At the same time, each one of these books has touched its readers on an intensely personal level, holding up a mirror to our most intimate selves. In 2017, her sophomore effort, Little Fires Everywhere, takes home the prize for fiction, narrowly beating out Fredrik Backman’s Beartown. 2017 was filled with books that transported us into the minds and hearts of a wide range of identities. Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng (Goodreads Author) Celeste Ng first came to readers’ attention with Everything I Never Told You, a 2014 Goodreads Choice Award nominee for best debut novel. Ward's speech encapsulates what I find most profound and wonderful as I look back at this year's books. 'And you, my fellow writers and editors and publishing people and National Book Foundation folks, read my work and you answered, 'Plenty.' You looked at me and the people I love and write about, you looked at my poor, my black, my Southern children, women, and men, and you saw yourself.' 'They said, 'Why should I read about a 13-year-old poor black boy? Or his neglectful, drug-addicted mother? What do they have to say to me?'' Ward said.

In her National Book Award acceptance speech, Sing, Unburied, Sing author Jesmyn Ward spoke about the negative feedback she's received over the years from detractors who believed her work was not 'universal' enough. While 2017 has been pretty wild (to put it mildly), there's been one glorious silver lining: there has been some truly incredible new fiction released in 2017.

Fiction best books to read 2017