--- title: Here Are the Best New Books to Read in February 2023 description: From 'Victory City' by Salman Rushdie to 'I Have Some Questions For You' by Rebecca Makkai, these are the best books to read this month. canonical: https://time.com/6251333/best-books-february-2023/ author: Laura Zornosa article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2023-02-01T17:13:05.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T04:53:33.366Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: Here Are the 12 New Books You Should Read in February og:description: Salman Rushdie's latest novel, a nonfiction exploration of wolves, and more og:url: https://time.com/6251333/best-books-february-2023/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb3edf3e16a257492/698a3a02b21a9cfb47506eb9/best-books-february-2023.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: best-books-february-2023 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Here Are the 12 New Books You Should Read in February twitter:description: Salman Rushdie's latest novel, a nonfiction exploration of wolves, and more twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb3edf3e16a257492/698a3a02b21a9cfb47506eb9/best-books-february-2023.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Here Are the 12 New Books You Should Read in February  by [Laura Zornosa](https://time.com/author/laura-zornosa/)  ## Laura Zornosa Laura Zornosa is a reporter at TIME. Feb 1, 2023 5:13 PM UTC  Salman Rushdie's latest novel, a buzzy nonfiction debut about wolves, and more of the must-read books coming out this month Salman Rushdie's latest novel, a buzzy nonfiction debut about wolves, and more of the must-read books coming out this month  by [Laura Zornosa](https://time.com/author/laura-zornosa/)  ## Laura Zornosa Laura Zornosa is a reporter at TIME. Feb 1, 2023 5:13 PM UTC The most exciting new books coming in February offer a window into the fantastical and the eccentric. In _The Last Tale of the Flower Bride_, [Roshani Chokshi](https://time.com/collection/100-best-fantasy-books/5898519/aru-shah-and-the-end-of-time/) delivers a dazzling fairy tale for adults. Camonghne Felix delves into her childhood dyscalculia, a math-related learning disability, to explain her heartbreaking errors in love. Two novels, Jen Beagin’s _Big Swiss_ and Dizz Tate’s _Brutes_, are deliciously unconventional, centering on a sex therapist’s transcriptionist and a gang of 13-year-old girls in Florida, respectively. Here, the best new books to read this month. ## **_Big Swiss_** **, Jen Beagin (Feb. 7)**  Jen Beagin has had a busy five years. In 2018, she published the funny and fearless novel _Pretend I’m Dead_, and then its sequel _Vacuum in the Dark_ the next year. Now, she’s releasing _Big Swiss_, about a lovable oddball named Greta. Greta has just moved to upstate New York, where she works as a transcriptionist for a sex therapist named Om. Through her headphones, Greta listens to a client who she dubs “Big Swiss” (for her height and nationality) and promptly falls in love with. **Buy Now**: _Big Swiss_ on [Bookshop](https://bookshop.org/a/4973/9781982153083) | [Amazon](https://amzn.to/3WNZZiX) ## **_Don’t Fear the Reaper_** **, Stephen Graham Jones (Feb. 7)**  Jennifer “Jade” Daniels is back. Two years after [Stephen Graham Jones](https://time.com/collection/must-read-books-2020/5904423/the-only-good-indians/) published _My Heart Is a Chainsaw_, which introduced us to this bitter outsider, and four years after the character’s turbulent senior year, Jade returns to Proofrock, a fictional Idaho lake town. But the same day she gets back, so does someone else: the serial killer Dark Mill South escapes from his prison transfer in the middle of a blizzard and racks up 20 murders in 36 hours. Jade must once again rely on her encyclopedic knowledge of slasher films to crack the case. But when she realizes that the killer knows plenty of [horror movies](https://time.com/6246026/low-budget-horror-movies-skinamarink/) himself, she’s forced to make a new game plan. **Buy Now**: _Don’t Fear the Reaper_ on [Bookshop](https://bookshop.org/a/4973/9781982186593) | [Amazon](https://amzn.to/3HrmvJ8) ## **_What Napoleon Could Not Do_** **, DK Nnuro (Feb. 7)**  DK Nnuro’s debut novel revolves around three characters. Belinda Nti moved from Ghana to the U.S. to attend college and then law school. She has achieved, as her father puts it, “what Napoleon could not do.” Her brother, Jacob, an awkward computer programmer, stays behind in Ghana, jealous of his sister, and is repeatedly denied a visa to join his new wife in Virginia. Belinda’s husband, Wilder, a wealthy Black businessman, further complicates the picture: he’s from Texas, and views the U.S. as rife with racism and marginalization. But the Nti family puts the country on the pedestal, causing a rift in Belinda’s marriage, which may become too wide to overcome. _What Napoleon Could Not Do_ tackles these differences, as well as