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.

Pile by the Bed reviews The Promise by Damon Galgut, winner of the 2021 Booker Prize, a vebally inventive novel dealing with the last thirty years of South African history.

Pile by the Bed reviews Devotion by Hannah Kent, a romance set against the story of the immigration of German religious communities to South Australia in the nineteenth century.

Pile by the Bed reviews The Fell in which Sarah Moss takes on the social impacts of the pandemic and associated lockdowns.

Pile by the Bed reviews Case Study by Graham Macrae Burnet a layered exploration of self and identity set in in 1960s London.

Pile by the Bed reviews Making Nice by Ferdinand Mount a very British satire looking at modern politics and public relations.

Pile byt the Bed reviews A Good Winter by Gigi Fenster – “a derk descent into a troubled mind” and winner of the 2020 Michael Gifkins Prize.

Pile by the Bed reviews and recommends Wild Abandon by Emily Bitto a thematically rich coming of age story set in New York and rural America in 2011.

Pile by the Bed reviews What You Can See From Here by Mariana Leky – a small town tale full of odd characters and a fairytale feel.

Pile by the Bed reviews Miles Allinson’s second novel In Moonland, an exploration of the growth of cults in the 1970s and the integenerational consequences of trauma.

Pile by the Bed reviews The Curlew’s Eye by Karen Manton an Australian gothic tale set in the Northern Territory.