Books · 2015
Literary Blockbusters and Bold New Voices
In 2015, the literary world saw massive publishing events alongside groundbreaking debuts that reframed conversations around race, identity, and genre fiction. Readers devoured runaway psychological thrillers while enduring epics captured critical acclaim across the globe.
- Paula Hawkins · Thriller · Bestseller
The Girl on the Train
Paula Hawkins's psychological thriller became an immediate global phenomenon through its unreliable narrator obsessed with a couple she observes from her commute.
- Harper Lee · Novel · Cultural Phenomenon
Go Set a Watchman
Published decades after To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee's controversial rediscovered draft recontextualized Atticus Finch and shattered publishing sales records.
- Ta-Nehisi Coates · Memoir · Award Winner
Between the World and Me
Written as a letter to his teenage son, Ta-Nehisi Coates's National Book Award-winning meditation on race profoundly reshaped American cultural discourse.
- Hanya Yanagihara · Fiction · Influential
A Little Life
Hanya Yanagihara's heartbreaking epic following four college friends in New York City became a divisive literary sensation and Booker Prize finalist.
- N. K. Jemisin · Fantasy · Fantasy Classic
The Fifth Season
Launching the Broken Earth trilogy, N. K. Jemisin's masterpiece about a cataclysmic planet became the first of three consecutive novels to win the Hugo Award.
- Viet Thanh Nguyen · Novel · Award Winner
The Sympathizer
Viet Thanh Nguyen's Pulitzer-winning debut novel masterfully explores identity and betrayal through the double-agent perspective of a half-French, half-Vietnamese communist captain.
- Paul Beatty · Satire · Award Winner
The Sellout
Paul Beatty's searing, hilarious satire about an African American man attempting to reinstitute segregation won the Man Booker Prize, making him the first American recipient.
- Lauren Groff · Fiction · Bestseller
Fates and Furies
Lauren Groff's acclaimed novel offers a breathtaking, two-sided examination of a creative marriage over twenty-five years, becoming one of the most talked-about books of 2015.
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