family and sexuality, with eloquence. **Buy Now**: _What Napoleon Could Not Do_ on [Bookshop](https://bookshop.org/a/4973/9780593420348) | [Amazon](https://amzn.to/3WQr9Wo) ## **_Culture: The Story of Us, From Cave Art to K-Pop_** **, Martin Puchner (Feb. 7)**  Martin Puchner, a professor of literature at Harvard University, embarks on a quest to connect the dots between various time periods and civilizations using the through line of arts and culture. From ancient Greek theaters to the sculpture of a South Asian goddess to the [rise of K-pop](https://time.com/6240691/best-kpop-2022/), the author illustrates how his field, the humanities, allows for the global transmission of knowledge—and thus the growth of civilization. People across distance and time—like a Chinese pilgrim returning from India with Buddhist texts—are in constant dialogue with each other. “The arc of cultural history,” he [writes](https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/martin-puchner/culture-story-of-us/), “bends toward circulation and mixture.” **Buy Now**: _Culture_ on [Bookshop](https://bookshop.org/a/4973/9780393867992) | [Amazon](https://amzn.to/3WRvd8S) ## **_Victory City_** **, Salman Rushdie (Feb. 7)**  Booker Prize winner Salman Rushdie returns to the India of his birth in his 13th novel, _Victory City_. It’s the 14th century and nine-year-old Pampa Kampana watches as a battle razes her home and family. In the aftermath, the goddess Parvati speaks out of Pampa’s own mouth, telling her that an empire will rise in this exact spot, that Pampa will see it all and tell its story—and that here, women will hold equal power. Through the course of her 247-year life, Pampa shepherds Victory City into existence and success, guided along by Parvati. “It’s as if Rushdie has dropped a molecule of divinity into a petri dish containing the other basic stuff of life,” [writes Nicholas Mancusi for TIME](https://time.com/6249737/salman-rushdie-victory-city-review/), “and watched a civilization cultivate.” **Buy Now**: _Victory City_ on [Bookshop](https://bookshop.org/a/4973/9780593243398) | [Amazon](https://amzn.to/3JqZwAc) ## **_Brutes_** **, Dizz Tate (Feb. 7)**  Dizz Tate’s debut novel follows a cluster of 13-year-old girls and one queer boy in Falls Landing, Fla. Tate paints the fictional town as a place of scorched bougainvillea flowers and stasis, until something happens that rattles the group to their core: Sammy Liu-Lou, the edgy preacher’s daughter with whom the younger girls are obsessed, disappears. Through alternating perspectives, including a heavy reliance on the first-person plural as the whole group talks, the narrators scrutinize where Sammy has gone. “Women,” as Tate writes, “notice everything.” **Buy Now**: _Brutes_ on [Bookshop](https://bookshop.org/a/4973/9781646221677) | [Amazon](https://amzn.to/3HcVSqU) ## **_The Last Tale of the Flower Bride_** **, Roshani Chokshi (Feb. 14)**  Take a fairy tale, infuse it with a gothic flair, drizzle in some dark romance, and you get _The Last Tale of the Flower Bride_. In Roshani Chokshi’s adult debut, an unnamed narrator marries the mysterious and wealthy heiress Indigo Maxwell-Casteñada. Their courtship is built on an agreement: they can fall into fantasies together as long as the narrator never digs into Indigo’s past. But then the couple moves back into the house where Indigo grew up to take care of her dying aunt, and secrets claw their way to the surface—including one about Indigo’s childhood best friend. Indigo’s husband is forced to reckon with his wife’s past and their increasingly fraught future. **Buy Now**: _The Last Tale of the Flower Bride_ on [Bookshop](https://bookshop.org/a/4973/9780063206502) | [Amazon](https://amzn.to/408BBvz) ## **_Dyscalculia: A Love Story of Epic Miscalculation_** **, Camonghne Felix (Feb. 14)**  Camonghne Felix had a bad breakup. Like, a really bad breakup. A breakup so bad that she ends up in a hospital. _Dyscalculia: A Love Story of Epic Miscalculation_ chronicles that split—and the life that led up to it—in three parts: “Fractals,” “To Square,” and “The Final Value.” We learn about the cracks in Felix’s upbringing, the hurt from the breakup itself, and a pain that spans a lifetime, all through a sharp millennial voice. “Black girls get to write about benign heartbreak too,” Felix writes. “Proud and saccharine and pathetic. When you’re healed you tell the story differently.” **Buy Now**: _Dyscalculia_ on [Bookshop](https://bookshop.org/a/4973/9780593242179) | [Amazon](https://amzn.to/40iUewH) ## **_Wolfish: Wolf, Self, and the Stories We Tell About Fear_** **, Erica Berry (Feb. 21)**  In this singular exploration of “wolf, self, and the stories we tell about fear,” Erica Berry blends history, science, cultural criticism, and memoir to craft a book entirely its own. In her nonfiction debut, Berry tracks [one famed wolf, OR-7](https://time.com/5780587/grey-wolf-dead-california/), through his journey out of the Wallowa