Books of the year 2024
This is one of the 759 lists we use to generate our main The Greatest Books list.
About this list
New Statesman, 85 Books
The New Statesman’s Best Books of 2024 features recommendations from 60 leading critics, authors, and cultural figures, including Tina Brown, Julian Barnes, Bernardine Evaristo, William Boyd, and Ali Smith. The list spans a wide range of genres, including fiction, non-fiction, memoirs, biographies, poetry, philosophy, and photography. Selections highlight themes of personal and political struggle, artistic exploration, and reflections on history, identity, and humanity. Contributions from prominent voices offer a snapshot of the year's literary landscape, with books that challenge, inspire, and spark conversation. This rich and varied collection celebrates the power of storytelling and ideas to shape the way we see the world.
This list was originally published in 2024 and was added to this site over 1 year ago.
| Rank | Book | Authors | Year | Country | Language | Actions |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 17165 | War | Bob Woodward | 2024 | American | English | |
| 8462 | Headshot | Rita Bullwinkel | 2024 | Unknown | English | |
| 6598 | Long Island | Colm Toibin | 2024 | Irish | Unknown | |
| 17165 | A Woman Like Me | Diane Abbott | 2024 | Unknown | English | |
| 17165 | A Thousand Threads | Neneh Cherry | 2024 | Unknown | English | |
| 17165 | The Struggle For Taiwan | Sulmaan Khan | 2024 | Unknown | English | |
| 17165 | At War With Ourselves | H.R. McMaster | 2024 | American | English | |
| 17165 | The Echoes | Evie Wyld | 2024 | British | English | |
| 17165 | Drypoint | Jamie McKendrick | 2024 | British | English | |
| 10681 | The Use Of Photography | Annie Ernaux, Marc Marie | 2024 | French | English | |
| 10500 | Survival Is A Promise | Alexis Pauline Gumbs | 2024 | Unknown | English | |
| 2806 | James | Percival Everett | 2024 | American | English | |
| 17165 | Fratriarchy | Juliet Mitchell | 2024 | British | Unknown | |
| 17165 | Aerth | Deborah Tomkins | 2024 | Unknown | Unknown | |
| 17165 | Astraea | Kate Kruimink | 2024 | Unknown | English | |
| 17165 | A Is For Ant | Jack Davison | 2024 | Unknown | Unknown | |
| 17165 | Nothing Lasts Forever | Peter Mitchell | 2024 | Unknown | English | |
| 17165 | Things Felt But Not Quite Expressed | Sohrab Hura | 2024 | Unknown | Unknown | |
| 17165 | My Beloved Monster | Caleb Carr | 2024 | Unknown | English | |
| 10690 | Your Face Belongs To Us | Kashmir Hill | 2024 | American | English | |
| 8020 | The Story Of A Heart | Rachel Clarke | 2024 | Unknown | English | |
| 17165 | La Défaite De L'occident | Emmanuel Todd | 2024 | French | French | |
| 8605 | Small Rain | Garth Greenwell | 2024 | Unknown | English | |
| 17165 | A Case Of Matricide | Graeme Macrae Burnet | 2024 | British | English | |
| 8556 | Our Evenings | Alan Hollinghurst | 2024 | Unknown | English | |
| 17165 | Character Limit | Kate Conger, Ryan Mac | 2024 | Unknown | English | |
| 17165 | Lublin | Manya Wilkinson | 2024 | Unknown | English | |
| 10556 | The Burning Earth | Sunil Amrith | 2024 | Unknown | English | |
| 10650 | 3 Shades Of Blue | James Kaplan | 2024 | Unknown | English | |
| 17165 | White City | Dominic Nolan | 2024 | Unknown | English | |
| 17165 | Odyssey | Stephen Fry | 2024 | Unknown | English | |
| 9111 | Gabriel's Moon | William Boyd | 2024 | Unknown | English | |
| 11249 | The Peepshow | Kate Summerscale | 2025 | Unknown | English | |
| 10392 | Spent Light | Lara Pawson | 2024 | Unknown | English | |
| 10449 | Patriot | Alexei Navalny | 2024 | Unknown | English | |
