The Washington Post’s Best Books of 2022

Kawakami, one of Japan’s most exciting literary minds, follows her award-winning “Breasts and Eggs” with a riveting tale of transformation and trauma. A lonely, disconnected freelancer in Tokyo is sick of her drab self and decides to make a bold change. Her transformation pushes boundaries as the moving narrative explores her journey and the stifling expectations of a patriarchal society.

This moving collection of stories by award-winning author Muñoz follows farmworkers, Mexican American immigrants, and other characters struggling through hardships in California’s Central Valley during the 1980s and ‘90s. The title story explores the effects of the AIDS epidemic — on both sufferers and their loved ones. With beautiful nuance, “The Consequences” reveals the big and small injustices experienced by those essential to society but living on the fringe.

Dripping with desire, “Vladimir” has a romance novel veneer that’s window dressing for its tale about aging and sexual liberation. The unnamed narrator is an older English professor who spends her time pining after new, flirty faculty member Vladimir, which serves as a distraction from students’ accusations of her husband’s misconduct. For fans of “Lolita” or Netflix’s “The Chair.”

Calhoun and her art critic father often clashed, but one thing that brought them together was their shared love of the poet Frank O’Hara. After her father died, Calhoun set out to finish his biography of O’Hara, but instead found herself taking an honest look at her father’s life, his unfinished legacy, and the complicated bond between parent and child.

Pulitzer Prize-winning Maraniss (“When Pride Still Mattered”) once again displays his acumen for breathing the fullness of life into people and places of the past. “Path Lit by Lightning” is a rich biography of Jim Thorpe, one of history’s greatest athletes and the first Indigenous American to win an Olympic gold medal. But Thorpe’s talents didn’t erase his challenges, including substance abuse and being stripped of his accolades. Maraniss takes readers far below the surface, doing justice to a figure who received little in his lifetime.

Gain fresh perspective on the Cold War with Sixsmith’s new history. The author goes beyond geopolitics and into the psychology of fear, exceptionalism, and xenophobia, revealing why this conflict in particular remains a fresh wound decades later. Above all, Sixsmith encourages readers to embrace empathy and understanding before committing to firm ideologies.