TIME

BOOKS

Kunzru’s White Tears explores American racism through the lens of music

THE 10 BEST NOVELS

BY SARAH BEGLEY

1. SING, UNBURIED, SING, JESMYN WARD

Ward’s third book set in the fictional town of Bois Sauvage, based on her hometown of DeLisle, Miss., conjures the same raw emotion of her previous works, like the Hurricane Katrina novel Salvage the Bones. But this time, a sense of magical realism deepens the ghostly sense of the past reaching out to touch—or even strangle—the present. Ward’s novel is a true triple threat, expert in prose, human observation and social commentary.

2. WHITE TEARS, HARI KUNZRU

The British novelist skewers American culture in this treatise on whiteness and cultural appropriation. Two young white men breaking into the music industry find success when they record random noises in a New York City park and discover the voice of a man who

You’re reading a preview, subscribe to read more.

More from TIME

TIME4 min read
The D.C. Brief
Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry knew the score when he signed into law a requirement that every classroom in his state—from kindergartens to college chemistry labs—must post a copy of the Ten Commandments. In fact, the ambitious Republican seemed to b
TIME11 min read
The Flash
Noah Lyles should be a miserable human on this suffocatingly hot May morning near Orlando. Two nights earlier, the U.S. sprint star was up until 3 a.m. in the Bahamas, waiting on a delayed drug test after a race. You can still spot fatigue under his
TIME10 min read
The Polarization Myth
In January 2021, in the turbulent wake of the last presidential contest, a former professor named Todd Rose asked some 2,000 people a question. The survey was, at least on the surface, designed to deduce what kind of country Americans would like futu

Related Books & Audiobooks