2020 Publishers Weekly Best Books (Awarded by Publishers Weekly)

Awards List

Comics

Kent State: Four Dead in Ohio
(*)
Derf Backderf

Paying the Land
(*)
Joe Sacco

The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Cartoonist
(*)
Adrian Tomine

Come Home, Indio: A Memoir
(*)
Jim Terry

Fiction

The Regrets
(*)
Amy Bonnaffons

Beheld
(*)
Tarashea Nesbit

Fiebre Tropical
(*)
Juliana Delgado Lopera

The Mirror & the Light
(*)
Hilary Mantel

Temporary
(*)
Hilary Leichter

The Dominant Animal
(*)
Kathryn Scanlan

Bluebeard's First Wife
(*)
Ha Seong-nan

Tokyo Ueno Station
(*)
Yu Miri

The Vanishing Half
(*)
Brit Bennett

Crooked Hallelujah
(*)
Kelli Jo Ford

Hamnet
(*)
Maggie O'Farrell

Mansour's Eyes
(*)
Ryad Girod

Pew
(*)
Catherine Lacey

The Butterfly Lampshade
(*)
Aimee Bender

It Is Wood, It Is Stone
(*)
Gabriella Burnham

A Saint from Texas
(*)
Edmund White

Sisters
(*)
Daisy Johnson

The Abstainer
(*)
Ian McGuire

Homeland Elegies
(*)
Ayad Akhtar

The Last Great Road Bum
(*)
Hector Tobar

Likes
(*)
Sarah Shun-lien Bynum

Monogamy
(*)
Sue Miller

Out of Mesopotamia
(*)
Salar Abdoh

The Cold Millions
(*)
Jess Walter

An Inventory of Losses
(*)
Judith Schalansky

Middle Grade

King and the Dragonflies
(*)
Kacen Callender

Snapdragon
(*)
Kat Leyh

When You Trap a Tiger
(*)
Tae Keller

Mananaland
(*)
Pam Munoz Ryan

Daring Darleen, Queen of the Screen
(*)
Anne Nesbet

Echo Mountain
(*)
Lauren Wolk

The List of Things That Will Not Change
(*)
Rebecca Stead

When Stars Are Scattered
(*)
Victoria Jamieson; Omar Mohamed

Ways to Make Sunshine
(*)
Renee Watson

Fighting Words
(*)
Kimberly Brubaker Bradley

Skunk and Badger
(*)
Amy Timberlake

Becoming Muhammad Ali
(*)
James Patterson; Kwame Alexander

Class Act
(*)
Jerry Craft

Mystery/Thriller

Eight Perfect Murders
(*)
Peter Swanson

The End of October
(*)
Lawrence Wright

The Familiar Dark
(*)
Amy Engel

Black Sun Rising
(*)
Matthew Carr

Seven Lies
(*)
Elizabeth Kay

The Golden Cage
(*)
Camilla Lackberg

The Cabinets of Barnaby Mayne
(*)
Elsa Hart

The Wicked Sister
(*)
Karen Dionne

Winter Counts
(*)
David Heska; Wanbli Weiden

And Now She's Gone
(*)
Rachel Howzell Hall

The Forger's Daughter
(*)
Bradford Morrow

The Devil and the Dark Water
(*)
Stuart Turton

Picture Books

Bedtime for Sweet Creatures
(*)
Nikki Grimes

The Old Truck
(*)
Jarrett Pumphrey; Jerome Pumphrey

We Are Water Protectors
(*)
Carole Lindstrom

Outside In
(*)
Deborah Underwood

You Matter
(*)
Christian Robinson

The Blue House
(*)
Phoebe Wahl

Evelyn Del Rey Is Moving Away
(*)
Meg Medina

I Am Every Good Thing
(*)
Derrick Barnes

If You Come to Earth
(*)
Sophie Blackall

Our Little Kitchen
(*)
Jillian Tamaki

Every Color of Light
(*)
Hiroshi Osada

In the Half Room
(*)
Carson Ellis

Julian at the Wedding
(*)
Jessica Love

Out the Door
(*)
Christie Hale

Romance

American Sweethearts
(*)
Adriana Herrera

Take a Hint, Dani Brown
(*)
Talia Hibbert

Boyfriend Material
(*)
Alexis Hall

The Lost Love Song
(*)
Minnie Darke

How to Catch a Queen
(*)
Alyssa Cole

SF/Fantasy/Horror

Riot Baby
(*)
Tochi Onyebuchi

The Lost Future of Pepperharrow
(*)
Natasha Pulley

The City We Became
(*)
N.K. Jemisin

The Only Good Indians
(*)
Stephen Graham Jones

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue
(*)
V.E. Schwab

Top 10

Bluebeard's First Wife
(*)
Ha Seong-nan

A Saint from Texas
(*)
Edmund White

Sisters
(*)
Daisy Johnson

Homeland Elegies
(*)
Ayad Akhtar

The Last Great Road Bum
(*)
Hector Tobar

Young Adult

All the Days Past, All the Days to Come
(*)
Mildred D. Taylor

Red Hood
(*)
Elana K. Arnold

Dragon Hoops
(*)
Gene Luen Yang

You Should See Me in a Crown
(*)
Leah Johnson

Elatsoe
(*)
Darcie Little Badger

Everything Sad Is Untrue
(*)
Daniel Nayeri

Raybearer
(*)
Jordan Ifueko

Cemetery Boys
(*)
Aiden Thomas

The Inheritance Games
(*)
Jennifer Lynn Barnes

Punching the Air
(*)
Ibi Zoboi

We Are Not Free
(*)
Traci Chee

The Magic Fish
(*)
Trung Le Nguyen

The Way Back
(*)
Gavriel Savit

Award Categories

Comics

Fiction

Middle Grade

Mystery/Thriller

Picture Books

Romance

SF/Fantasy/Horror

Top 10

Young Adult

Award Years

2023

2022

2021

2020

2019

2018