Satire

Vanishing World

By Sayaka Murata, Translated by Ginny Tapley Takemori

In 2018, Sayaka Murata’s first novel to be translated into English, Convenience Store Woman, was a surprise hit, becoming remarkably popular for a book so openly critical of social precepts in a way that was both culturally specific to Japan and also resonant for an American audience and across the globe. Murata took her quietly radical ideas about marriage, sex and conformity and only made them louder in Earthlings. Vanishing World appears to go even further, set in a version of Japan where sex between married couples is taboo.

In 2018, Sayaka Murata’s first novel to be translated into English, Convenience Store Woman, was a surprise hit, becoming remarkably popular for a book so openly critical of social precepts in a way that was both culturally specific to Japan and also resonant for an…

Woo Woo

By Ella Baxter

Woo Woo tells the story of self-obsessed conceptual artist Sabine Rossi’s brush with a stalker, while deftly sending up that subtype of conceptual art that is, as one critic writes of Sabine’s work, “contrived, boring, and egotistical.”

Woo Woo tells the story of self-obsessed conceptual artist Sabine Rossi’s brush with a stalker, while deftly sending up that subtype of conceptual art that is, as one critic writes of Sabine’s work, “contrived, boring, and egotistical.”

Rejection

By Tony Tulathimutte

Tony Tulathimutte’s facility with verbal stunt-piloting borders on the dazzling in Rejection, a novel in seven stories that chronicles vivid responses to the experience of being turned down, or turned away.

Tony Tulathimutte’s facility with verbal stunt-piloting borders on the dazzling in Rejection, a novel in seven stories that chronicles vivid responses to the experience of being turned down, or turned away.

The Book of George

By Kate Greathead

Kate Greathead’s delicious understatement and ironic humor makes The Book of George an irresistible portrait of a lovably frustrating mediocre man.

Kate Greathead’s delicious understatement and ironic humor makes The Book of George an irresistible portrait of a lovably frustrating mediocre man.

Colored Television

By Danzy Senna

Danzy Senna’s tale of a novelist’s venture into Hollywood is hilarious even as the reader senses the despair beneath the laughs. Colored Television is the perfect story for our times.

Danzy Senna’s tale of a novelist’s venture into Hollywood is hilarious even as the reader senses the despair beneath the laughs. Colored Television is the perfect story for our times.

Corey Fah Does Social Mobility

By Isabel Waidner

Isabel Waidner has caught lightning in a bottle with this comedic romp through a queer, absurdist world.

Isabel Waidner has caught lightning in a bottle with this comedic romp through a queer, absurdist world.

Yellowface

By R.F. Kuang

Poignant and provocative, Yellowface is an in-your-face satirical novel with layered commentary on discrimination, social media and creative freedom.

Poignant and provocative, Yellowface is an in-your-face satirical novel with layered commentary on discrimination, social media and creative freedom.

Blue Skies

By T.C. Boyle

Ever the maximalist, T.C. Boyle inflicts one disaster after another to show the perils of climate change in his novel Blue Skies.

Ever the maximalist, T.C. Boyle inflicts one disaster after another to show the perils of climate change in his novel Blue Skies.

The Thing in the Snow

By Sean Adams

Sean Adams has dialed down the dystopian quotient from his first satirical novel, The Heap, but that element is still very much present in The Thing in the Snow.

Sean Adams has dialed down the dystopian quotient from his first satirical novel, The Heap, but that element is still very much present in The Thing in the Snow.

The Lemon

By S.E. Boyd

The zip line plot of S.E. Boyd’s The Lemon slings the reader from one hilariously fraught incident to the next, and the conclusion is as emotionally satisfying as ever an author—or three—could have concocted.

The zip line plot of S.E. Boyd’s The Lemon slings the reader from one hilariously fraught incident to the next, and the conclusion is as emotionally satisfying as ever an author—or three—could have concocted.

Our Country Friends

By Gary Shteyngart

A country home becomes a site of bottomless drama for eight characters during the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.

A country home becomes a site of bottomless drama for eight characters during the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Every

By Dave Eggers

Unplug your Alexa and toss your Apple Watch. The Every, a companion to Dave Eggers’ previous novel, The Circle, will likely scare the bejesus out of you.

Unplug your Alexa and toss your Apple Watch. The Every, a companion to Dave Eggers’ previous novel, The Circle, will likely scare the bejesus out of you.

A Special Place for Women

By Laura Hankin

Halfway through A Special Place for Women, the book you think you’re reading turns into something else entirely.

Halfway through A Special Place for Women, the book you think you’re reading turns into something else entirely.

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