Best Book Covers 2019
These are the books that have caught my eye in bookstores, libraries, online and everywhere else this year. Whether drawn in by the typography, illustration, photography, layout, concept, color palette or something else; these are my personal favorites for the best book covers 2019.
Some highlights include the collage approach of The Memory Police designed by Tyler Comrie, the textural geometry of The Cook designed by Na Kim, and the flawless concept of Instructions for a Funeral: Stories and striking vertical composition of Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead both designed by Alex Merto.
I also loved the reductive layouts of The Nickel Boys designed by Oliver Munday and Territory of Light designed by Na Kim. There are also some striking approaches to typography including Grand Union: Stories designed by Jon Gray, Humiliation designed by Nicole Caputo and No One Is Too Small to Make a Difference designed by Tom Etherington.
Please note: I’ve tried my best to credit all the incredible designers, artists, illustrators, typographers, photographers and art directors responsible for these book cover designs. However some details are harder to find than others. If you can help with any incorrect or missing details please let me know in the comments!
Best Book Covers 2019
A Half Baked Idea by Olivia Potts, cover design by Helen Crawford-White (Fig Tree)
A Love Story for Bewildered Girls by Emma Morgan, cover design by Helen Crawford-White (Penguin)
A Month in Siena by Hisham Matar, cover design by Andrea Lau (Random House)
A Prayer for Travelers by Ruchika Tomar, cover design by Stephen Brayda (Riverhead)
A Woman Is No Man by Etaf Rum, cover design by Milan Bozic (Harper Collins)
All-American Muslim Girl by Nadine Jolie Courtney, cover design by Cassie Gonzales (Macmillan Childrens)
Ask Again, Yes by Mary Beth Keane, cover design by David Litman (Scribner)
Bangkok Wakes to Rain by Pitchaya Sudbanthad, cover design by Grace Han (Riverhead)
Berta Isla by Javier Marías, cover design by Kelly Blair, cover art by Mary Evans (Knopf)
Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James, cover design by Helen Yentus, cover art by Pablo Gerardo Camacho (Riverhead)
Brilliant, Brilliant, Brilliant Brilliant Brilliant by Joel Golby, cover design by Linda Huang (Anchor Books)
Dead Astronauts by Jeff VanderMeer, cover design by Rodrigo Corral (MCD)
Disappearing Earth by Julia Phillips, cover design by Janet Hansen (Knopf)
** Dishoom: From Bombay with Love by Shamil Thakrar, Kavi Thakrar and Naved Nasir (Bloomsbury)
Dominicana by Angie Cruz, cover design by Adalis Martinez (Flatiron Books)
Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk, cover design by Alex Merto (Riverhead)
Elsey Come Home by Susan Conley, cover design by Jenny Carrow, cover illustration by Oamul Lu (Knopf)
Family of Origin by C.J. Hauser, cover design by Emily Mahon, cover illustration by Diana Sudyka (Doubleday)
Fleishman Is in Trouble by Taffy Brodesser-Akner, cover design by Kelly Blair, cover image by Keith Hayes (Random House)
Gingerbread by Helen Oyeyemi, cover design by Helen Yentus (Riverhead)
Golden Child by Claire Adam, cover design by Ben Wiseman (Hogarth)
Good Enough by Jen Petro-Roy, cover design by Liz Dresner (Feiwel and Friends)
Grand Union: Stories by Zadie Smith, cover design by Jon Gray (Hamish Hamilton)
Holy Lands by Amanda Sthers, cover design by Tree Abraham (Bloomsbury)
Humiliation by Paulina Flores, cover design by Nicole Caputo (Catapult)
I’ve Been Meaning to Tell You: A Letter To My Daughter by David Chariandy, cover design by Tree Abraham (Bloomsbury)
Inland by Téa Obreht, cover design by Jaya Miceli, cover art by Tamara Ruiz (Random House)
Instructions for a Funeral: Stories by David Means, cover design by Alex Merto (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
