Indigo's 10 Best Books of the Year for 2023
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Here are Indigo’s highly anticipated Best Books of the Year list for 2023, proudly showcasing Canadian and Indigenous talent and ten incredible novels – each a testament to exceptional storytelling in a unique way.
Whether it's an unputdownable thriller, a heartwarming romance or a profound work of nonfiction – every reader can find something they’ll enjoy, making shopping for the holiday season easier than ever.
Indigo is so confident in its 2023 Best Books of the Year that it has deemed the top 10 novels "Guaranteed Reads," meaning if you read it and don't love it, you can return it!This list celebrates the diverse voices behind the talented authors who brought these stories to life. This year, the list features four Canadian authors, three Indigenous authors and two Asian-American authors.
#10 The Defector - Chris Hadfield
For Chris Hadfield’s second heart-stopping thriller, we move from Space to another rich and exciting part of Chris’s CV: his time as a top test pilot in both the US Air Force and the US Navy, and as an RCAF fighter pilot intercepting armed Soviet bombers in North American airspace. Full of insider detail, excitement and political intrigue drawn from real events, The Defector brings us the nerve-shredding rush of aerial combat, as told by one of the world's top fighter pilots.
#9 Life in Two Worlds: A Coach's Journey from the Reserve to the NHL and Back - Ted Nolan
Life in Two Worlds chronicles those controversial years in Buffalo—and recounts how being shut out from the NHL left Ted frustrated, angry, and so vulnerable he almost destroyed his own life. It also tells of Ted’s inspiring recovery and his eventual return to a job he loved. But Life in Two Worlds is more than a story of succeeding against the odds. It’s an exploration of how a beloved sport can harbour subtle but devastating racism, of how a person can find purpose when opportunity and choice are stripped away, and of how focusing on what really matters can bring two worlds together.
#8 The Leftover Woman: A Novel - Jean Kwok
The Leftover Woman finds these two unforgettable women on a shocking collision course. Twisting and suspenseful and surprisingly poignant, it's a profound exploration of identity and belonging, motherhood and family. It is a story of two women in a divided city—separated by severe economic and cultural differences yet bound by a deep emotional connection to a child.
#7 Happy Place - Emily Henry
A couple who broke up months ago pretend to still be together for their annual weeklong vacation with their best friends in this glittering and wise new novel from #1 New York Times bestselling author Emily Henry.
#6 Yellowface: A Novel - R. F Kuang
With its totally immersive first-person voice, Yellowface grapples with questions of diversity, racism, and cultural appropriation, as well as the terrifying alienation of social media. R.F. Kuang’s novel is timely, razor-sharp, and eminently readable.
#5 The Art Thief: A True Story of Love, Crime, and a Dangerous Obsession - Michael Finkel
In this spellbinding portrait of obsession and flawed genius, the best-selling author of The Stranger in the Woods brings us into Breitwieser’s strange world—unlike most thieves, he never stole for money, keeping all his treasures in a single room where he could admire them. This is a riveting story of art, crime, love, and an insatiable hunger to possess beauty at any cost.
#4 Moon of the Turning Leaves - Waubgeshig Rice
Waubgeshig Rice’s exhilarating return to the world first explored in Moon of the Crusted Snow is a brooding story of survival, resilience, Indigenous identity, and rebirth.
#3 Becoming a Matriarch - Helen Knott
Woven into the pages are themes of mourning, sobriety through loss, and generational dreaming. Becoming a Matriarch is charted with poetic insights, sass, humour, and heart, taking the reader over the rivers and mountains of Dane Zaa territory in Northeastern British Columbia, along the cobbled streets of Antigua, Guatemala, and straight to the heart of what matriarchy truly means. This is a journey through pain, on the way to becoming.
#2 Fourth Wing - Rebecca Yarros
Enter the brutal and elite world of a war college for dragon riders from New York Times bestselling author Rebecca Yarros
Twenty-year-old Violet Sorrengail was supposed to enter the Scribe Quadrant, living a quiet life among books and history. Now, the commanding general—also known as her tough-as-talons mother—has ordered Violet to join the hundreds of candidates striving to become the elite of Navarre: dragon riders.
Friends, enemies, lovers. Everyone at Basgiath War College has an agenda—because once you enter, there are only two ways out: graduate or die.
#1 Hello Beautiful: A Novel - Ann Napolitano
An exquisite homage to Louisa May Alcott’s timeless classic, Little Women, Hello Beautiful is a profoundly moving portrait of what is possible when we choose to love someone not in spite of who they are, but because of it.
