Best Books of 2008

Editors' Picks: Top 100 Books

It took us almost a whole year of reading to find our favorite book of 2008: Philip Hensher's The Northern Clemency, a late addition to the fall publication schedule after it was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize. A fat and fulfilling novel of two families in Sheffield, England, during the '70s, '80s, and '90s, The Northern Clemency inhabits the lives of more than a dozen characters with the kind of brilliant observation and imagination that reminded us of recent favorites like The Corrections, The Emperor's Children, and On Beauty.You can browse through all our top 100 editors' picks for 2008 below, and find many more editors' picks and customer favorites in our Best of 2008 Store.