Year-End Lists

The Economist: Best Books of 2022

[see also 2023 • 2021 • 2012]

Politics and current affairs

• The Impossible City

  A Hong Kong Memoir
  Karen Cheung
• There Are No Accidents
  Jessie Singer
• Confidence Man

  The Making of Donald Trump and the Breaking of America
  Maggie Haberman
• We Have Tired of Violence

  A True Story of Murder, Memory, and the Fight for Justice in Indonesia
  Matt Easton
• The Naked Don't Fear the Water

  An Underground Journey with Afghan Refugees
  Matthieu Aikins
• The Age of the Strongman

  How the Cult of the Leader Threatens Democracy around the World
  Gideon Rachman
• The Economic Weapon

  The Rise of Sanctions as a Tool of Modern War
  Nicholas Mulder

Business and economics

• Money Men

  A Hot Startup, A Billion Dollar Fraud, A Fight for the Truth
  Dan McCrum
• Chip War

  The Fight for the World's Most Critical Technology
  Chris Miller
• Dead in the Water

  A True Story of Hijacking, Murder, and a Global Maritime Conspiracy
  Matthew Campbell & Kit Chellel
• The Power Law

  Inside Silicon Valley's Venture Capital Machine
  Sebastian Mallaby
• For Profit

  A History of Corporations
  William Magnuson
• Butler to the World

  How Britain Helps the World's Worst People Launder Money, Commit Crimes, and Get Away with Anything
  Oliver Bullough
• Slouching Towards Utopia

  An Economic History of the Twentieth Century
  J. Bradford DeLong
• Power Failure

  The Rise and Fall of General Electric
  William D. Cohan

Biography and memoir

• The Escape Artist

  The Man Who Broke Out of Auschwitz to Warn the World
  Jonathan Freedland
• The Facemaker

  A Visionary Surgeon's Battle to Mend the Disfigured Soldiers of World War I
  Lindsey Fitzharris
• Agatha Christie

  An Elusive Woman
  Lucy Worsley
• The Huxleys

  An Intimate History of Evolution
  Alison Bashford
• Inventor of the Future

  The Visionary Life of Buckminster Fuller
  Alec Nevala-Lee
• Hayek

  A Life
  Bruce Caldwell and Hansjoerg Klausinger

History

• Budapest

  Between East and West
  Victor Sebestyen
• The Siege of Loyalty House

  A Civil War Story
  Jessie Childs
• The Serpent Coiled in Naples
  Marius Kociejowski
• A Pipeline Runs Through It

  The Story of Oil from Ancient Times to the First World War
  Keith Fisher
• The World

  A Family History of Humanity
  Simon Sebag Montefiore

Fiction

• The Candy House
  Jennifer Egan
• Maror
  Lavie Tidhar
• Still Born
  Guadalupe Nettel
• The Trees
  Percival Everett
• Small Things Like These
  Claire Keegan
• When We Were Birds
  Ayanna Lloyd Banwo

Culture and ideas

• Of Boys and Men

  Why the Modern Male Is Struggling, Why It Matters, and What to Do about It
  Richard V. Reeves
• Life Is Hard

  How Philosophy Can Help Us Find Our Way
  Kieran Setiya
• The Subplot

  What China Is Reading and Why It Matters
  Megan Walsh
• Papyrus

  The Invention of Books in the Ancient World
  Irene Vallejo
• Magnificent Rebels

  The First Romantics and the Invention of the Self
  Andrea Wulf

Science and technology

• The Song of the Cell

  An Exploration of Medicine and the New Human
  Siddhartha Mukherjee
• Elusive

  How Peter Higgs Solved the Mystery of Mass
  Frank Close
• An Immense World

  How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us
  Ed Yong
• Beyond Measure

  The Hidden History of Measurement from Cubits to Quantum Constants
  James Vincent
• The Equality Machine

  Harnessing Digital Technology for a Brighter, More Inclusive Future
  Orly Lobel
• This Mortal Coil

  A History of Death
  Andrew Doig