Mountains in northeastern Oregon after straying from his pack. Berry describes the psychological origins of the werewolf myth and how Indo-European teenage warriors related to wolves, while also unpacking her own relationship with the idea and reality of wolves. “I am not an academic nor a scientist,” she writes. “I am just one animal trying to see another.” **Buy Now**: _Wolfish_ on [Bookshop](https://bookshop.org/a/4973/9781250821621) | [Amazon](https://amzn.to/3HeupoW) ## **_A Small Sacrifice for an Enormous Happiness_** **, Jai Chakrabarti (Feb. 21)**  The 14 stories in Jai Chakrabarti’s _A Small Sacrifice for an Enormous Happiness_ are set in India and America and examine what it means to cultivate family in today’s world. In the titular story, [two gay men](https://time.com/6247937/india-same-sex-marriage-supreme-court/), Nikhil and Sharma, want to raise a child together. But in 1980s India that seems impossible. So Nikhil proposes fathering a son with closeted Sharma’s wife—and chaos ensues. In “Daisy Lane” and “The Fortunes of Others,” Chakrabarti addresses adoption, its exploitative side, and the economic inequality that drives it. Throughout the collection, Chakrabarti illustrates the challenges and rewards of raising children, and asks big questions about the definition of family. **Buy Now**: _A Small Sacrifice for an Enormous Happiness_ on [Bookshop](https://bookshop.org/a/4973/9780525658948) | [Amazon](https://amzn.to/3YbSALp) ## **_I Have Some Questions For You_** **, Rebecca Makkai (Feb. 21)**  In 2018, Rebecca Makkai’s _The Great Believers_ was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. Now, she’s [releasing her first novel](https://time.com/6241190/most-anticipated-books-2023/) since, a campus-set murder mystery. Bodie Kane, a 40-year-old from Los Angeles, has just arrived at her boarding school alma mater in New Hampshire to teach a course on podcasting. One of the topics Bodie suggests to her students is the murder of Thalia Keith, her former roommate, who died during their senior spring. Omar Evans, the school’s Black athletic director at the time, was convicted, but as Bodie reckons with her own past, she’s no longer so sure. While her students dig into the years-old crime, Bodie begins to question everything. **Buy Now**: _I Have Some Questions For You_ on [Bookshop](https://bookshop.org/a/4973/9780593490143) | [Amazon](https://amzn.to/3HjULpx) ## **_Microjoys: Finding Hope (Especially) When Life Is Not Okay_** **, Cyndie Spiegel (Feb. 28)**  After the most difficult year of Cyndie Spiegel’s life, when she suffered devastating and unexpected losses, the author decided to zoom in on the small things and bask in the pleasure they bring. In her new book, _Microjoys:_ _Finding Hope (Especially) When Life Is Not Okay_, Spiegel gives [actionable guidance](https://time.com/collection/happiness-revival-guide/) on how to take in these moments of joy and find relief. For Spiegel, those include her mother’s cake recipe, her local spice shop, and a sun-soaked room in her new apartment. Each chapter ends with a prompt to invite readers to shift their thinking this way, too. “You don’t always have to be all things to everyone,” Spiegel writes, “including to yourself.” **Buy Now**: _Microjoys_ on [Bookshop](https://bookshop.org/a/4973/9780593492222) | [Amazon](https://amzn.to/3HIVkuw) These are independent reviews of the products mentioned, but TIME receives a commission when purchases are made through affiliate links at no additional cost to the purchaser. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/6251333/best-books-february-2023/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/6251333/best-books-february-2023/"},"headline":"Here Are the 12 New Books You Should Read in February","datePublished":"2023-02-01T17:13:05.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T04:53:33.366Z","description":"Salman Rushdie's latest novel, a nonfiction exploration of wolves, and more","url":"https://time.com/6251333/best-books-february-2023/","keywords":["Books","E-Commerce","list","culturepod","society-team"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb3edf3e16a257492/698a3a02b21a9cfb47506eb9/best-books-february-2023.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Laura Zornosa","jobTitle":"Laura Zornosa is a reporter at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/laura-zornosa/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb3edf3e16a257492/698a3a02b21a9cfb47506eb9/best-books-february-2023.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"best-books-february-2023","caption":"Salman Rushdie's latest novel, a buzzy nonfiction debut about wolves, and more of the must-read books coming out this month","creditText":"","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/books/","name":"Books"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/6251333/best-books-february-2023/","name":"Here Are the 12 New Books You Should Read in February"}}]}] ```