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The Wall Street Journal

The Wall Street Journal Best Books of the Year 2012

The Wall Street Journal Best Books of the Year 2012 names 20 books across 2 categories. 8 of them also won or were shortlisted for an award.

Fiction

  1. A Naked Singularity by Sergio De La Pavasource (opens in a new tab)
  2. Absolution by Patrick Flanerysource (opens in a new tab)
  3. At Last by Edward St. Aubynsource (opens in a new tab)
  4. Earth and Air by Peter Dickinsonsource (opens in a new tab)
  5. John Saturnall's Feast by Lawrence Norfolksource (opens in a new tab)
  6. NW by Zadie Smithsource (opens in a new tab)
  7. Tell the Wolves I'm Home by Carol Rifka Bruntsource (opens in a new tab)
  8. The Orphan Master's Son by Adam Johnsonsource (opens in a new tab)
  9. The People of Forever Are Not Afraid by Shani Boianjiusource (opens in a new tab)
  10. The Thief by Fuminori Nakamurasource (opens in a new tab)

Nonfiction

  1. A Man and His Ship by Steven Ujifusasource (opens in a new tab)
  2. Connectome by Sebastian Seungsource (opens in a new tab)
  3. Iron Curtain by Anne Applebaumsource (opens in a new tab)
  4. Sincerity by R. Jay Magill Jr.source (opens in a new tab)
  5. The Astaires by Kathleen Rileysource (opens in a new tab)
  6. The Endgame by Michael R. Gordonsource (opens in a new tab)
  7. The Founders and Finance by Thomas K. McCrawsource (opens in a new tab)
  8. The Lion Sleeps Tonight by Rian Malansource (opens in a new tab)
  9. The Signal and the Noise by Nate Silversource (opens in a new tab)
  10. The Wives by Alexandra Popoffsource (opens in a new tab)

About the The Wall Street Journal Best Books of the Year

WSJ books editors' year-end picks. 2012-2016: the Best Fiction and Best Nonfiction lists, ten books each. 2018-2025: the 10 Best Books, one list across fiction and nonfiction. Left out: the Review section's Books of the Year picks by outside contributors, the genre lists (mysteries, science fiction, children's, politics, business, aging) and gift guides. No list is ranked. wsj.com's robots.txt bars Claude crawlers and forbids automated collection, so WSJ pages were read only through the Wayback Machine. wsj.com is also paywalled and its Wayback copies after 2012 show only the first item, so most years come from secondary copies: 2012 fiction from the free 2012 WSJ page; 2012-2015 nonfiction, 2013-2015 fiction and 2023 from Barnes & Noble's WSJ collections (read through Wayback); 2016 from a Lower Providence Community Library reprint; 2018-2021, 2024 and 2025 from yearendlists.com; 2022 from Booklisti. 2016 spellings of de Kerangal, Jonathan Lee and C. E. Morgan were corrected against Wikipedia. Missing: 2013 nonfiction and 2017 (no readable copy; the 2017 WSJ page names the books only in cover images); 2006-2011 (no clean editors' list found).

Organization: The Wall Street Journal. Official site (opens in a new tab)

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