before, and their bravery is tempered with a melancholy so deep it remains long after the last page. —Susan Straight

25. The Last Wolf & Herman by László Krasznahorkai (New Directions)

last-wolf

László Krasznahorkai is a visionary writer of extraordinary intensity and vocal range who captures the texture of present-day existence in scenes that are terrifying, strange, appallingly comic, and often shatteringly beautiful: magnificent works of deep imagination and complex passions, in which the human comedy verges painfully onto transcendence. — Marina Warner

26. Fish in Exile by Vi Khi Nao (Coffee House Press)

fish-in-exile

Here I was allowed to forget for a while that that is what books aspire to tell, so taken was I by more enthralling and mysterious pleasures. —Carole Maso

27. The Story of a Brief Marriage by Anuk Arudpragasam (Flatiron Books)

StoryOfABriefMarriage_Anuk_change_colors_more_yellow

Brave…Brilliant…This is a book that makes one kneel before the elegance of the human spirit and the yearning that is at the essence of every life. —The New York Times Book Review

28. Here Comes the Sun by Nicole Dennis-Benn (Liveright)

here-comes-the-sun

{A] lithe, artfully-plotted debut….Margot is one of the reasons to read this book. She is a startling, deeply memorable character. All of Ms. Dennis-Benn’s women are. The author has a gift for creating chiaroscuro portraits, capturing both light and dark….Here Comes the Sun is deceptively well-constructed, with slow and painful reveals right through the end. — Jennifer Senior, The New York Times

29. Where We Go When All We Were Is Gone by Sequoia Nagamatsu (Black Lawrence Press)

where-we-go

Sequoia Nagamatsu’s universe is one in which modern Japan and its ancient folklore play in the same delightful puddle. Creepy, unnerving, and full of heart, these tales of love and demons, death and Godzilla, loss and possibility, will creep into your dreams and enchant your imagination. —Kelly Luce

30. Margaret The First by Danielle Dutton (Catapult)

51zngko99ol-_sx331_bo1204203200_

The duchess herself would be delighted at her resurrection in Margaret the First…. Dutton expertly captures the pathos of a woman whose happiness is furrowed with the anxiety of underacknowledgment. —Katharine Grant, The New York Times Book Review

31. I’m Thinking of Ending Things by Iain Reid (Simon and Schuster)

im-thinking

In a novel this engaging, bizarre, and twisted, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that its ending is even stranger than the narrative route that takes us there…but it does. Reid’s novel is a road trip to the heart of creepyness. – Sjón

32. The Gloaming by Melanie Finn (Two Dollar Radio)

the-gloaming

Deeply satisfying. Finn is a remarkably confident and supple storyteller. [The Gloaming] deserves major attention. —John Williams, New York Times

33. United States of Japan Book by Peter Tieryas (Angry Robot Books)

usojapan-144dpi

Mind-twisting and fiercely imaginative; Tieryas fuses classic sci-fi tradition with his own powerful vision. – Jay Posey

34. The Veins of the Ocean by Patricia Engel (Grove Press)

the-veins

Engel has an eye for detail. She knows how to drown the reader in a sense of enchantment . . . She writes exquisite moments. —Roxane Gay

35. Potted Meat by Steven Dunn (Tarpaulin Sky)

potted_meat

Steven Dunn’s Potted Meat is full of wonder and silence and beauty and strangeness and ugliness and sadness and truth and hope. I am so happy it is in the world. This book needs to be read. — Laird Hunt

36. Man and Wife by Katie Chase (A Strange Object)

man-and-wife

With sharp, confident consideration of what it takes to survive in the world as a woman, MAN AND WIFE introduces an important new literary voice. —Danielle Evans

37. Novi Sad by Jeff Jackson (Kiddie Punk)

novi_sad

This book will make you consider the power of our shadows, and of their dangers, too. The places of our imaginations, Jackson reminds us, are often so much more than real. — D. Foy

38. The Babysitter At Rest by Jen George (Dorothy, A Publishing Project)

jen-george

Her stories are at once poignant and disciplined in their abstraction, and hilarious in their inappropriate and reckless abandon. —Matthew Barney

39. Letters to Kevin by Stephen Dixon (Fantagraphics)

letterstokevin_cover

In this fictional prose novel, reminiscent of Scorsese’s After Hours, a New York man goes on a nightmare-logic adventure when he tries place a phone call.

