April’s Best Reviewed Fiction

Ben Lerner’s Transcription, Gwendoline Riley’s The Palm House, and Maria Semple’s Go Gentle all number among the best reviewed fiction books of the month.

Brought to you by Book Marks, Lit Hub’s home for book reviews.

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1. Transcription by Ben Lerner
(FSG)

26 Rave • 10 Positive • 2 Mixed • 1 Pan

“A chamber piece, more compressed and crystallized than any of its predecessors.”
–Giles Harvey (The New Yorker)

2. The Palm House by Gwendoline Riley
(NYRB)

10 Rave • 3 Positive

“Riley’s work recasts our relationship with the familiar, transforming ordinary, unremarkable lives of her characters into something startling and new.”
–Clare Clark (The Guardian)

3. Go Gentle by Maria Semple
(G. P. Putnam)

8 Rave • 4 Positive • 2 Mixed

“Semple frappes it all together into a wild ride of a book that’s delightful while you’re reading it and that lingers long after you’re done.”
–Chris Hewitt (The Star Tribune)

4. The Oyster Diaries by Nancy Lemann
(NYRB)

5 Rave • 5 Positive • 1 Mixed

“Like a warm summer night or a third cocktail, Lemann lulls and envelops you.”
–Brandy Jensen (The New Yorker)

5. Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke
(Knopf)

7 Rave • 1 Positive • 2 Mixed • 1 Pan

“An ingenious, exquisite, be-careful-what-you-wish-for.”
–Michelle Ruiz (The New York Times Book Review)