Reading fiction in 2020 was an act of defiance – of turning our attention away from the catastrophes playing out around us to engage in a quiet, imaginative act. And the year’s best fiction offered many paths toward greater understanding and meaningful escape. Whether in the tumultuous halls of power in Tudor England with The Mirror & the Light, a storm-ravaged mansion in A Children’s Bible or a ghost-filled Japan with Where the Wild Ladies Are, readers could find joyful, thrilling distraction, models of resilience and empathy and challenges that somehow made our own feel more bearable.
Time: The 10 best fiction books of 2020
A passenger wearing a face mask reads a book onboard a commercial flight heading to Pasto, at the Alfonso Bonilla Aragon International Airport on Sept. 2, 2020, in Palmira, Valle del Cauca Department, Colombia.
