2024 has been a year of literary milestones, blockbuster book releases, and celebrating authors new and old.
Exciting debuts became critically acclaimed bestsellers, while beloved authors such as Jacqueline Wilson and Haruki Murakami returned with hotly anticipated new novels. August marked the 100-year anniversary of James Baldwin ’s birth, offering an opportunity to reflect on the writer and social activist’s far-reaching cultural legacy . And in October, Han Kang became the first-ever South Korean author to receive the Nobel Literature Prize, shining a spotlight on the vast and varied canon of Korean fiction available to read in English.
In the world of non-fiction, Richard Flanagan became the first former Booker Prize winner to also scoop the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction, thanks to his genre-bending memoir Question 7 Empireland Sathnam Sanghera and Sapiens Yuval Noah Harari .
From award-winning novels to memoirs that made a splash, we’ve rounded up our selection of the books that shaped 2024.
The best novels of 2024
Samantha Harvey scooped the 2024 Booker Prize with this short yet expansive novel, praised by Chair Judge Edmund de Waal for the author’s “intensity of attention to the precious and precarious world we share.” Told through beautifully lyrical prose, Orbital follows four astronauts and two cosmonauts as they grapple with close-quarter living, work, homesickness, grief and more, all the while observing Earth from their extraordinary vantage point on the International Space Station.
This true-crime-inspired novel by debut author Jennie Godfrey was an instant Sunday Times bestseller when it hit shelves in February. In a West Yorkshire town rocked by the Yorkshire Ripper murders, pre-teen Miv and her best friend Sharon take matters into their own hands and methodically investigate all the suspicious people and things on their street. By forming a list of their findings, they plan to solve the case that's haunting Yorkshire – and make some surprising discoveries along the way.
Critically acclaimed author Hisham Matar won the Orwell Prize for Political Fiction for this moving, intricate novel inspired by real events of Libya’s recent history. My Friends follows Khaled, Mustafa and Hosam, three Libyan men living in London, bound by a shared history and the pain of exile. As their home country contends with revolution, the three friends will have to choose between the lives they have created for themselves and the world they left behind, ultimately pushing them down diverging paths.
Haruki Murakami’s first novel in six years takes enchanting worldbuilding to a whole new level. Its story revolves around a protagonist whose girlfriend has mysteriously vanished; his quest to find her takes him to an imaginary, fantastical walled city, where he discovers that she is working in a dream library – and has no memory of him. Perfect for bibliophiles, this otherworldly tale is both a love story and a love letter to books wrapped in one.
The winner of this year’s Waterstones Debut Fiction Prize was hailed for its unique comedic edge that brings a modern Irish voice to a classical context. Set amid the Peloponnesian War, Glorious Exploits follows unemployed potters and childhood friends Lampo and Gelon, who both harbour a love for all things Greek poetry and plays. Eager to hear snippets of their favourite works, the pair barter with enemy Athenian soldiers trapped and starving after their failed invasion of Sicily. But plans for a full-blown production of Medea spark a remarkable and perilous chain of events.
Richard Osman has earned a loyal fanbase with his bestselling The Thursday Murder Club seriesWe Solve Murders sees former investigator Steve Wheeler coming out of retirement to help his daughter-in-law Amy, who, while working as a security officer on a private island, stumbles across a dead body, a bag of cash, and a killer who wants her dead. The unlikely detective duo team up to race across the world to solve the mystery – and try to stay alive.
Nobel Prize-winning author Gabriel Garcia Marquez was – and remains – one of the world’s most revered and visionary writers, having shaped the genre of magical realism with influential classics such as One Hundred Years of Solitude . Until August is his extraordinary lost novel about a woman who, once a year, travels to her late mother’s resting place and – despite being happily married – takes a new lover for a one-night affair. This gripping exploration of desire, freedom, fear, and love is not to be missed.
Ellie, Magda and Nadine were the trio of best friends who experienced their first heartbreaks and friendship fallouts in Jacqueline Wilson’s iconic Girls series for young adult readers. But what happened to them after they left Year 9? Think Again is Wilson’s adult sequel that revisits the three friends, now aged 40. It’s an uplifting read about lifelong friendship, taking control of your life, and finding joy in unexpected places.
Jodi Picoult’s first ever historical novel alternates between Elizabethan London and present-day New York. In both timelines, a talented playwright is determined to have her voice heard – even if it means concealing her identity. Inspired by the true story of Emilia Bassano, England’s first professional female poet and believed by some to be the real author of Shakespeare’s works, By Any Other Name is an immersive read and poignant reflection on the enduring obstacles faced by women in the arts. Read our interview with Picoult to learn more about the story behind her historical fiction debut.
The best non-fiction books of 2024
When anti-corruption campaigner Alexei Navalny was nearly killed by poisoning in 2020, his name reverberated around the world – and did so again when the world learned about his untimely death in 2024. PATRIOT tells his incredible life story, penned as he recovered from his near-fatal poisoning, including never-before-seen diary entries from his imprisonment in Siberia. Navalny’s words are raw, inspiring, and inflected with his characteristic wit and message of hope.
Empireworld by Sathnam Sanghera Empireland Empireworld , the journalist and award-winning author turns his attention outwards, as he travels the world to trace the complex, lasting and far-reaching global legacy of the British Empire.
Read an extract from Empireworld here .
This year’s winner of the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction is a sweeping, genre-bending memoir and that flows as beautifully as a dream-like novel. Question 7 sees Richard Flanagan delve into his personal story and identity, ranging from the twists of fate – big and small – in 20th-century history that shaped his family, to the colonial past of his homeland Tasmania, as well as the gripping story of his own brush with death while kayaking along the wild rapids of the Franklin River.
Now a popular YouTuber and economist, Gary Stevenson was once a child growing up in the shadow of the City of London's imposing skyscrapers. His prodigious maths skills and wily instincts won him a coveted Citibank internship, which soon turned into a job on the FX trading floor. Plunged into this unfamiliar world of ex-public schoolboys, billion-dollar trades, and hedonistic nights (and days), Stevenson soon makes a name for himself and realises his loftiest ambitions. But betting against an economy in crisis, with growing inequality all around, begins to take a devastating toll.
Winner of the Orwell Prize for Political Writing, Matthew Longo’s gripping and informative read reconstructs the events of 1989 that led to the fall of the Berlin Wall. At its heart is the extraordinary story of a group of Hungarian activists who ventured into a militarised zone along the border with Austria and staged a picnic. It was an act of defiance that inspired thousands of East Germans to join in a courageous, history-defining breach of the iron curtain’s heavily guarded borders.
This fascinating book by award-winning journalist Zeinab Badawi seeks to set the record straight on Africa’s rich history, which for centuries has been dominated by Western viewpoints and colonial narratives. From the birthplace of humankind to medieval empires, to stories of resistance and liberation, An African History of Africa draws from years of on-the-ground research and expert interviews to establish an expansive history of our planet’s oldest inhabited continent, and re-centres the voices and perspectives of African people in the process.
In August 2022, as he was about to deliver a lecture about the importance of protecting writers, Salman Rushdie was stabbed multiple times by a man wielding a knife – the culmination of decades spent in the crosshairs of a fatwa issued by Iran’s then-leader in 1989 for his killing. In this candid and deeply personal memoir that was longlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction, Rushdie recounts the trauma and aftermath of this violent attempt on his life and his path towards recovery, healing, and strength with the support of those around him.
From the Stone Age to the age of social media, information networks have defined, connected, and progressed humankind for as long as we have existed. Yuval Noah Harari, author of the multi-million copy bestseller Sapiens in the age of AI .
