'Warlight' by Michael Ondaatje is a memory tale about two children abandoned to the care of a stranger in the London of 1945. Two other novels on my best-of-the-year list are set long ago and far away. Orange's story, which focuses on a group of urban Native Americans, begins with an unforgettable 10-page prologue that riffs on some 500 years of native people's history presented mostly through the image of Indian heads. The end of the road finds Barry in California, which is where Tommy Orange's inspired debut novel 'There There' is set - Oakland, Calif., to be precise, the place about which Gertrude Stein once said, there is no there there. His antihero is Barry Cohen, a New York finance guy whose life has imploded, prompting Barry to board a Greyhound bus and light out for the territory. Speaking of wit, Gary Shteyngart's 'Lake Success' dusts off our most hallowed literary trope, the on-the-road novel, and takes it for a satirical spin through an America on the verge of a Trump presidency. 'The Great Believers' is filled with vivid characters, absorbing questions about art, belief and transcendence and, most improbably, lots of wit. As one of the main characters says about the random cruelty of AIDS, this disease has magnified all our mistakes - some stupid thing you did when you were 19, the one time you weren't careful, and it turns out that was the most important day of your life.

It's a sweeping story about the AIDS epidemic of the 1980s and its long, numb aftermath. Rebecca Makkai's novel 'The Great Believers' is my pick for novel of the year. Oddly, it was also a very good year for deceased authors, whose posthumously published books were so much more than mere postscripts to their careers. MAUREEN CORRIGAN, BYLINE: Many of the best of this year's books were graced with humor and distinguished by deep dives into American identity. It's that time of the year again when we ask our book critic Maureen Corrigan for her list of the year's best books. I'll Be Gone in the Dark, by Michelle McNamaraįor more reading recommendations, visit the NPR 2018 Book Concierge - more than 300 titles, hand-picked by NPR staff and book critics. The Largesse of the Sea Maiden, by Denis Johnson Rebecca Makkai's The Great Believers - a sweeping story about the AIDS epidemic of the 1980s and its long aftermath - is my pick for novel of the year. It was also a very good year for deceased authors whose posthumously published books were so much more than mere postscripts to their careers. Many of the best of this year's books were graced with humor and distinguished by deep dives into American identity. Click here to browse more than 300 recommended titles in NPR's 2018 Book Concierge.

Book the great believers