Ed Park is the author of the novel Personal Days. He was a founding editor of The Believer, the literary editor of The Village Voice, and an editor at Penguin Press. His stories and articles have appeared in The New Yorker, Bookforum, The New York Review of Books, and Harper's.
He wrote a science-fiction column for the Los Angeles Times and a comics column for The New York Times. He lives in Manhattan with his family.
Dead but Dreaming of Electric Sheep (2026) Paul Tremblay "Paul Tremblay is on fire, this time with a furious work of science fiction that, chapter by chapter, melts your brain and scours your soul. As entertaining and pop-culture savvy as the novel can be, it's emotionally wrenching and truly scary - you'll never think of the phrase proof of concept the same way again. Get ready to root for Julia Flang and weep for our lost humanity."
Dad Had a Bad Day (2026) Ashton Politanoff "Call it tennis court noir. Politanoff is one of my favorite writers working today, and he applies maximum spin to every sentence of this nervy, funny, heartbreaking novel. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go practice my serve."
Down Time (2026) Andrew Martin "Moving and funny and gorgeously written. For all its aching sadness, Down Time is a thrill to read, the sentences somehow bold and vulnerable all at once. I'll say it: Martin has written The Corrections for his generation."
A Different Kind of Tension (2025) Jonathan Lethem "I'm smitten with this collection, which feels as essential as The Fortress of Solitude or Motherless Brooklyn. Thirty-five years of asynchronous pleasure! Here is Lethem at his mind-melting best - as counter-clock-world builder, merry dystopian, king of sentences."
Sky Daddy (2025) Kate Folk "Sky Daddy is outrageously funny and smartly unsettling . . . also probably the worst (or . . . best?) book to read on a plane."
My Documents (2025) Kevin Nguyen "With relatable characters and abundant wit, Nguyen draws us into his state-of-the-art labyrinth, the startling sum of our Asian American fears. You'll never think of the acronym AAPI the same way again."
Brat (2024) Gabriel Smith "Messy with glitched realities and body horror, Brat breathes the same thrillingly claustrophobic air as Inland Empire and Ubik. It's a skin-shedding ouroboros of grief and laughter, and the most brain-melting British debut I've read in ages."
The Morningside (2024) Téa Obreht "Imagine a Ballardian dystopia injected with a double dose of magic realism, so that the pages seem to glow. . . . An ideal novel in which all is invented and everything is true. I loved it."
The Liberators (2023) E J Koh "A piercing, patient debut by one of our finest chroniclers of American han. You won't know what hit you until the final, perfect image."
Pay as You Go (2023) Eskor David Johnson "A wondrous mock epic, dreamlike yet jaunty, the likes of which we haven't seen in a long time. [...] Johnson's gift for pure invention is downright Garcia Marquezian, and Polis is his rambunctious Macondo, a place readers will want to visit again and again."
The Dog of the North (2023) Elizabeth McKenzie "Sometimes the modern world seems like an inescapable hellscape. Then I remember that Elizabeth McKenzie is writing novels, and I feel better again. The Dog of the North is exactly as much fun as The Big Lebowski or one of Charles Portis's comic jaunts, filled with dialogue so fun you'll want to say it aloud and a blissful parade American eccentrics. Trust me - there's a guy who tries to invent something called Steak in a Trout."
Joan is Okay (2022) Weike Wang "This is an Asian American novel like no other, set in the heart of the pandemic, in the city I call home. Joan is my hero."
Lurkers (2021) Sandi Tan "I loved Shirkers and I now love Lurkers . . . Briskly entertaining and genuinely funny, there's something funny or weird or crushing on practically every page."
If I Had Your Face (2020) Frances Cha "Few American novelists know Seoul the way Frances Cha does and in her intimate, panoramic debut, she brings that dazzling city to life. There are voices here you haven’t heard before. . . . An enthralling read from the very first page."
Severance (2018) Ling Ma "My autocorrect keeps putting ‘King’ Ma instead of Ling Ma, but maybe that’s on the mark: she totally rules. Severance is like nothing else around: a witty workplace novel and a terrifying plague yarn, an immigrant story and a sort of homecoming, full of Chinese whispers and New York ghosts."
