November’s Best Reviewed Fiction

Sarah Hall’s Helm, Joy Williams’ The Pelican Child, and Andrew Miller’s The Land in Winter 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. Helm by Sarah Hall
(Mariner)

9 Rave • 1 Positive • 1 Mixed

“Virtuosic … Most poignant are the chapters from the perspective of Janni, a mid-20th-century girl who undergoes electroconvulsive therapy, and whose tender, almost romantic bond with Helm is moving and well drawn. Readers will be swept away by Hall’s ambitious and formally daring narrative.”

–Publishers Weekly

2. The Pelican Child by Joy Williams
(Knopf)

6 Rave • 2 Positive • 1 Mixed

“The singular, disconcerting uneasiness that is so characteristic of Joy Williams’s fiction, yet so hard to pin down, is once again dazzlingly on display in her latest collection … Though now in her 80s, Williams’ imagination clearly hasn’t failed, so hopefully her remarkable stories will keep coming.”

3. The Land in Winter by Andrew Miller
(Europa Editions)

7 Rave • 2 Positive • 2 Mixed

“Although the canvas of this novel is a relatively small one… The Land in Winter manages to capture something of this era of social upheaval … This is a quiet book about quiet lives; internal turmoil trumping external drama. But the delicate attention Miller affords his characters’ inner lives makes for incredibly satisfying reading. Also notable is his elegant, measured prose.”

–Lucy Scholes (The Financial Times)

4. Seascraper by Benjamin Wood
(Scribner)

7 Rave • 2 Positive • 1 Mixed
Read an essay by Benjamin Wood here

“The premise seems humdrum and unpromising, but there is plenty of intrigue … So much of the drama is simply in the tension of Wood’s sentences, which hook you from the beginning … The result is a fiercely atmospheric novel that engages the senses.”

–Johanna Thomas-Corr (The Times)

5. The Silver Book by Olivia Laing
(Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

8 Rave • 3 Positive • 2 Mixed • 2 Pan
Read an interview with Olivia Laing here

“Sublime … The beating heart of The Silver Book is Nicholas and Donati’s love story. Laing affectingly renders this mentor-apprentice relationship, exploring the complexity of its vulnerabilities, jealousies and petty frustrations. But where the book really soars is in its visceral portrait of Italian renegade filmmaking … Given the extravagance of this world, it might have been tempting to use a maximalist style to match the material. Instead, Laing’s prose is taut and cleareyed, even at its most sensational.”

–Christopher Bollen (The New York Times Book Review)