Best Books of 2010: Fiction

10. The Surrendered, Chang-rae Lee
Lee writes with exquisite tenderness in his epic tale of war suffering but refuses his characters easy redemption.

9. Rich Boy, Sharon Pomerantz
A gripping coming-of-age story that doubles as a sweeping rumination on the American class system.

8. The Imperfectionists, Tom Rachman
An alternately acute and poignant debut novel about the dramatic foibles at a Rome-based English newspaper.

7. Matterhorn, Karl Marlantes
This Vietnam novel, more than three decades in the making, is a punch in the gut that transcends time.

6. One Day, David Nicholls
Nicholls' luscious, beautiful, and ultimately devastating portrait of two soul mates is played out over 20 years.

5. Skippy Dies, Paul Murray
A weird, hilarious novel about a fusty old Catholic school in Ireland trying to cope and connive after a student dies in a doughnut-eating contest.

4. The Invisible Bridge, Julie Orringer
This love story about two Hungarian Jews in Paris during WWII heralds an exquisite return to the neglected genre of expansive yet minutely detailed historical fiction.

3. 40: A Doonesbury Retrospective, Garry Trudeau
All the highlights from Trudeau's vast cartoon history of post-countercultural America. Trudeau's lovely piercing wit, and his joy in pure foolishness, keep his work as fresh as the day it was published.

2. Room, Emma Donoghue
Though the story's chilling circumstances — an abducted mother, a child born of rape — reflect the horrors endured by tabloid-famous abductees, Donoghue avoids all sensationalism. Instead, she gracefully distills what it means to be a mother, and what it's like for a child whose entire world measures just 11 x 11.

1. The Lonely Polygamist, Brady Udall
This tale of Golden Richards and his four wives is packed with more heart, more humor, more tragedy, and ultimately more hope than any other novel published this year.