| 17165 | The Scapegoat | Lucy Hughes-Hallett | 2024 | Unknown | English | |
| 17165 | V13 | Emmanuel Carrère | 2024 | French | French | |
| 17165 | The Story Of Nature | Jeremy Mynott | 2024 | Unknown | English | |
| 17165 | Street Level Superstar | Will Hodgkinson | 2024 | Unknown | Unknown | |
| 17165 | Discounting The Future | Liliana Doganova | 2024 | Unknown | English | |
| 17165 | The Unaccountability Machine | Dan Davies | 2024 | Unknown | English | |
| 17165 | Concerning The Future Of Souls | Joy Williams | 2024 | Unknown | English | |
| 17165 | Disputing Disaster | Perry Anderson | 2024 | Unknown | English | |
| 17165 | Extra Time Beckons, Penalties Loom | Adam Hurrey | 2024 | Unknown | English | |
| 10178 | The Haunted Wood | Sam Leith | 2024 | Unknown | English | |
| 17165 | The Holiness Of Ordinary People | Madeleine Delbrêl | 2024 | Unknown | English | |
| 17165 | Anima | Kapka Kassabova | 2024 | Unknown | English | |
| 17165 | The Incarcerations | Alpa Shah | 2024 | Unknown | English | |
| 17165 | Freaks Out! | Luke Haines | 2024 | Unknown | English | |
| 17165 | The Museum Of Small And Fragile Things | Suzanne Joinson | 2024 | Unknown | Unknown | |
| 10156 | You Dreamed Of Empires | Alvaro Enrigue | 2024 | Unknown | English | |
| 10865 | Wild Thing | Sue Prideaux | 2024 | Unknown | English | |
| 17165 | The Story Of Drawing | Susan Owens | 2024 | Unknown | English | |
| 17165 | Otherworld | Lisa M. Bitel | 2024 | Unknown | English | |
| 17165 | The Modern Fairies | Clare Pollard | 2024 | British | English | |
| 10398 | Scaffolding | Lauren Elkin | 2024 | Unknown | English | |
| 10668 | Barcelona | Mary Costello | 2024 | Unknown | English | |
| 17165 | Ripcord | Nate Lippens | 2024 | Unknown | English | |
| 17165 | Lara Pawson | Spent Light | 2024 | Unknown | Unknown | |
| 5426 | Glorious Exploits | Ferdia Lennon | 2024 | Irish | English | |
| 17165 | Dayspring | C.J. Driver | 2024 | Unknown | English | |
| 17165 | Letters To Margaret | Hunter Davies | 2024 | Unknown | English | |
| 10725 | Melting Point | Rachel Cockerell | 2024 | Unknown | English | |
| 14985 | Q | Craig Brown | 2024 | Unknown | English | |
| 17165 | No Way Out | Tim Shipman | 2024 | British | English | |
| 8644 | The Fraud | Zadie Smith | 2023 | British | English | |
| 4472 | Intermezzo | Sally Rooney | 2024 | Irish | English | |
| 10233 | Long Island Compromise | Taffy Brodesser-Akner | 2024 | American | English | |
| 7886 | Wifedom | Anna Funder | 2023 | Unknown | English | |
| 281 | The Good Earth | Pearl S. Buck | 1931 | American | English | |
| 575 | I Capture the Castle | Dodie Smith | 1948 | British | English | |
| 21 | The Trial | Franz Kafka | 1925 | Czech | German | |
| 180 | On the Origin of Species | Charles Darwin | 1859 | British | English | |
| 149 | All the King's Men | Robert Penn Warren | 1946 | American | English | |
| 3082 | Under the Skin | Michel Faber | 2000 | British | English | |
| 3182 | Minor Detail | Adania Shibli | 2017 | Palestinian | Arabic | |
| 17165 | Three Month Fever | Gary Indiana | 1999 | American | English | |
| 15745 | The Faber Book Of Aphorisms | W. H. Auden | 1962 | British | English | |
| 4785 | The Princess Casamassima | Henry James | 1886 | British | English | |
| 2966 | The Sea | John Banville | 2005 | Irish | English | |
| 15822 | Virginia Woolf's Diaries | Virginia Woolf | 1977 | British | English | |
| 17165 | How To Be Content | Stephen Harrison | 2020 | Unknown | Unknown | |
| 9961 | The Book Of Delights | Ross Gay | 2019 | American | English | |
| 17165 | The Matter With Things | Iain McGilchrist | 2021 | British | English | |
| 24 | The Odyssey | Homer | -740 | Greek | Ancient greek |