The 7 best books of 2021, as per New York Times

2021 was a difficult year with the world still coping up with the COVID-19 pandemic and its aftermath. Many people lost their loved ones to the virus, contracted it themselves, while several others struggled at their jobs and in personal lives. Despite all this, the year saw many amazing books being released and winning the praise and accolades of the readers.

Now, since 2021 is coming to an end, it's time to sum it up in literary terms. The New York Times recently came up with a listicle of the ten best books of 2021. Here's a look at the top 7 books from the list.

Set in the fictional African village of Kosawa, the book tells the story of a people living in fear amidst environmental degradation wrought by an American oil company.

"Told through the perspective of a generation of children and the family of a girl named Thula, How Beautiful We Were is a masterful exploration of what happens when the reckless drive for profit, coupled with the ghost of colonialism, comes up against one community's determination to hold onto its ancestral land and a young woman's willingness to sacrifice everything for the sake of her people's freedom," reads the book's blurb.

Pic credit: Canongate Books

The book centers on an unnamed interpreter who comes to The Hague to escape New York and work at the International Court. A woman of quiet passion, she confronts power, love, and violence, both in her intimacies and in her work at the Court. She is soon pushed to the precipice, where betrayal and heartbreak threaten to overwhelm her, forcing her to decide what she wants from her life.

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An ambitious novel, it chronicles the journey of multiple generations of one American family, from the centuries of the colonial slave trade through the Civil War to our tumultuous era. It revolves Ailey Pearl Garfield, a Black girl growing up at the end of the 20th century, and the "songs" of her ancestors.

Pic credit: Fourth Estate

As this book opens, a woman who has recently been elevated to prominence for her social media posts travels around the world to meet her adoring fans. She is overwhelmed by navigating the new language and etiquette of what she terms "the portal," where she grapples with an unshakable conviction that a vast chorus of voices is now dictating her thoughts.

Pic credit: Riverhead Books

In this book, the author uses the imaginative resources of fiction to break open the stories of scientists and mathematicians (Fritz Haber, Alexander Grothendieck, Werner Heisenberg, Erwin Schrödinger) who expanded our notions of the possible.

Pic credit: Pushkin Press

It is a series of memoirs by Danish author Tove Ditlevsen. The books were first released in Denmark between 1967 and 1971 under the titles Childhood (Danish: Barndom), Youth (Danish: Ungdom), and Dependency (Danish: Gift).

Pic credit: FSG Originals

In this, writer Clint Smith seeks out the troubling history to understand the stories America tells itself about who we are through what is remembered. The aegis of the book is this: Smith traveled "to eight places in the United States as well as one abroad to understand how each reckons with its relationship to the history of American slavery."

Pic credit: Little, Brown, and Company