The 57 Most Anticipated Books of 2021

Release date: Jan. 5

Mateo Askaripour fuses humor and social criticism in Black Buck, the tale of a once-unambitious young man swept into the sales business at a buzzy new tech start-up. As the only Black man at the company, our young hero reimagines himself as Buck, a smooth-talking and quick-witted salesman capable of doing anything to seal the deal. But when his life and family start to slip away, Buck resets with a new goal: taking down the system from the inside.

Release date: Jan. 5

In a can't-miss debut, Robert Jones, Jr. fashions a nuanced story of love and legacy. Isaiah and Samuel are lovers enslaved on the same plantation in the Deep South who build a home for each other in the safety of a shed. But their bond is threatened when their master’s hateful words spread mistrust and division in their community.

Release date: Jan. 5

Blythe Connor has a daughter, but their connection is…off. When she attempts to tell her husband, Fox, he dismisses her concerns as fantasy and falsehood. In turn, Blythe starts to question her sanity, only to discover a deep connection with her next child, a son. So what’s wrong with Violet? This psychological drama is a twisty, shocking examination of the complicated emotions that come with motherhood. 

Release date: Jan. 5

This piercing critique of the commodification of feminism—and the communities it inevitably ignores or outright excludes—is an urgent addition to anti-racist education. Koa Beck equips her readers with data, cultural analysis, and razor-sharp arguments to demonstrate why feminism must evolve and how we can start the process today. 

Release date: Jan. 5

Sisters Maika and Maritza Moulite turn a racist phrase on its head, weaving it into a sterling story of a young Black girl killed by police and the way her memory is co-opted.

Release date: Jan. 12

Angie Thomas makes her long-awaited return to The Hate U Give universe in this prequel to her smash YA hit. Set 17 years before the events of her first novel, Concrete Rose follows teenager Maverick Carter as unanticipated fatherhood changes everything he thought he knew about the trajectory of his life. When he decides to stop dealing drugs to focus on his child, he soon finds out going straight isn’t as easy as he thought. 

Release date: Jan. 12

One of the most respected authors of our time is back with a wise, whimsical celebration of the great Russian writers and all they still have to teach us. Pulled from the classes he teaches at Syracuse University, A Swim In A Pond In The Rain is a seven-essay peek into Saunders's mind, as well as Chekhov's, Tolstoy's, and more. 

Release date: Jan. 12

In this shattering memoir that combines image and text to reveal a portrait of home, Danielle Geller pieces together the story of her mother’s life—what led her to alcoholism, how she loved her daughter, and why she left the Navajo reservation she once called her own. 

Release date: Jan. 12

Sydney-born author Madeleine Watts draws readers into a dizzying account of anxiety in this tale of crises both intimate and global. The narrator, who remains unnamed—a clever choice on Watts' behalf—works as a 911 operator temporarily plunged into dozens of crises across Sydney that begin to color her home life. As she becomes increasingly self-destructive, readers also follow a separate story of her distant ancestor, who searched Australia for a mythical "inland sea"—and never found it. 

Release date: Jan. 12

A deeply introspective story of identity and how it affects our psyches, Aftershocks chronicles Nadia Owusu's perpetual search to understand her own body. The daughter of a Ghanaian United Nations official and an Armenian American mother, both of whom harbored secrets and dreams that intervened in young Owusu's life, she writes her way through her own depression and uncertainty to a powerful revelation. This is a magnificent, complex assessment of selfhood and why it matters. 

Release date: Jan. 12

A refreshingly messy account of gender and family, Detransition, Baby follows couple Reese and Amy, trans women living simply but happily in New York City—until their relationship shifts when Amy detransitions and becomes Ames. Their relationship ends, Reese begins a series of dissatisfying hookups with married men, and Ames starts a relationship with his boss, Katrina. Then Katrina gets pregnant. Can the three of them cobble together an unorthodox family and raise this child, or are some relationships doomed to fail? 

Release date: Jan. 19

Searing and intimate, journalist and Good Housekeeping staff writer Lizz Schumer's coming-of-age memoir wrestles with religion, femininity, food, and the many ways outside influences color our perception of self. Reading these deeply moving essays and poems feels like parachuting into another person's consciousness—unsettling and powerful all at once. 

Release date: Jan. 26

The superhero narrative can easily follow a regurgitate-and-repeat formula, which makes it all the more enticing when a truly original take on the genre comes along. Mike Chen's novel is one such invention, following odd couple Jamie and Zoe, who both suffer from memory loss. Well, that, and they also have superpowers: Jamie's is reading and erasing memories, and Zoe's is super-speed and strength. When an ominous threat appears, they must decide whether to put aside their personal interests and team up—or continue to save their abilities for themselves. 

Release date: Jan. 26

One of the most legendary figures in all of literature and journalism, Joan Didion's new collection deserves attention, in part, because it is from Joan Didion. But there's reason for additional excitement: These essays are gathered from the very beginning of her long career, which started back in the 1960s. Covering many seemingly disparate topics—WWII, Martha Stewart, the function of the press—this collection promises to reveal a side of Didion that's both familiar and strikingly fresh. 

Release date: Jan. 26

As angry and unflinching as it is tender, Melanie Finn's The Hare is the tale of trapped womanhood—and all the violence and desperation that goes into escaping it. Protagonist Rosie trails her lover, the wealthy con man Bennett, to Vermont, only for his betrayal to leave her vulnerable and alone. Hardened by poverty and freezing winters, she grows into a wise but bitter woman slowly inching toward something like freedom. 

Release date: Feb. 2

In this painfully resonant memoir, cultural critic Rebecca Carroll transports readers to her childhood in rural New Hampshire, where she was the only Black person in her hometown. Adopted into a loving white family, she struggled to reconcile the feelings of separation, difference, and even resentment that characterized her childhood until she left home for a series of turbulent stops in different cities. There, she slowly peeled back the layers of her identity and finds love in her chosen Black family. It makes for an intense but enlightening story of how we understand ourselves and what it takes to understand each other.

Release date: Feb. 2

A stirring and brilliant collection of stories probing the contradictions and beauties of modern China, Te-Ping Chen's debut is both love letter and sharp social criticism. Through scenes firmly planted in reality as well as tales of the bizarre and magical, Chen reveals portraits lovingly rendered with insight from her years as a reporter with the Wall Street Journal. 

Release date: Feb. 2

One of those rare feel-good novels that also crackles with wisdom, This Close to Okay introduces readers to two characters who will come to feel like cherished friends. Tallie is a recently divorced therapist who discovers Emmett on the edge of a bridge. She convinces him to stick around for another day, and the two return to her home to trade stories. Over the course of a single weekend, their many conversations on love, loss, grief, and joy coalesce into a primer on human goodness.

Release date: Feb. 2

If the "Florida Man" memes pulled from years of headlines have taught us anything, it's that the Sunshine State is its own world, unique from any other American region. In enchanting prose, debut storyteller Dantiel W. Moniz plunges readers head first into the lives of oft-misunderstood Floridians and their personal crises, stitching together a portrait that feels both original and startlingly familiar. 

Release date: Feb. 2

An eagerly awaited follow-up from the author of The Nightingale and The Great Alone, The Four Winds chronicles a community in the Dust Bowl. Forced to decide between her beloved but dying home and an uncertain future in California, protagonist Elsa Martinelli becomes an emblem of the American Dream—and why its promise still hold so much power today.