Southern fiction commanded international literary accolades in 2023 with two compelling works detailing unique Southern experiences recognized on the world stage. Barbara Kingsolver’s “Demon Copperhead,” a 2022 retelling of Charles Dickens’ “David Copperfield” set in contemporary Appalachia, was both a co-recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for fiction and the winner of the UK’s Women’s Prize for fiction. Kingsolver is the first to earn the prestigious award honoring female authors twice, following her win for “The Lacuna” in 2010.
Jonathan Escoffery’s 2022 story collection “If I Survive You,” an intimate dip into the experiences of a first-generation Jamaican family living in Florida, was one of six books to land on the UK’s elite Booker Prize shortlist in 2023. Celebrity book clubs also helped spread the word about Southern fiction with Oprah’s, Reese’s and Good Morning America’s book clubs all selecting books from our list.
Selected by the book critics of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, this year’s selection for best Southern fiction of 2023 features a rousing mix of nonfiction, historical fiction and suspense-driven literary fiction, listed here in order of publication.
Credit: Bloomsbury
Credit: Bloomsbury
“I Saw Death Coming: A History of Terror and Survival in the War Against Reconstruction”
Longlisted for the National Book Award for nonfiction, historian and professor Kidada E. Williams focuses on the victim experience as she recounts the brutal struggle for Black freedom from white violence during post-Civil War Reconstruction. This powerful work was heralded by the Washington Post as an “unflinching and deeply compassionate account” of Black survival during the transition from slavery to freedom. (Bloomsbury Publishing, $30)
Credit: Handout
Credit: Handout
A Reese’s Book Club pick, Virginia author Sadeqa Johnson’s second work of historical fiction examines the limitations of reproductive freedoms in 1950s America from two contrasting angles — unwed pregnancy and married infertility. Johnson plunges into the complex intersection of classism, colorism and gender inequality in this evocative work the AJC describes as “stunning to experience and impossible to forget.” (Simon & Schuster, $27.99)
Three miles north of Mobile, Alabama, sits Africatown, a community of Americans descended from the last enslaved Africans who arrived in the U.S. aboard the Clotilda in 1860. New York journalist Nick Tabor relocated to Mobile in 2018 and ventured deep into this community to chronicle their struggles — from their shaky foundation to Jim Crow suppression to the generations who are still impacted by industrialized pollution today. (St. Martin’s Press, $29.99)
Credit: Handout
Credit: Handout
North Carolina author Brendan Slocumb dips into a few genre wells for his sophomore literary thriller blending historical fiction with a neurodiverse perspective. Slocumb, a classically trained violinist whose writing explores the Black experience in the traditionally white space of classical music, shines a compassionate light on a forgotten demographic — the unacknowledged early 20th century chart-topping songwriters whose work was stolen by an unscrupulous industry. (Anchor Books, $28)
Credit: TNS
Credit: TNS
Also on the National Book Award for nonfiction longlist, Jonathan Eig’s full biography of civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr. is the first to include recently declassified FBI files and provides intimate access into King’s relationships with his family, fellow activists and his ministry. Peering into the man himself, Eig presents a deeply conflicted King who fought for peaceful protest while struggling to find his own inner peace in this sweeping exposé The New York Times calls “supple, penetrating, heartstring-pulling and compulsively readable.” (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $35)
Credit: Flatiron Books
Credit: Flatiron Books
“All the Sinners Bleed”
Virginia author S. A. Cosby has turned the “King of Horror” into a fan, as evidenced by Stephen King’s New York Times review of Cosby’s Southern noir thriller about an FBI agent turned small-town sheriff tracking a serial killer. King reports the story isn’t only a “crackling good police procedural,” but it stands out as a gritty and uncomfortable depiction of rural Southern life. (Flatiron Books, $27.99)
Credit: TNS
Credit: TNS
Ann Patchett spins a seductive domestic drama about a woman who entertains her adult daughters during the pandemic by recounting a love affair she had in her youth with a man who would later become a famous movie star. Set against a backdrop of community theater and summer stock, the Reese’s Book Club pick explores the power of family myths and how far removed they may be from truth. And it concludes with the realization that there are parts of parents’ lives their children will never know. (Harper, $30)
Credit: TNS
Credit: TNS
David Joy brings all the violence and heartache of 2020′s racial reckoning to bear on the small, insulated mountain town of Sylva, North Carolina, in this murder mystery. When a Black artist and activist from Atlanta comes to Sylva to research her roots, racial tensions begin to simmer and eventually turn violent. Sheriff John Coggins, who considers himself one of the good guys because his best friend was African American, is stunned to learn the town’s Black residents encounter racism, both blatant and covert, on a regular basis. But a shocking death and the discovery of who did it expose just how deep racism runs in Sylva. (G.P. Putnam’s Sons, $28)
Credit: Handout
Credit: Handout
A Good Morning America Book Club pick, Virginia author Angie Kim merges genres with deftness and tenderness in her sophomore literary thriller meets family drama about a nonverbal teenager with the dual diagnosis of autism and Angelman syndrome — dubbed the “happiness syndrome” due to the symptom of a perpetually smiling demeanor. He’s the only witness to his father’s disappearance during COVID lockdown, sending the rest of the family on a harrowing journey as they search for their dad in Kim’s complex dissection of happiness that concludes with a chilling twist. (Hogarth, $28)
Credit: Amazon
Credit: Amazon
Set in 1609, Lauren Groff’s latest historical novel is a transcendent journey of survival and enlightenment that explores big picture subjects like the fallacies of religion and the European colonization of North America. But it’s also a fast-paced, highly accessible page-turner about a resourceful servant girl from the Jamestown settlement running for her life through the wilderness, using her considerable wits and ingenuity to survive. And in the process, she experiences a freedom she’s never known. (Riverhead Books, $28)
Credit: Flatiron
Credit: Flatiron
Southern author Ben Fountain revisits the 1991 Haitian coup d’état in this historical political thriller the AJC described as “a confident masterpiece of tropical romance, high adventure and smart political intrigue.” Following an American expat who encounters covert CIA operatives while diving for buried treasure, Fountain draws from his extensive travels in the region to depict local culture and employs a generous use of droll humor to examine greed, power and American complicity in international affairs. (Flatiron Books, $31.99)
Credit: TNS
Credit: TNS
Last but certainly not least, two-time National Book Award winner Jesmyn Ward’s Oprah’s Book Club pick is a lyrical and evocative historical fiction epic adapting Dante’s “Inferno” to an American slavery reimagining. Magical realism softens the atrocities experienced on this harrowing journey from the Carolina forest to a New Orleans slave market in Ward’s stunning homage to the legendary 14th century voyage through hell. The story ultimately delivers hope and follows Barbara Kingsolver in the expanding trend of reworking literary classics for modern audiences. (Scribner. $28)
— Suzanne Van Atten contributed to this article.
