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Exceptional novels with a 'coming of age' theme

Coming of Age

Recommended books found: 753

Coming of Age is a members-only category, so your results have been limited to 12 books. If you are a member, please log in. If not, please consider joining today!.

My Friends

A Novel

by Fredrik Backman

Hardcover: May 2025 | Paperback: Jul 2026

Critics' Consensus:

#1 New York Times bestselling author Fredrik Backman returns with an unforgettably funny, deeply moving tale of four teenagers whose friendship creates a bond so powerful that it changes a complete stranger's life twenty-five years later.

The Emperor of Gladness

A Novel

by Ocean Vuong

Hardcover: May 2025 | Paperback: Jul 2026

Critics' Consensus:

Ocean Vuong returns with a bighearted novel about chosen family, unexpected friendship, and the stories we tell ourselves in order to survive.

The Slip

A Novel

by Lucas Schaefer

Hardcover: Jun 2025 | Paperback: Jun 2026

Critics' Consensus:

For readers of Jonathan Franzen and Nathan Hill comes a haymaker of an American novel about a missing teenage boy, cases of fluid and mistaken identity, and the transformative power of boxing.

Baby in a Box

Stories

by Sarah Braunstein

Paperback: Jun 2026

Critics' Consensus:

Prescient and idiosyncratic stories about the cost and joys of caretaking from a "sharp-witted, ravishing" (New York Times) writer.

So Many Stars

An Oral History of Trans, Nonbinary, Genderqueer, and Two-Spirit People of Color

by Caro De Robertis

Hardcover: May 2025 | Paperback: Jun 2026

Critics' Consensus:

Award-winning novelist Caro De Robertis offers a first-of-its-kind, deeply personal, and moving oral history of a generation of queer and trans elders of color, from leading activists to artists to ordinary citizens to tell their stories of ...

Song of the Six Realms

by Judy I. Lin

Hardcover: Apr 2024 | Paperback: Jun 2026

Critics' Consensus:

Judy I. Lin, #1 New York Times bestselling author of A Magic Steeped in Poison, weaves a dreamy gothic romance worthy of the heavens in Song of the Six Realms.

Woodworking

by Emily St. James

Hardcover: Mar 2025 | Paperback: May 2026

Critics' Consensus:

An unforgettable and heartwarming book-club debut following a trans high school teacher from a small town in South Dakota who befriends the only other trans woman she knows: one of her students.

Palaces of the Crow

A Novel

by Ray Nayler

Hardcover: May 2026

Critics' Consensus:

In Ray Nayler's speculative novel of the recent past, four young teens caught between Nazis and the Red Army survive winter in the woods with the help of a flock of highly intelligent crows with a magnificent secret of their own to protect.

The Hill

A Novel

by Harriet Clark

Hardcover: May 2026

Critics' Consensus:

After her mother is sentenced to life in a hilltop prison, Suzanna vows to return to the hill forever. An unexpectedly funny and deeply moving novel about the many ways we punish and return to each other.

Gliff

A Novel

by Ali Smith

Hardcover: Feb 2025 | Paperback: May 2026

Critics' Consensus:

From a literary master, a moving and genre-bending story about our era-spanning search for meaning and knowing.

Livonia Chow Mein

A Novel

by Abigail Savitch-Lew

Hardcover: Apr 2026

Critics' Consensus:

In the vein of Happiness Falls and Family Lore, a gripping story of family history and political upheaval centered around a Chinese family-owned restaurant in Brownsville, Brooklyn and its impact on the neighborhood's Jewish and Black residents over ...

Tailbone

A Novel

by Che Yeun

Hardcover: Apr 2026

Critics' Consensus:

A fierce and gorgeous debut novel about a teenager who runs away from her abusive home to live in a boarding house for single women as a global financial crash threatens the people of Seoul.

Coming of Age is a members-only category, so your results have been limited to 12 books. If you are a member, please log in. If not, please consider joining today!

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