40. Leaving Lucy Pear by Anna Solomon (Viking)

lucy-pear

Solomon’s strong prose and fleet pacing consistently provide the essential pleasures of a good story well told. . . . This is a book governed…by earnest empathy, a desire to give each character opportunities for growth and betterment, bravery and openness. —Maggie Shipstead, The New York Times Book Review

41. Falter Kingdom by Michael J. Seidlinger (Unnamed Press)

falter

Seidlinger continues his quest to become a literary chameleon, diving into new genres and remixing them into something wholly his own. His is a kingdom without borders. —Joshua Mohr

42. Of This New World by Allegra Hyde (University of Iowa Press)

513i7c4dz4l-_sx295_bo1204203200_

These extraordinary stories illuminate our hunger for utopias both earthly and transcendent, and the sometimes dangerous lure of love. In Of This New World, Allegra Hyde writes with a genius scientist’s impassioned inquiry, and a poet’s lyrical, exquisite precision. —Tara Ison

43. Seeing Red by Lina Meruane (trans. Megan McDowell) (Deep Vellum)

51ktqkpblzl-_sx316_bo1204203200_

A penetrating autobiographical novel, and for English-language readers this work serves as a stunning introduction to a remarkable author. — Publishers Weekly

44. Gaijin by Jordan Okumura (Civil Coping Mechanisms)

51exnlxtcdl-_sx326_bo1204203200_

And what is the measure of self inside grief? Jordan Okumura’s novel Gaijin is a body song. By weaving stories of loss and myth, Okumura brings an identity to life, half real, half imagined. I was mesmerized from start to finish. —Lidia Yuknavitch

45. Patricide by D. Foy (Stalking Horse Press)

patricide-cover-final-product

Patricide is a brooding, painful, and beautifully written book about being raised into damage by a damaged man. D. Foy has given us a how-to guide for the excision of the father and—just barely—the survival of it. —Brian Evenson

46. Your Heart Is a Muscle the Size of Your Fist by Sunil Yapa (Lee Boudreaux Books)

51ophbl1xyl-_sx321_bo1204203200_

A fantastic debut novel…. What is so enthralling about this novel is its syncopated riff of empathy as the perspective jumps around these participants–some peaceful, some violent, some determined, some incredulous… Yapa creates a fluid sense of the riot as it washes over the city. Your Heart is a Muscle the Size of a Fist ultimately does for WTO protests what Norman Mailer’s Armies of the Night did for the 1967 March on the Pentagon, gathering that confrontation in competing visions of what happened and what it meant. —Ron Charles

47. Whiskey, Etc. by Sherrie Flick (Queens’s Ferry Press)

612tgsiaetl-_sx327_bo1204203200_

Whiskey, Etc. by Sherrie Flick is a sharp–edged, intelligent, brilliantly written collection of short shorts by a writer at the very top of her game. One finds glimpses of Joy Williams here, but this is unmistakably Flick’s world, inhabited as it is with dogs & songs & whiskey & lovers. Of grace & undoing. The remembered & the remembering. This book took my every last breath away. —Kathy Fish

48. The Ugly by Alexander Boldizar (Brooklyn Arts Press)

9781936767472

A picaresque novel about mountain people, Harvard lawyers, the heft of rocks, and the power of words. THE UGLY brims with intelligence and humor. –Laila Lalami

49. Eleven Hours by Pamela Erens (Tin House Books)

41l5oob4kil-_sx321_bo1204203200_

Written with incredible clarity, the third novel from Erens (The Virgins) is a wonder, shifting between two protagonists with ease to tell a deeply personal narrative of childbirth, complete with tension, horror, and deep mature emotion. This novel does not sentimentalize the delivery of a child, but rather examines the surprise — mental and physical — that accompanies it. Labor stories are as old as time, but Erens’s novel feels incredibly fresh and vivid. An outstanding accomplishment.” —Publishers Weekly

50. Shelter in Place by Alexander Maksik (Europa Editions)

51oha6w2ml-_sx320_bo1204203200_

Alexander Maksik is a sorcerer of the first order, and Shelter in Place is a sharp, dark, jagged music conjured out of poetry, pain and ecstatic bursts of beauty. This is a powerful book. —Lauren Groff

51. Cities I’ve Never Lived In by Sara Majka (Graywolf Press)

41agmosi74l-_sx326_bo1204203200_

I still can’t get some of [Majka’s] perfect assessments of the human condition out of my head. Her writing is matter-of-fact (thought very beautiful), and her characters are sad, occasionally desperate. . . . She’s incredibly effective. ―The Cut

52. Wonderland by Sam Ligon (Art by Stephen Knezovich) (Lost Horse Press)

index

Wonderland is a fantastic collection of stories. Sam Ligon has mastered the art of capturing the sweet derangement of love. His characters are drunk with desire and reckless in all the right ways, and his prose is incandescent, absurd, wickedly funny and, in the end, achingly true.  —Steve Almond

