Here are the 10 best novels I've read this year! What are your top reads from 2023 so far?

Somehow we're already halfway through the year so I've browsed through the 50+ books I've read so far and picked out my favourites. A new video has just gone up on my YouTube channel discussing all of these titles: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qnOm_GDlyB8

Some of these books I read at the beginning of January and one I only just finished last week. They range from historical tales (“The New Life”) to fiction set in the recent past (“Wandering Souls”), a sci-fi novel (“In Ascension”) and a surreal inward adventure (“Solenoid”). In one story an author creates a powerful fictionalised account of her friend's violent experience (“Vista Chinesa”) and another gives a fascinatingly revised version of history while examining a fictional artist's life (“Biography of X”). Some are more contemplative (“Boulder”) and some have plots that are so gripping I had to keep reading late at night to find out what was going to happen (“The Birthday Party”). And, coincidentally, two of these novels (“The Worlds and All That It Holds” and “In Memoriam”) are gay love stories about soldiers in WWI but they take such different approaches to telling their stories and use very different styles of writing.

It's been great that some of these titles have been listed for different book prizes including the International Booker Prize and the Women's Prize for Fiction. Just recently “The New Life” won the 2023 Orwell Prize for Political Fiction. Hopefully all these novels will get even more prize attention and a wider readership!

I'd love to hear about the best books you've read so far this year. Let me know what I need to catch up on reading and what you're looking forward to reading next!