The 16 Most Beautiful Book Covers of 2016

The covers that caught our eye in the bookstores this year

The Mothers, Brit Bennett
Design: Rachel Willey
Publisher: Riverhead Books

Swing Time, Zadie Smith
Design: Jon Gray
Publisher: Penguin

Fine, Fine, Fine, Fine, Fine, Diane Williams
Design: Sunra Thompson
Publisher: McSweeney’s

The Wangs vs. The World, Jade Chang
Design: Kimberly Glyder
Publisher: Riverhead

Sudden Death, Álvaro Enrigue
Design: Rachel Willey
Publisher: Riverhead

Cannibal, Safiya Sinclair
Design: Nathan Putens
Publisher: Prairie Schooner Book Prize in Poetry / University of Nebraska Press

Against Everything, Mark Greif
Design: Kelly Blair
Publisher: Verso

Andes and Justice, Tomaz Salamun
Design: Abby Haddican
Publisher: Black Ocean

The Pelican Shakespeare Series
Design: Paul Buckley (Illustrator: Manuja Waldia)

Adios, Cowboy, Olja Savicevic
Design & Illustration: Sunra Thompson
Publisher: McSweeney’s

The Abridged History of Rainfall, Jay Hopler
Design: Sunra Thompson
Publisher: McSweeney’s

The Last Wolf / Herman, Laszlo Krasznahorkai
Design: Paul Sahre
Publisher: New Directions
Note: Tête-bêche binding!

All the Birds in the Sky, Charlie Jane Anders
Design: Will Staehle
Publisher: Tor Books

Nine Island, Jane Allison
Design: Strick & Williams
Illustration: Jon Koko
Publisher: Catapult

Beautiful Gravity, Martin Hyatt
Designed: John Gall
Publisher: Antibookclub

The Lesser Bohemians, Eimear McBride
Design: Oliver Munday
Publisher: HarperCollins