Granta | The Home of New Writing

Explore Essays and memoir

Best Book of 1998: 253

Carmen Maria Machado

Carmen Maria Machado on why Geoff Ryman’s 253 is the best book of 1998.

Best Book of 2000: The Last Samurai by Helen DeWitt

Anne Meadows

‘It is the novel I have read which best expresses the honest and sad truth of art: that it is often produced in precarity and performed in near silence, but that it can also redeem a life.’

Best Book of 2013:
The Crocodiles

Noor Naga

Noor Naga on why The Crocodiles by Youssef Rakha is the best book of 2013.

Best Book of 2013: Tom Drury’s Pacific

John Patrick McHugh

‘There is a remarkable flow to the novel, like that aimless but essential drunken chatter after your third pint.’ John Patrick McHugh on why Tom Drury’s Pacific is the best book of 2013.

Best Book of 2014: H is for Hawk

Chigozie Obioma

Chigozie Obioma on Helen Macdonald’s H is for Hawk, the best book of 2014.

Best Book of 2015: After The Dance

Dimitry Elias Léger

Dimitry Elias Léger on why Jan Gaye's After the Dance is the best book of 2015.

Best book of 2015: The Argonauts

Lucia Osborne-Crowley

Lucia Osborne-Crowley on why The Argonauts by Maggie Nelson is the best book of 2015.

Best Book of 2015: Thus Were Their Faces by Silvina Ocampo

Valerie Miles

‘Time is a rubber band, and in a single sentence, ghosts and alternative worlds superimpose’

Best Book of 2016: Joanne Kyger’s On Time

Hoa Nguyen

Hoa Nguyen on why Joanne Kyger’s On Time is the best book of 2016.

Best Book of 2017: Shadowbahn

Jonathan Lethem

Jonathan Lethem on why Steve Erickson's Shadowbahn is the best book of a year to come.

Best Book of Any Year: A Thousand and One Nights

Mazen Maarouf

Mazen Maarouf on why A Thousand and One Nights is the best book of any year.

Best Story of 1992: ‘Mlle. Dias de Corta’

Mary O’Donoghue

Mary O’Donoghue on why Mavis Gallant‘s ‘Mlle. Dias de Corta’ is the best story of 1992.

Big Money

Dinaw Mengestu

‘In a city as sprawling and as proud of its architectural grandeur as Chicago, such an emphasis on size seemed only fitting.’

Blind Bitter Happiness

Adam Mars-Jones

‘Sheila was both a wanted and an unwanted child.’