Any novel that does that is welcome in my inbox. I am a big believer in literature as a means to bridge our divides and remind us of shared humanity.
The writing was stunning, and it brought attention to important and timely topics: war and refugees by way of an intensely personal love story and characters who demanded your empathy. That’s all! One of the books I loved most this past year was Mohsin Hamid’s Exit West. What book/genre/topic would you like to see cross your transom?Īt the moment, I’m hungry for fiction that challenges me, envelops me, and offers an emotionally resonant look at humanity, and from a perspective we haven’t heard from before or need to hear more from.
I think fiction over the next year will also be informed by these same social forces, and readers will be drawn to either purely escapist and/or aggressively feel-good reads or novels that tackle timely topics via the lens of fiction. As a society, we’re facing fundamental reckonings with all of these topics, and if there is a light in all the darkness, it’s the potential for talented writers to drive, inform, and shape this reckoning and be a guiding light in this time of upheaval. In line with that, I suspect we’ll continue to see a rise in politically/socially conscious books and personal essays books that explore the “hot topics” of our times-Donald Trump, of course, but also sexual politics/power, immigration, gun violence, global warming, economic inequality, racism, etc. Most of us continue to be preoccupied with the turbulent state of affairs in this country and the world and what feels to be like a perpetual state of instability. This unique sociopolitical climate is having an effect both on what readers want to read as well as writers and their work, both intentionally and subconsciously. And the fact is, the current mood is, well, somewhat bleak. dog books! Zombie books! Unreliable narrators!). On a serious note, I think the most useful tool in an editor’s arsenal in terms of identifying trends is having an acute sensitivity to the mood and zeitgeist of the country, more so, say, than focusing on what is specifically fashionable at any given moment (i.e. If only I had a crystal ball! Well, for one, I would have done much better in my NCAA March Madness pool. What are some upcoming trends for the next year?
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