53. Girls on Fire by Robin Wasserman (Harper)

51dma25v-7l-_sx339_bo1204203200_

Explores the line where close female friendships can blur into obsession and self-obliteration….At the heart of the dark story is an intoxicating and all-consuming friendship between two teenage girls. —New York Times

54. We Eat Our Own by Kea Wilson (Scribner)

index2

The jungle is alive and everywhere in Kea Wilson’s remarkable debut novel, gorgeous and indifferent, it’s ravening appetite the very real horror unleashed by human heedlessness and hubris. Denied all explanation of motivation by his Kurtz-like director, a young American actor finds himself on a harrowing journey, taking us with him—spellbound, resistless—into ‘one of the dark places of the earth.’ —Kathryn Davis

55. A Tree Or a Person Or a Wall: Stories by Matt Bell (Soho Press)

51mugjhabl-_sx331_bo1204203200_

 

Matt Bell has become a force in American literature and this is in no small part due to his flexibility in style… A Tree or a Person or a Wall is perhaps the most comprehensive example of his stylistic diversity.” —Vol. 1 Brooklyn

56. Among Strange Victims by Daniel Saldaña París (trans. Christina MacSweeney) (Coffee House Press)

amongstrange_web-356x535

Great fun are the jabs at academia, Mexico City and the dusty town where the action, or inaction, moves after Rodrigo meets Marcelo, a Spanish cretin with a Ph.D. in aesthetics. These flameless flâneurs humph and hump, personifying urban malaise. —New York Times Sunday Book Review

57. Square Wave by Mark de Silva (Two Dollar Radio)

square-wave

Square Wave is an experimental paean to process, to our oscillations between extremes, to the revolutions that come and go and the worlds they leave behind in the ping-ponging between the poles that lie at the hinterlands of human experience. —Tyler Malone, Los Angeles Times

58. Surveys by Natasha Stagg (MIT Press)

surveys

Stagg’s slim novel deftly explores the shifting landscape of celebrity through the story of a young woman’s rise from obscurity to Internet stardom—the “low numbers” to the “high ones”—after an online flirtation with a semifamous social media personality.—New York Times Book Review

59. Memoirs of a Polar Bear by Yoko Tawada (trans. Susan Bernofsky) (New Directions)

51yc2deibll-_sx355_bo1204203200_

In ‘Memoirs,’ when a polar bear walks into a bookstore or a grocery store, there are no troubles stemming from a lack of opposable thumbs. As with Kafka’s animal characters, we are freed to dislike them in the special way we usually reserve only for ourselves. —Rivka Galchen

60. Every Kind of Wanting by Gina Frangello (Counterpoint)

every-kind-of

[A] charming novel… She has subverted the old-fashioned suburban narrative, and filled it with a constellation of quirky characters… Frangello threads conflicts over ethnicity, class, and sexuality into the novel, and injects a smart topicality that gives it special resonance.—National Book Review

61. A Collapse of Horses: Stories by Brian Evenson (Coffeehouse Press)

colapse-of

Some of the stories here evoke Kafka, some Poe, some Beckett, some Roald Dahl, and one, a demonic teddy-bear chiller called “BearHeart™,” even Stephen King, but Evenson’s deadpan style always estranges them a bit from their models: He tells his odd tales oddly, as if his mouth were dry and the words won’t come out right. —New York Time Sunday Book Review

62. The Gardens of Consolation by Parisa Reza (trans. by Adriana Hunter) (Europa)

the-garden

an absorbing debut novel. Reza…succeeds in imbuing the Amir’s story with stirring sociopolitical importance…Talla is formidable, hard-to-forget heroine. —Publisher’s Weekly

63. Dahlia Cassandra by Nathaniel Kressen (Second Skin Books)

dahlia-cassandra-by-nathaniel-kressen

The most wonderful thing about the way Kressen writes is that he’s direct–digestible to many while still remaining literary. He has the classic skill of Salinger in this way. – PANK

64. Abahn Sabana David by Marguerite Duras (trans. Kazim Ali) (Open Letter Books)

abahn_sabana_david-front_large

Duras’s language and writing shine like crystals. —New Yorker

65. Commonwealth by Ann Patchett (Harper)

commonwealth

Patchett brings humanity, humor, and a disarming affection to lovable, struggling characters… Irresistible. (Library Journal)

