Wanted's list of books to look forward to in 2020.
Wanted's list of books to look forward to in 2020.
Image: 123RF / Yulia Grogoryeva

1. AFTERLAND by Lauren Beukes (Little, Brown)

Beukes is back at last with a gripping new novel, described as Blade Runner meets The Handmaid’s Tale.  There’s a reason Stephen King really rates her.

2. ACTRESS by Anne Enright (PRH)

From the Irish Fiction Laureate and winner of the Booker Prize, an intense study of a mother/daughter relationship that scrapes away the lustre of celebrity to reveal the neediness beneath.

3. THE CITY OF TEARS by Kate Mosse (Mantle)

Mosse spreads the second instalment of the Huguenot trilogy like a rich cloak from Paris to Amsterdam and London.

4. THE BOOK OF GIFTS by Craig Higginson (Picador Africa)

Part psychological thriller, part murder mystery. Higginson steps up the menace in this enthralling new story set on the lush and sultry KZN coast  

5. ELECTRIC GRAFFITI by Gus Silber (Bookstorm)

Silber has legions of followers for his warm and pithy observations on Twitter and Facebook. Whether he is traversing Johannesburg or the more intriguing parts of the interwebs, he writes with a unique perceptiveness.

6. TRAVELLER AT THE GATES OF WISDOM by John Boyne (Doubleday)

Two sons. One with his father’s violence in his blood. One with his mother’s artistry. One leaves. One stays. Boyne’s new epic stretches across two millennia.

7. THE HISTORY OF MAN by Siphiwe Ndlovu (Penguin Fiction)

The winner of the Sunday Times Fiction Prize has wasted no time in producing a fine second novel, which takes as its touchstone the bitter end of a civil war.

8. TOO IMPORTANT TO FAIL by Bruce Whitfield (Pan Macmillan)

Whitfield is one of the country’s sharpest commentators and here he dives into his wealth of historic and economic knowledge to take a look at the future.

9. GROWN UPS by Marian Keyes (PRH)

A sprawling Irish family unravels when a wife is concussed and the veneer of affinity shatters. Secrets and lies come tumbling out, changing lives forever. 

10. PARADISE IN GAZA by Niq Mhlongo (Kwela Books)

The word is this is Mhlongo’s best book yet, a story that moves from Soweto to Gazankula to a war-torn Mozambique.

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