CRACK THESE SPINES

BOOKS CAN be a refuge from (waves arms) all this, even when they take you deeper into the darkness of 2025.

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There is a grace in the relationship between book and reader, with nothing but your eyes and brain and the words on the page. Thank goodness for the hearts and minds of the authors who imagine and construct these worlds, who ask these rigorous questions, who spend their lives with words. It’s apleasure to join with a couple of my fellow book critics in selecting some of our favorite books of the year. — Carolyn Kellogg

AUDITION

Katie Kitamura

Riverhead: 208 pages, $28

This is one of those books the less explained the better. Kitamura is one of our most exacting novelists, with never a careless word. On its surface, “Audition” is about an actor, her husband and a young man in New York City. As you'd expect with this setup, the ideas of self, performance and identity are in the mix. Every observation, theater visit and glimpse into their apartment becomes quietly important. The marriage’s past spools out with such clarity that what they have for breakfast becomes ominous. Every relationship has secrets, but this one’s are transformative. Elements of this book that cannot be prized apart also cannot cohere. It’s an astonishing accomplishment of form and narrative. It’s a rare book that can surprise like this one does. And it's a delight to read.— C.K.

FLESH

David Szalay

Scribner: 368 pages, $29