11 Fiction Books We Can’t Wait to Read in 2022

Jean Hanff Korelitz, the New York Times bestselling author of The Plot, returns this May with a nuanced family drama: The Latecomer. The intricately plotted story centers on the Oppenheimers, a wealthy yet fractured New York City clan — parents Salo and Johanna, and their triplets born via IVF, Harrison, Lewyn, and Sally. The triplets have been at odds since birth, but when they leave for college, their mother decides to add a fourth child to their already fragile dynamic. What role will this “latecomer” play in their lives?

Publication date: May 31, 2022

Fans of Margaret Atwood or the spellbinding tales of Shirley Jackson are sure to love Alexis Schaitkin’s (Saint X) lyrical, deeply evocative new novel. Elsewhere takes place in an isolated mountain village, where girls become women who then become wives and mothers — and then some of the mothers simply vanish into thin air. The baffling affliction seems to strike at random, which keeps the women of the village — including Vera, whose own mother disappeared years ago — speculating about their own fate. As Vera and her peers approach the age of motherhood, they scrutinize one another for clear signs of approaching disappearance and wonder whether they’ll be the next to go.

Publication date: June 28, 2022

George Dawes Green’s mesmerizing new novel The Kingdoms of Savannah hits shelves this summer, and we could not be more excited. The Moth founder’s book invites readers into the dark underbelly of Savannah, Georgia, far away from its turreted mansions and romantic city streets. A local has been murdered, and his companion has disappeared. Domineering socialite and known conniver Morgana Musgrove makes for an unlikely detective — and yet she’s soon tasked with cracking the mystery. One by one, Morgana enlists the help of her reluctant adult children in an investigation that spans Savannah’s impoverished outskirts and its old-money enclaves and will expose the terrifying truth at the core of the fabled city.

Publication date: July 19, 2022

Lucy Foley, the celebrated author of The Guest List, returns with an exhilarating locked-room mystery that we can’t wait to crack. The Paris Apartment is set inside a menacing Parisian apartment building where each resident, it seems, has something to hide. Jess, the novel’s protagonist, plans to visit her half-brother Ben. When she arrives at the door to his swanky flat, however, Jess discovers that he is missing. As Jess investigates Ben’s disappearance and speaks with his shifty neighbors, she soon realizes that all is not well in the building —and clearly the residents know more than they’re letting on.

Publication date: February 22, 2022

Emily St. John Mandel, the award-winning author of Station Eleven, returns with her newest novel this spring, and it’s sure to be an exhilarating ride. Sea of Tranquility begins on Vancouver Island circa 1912 and stretches 500 years into the future on a Moon colony. Det. Gaspery-Jacques Roberts is tasked with investigating an anomaly in the North American wilderness, and he finds traces of multiple lives — including those of Edwin St. Andrew, the exiled son of an earl who centuries ago heard a mysterious violin echoing through the Canadian forests, and Olive Llewellyn, a present-day writer who lives on the Moon and who wrote about the same haunting violin sounds in her pandemic novel. If you’re a fan of St. John Mandel’s brilliant and deeply felt narratives or intrigued by time travel and space colonies, add this one to your list immediately.

Publication date: April 5, 2022

Award-winning author Hanya Yanagihara’s highly anticipated new novel promises an unforgettable literary experience, interweaving three sweeping stories of life and love set across three different American time periods. The first narrative thread of To Paradise begins in a reimagined 1893 America, in which New York belongs to the Free States, and where a young scion is being encouraged to marry someone he does not love. The second thread, set in 1993 Manhattan at the height of the AIDS epidemic, features a young Hawaiian man who lives with his older, wealthier partner. The third thread leaps forward into a frightening vision of 2093, where totalitarianism rules, the world is besieged by plagues, and a young woman fights to solve the mystery of her husband’s disappearance.

Publication date: January 11, 2022

Written by bestselling author Isabel Allende, Violeta follows one Violeta del Valle over the course of her extraordinary 100-year life. The story is told in the form of a letter, in which Violeta vividly recounts her upbringing in early-20^th-century South America, her family’s fight for survival during the Great Depression and the Spanish flu, and her own experiences with poverty, prosperity, heartbreak, loss, and joy. Bristling with humor and pathos, Violeta is a vivid reminder of the traces we leave behind and the lasting impact that world events have on our lives.

Publication date: January 25, 2022

From the author of The Sun Down Motel comes a thrilling novel about Shea Collins, a full-time receptionist and part-time true-crime blogger who narrowly escaped being abducted when she was a child. Shea secures an exceptional opportunity for her blog: interviewing Beth Greer, a wealthy recluse who was accused — and then acquitted — of committing two high-profile murders 30 years ago. But as Shea begins meeting with Beth at her sprawling mansion, she gets the creeping suspicion that something is wrong. Is the Greer house haunted, or has Shea fallen under the spell of a manipulative murderer?

Publication date: March 15, 2022

Moon Witch, Spider King is the new novel from Booker Prize–winning author Marlon James and the second installment in the author’s Dark Star trilogy. The sweeping narrative melds the best of epic myth and fantasy fiction with a reimagined version of ancient Africa. Fans of Black Leopard, Red Wolf, the first installment in the Dark Star trilogy, know it centered on a mercenary’s search for a mysterious boy. In Moon Witch, Spider King, the narrative is told from the perspective of Sogolon, a 177-year-old witch who served as the antagonist in the first book and here tells her side of the story.

Publication date: February 15, 2022

New York Times bestselling author Jacquelyn Mitchard’s newest novel contains everything we love in a good winter read: intrigue, redemption, family drama, and a tight-knit community buzzing with secrets. The Good Son centers on Thea Demetriou, a mother struggling to understand her son Stefan after his release from prison. Three years ago, Stefan was convicted of the drug-fueled murder of his high school girlfriend. Now 20 years old and hardened by his time behind bars, Stefan is a shadow of his former self. Thea must learn to reconnect with her child and reckon with his past, all while navigating the community’s outrage at Stefan’s release and uncovering the truth about the night of the murder.

Publication date: January 18, 2022