Maren Showkeir's 3 favorite reads in 2023

Timing can be everything. I love all of Colum McCann’s work, so it’s not surprising that he would top this list. But I happened to be reading this title, a fictionalized account of a true story, not long before Hamas stormed into Israel.

The story centers on the profound human pain this conflict creates. It offers hope and optimism in the stories of two fathers, one Israeli and one Palestinian, who create a close and enduring friendship amid horrifying losses— the violent deaths of their daughters. The narrative beautifully describes the trauma, tragedies, and transformations the men and their families experience, which fuels their commitment to creating a nonviolent movement for peace in the Middle East.

In addition to being a creative and gripping read, it offers historical context and interesting twists to an impossibly complex and ongoing geopolitical crisis. This book left me both heartbroken and hopeful.

I fell in love with Shakespeare as a college undergrad and was introduced to the incomparable artistry of Margaret Atwood at around the same time. Her novel Hag-Seed (the title is a Shakespearean "curse word") slipped past me somehow. Happily, I rectified that oversight this year.

This book is remarkable for its clever plot, colorful characters, and it's satisfying resolution. Set mainly in a prison, it's based on one of Shakespeare's lesser-staged plays, The Tempest. The book's sly humor made me laugh out loud for real, which is no mean literary feat.

Her book also underscores what an essential role the arts, and literature in particular, play in helping us expand our thinking, imagine worlds different from our own, and generate compassion and empathy for people who are very unlike us.

Coate's writing enlivens this haunting, almost mythical story about how we can justify human cruelty and the various facets of liberation.

The story's protagonist is a slave whose father is a plantation owner. As a young boy, he suffers the loss of his mother, a renowned Water Dancer, and is eventually raised in a hybrid world where he is elevated but never set free.

The book forces the reader to wrestle with morality, humanity, and the murky ethics of committing evil to further an overall good. Mostly, it's just a compelling read that had me burning the midnight oil to see what happens next.