Largehearted Boy’s Favorite Novels of 2024

These novels are my favorites of 2024, the titles I most recommended to friends and Largehearted Boy readers (my personal definition of “favorite”).

Tomas Moniz’s All Friends Are Necessary is one of the most moving novels I have read in years, an evocative exploration of grief and the restorative power of friendship.

Halle Butler’s novel Banal Nightmare is a brilliant millennial comedy of manners.

Bruna Dantas Lobato’s novel Blue Light Hours is a mesmerizing debut that mines the everyday lives of a mother and daughter, separated by 4,000 miles, to profound effect.

Melanie Cheng’s novel The Burrow is one of the most moving books I have read all year, an exploration of grief both eloquently and elegantly told.

Temim Fruchter’s novel City of Laughter is my favorite book published this year. A profound and ambitious debut that spans over a century, this is a multigenerational epic that melds magical realism, queerness, and folklore into a book I think about every day months after reading it.

Greg Kearney’s novel An Evening with Birdy O’Day is the most moving book I have read all year, a heartbreaking and clever portrayal of two gay men over a 60 year period of their lives.

S.J. Naudé’s novel Fathers and Fugitives is one of the most moving books I have read all year, a book as surprising as it is unsettling.

In a year filled with amazing debuts, Emma Copley Eisenberg’s Housemates is one of the best, an unforgettable novel of friendship, love, and art.

Kaveh Akbar has been one of my favorite writers since I started reading his poetry years ago.

Akbar’s novel Martyr! is inventively told, marvelously complex, and easily one of the most unforgettable debuts I have ever read.

Anna Dorn’s brilliant novel Perfume and Pain further cements her status as one of our most clever and talented satirists.

Kimberly King Parsons’s novel We Were the Universe is a surreal and transcendent examination of grief, sex, motherhood, and sisterhood, and one of the year’s best books.

Debutiful stated that Alexandra Tanner’s novel Worry, “could very well be the Great Millennial Novel.” I’ll say that this debut is funny and moving and possibly the Brooklynest book I have ever read.

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also at Largehearted Boy:

Largehearted Boy’s favorite novels of 2024
Largehearted Boy’s favorite nonfiction books of 2024
Largehearted Boy’s favorite poetry collections of 2024
Largehearted Boy’s favorite story collections of 2024

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