10 Must-Read Books of 2021
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With 2021 coming to a close, we’re looking back at the year in publishing. In no particular order, these are the ten books SwR loved most.
Drifter by David Leo Rice
“Drifter is, in many ways, about drifting, and it takes readers both across continents and between realities. But it is about drifting in a larger—and potentially darker, weirder, and more sinister—sense. As we drift through the stories, change is the only constant and uncertainty obliterates every anchor. But we go along willingly because Rice is at the top of his game here.”
—Gabino Iglesias, author of Zero Saints, Coyote Songs, and The Devil Takes You Home (forthcoming summer 2022)
The Rooftop by Fernanda Trías
“Fernanda Trías’s The Rooftop is a novel about love and fear, about the darkness underpinning our protective instincts and the claustrophobia of human relationships. It’s also written in some of the sharpest, cleanest, and most beautiful prose I’ve ever had the pleasure of translating.”
—Annie McDermott, English translator of The Rooftop
The Collection Plate by Kendra Allen
“I’m very proud of the woman you have become, the things you have learned and are still learning, the way you light up when you are expressing something that is special to you, the passion in your eyes and the laughter on your lips, the honesty in which you relay your feelings on the page, the way you stick to your choices, your gut feelings, and your desire to be heard.”
—Carla Lee Allen, mother of Kendra Allen
Body High by Jon Lindsey
“Jon has been on my radar since I came across his writing online a couple of years ago. First I was blown away by his attention to language; then I was shredded by his audacity to be so authentic and real. His writing goes so deep, we can imagine every word chiseled into stone, and Body High is a testament to that.”
—Troy James Weaver, author of Witchita Stories, Visions, Marigold, Temporal, and Selected Stories
How to Order the Universe by María José Ferrada
“Ferrada’s enchanting, witty humor brings the camaraderie of traveling salesmen and the idiosyncrasies of their coterie to life. Yet the novel’s setting is 1980s Chile at the height of the Pinochet dictatorship, and Ferrada undergirds the picaresque elements with a shadow narrative that gathers force until it erupts—with all its danger and sorrow.”
—Elizabeth Bryer, English translator of How to Order the Universe
The Most Fun Thing by Kyle Beachy
“True to its title, The Most Fun Thing mines the value and ritual of fun—as affixed to individual reward, the global marketing of authenticity, or even the literary-industrial complex . . . Topics run the gamut from Nike and Nyjah Huston, to selling and self, or the very idea of substantiation . . . Kyle is now a premiere chronicler of skateboarding.”
—Odie Lindsey, author of We Come to Our Senses and Some Go Home
Rabbit Island by Elvira Navarro
“Some authors bend reality at will, and Navarro belongs to this group. Her stories are brave in the sense that they push against the formula present in most literary fiction by shattering reality time and again while also delivering mysterious tales that contain few answers and character development that wouldn’t feel out of place in genre fiction. Rabbit Island, which has been masterfully translated by Christina MacSweeney, is an outstanding introduction to Navarro’s boundary-breaking work.”
—Gabino Iglesias, author of Zero Saints, Coyote Songs, and The Devil Takes You Home (forthcoming summer 2022)
The Night Always Comes by Willy Vlautin
“Vlautin has always been a great place writer, and The Night Always Comes finds him at the peak of his powers. It immediately joins the list of best novels set in Portland . . . There’s also lots to say about how this book tackles the issues of class and wealth inequality and the death of the American Dream . . . Yet The Night Always Comes is ultimately a novel about goodness—about living with a code of decency as notions of decency and kindness crumble all around us. Vlautin brings the hope like only he can.”
—William Boyle, author of Gravesend, The Lonely Witness, A Friend Is a Gift You Give Yourself, City of Margins, and Shoot the Moonlight Out
Last Words on Earth by Javier Serena
“Ricardo Funes, the fiery protagonist of Javier Serena’s Last Words on Earth, looks a lot like Roberto Bolaño. The story of a hellraising poet turned famous novelist will be familiar to those in the know, but the novel is more than mere fan service. What’s great about this book is that it gets behind the myth without destroying the legend.”
—Robert Rea, deputy editor of SwR
The Glassy, Burning Floor of Hell by Brian Evenson
“Few things in literature aren’t up for debate, but the fact that Brian Evenson is among the most versatile and accomplished writers of contemporary American fiction is one of them. From science fiction and horror and to mystery and that elusive thing we call literary fiction—and in novels, novellas, and short stories—Evenson consistently delivers rock-solid narratives that nevertheless place the reader on shaky ground.”
—Gabino Iglesias, author of Zero Saints, Coyote Songs, and The Devil Takes You Home (forthcoming summer 2022)
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