Year-End Lists

Joseph Salvatore: Best 50 Books of 2017, as published by The Brooklyn Rail

Nonfiction

1. China Lake

   A Journey into the Contradicted Heart of a Global Climate Catastrophe
   Barret Baumgart
2. The Best We Could Do

   An Illustrated Memoir
   Thi Bui
3. Cornell ’77

   The Music, the Myth, and the Magnificence of the Grateful Dead’s Concert at Barton Hall
   Peter Conners
4. Je Suis L’Autre

   Essays & Interrogations
   Kristina Marie Darling
5. Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race
   Reni Eddo-Lodge
6. The Death and Life of the Great Lakes
   Dan Egan
7. The Doubles
   Scott Esposito
8. Do I Make Myself Clear?

   Why Writing Well Matters
   Harold Evans
9. Abandon Me
   Melissa Febos
10. World Without Mind

    The Existential Threat of Big Tech
    Franklin Foer
11. Shirley Jackson

    A Rather Haunted Life
    Ruth Franklin
12. Hunger

    A Memoir of (My) Body
    Roxane Gay
13. Sunshine State
    Sarah Gerard
14. Killers of the Flower Moon

    The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI
    David Grann
15. Knowing Knott

    Essays on an American Poet
    Edited by Steven Huff
16. Question Like a Face
    Christine Hume and Jeff Clark
17. Literary Witches

    A Celebration of Magical Women Writers
    Taisia Kitaiskaia
18. After Kathy Acker
    Chris Kraus
19. Tell Me How It Ends

    An Essay in 40 Questions
    Valeria Luiselli
20. Draft No. 4

    On the Writing Process
    John McPhee
21. After the Eclipse

    A Mother’s Murder, a Daughter’s Search
    Sarah Perry
22. The Mother of All Questions
    Rebecca Solnit
23. The Blood of Emmett Till
    Timothy B. Tyson
24. Among the Living and the Dead

    A Tale of Exile and Homecoming on the War Roads of Europe
    Inara Verzemnieks
25. The Show That Never Ends

    The Rise and Fall of Prog Rock
    David Weigel

Fiction

1. The Power
   Naomi Alderman
2. The Hunger Saint
   Olivia Kate Cerrone
3. So Many Olympic Exertions
   Anelise Chen
4. American War
   Omar El Akkad
5. Future Home of the Living God
   Louise Erdrich
6. The Gypsy Moth Summer
   Julia Fierro
7. The Iliac Crest
   Cristina Rivera Garza
8. The Epiphany Machine
   David Burr Gerrard
9. The Gargoyle Hunters
   John Freeman Gill
10. Bad Dreams and Other Stories
    Tessa Hadley
11. Exit West
    Mohsin Hamid
12. A Separation
    Katie Kitamura
13. The Leavers
    Lisa Ko
14. Stranger, Father, Beloved
    Taylor Larsen
15. Pachinko
    Min Jin Lee
16. Dear Cyborgs
    Eugene Lim
17. Her Body and Other Parties
    Carmen Maria Machado
18. The Ninth Hour
    Alice McDermott
19. My Heart Hemmed In
    Marie NDiaye
20. Little Fires Everywhere
    Celeste Ng
21. The Standard Grand
    Jay Baron Nicorvo
22. Heritage of Smoke
    Josip Novakovich
23. Refrigerated Music for a Gleaming Woman
    Aimee Parkison
24. Wait Till You See Me Dance
    Deb Olin Unferth
25. Sour Heart
    Jenny Zhang