Amazon’s book editors announce 2022’s best books of the year

by Gabrielle Zevin

“After devouring this novel, you’ll walk with a bounce in your step, a full heart, and the buzzy feeling that this is one of the best books about friendship—in all of its messy complexity and glory—you have ever read, which is why we named it the Best Book of 2022. Gabrielle Zevin has written a novel perfect for this moment, when connection is what we crave and hope is what we need.” —Al Woodworth, Amazon Editor

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by Javier Zamora

“Neil Gaiman once said, 'Fiction gives us empathy…gives us the gifts of seeing the world through [other people’s] eyes.' Solito is one of those rare nonfiction reads that achieves the same thing, and puts a human face on the immigration debate—that of a 9-year-old child making a harrowing journey from South America to the United States, and the found family who eases his way. A heart-pounding, heart-expanding memoir.” —Erin Kodicek, Amazon Editor

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by Johann Hari

“We can’t stop talking about Stolen Focus. It’s vital and mesmerizing, examining why we as individuals and as a collective have lost our attention spans. Suffice to say, Hari’s three-month tech-detox and his findings will make you immediately want to stop scrolling the internet, quit thinking in slogans and 280 characters, and engage authentically in sustained thought so that we can tackle global issues like poverty, racism, and climate change. Deeply satisfying and affirming and full of light-bulb moments, this is a book everyone should read.” —Al Woodworth, Amazon Editor

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by Barbara Kingsolver

“In this mesmerizing novel, Kingsolver peers into the neglected hollers of Appalachia to tell an insightful and razor sharp coming-of-age story about a boy called Demon Copperhead. Born behind the eight ball of life, Demon faces hunger, cruelty, and a tidal wave of addiction in his tiny county, but never loses his love for the place that claims him as its own. With the soulful narration by this kind, conflicted, witty boy, Kingsolver gives voice to a place and its people where beauty, desperation, and resilience collide.” —Seira Wilson, Amazon Editor

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by Geraldine Brooks

“One of the best American novels we’ve read in years—galloping backward and forward in time to tell a story about race and freedom, horses and art, and the lineage of not just ancestors but actions. From Kentucky to New Orleans, from the 1850s to present day, Pulitzer Prize-winning Brooks weaves together a story centered on one of the fastest thoroughbreds in history and the Black groom that catapulted Lexington to the front of the track. A heart-pounding American epic.” —Al Woodworth, Amazon Editor

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by Taylor Jenkins Reid

“We reveled in Carrie Soto’s fiery energy—Taylor Jenkins Reid (The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, Daisy Jones & The Six) has written another book you’ll inhale in a day. Soto is a former tennis champ who returns to the game to defend her title. She’s unapologetic, ambitious, and willing to put everything on the line. This is a big-hearted story about her relationship with her father, taking risks, and standing up bravely in a world that doesn’t necessarily want to see strong women succeed.” —Lindsay Powers, Amazon Editor

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by Stephen King

“Fairy Tale’s Charlie Reade joins the ranks of King’s best characters, and the story he tells—of a curmudgeonly neighbor with dangerous secrets, a parallel world ruled by an unspeakable monster, a child-eating giant, and a dog who has lived more than one lifetime—is wonderous. Fairy Tale is fantasy, coming-of-age, friendship, and adventure—it’s good versus evil, a boy and his dog on a perilous quest; it’s King doing what he does best: setting our imagination on fire.” —Seira Wilson, Amazon Editor

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by Celeste Ng

“Celeste Ng joins our Best of the Year list for the third time with her most gripping story yet. A mom mysteriously disappears amid a nationalistic movement that feels chillingly close to reality—launching her young son on a courageous quest to find her, aided by everyday heroes in unexpected places. The prose sings as the pieces click. This is fiction as revolution, serving as a warning, a dystopian fairy tale, and a suspenseful thriller with moments of hope that buoyed us as we read.” —Lindsay Powers, Amazon Editor

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by Jonathan Freedland

“This is the true story of one of the few people who escaped Auschwitz, but that only touches on what this book is about. Rudolf Vrba set out to tell the world about the atrocities he had witnessed in the concentration camps, but much of the world was not ready to hear it. The author, Jonathan Freedland, paints a vivid, moving portrait of what Vrba experienced, both during and after the war. Vrba was a hero, for sure, but he was human as well. This is a forgotten story that you won't soon forget.” —Chris Schluep, Amazon Editor

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by Don Winslow

“Don Winslow (Power of the Dog trilogy, Broken) is, without doubt, one of the best crime fiction writers in decades. And in City on Fire, he’s written one of the most immersive, head-turning, heart-stopping crime family novels since The Godfather. It’s about loyalty, love, fraternity, family, belonging, betrayal, and survival. But no matter how epic its themes, it’s Winslow’s eye for the small, personal details that will sear these characters in your heart and in your memory.” —Vannessa Cronin, Amazon Editor

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These are readers’ most popular Kindle highlights from the books we loved.

Tomorrow, Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
“What is a game?” Marx said. “It’s tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow. It’s the possibility of infinite rebirth, infinite redemption. The idea that if you keep playing, you could win. No loss is permanent, because nothing is permanent, ever.”

Solito: A Memoir by Javier Zamora
"Our bodies are the texts that carry the memories and therefore remembering is no less than reincarnation.”

Stolen Focus: Why You Can't Pay Attention—and How to Think Deeply Again by Johann Hari
"So, to find flow, you need to choose one single goal; make sure your goal is meaningful to you; and try to push yourself to the edge of your abilities."

Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver
"People love to believe in danger, as long as it’s you in harm’s way, and them saying bless your heart."

Horse by Geraldine Brooks
"They were, all of them, lost to a narrative untethered to anything he recognized as true. Their mad conception of Mr. Lincoln as some kind of cloven-hoofed devil’s scion, their complete disregard—denial—of the humanity of the enslaved, their fabulous notions of what evils the Federal government intended for them should their cause fail—all of it was ingrained so deep, beyond the reach of reasonable dialogue or evidence."

Carrie Soto Is Back by Taylor Jenkins Reid
"We live in a world where exceptional women have to sit around waiting for mediocre men."

Fairy Tale by Stephen King
"There’s a dark well in everyone, I think, and it never goes dry. But you drink from it at your peril. That water is poison."

Our Missing Hearts by Celeste Ng
“Whoever thinks, recalling the face of the one they loved who is gone: yes, I looked at you enough, I loved you enough, we had enough time, any of this was enough?"

The Escape Artist: The Man Who Broke Out of Auschwitz to Warn the World by Jonathan Freedland
“Only when information is combined with belief does it become knowledge. And only knowledge leads to action. The French-Jewish philosopher Raymond Aron would say, when asked about the Holocaust, ‘I knew, but I didn’t believe it. And because I didn’t believe it, I didn’t know.’"

City on Fire by Don Winslow
"Lesson: Don’t hold on to something’s going to pull you into a trap. If you’re going to let go, let go early. Better yet, don’t take the bait at all."