Authors Pick The Best Books of 2014

I asked 20 bestselling authors to recommend the best books they read in 2014. Here are their favourite reads of the year.
|

I asked 20 bestselling authors to recommend the best books they read in 2014. Here are their favourite reads of the year.

Carys Bray

All my Puny Sorrows by Miriam Toews. This beautiful novel about sisters Elf and Yoli made me laugh and cry, and when it ended I felt bereft.

Rowan Coleman

Where Love Lies by Julie Cohen: such a beautifully nuanced emotional read, with a gripping plot that made it everything I love in a book.

Julie Cohen

Do No Harm by Henry Marsh: a thrilling, often terrifying, strangely funny memoir by a neurosurgeon about the lives he has saved, and the lives he has irrevocably wrecked--a poignant, thoughtful exploration of the fragility of human life and intellect, and the frailty and miracles of medicine.

Tammy Cohen

You by Caroline Kepnes because it's funny, fresh and deliciously subversive in how it reframes reader sympathy so you end up rooting for the bad guy.

Paula Daly

The Collected Works of AJ Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin. This wonderful, funny, uplifting homage to bookshops is an absolute treat. I've bought it for everyone I know.

Miranda Dickinson

Where Love Lies by Julie Cohen. It's a stunningly conceived and written story, both brave and heartbreaking and it's remained with me ever since I read it.

Lissa Evans

Do No Harm by Henry Marsh: an astonishing, gripping and humane book by an enormously gifted writer who also happens to be an enormously gifted brain-surgeon.

Katie Fforde

The Oyster Catcher by Jo Thomas. The writer is a friend but this book gave me so much pleasure - I loved it!

Patrick Gale

The Days of Anna Madrigal by Armistead Maupin. It was like a visit from a long lost friend so dear that we caught up in seconds.

Joanne Harris

Nunslinger by Stark Holborn. In spite of the hilarious comic-book title, it's an old-fashioned Western of the best and most classic kind; fast-paced, tightly-plotted and with a suitably complex and morally ambivalent hero - who, in this case, just happens to be a renegade, gun-toting nun. It's marvellous in every way; well-written, visually arresting, occasionally tongue-in-cheek humorous - I loved it.

Emma Healey

Barbarians by Tim Glencross. A very funny, clever and keenly observed political (and social) satire.

Anna Hope

Clothes, Clothes, Clothes. Music, Music, Music. Boys, Boys, Boys by Viv Albertine. I can't remember the last time I pressed a book on so many people. It's unflinching, inspiring and so, so funny. I didn't want it to end.

Kerry Hudson

Boxer Handsome by Anne Whitwham. A compelling debut novel which beautifully explores the heart, physicality and working-class origins of boxing in East London

Sophie Kinsella

The Circle by Dave Eggers. It's a thrilling and disturbing book about how a Google-type company can take over the world, and how social media is affecting our lives in all sorts of ways, for good or otherwise. Anyone who owns a computer should read it!

Lucy Robinson

The Shock of the Fall by Nathan Filer: a tale of struggle and tragedy told with beguiling warmth and humour: a testament to the indomitable power of the human spirit.

Peggy Riley

The Incarnations by Susan Barker: a cracking read, a spirited history of China told through the many reincarnations of a sorceress - from the dynasties to the Cultural Revolution and beyond.

Jane Shemilt

The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan: humanity trumps atrocity and the past melts seamlessly into the present; luminous prose.

Nina Stibbe

Family Life by Akhil Sharma. I always try to avoid sad books and films, so it was a huge surprise to find myself loving this undeniably tragic story. I love the child narrator (8 year-old Ajay Mishra) in this immigrant's tale. Amidst the sadness there's humour and real warmth.

CL Taylor

The Memory Book by Rowan Coleman. You'd think a novel about early onset Alzheimers would be miserable and maudlin but this book is beautiful, touching, warm and life-affirming.

Louise Walters

The Visitors by Rebecca Mascull: it has such a strong sense of adventure & mystery and is beautifully written.