66. The Birds by Tarjei Vesaas (Re-issue) (Archipelago Books)

the-birds

Mattis, the protagonist of … The Birds, surely deserves a place among the cadre of unforgettable characters in modern literature… Vesaas’s prose, spare and straightforward, soars with a poignancy of feeling… Mattis’s disability is the pivot upon which the novel unfolds and also serves to amplify the ways that “normal” people, too, are “handicapped.” Vesaas allows us see that without Mattis’s sensitivity, perceptivity, and honesty, we, too, are impaired, limited from living a full life. — Lori Feathers, World Literature Today

67.  Defiant Pose by Stewart Home (Re-issue) (Penny-Ante Press)

defiant

Defiant Pose simultaneously serves as both glorification and critique of this style of counter-culture, aggressively exposing itself and its subjects to the reader, to shock and satirize…The text is a kind of mimetic, fun-house mirror, intentionally distorting and objectifying but still ultimately showing a glaring reflection of a society with deep-seeded, otherwise ignored flaws. — Angel City Review

68. The Sleeping World by Gabrielle Lucille Fuentes (Touchstone)

the-sleeping-world

A searing, beautifully written novel that captures the exhilaration and dangers of 1970s post-Franco Spain. Mosca, a bitterly jaded young woman, goes on a harrowing search for her missing brother—and the history that destroyed their lives. Violent, heartbreaking, unforgettable, The Sleeping World is a stunning debut.”  — Cristina Garcia

69. The Story of Hong Gildong (translated from the Korean by Minsoo Kang) (Penguin)

story-of-hong

[A] marvel-filled swashbuckler…Besides being half fairy tale, half social protest novel, The Story of Hong Gildong possesses a profound resonance for modern Koreans.” —Michael Dirda, The Washington Post

70. Experimental Animals (A Reality Fiction) by Thalia Field (Solid Objects)

ExperAnimals FINAL1

Advancing what she started twenty years ago with her earliest explorations of essayistic fiction, Thalia Field has now composed what very well might be her life’s work—a tragic, comical, and utterly fascinating tale of a marriage that vividly encapsulates not only the origins of experimental medicine, but an entire age that spirited experiments in literature, science, engineering, film, etc. It’s nothing less than a history—gorgeously fictional, purposefully essayistic—of how we got where we are. —John D’Agata

 

Best of 2016: Best Fiction Books was last modified: December 3rd, 2016 by Entropy
Best of 2016
0 comment
2
Facebook Twitter Google + Pinterest
Avatar
Entropy

A new website featuring literary & non-literary content. A website that seeks to engage with the literary community, that becomes its own community, and creates a space for literary & non-literary ideas. About Entropy

previous post
Casting
next post
Five Problems with Reviewing Matt Hart

You may also like

BLACKCACKLE: Preliminary Report of the Mount Sinai Focus Group

April 12, 2019

Dogs in Space

October 24, 2014

Best of 2019: Best Online Articles & Essays

December 16, 2019

Potential*Emergency*Minecraft

October 29, 2016
Facebook Twitter Instagram

Recent Comments

  • Lei Yu wow so beautifully written!

    Review – : once teeth bones coral : by Kimberly Alidio ·  January 18, 2021

  • Lisa S Thank you so much for your kind words and your feedback. I can only hope my story is able to help someone who needs it.

    WOVEN: This isn’t love ·  January 8, 2021

  • Ann Guy Thank you, Josh. And glad you didn’t get tetanus at band camp on that misguided day.

    A Way Back Home ·  December 24, 2020

Featured Columns & Series

  • The Birds
  • Dinnerview
  • WOVEN
  • Variations on a Theme
  • BLACKCACKLE
  • Literacy Narrative
  • COVID-19
  • Mini-Syllabus
  • Their Days Are Numbered
  • On Weather
  • Disarticulations
  • The Waters
  • Session Report series
  • Birdwolf
  • Comics I've Been Geeking Out On
  • Small Press Releases
  • Books I Hate (and Also Some I Like)
  • The Poetics of Spaces
  • Fog or a Cloud
  • Tales From the End of the Bus Line
  • 30 Years of Ghibli
  • Cooking Origin Stories
  • YOU MAKE ME FEEL
  • Ludic Writing
  • Best of 2019
  • The Talking Cure
  • Stars to Stories
  • DRAGONS ARE REAL OR THEY ARE DEAD
  • Foster Care
  • Food and Covid-19
  • LEAKY CULTURE
  • Jem and the Holographic Feminisms
  • D&D with Entropy

Find Us On Facebook

Entropy
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram

©2014-2020 The Accomplices LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Read our updated Privacy Policy.


Back To Top