The best books of 2023

This list is part of the best books of 2023.

We've asked 1,708 authors and super readers for their 3 favorite reads of the year.

My favorite read in 2023…

Book cover of The Zone of Interest

Lee Polevoi I this book because...

The Zone of Interest, a novel by Martin Amis, tells a story that might not be to everyone’s taste—a love triangle among two Nazi officers and an officer’s wife, against the backdrop of the death camp in Auschwitz.

The late novelist’s trademark cunning and wit is a perfect counterpoint to the obviously somber material. No one would expect that a story set in Auschwitz might contain piercing (and very dark) humor, but Amis pulls it off.

His prose is jumpy, elliptical, highbrow, and lowbrow throughout. The reader may be surprised to find herself sympathizing with the officers at times, while marveling at the horrible compromises forced upon a concentration camp prisoner. The Zone of Interest is a triumph of tone, voice, and pyrotechnic prose. 

By Martin Amis,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Zone of Interest as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Amidst the horrors of Auschwitz, German officer, Angelus Thomsen, has found love.

But unfortunately for Thomsen, the object of his affection is already married to his camp commandant, Paul Doll.

As Thomsen and Doll's wife pursue their passion - the gears of Nazi Germany's Final Solution grinding around them - Doll is riven by suspicion. With his dignity in disrepute and his reputation on the line, Doll must take matters into his own hands and bring order back to the chaos that reigns around him.

'It is exceptionally brave.... Shakespearean.... It's exciting; it's alive; it's more than slightly mad. As…


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My 2nd favorite read in 2023…

Book cover of The Passenger

Lee Polevoi I this book because...

The Passenger, Cormac McCarthy’s last novel (along with Stella Maris, a companion volume), contains writing as good as anything in his long career.

Bobby Western is a math savant, ex-race car driver, and (currently) deep-sea salvage diver. After diving to inspect a private plane submerged in the waters off the Louisiana coast, Bobby becomes embroiled in a life-and-death conspiracy; he’s also obsessed with the memory of his sister Alicia, another genius savant whose suicide opens the novel.

Some sections of The Passenger are over-the-top (extended bar-room monologues, Alicia’s cartoonish hallucinations) but the world McCarthy creates is deeply compelling and suggests great profundity lurking just beneath the surface. A hell of a way to close out a brilliant career.

By Cormac McCarthy,

Why should I read it?

6 authors picked The Passenger as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER • The Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Road returns with the first of a two-volume masterpiece: The Passenger is the story of a salvage diver, haunted by loss, afraid of the watery deep, pursued for a conspiracy beyond his understanding, and longing for a death he cannot reconcile with God.

A NEW YORK TIMES BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR

“McCarthy returns with a one-two punch...a welcome return from a legend." —Esquire

Look for Stella Maris, the second volume in The Passenger series.

1980, PASS CHRISTIAN, MISSISSIPPI: It is three in the morning when Bobby Western…


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My 3rd favorite read in 2023…

Book cover of Barbarossa: How Hitler Lost the War

Lee Polevoi I this book because...

Somewhat cavalierly, I chose to read this exhaustive account of war on the Eastern Front while on a transatlantic cruise.

The author, Jonathan Dimbleby, achieves what I find to be the most satisfying approach to complex historical events like Germany’s invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941. He synthesizes a vast amount of archival and secondary detail and generates a fast-moving narrative that’s neither too broad nor too granular.

The first half of Barbarossa, focused on the two countries’ tortured diplomatic history between the wars, is especially engrossing. Full disclosure: By the book’s end, I knew with certainty this wasn’t ideal “cruise-ship reading.”

By Jonathan Dimbleby,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Barbarossa as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A SUNDAY TIMES TOP TEN BESTSELLER

'With his customary literary flair and capacity to master and mobilize very many and varied sources, Jonathan Dimbleby gives us the best single-volume account of the Barbarossa campaign to date' Andrew Roberts, author of Churchill: Walking with Destiny

'Like a fast-moving juggernaut of horror, Dimbleby's Barbarossa is a page-turning descent into Hell and back. Part warning, part fable, but all too true, this fresh and compelling account of Hitler's failed invasion of the Soviet Union should be on everyone's reading list for 2021' Dr Amanda Foreman, author of A World on Fire

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Operation…


Don‘t forget about my book 😀

The Confessions of Gabriel Ash

By Lee Polevoi,

Book cover of The Confessions of Gabriel Ash

What is my book about?

The Confessions of Gabriel Ash, a literary Cold War thriller with echoes of John Le Carré and A Gentleman in Moscow, alternates between the glittery backdrop of 1980s Manhattan and the sinister grottoes of Eastern Europe. When disgraced UN diplomat Gabriel Ash is recalled from New York to his adopted homeland deep behind the Iron Curtain, he uncovers a shocking truth from his past and confronts new life-and-death consequences growing out of a career of deception and lies.