hardcover
Hardcover

Best Books of the Year 2020 by BBC

This list rounds up plenty of inspiring memoirs, unsettling dystopian fiction, critical race theory, and poetry that will keep you busy for months to come. These are the best books of 2020 as collected by the BBC's Lindsay Baker.

A Children's Bible

A Children's Bible
ByLydia Millet

2020 • 98 Readers • 6h 3.6

Actress

Actress
ByAnne Enright

2020 • 9 Readers • 265 pages

A Long Petal of the Sea

A Long Petal of the Sea
ByIsabel Allende

2019 • 110 Readers • 325 pages 4

American Poison

American Poison
ByEduardo Porter

2020 • 2 Readers • 272 pages

Apeirogon

Apeirogon
ByColum McCann

2019 • 48 Readers • 480 pages 4.2

A Promised Land

#1 of 1 in The Presidential Memoirs

A Promised Land
ByBarack Obama

2020 • 453 Readers • 768 pages 4.3

Cleanness

Cleanness
ByGarth Greenwell

2020 • 48 Readers • 225 pages 3.9

Daddy: stories

Daddy: stories
ByEmma Cline

2020 • 32 Readers • 224 pages 3.2

Dearly

Dearly
ByMargaret Atwood

2020 • 86 Readers • 137 pages 3.6

Earthlings

Earthlings
BySayaka Murata,Ginny Tapley Takemori(Translator)

2018 • 495 Readers • 247 pages 3.7

Hamnet

Hamnet
ByMaggie O'Farrell

2020 • 544 Readers • 321 pages 4.2

Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women That a Movement Forgot

2020 • 296 Readers • 289 pages 4.3

House of Glass

House of Glass
ByHadley Freeman

2020 • 4 Readers • 352 pages

How Much of These Hills Is Gold

2020 • 113 Readers • 288 pages 4.2

I Am Not Your Baby Mother

I Am Not Your Baby Mother
ByCandice Brathwaite

2020 • 12 Readers • 179 pages 5

If I Had Your Face

If I Had Your Face
ByFrances Cha

2020 • 190 Readers • 235 pages 3.8

Jack

#4 of 4 in Gilead

Jack
ByMarilynne Robinson

2020 • 21 Readers • 320 pages 4.3

Mayflies

Mayflies
ByAndrew O'Hagan

2020 • 81 Readers • 289 pages 3.8

Mediocre: The Dangerous Legacy of White Male America

2020 • 131 Readers 4.3

Minor Feelings

Minor Feelings
ByCathy Park Hong

2020 • 123 Readers • 209 pages 4.1

More Than a Woman

More Than a Woman
ByCaitlin Moran

2020 • 11 Readers • 252 pages 4.3

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Motherwell
ByDeborah Orr

2020 • 4 Readers • 288 pages 5

Must I Go

Must I Go
ByYiyun Li

2020 • 16 Readers • 368 pages

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Our House Is on Fire
ByJeanette Winter

2019 • 2 Readers • 40 pages

Piranesi

Piranesi
BySusanna Clarke,Viktor Janiš(translator)

2019 • 2,086 Readers • 273 pages 4.2

Poor

Poor
ByCaleb Femi

2020 • 5 Readers • 140 pages

Rainbow Milk

Rainbow Milk
ByPaul Mendez

2020 • 36 Readers • 384 pages 4

Ready Player Two

#2 of 2 in Ready Player One

Ready Player Two
ByErnest Cline

2020 • 560 Readers • 2h 3.1

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Reality and Other Stories
ByJohn Lanchester

2020 • 3 Readers • 240 pages

Real Life

Real Life
ByBrandon Taylor

2020 • 179 Readers • 329 pages 4.1

Redhead by the Side of the Road

2020 • 39 Readers • 192 pages 3.7

Rodham

Rodham
ByCurtis Sittenfeld

2020 • 70 Readers • 417 pages 3.9

Sharks in the Time of Saviors

Sharks in the Time of Saviors
ByKawai Strong Washburn

2020 • 72 Readers • 376 pages 4.2

Shuggie Bain

Shuggie Bain
ByDouglas Stuart

2020 • 301 Readers • 448 pages 4.3

Such a Fun Age

Such a Fun Age
ByKiley Reid

615 Readers 3.8

Sweet Dreams

Sweet Dreams
ByDylan Jones

2020 • 3 Readers • 688 pages

That Old Country Music

2020 • 8 Readers • 191 pages

The Best of Me

The Best of Me
ByDavid Sedaris

2020 • 38 Readers • 387 pages 4.4

The collected stories of Lorrie Moore

2008 • 4 Readers • 656 pages

The Death of Comrade President

The Death of Comrade President
ByAlain Mabanckou,Helen Stevenson(Translator)

2018 • 3 Readers • 256 pages

The First Woman

The First Woman
ByJennifer Nansubuga Makumbi

2020 • 11 Readers • 438 pages 4

The Glass Hotel

The Glass Hotel
ByEmily St. John Mandel

2020 • 520 Readers • 302 pages 3.8

The Mirror & the Light

#3 of 3 in Thomas Cromwell

The Mirror & the Light
ByHilary Mantel

2020 • 83 Readers • 784 pages 4.4

The New Wilderness

The New Wilderness
ByDiane Cook

2020 • 72 Readers • 416 pages 3.6

The Shadow King

The Shadow King
ByMaaza Mengiste

2019 • 49 Readers • 448 pages 3.5

The Vanishing Half

The Vanishing Half
ByBrit Bennett

2020 • 929 Readers • 400 pages 4.1

This Mournable Body

#3 of 3 in Nervous Conditions

This Mournable Body
ByTsitsi Dangarembga

2018 • 17 Readers • 304 pages 3.7

Transcendent Kingdom

2020 • 329 Readers • 288 pages 4.1

Weather

Weather
ByJenny Offill

130 Readers 3.5

Where the Wild Ladies Are

Where the Wild Ladies Are
ByAoko Matsuda,Asri Pratiwi Wulandari(Translator)

2016 • 63 Readers • 264 pages 3.8

White Ivy

White Ivy
BySusie Yang

2020 • 69 Readers • 354 pages 3.3

Wow, No Thank You.: Essays

2020 • 119 Readers • 319 pages 3.9

You People

You People
ByNikita Lalwani

2020 • 8 Readers • 240 pages