January’s Best Reviewed Fiction

Han Kang’s We Do Not Part, Adam Haslett’s Mothers and Sons, and Adam Ross’ Playworld all feature among the best reviewed fiction titles of the month.

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

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1. We Do Not Part by Han Kang, trans. by E Yaewon and Paige Aniyah Morris
(Hogarth)

12 Rave • 2 Positive • 1 Mixed

“Lushly poetic … While narratively the novel comprises just two voices, the memories and spirits of many thousands occupy its pages, and especially in its latter half, the voices feel as if they emanate from an almost ethereal plane of existence … [A] masterpiece.”

–Cory Oldweiler (The Boston Globe)

2. Mothers and Sons by Adam Haslett
(Little Brown and Company)

8 Rave • 1 Positive
Read a craft essay by Adam Haslett here

“Masterful … Adam Haslett’s storytelling skill…is on quietly magnificent display as Peter, slowly then more precipitously, begins to come undone … The momentum of the novel builds as long-held misunderstandings and resentments come to the surface, illuminating the meaning of what it means to be a mother, and a son, and culminating with a great sense of a weight lifted, of lightness and air.”

–Marion Wink (The Boston Globe)

3. Going Home by Tom Lamont
(Knopf)

6 Rave • 3 Positive • 1 Mixed

“Lamont crafts a wholly engaging and frequently affecting tale about friendship, fatherhood, family ties, and finding the ability to love unconditionally … A sure-footed first novel but it is not without the odd misstep. Some of Lamont’s scene-setting descriptions are overlong … Fortunately, these quibbles are few and far between. Lamont…impresses on various levels. There are sharp observations on everything from London life to the relentless grind of child care … Lamont shows himself to be a writer of great promise.”

–Malcolm Forbes (The Boston Globe)

4. The Three Lives of Cate Kay by Kate Fagan
(Atria Books)

6 Rave • 1 Positive

“Entrancing … Packs an emotional punch as Fagan thoughtfully explores complex topics including identity, sexuality, ambition and female friendships.”

–Stephanie Harrison (BookPage)

5. Playworld by Adam Ross
(Knopf)

3 Rave • 4 Positive • 3 Mixed
Read an interview with Adam Ross here

“Starting off 2025 with a novel this terrific gives me hope for the whole year … It’s not a survivor’s memoir disguised in a wrestler’s too-revealing singlet. This is a bildungsroman from which anger has been vented, and what’s left behind is redolent with insight, tenderness and forgiveness … Nothing baffles Ross as a narrator. His powers of observation and sensation seem to invade every nook of these lives like the tentacles of some giant octopus with consciousness in every sucker … Whatever past rough experiences Ross may be mining here, they’ve been compressed under the pressure of time and genius into a cluster of literary gems.”

–Ron Charles (The Washington Post)