Pile by the Bed reviews Woman, Eating by Claire Kohda, a debut novel that uses the concept of vampirism in the context of a millennial coming of age story.

Pile by the Bed reviews Here Goes Nothing by Steve Toltz – a black comedy tackling the afterlife and a range of current social issues.

Pile by the Bed reviews Abomination by Ashley Goldberg a searing debut exploring faith and extremism that takes as its background from a notrious abuse case in the Melbourne Orthodoc Jewish community.

Pile by the Bed reviews and recommends The Colony by Audrey Magee a lyrical novel exploring the history of Northern Ireland that transcends its allegorical nature.

Pile by the Bed reviews Sea of Tranquility by Emily St John Mandel, a literary science fiction tale that is part auto-fiction but also wraps in characters and siutations from her last two books.

Pile by the Bed reviews The Candy House, Jennifer Egan’s companion novel to her Pulitzer Prize winner A Visit from the Goon Squad.

Pile by the Bed reviews and recommends Devil House by John Darnielle – a thematically rich and resonant series of tales of crime and murder that deconstruct the true crime genre to explore why we tell stories.

Pile by the Bed reviews The School for Good Mothers a debut by Jessamine Chan a slightly dystopian commentary on standarda of parenting and the child protection system.

Pile by the Bed reviews and recommends Hovering by Rhett Davis – a worthy winner of the Victorian Premier’s Unpublished Manuscript Award

Pile by the Bed reviews Robert Lukin’s second novel Loveland centring on an Australian woman discovering herself and her past in rural Nebraska

Pile by the Bed reviews Remember Me by Charity Norman a New Zealand set mystery wrapped around a family drama.

Pile by the Bed reviews Joan is Okay by Weike Wang, an insightful novel exploring the experience of Chinese Americans from the author of Chemistry.

Pile by the Bed reviews Burntcoat by Sarah Hall – a pandemic love story that also charts the life of its artist protagonist.

Pile by the Bed reviews The Islands by Emily Brugman an Australian historical fiction debut exploring the lives of Finnish immigrants who were part of the crayfishing industry on remote islands off the coast of northern Western Australia in the 1960s

Pile by the Bed reviews Notes on an Execution, the second novel by Danya Kukafka which focuses on the women around the life of a killer facing the death penalty.

Pile byt the Bed reviews The Sentence by American indigenous author Louise Erdrich set in a small Minneapolic bookstore impacted by the tumultuous events of 2020.

Pile by the Bed reviews Nobel Prize winner Olga Tokarczuk’s 2014 magnum opus The Books of Jacob centering around a little known Jewish messianic sect in eighteenth century Eastern Europe.

Pile by the Bed reviews Harsh Times by Mario Vargas Llosa looking at the American inspired political unrest in Guatemala in the 1950s and 60s.

It was a tough choice but here are Pile by the Bed’s top 5 books of 2021 and five honourable mentions.

Pile by the Bed reviews Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead, a great American novel rich with character, theme and resonance and shortlisted for the 2021 Booker Prize.