5 of 2022s best book releases perfect for gifting this Christmas

2022 has been a great year for fiction releases with some huge names releasing much-anticipated novels alongside some surprising gems from relative newcomers.

As the nights draw in, you might be looking for a new book to see you through the winter months. Equally, with Christmas just around the corner, maybe you need inspiration for the perfect gift for a book lover.

Either way, you won’t go far wrong with your list of five of the best books released in 2022.

1. Children of Paradise by Camilla Grudova

The debut novel from the writer of the acclaimed short-story collection The Doll’s Alphabet, Children of Paradise was labelled a “glittering literary gem” upon its release in July.

Our narrator – “I’ll call myself Holly, like the girl from Badlands” – arrives off the train into an unnamed city. Almost immediately, she stumbles across a job at a fading cinema, the Paradise of the title – the letters of its name grinning “pale yellow neon.”

As Holly begins work, she gradually befriends her workmates, uncovering their secret routines and after-hours film club. And yet it is the building itself that takes the firmest hold.

Severed digits appear in the popcorn machine, a trapdoor opens onto a river of sewage, and a secret screen – apt to appear and disappear on a whim – evades capture. 

As events at the Paradise escalate, relationships grow tense and the oppressive atmosphere takes its toll on all of the cinema’s “children”. 

2. Sea of Tranquillity by Emily St. John Mandel

Emily St John Mandel completed a loose trilogy with the release of Sea of Tranquillity back in April. 

Mandel’s lockdown smash hit, 2014’s Station Eleven told the story of a post-pandemic America through the eyes of a travelling Shakespeare troupe. 

The follow-up, The Glass Hotel (2020), ditched the futuristic setting for the tale of a Ponzi scheme operator and his vanishing girlfriend. While some familiar, albeit peripheral, characters from Station Eleven made a reappearance, tellingly, the pandemic didn’t.

With Sea of Tranquillity, Mandel set herself the task of bringing these disparate strands together. To do so, the story would span multiple time zones and dimensions from 1900s British Columbia to the Night City of the second Moon colony in 2401.

An immersive, enthralling read, Sea of Tranquillity was rightly regarded as a triumph.

3. The Last White Man by Mohsin Hamid

Hamid was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 2007 and 2017, for The Reluctant Fundamentalist and Exit West, respectively. 

In August 2022, the British-Pakistani novelist released his fifth novel, The Last White Man.

“One morning Anders, a white man, woke up to find he had turned a deep and undeniable brown.” 

So begins the story of Hamid’s latest protagonist. The seed for the novel was first planted in the author’s mind when he found his “partial membership” to whiteness revoked in the aftermath of 9/11.

As Anders tries to come to terms with his sudden brownness, and its effect on his relationship with loved ones, the phenomenon begins to spread. 

4. The Passenger by Cormac McCarthy

Fans of Cormac McCarthy had to wait 16 years for a new novel following his 2006 Pulitzer prize for fiction winner The Road.

Then, 2022 saw two novels come along at once. The first of which, was The Passenger.

In 1980s Mississippi, salvage diver Bobby Western investigates a sunken jet that is missing the pilot’s flight bag, a black box recorder, and its 10th passenger. As Bobby looks for answers he must evade criminal organizations and government agencies while confronting painful family legacies. 

From a suicidal sister to his father – partly responsible for the atomic bomb that fell on Hiroshima – Bobby has a lot of past traumas to work through while he tries to secure his own future.

From New Orleans’ bars to Florida oil rigs, taking in familial loyalty, sin, and quantum physics, this is a bold new book from an American great.

Published in October, a shorter companion piece, Stella Maris arrived in November.

5. The Bullet that Missed by Richard Osman

Best known as Alexander Armstrong’s assistant on the teatime quiz show Pointless, Osman made his mark on the literary world with his 2020 debut novel The Thursday Murder Club.

The adventures of four octogenarian sleuths solving cold-case crimes from their cosy retirement village, the film rights were immediately snapped up by Hollywood legend Steven Spielberg. A sequel to the original novel soon arrived, The Man Who Died Twice (2021).

Book three, The Bullet that Missed followed this year, and the series shows no signs of slowing.

When their latest cold case turns out to be anything but, Joyce, Elizabeth, Ibrahim, and Ron set out to solve a murder involving local news legend Mike Waghorn.

With poignancy, humour, and great heart, the latest outing for the Thursday Murder Club is the perfect cosy winter read and a great Christmas present for the bookworm in your life.