Best Fiction of 2012
Hilary Mantel, Bring Up the Bodies
Part 2 of Mantel's trilogy about Thomas Cromwell is a masterful imagining of the events leading up to Anne Boleyn's demise.
1 of 10
Adam Johnson, The Orphan Master's Son
A strange, scary, and sometimes funny novel about the endless mysteries of North Korea.
2 of 10
Jess Walter, Beautiful Ruins
Set in '60s Italy and contemporary L.A., this irresistible Hollywood novel features lost love, thwarted dreams, and Richard Burton.
3 of 10
Maria Semple, Where'd You Go, Bernadette
Penned by a former Arrested Development writer, it's part hilarious Seattle send-up, part rich portrait of an eccentric family and its troubled matriarch.
4 of 10
Nell Freudenberger, The Newlyweds
What happens when an innocent young Bangladeshi woman marries some dude from Rochester after they meet on a website? Freudenberger expertly explores their odd relationship in this continent-hopping novel.
6 of 10
John Green, The Fault in Our Stars
The most fun you'll ever have reading a YA cancer-teen love story. Also: deeply sad.
7 of 10
Gillian Flynn, Gone Girl
This twisty, can't-stop-reading mystery features a divisive ending and real insight into human relationships.
8 of 10
Chris Ware, Building Stories
Ware's astonishing deconstructed graphic novel comes in a box that looks like a Monopoly set — which consists of 14 interchangeable parts — and captures the lonely lives of people living on top of each other in a Chicago apartment building.
9 of 10
Junot Díaz, This Is How You Lose Her
A linked series of flawless short stories that train Díaz's sharp ear on narrator Yunior's wandering eye.