Know My Name: A Memoir by Chanel Miller, cover design by Jason Ramirez and Nayon Cho (Viking)
Lanny by Max Porter, cover design by Jonny Pelham (Faber & Faber)
Life Support: 100 Poems to Reach for on Dark Nights by Julia Copus, cover design by Helen Crawford-White (Head of Zeus)
Long Live the Tribe of Fatherless Girls by T Kira Madden, cover design by Tree Abraham (Bloomsbury)
Map of Another Town by M.F.K. Fisher, cover design by Anna Morrison (Daunt Books)
Miracle Creek by Angie Kim, cover design by Na Kim (Sarah Crichton Books)
Mothers: Stories by Chris Power, cover design by Grace Han (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
Mr Salary: Faber Stories by Sally Rooney, cover design by Jonathan Pelham (Faber & Faber)
** Mrs. Everything by Jennifer Weiner (Atria Books)
My Lovely Wife by Samantha Downing, cover design by Emily Osborne (Berkley Books)
My Past Is a Foreign Country by Zeba Talkhani, cover design by Anna Woodbine (Sceptre)
My Time Among the Whites: Notes from an Unfinished Education by Jennine Capo Crucet, cover design by Adalis Martinez (Picador)
Never Enough: The Neuroscience and Experience of Addiction by Judith Grisel, cover design by Emily Mahon (Doubleday)
No One Is Too Small to Make a Difference by Greta Thunberg, cover design by Tom Etherington (Allen Lane)
Normal People by Sally Rooney, cover design by my dear friend Elena Giavaldi, illustration by Molly Bounds (Hogarth)
Not Working: Why We Have to Stop by Josh Cohen, cover design by Matthew Young (Granta)
Olive, Again by Elizabeth Strout, cover design by Greg Mollica, art by Sarah Maycock (Random House)
On The Up by Alice O’Keeffe, cover design by Helen Crawford-White (Hachette)
Portrait of Humanity by Various, cover photo by Michal Solarski (Hoxton Mini Press)
Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams, cover design by Donna Cheng, illustration by Gerrel Saunders (Scout Press)
Red at the Bone by Jacqueline Woodson, cover design by Jaya Miceli (Riverhead)
Rosalind by Judith Deborah, cover design by Kathleen Lynch (Plimsoll Press)
Rough Magic by Lara Prior-Palmer, cover design by Nicole Caputo (Catapult)
Rutting Season by Mandeliene Smith, cover design by Grace Han (Scribner)
Sing to It: New Stories by Amy Hempel, cover design by Stephen Brayda (Scribner)
Stay and Fight by Madeline Ffitch, cover design by Matt Dorfman (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
Strangers and Cousins by Leah Hager Cohen, cover design by Grace Han (Riverhead)
** Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid (G.P. Putnam’s Sons)
Territory of Light by Yūko Tsushima, cover design by Na Kim (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
The Affairs of the Falcóns by Melissa Rivero, cover design Allison Saltzman, lettering Boyoun Kim (Ecco)
** The Archive of Alternate Endings by Lindsey Drager (Dzanc Books)
The Ash Family by Molly Dektar, cover design and illustration by Kimberly Glyder (Simon and Schuster)
The Au Pair by Emma Rous, cover design by Colleen Reinhart (Berkley)
The Care and Feeding of Ravenously Hungry Girls by Anissa Gray, cover design by Emily Osborne, art by Alice Lindstrom (Berkley)
The Cook by Maylis de Kerangal, cover design by Na Kim (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
The Crying Book by Heather Christle, cover design by Nicole Caputo (Catapult)
The Dreamers by Karen Thompson Walker, cover design by Anna Kochman (Random House)
The Dry Heart by Natalia Ginzburg, cover design by Pablo Delcan (New Directions)
The Dutch House by Ann Patchett, cover design by Robin Bilardello, cover painting by Noah Saterstrom (Harper Collins)
The Far Field by Madhuri Vijay, cover design by Kelly Winton (Grove Press)
The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai, cover design by Ben Denzer (Penguin)
** The History of Living Forever by Jake Wolff (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
The Innocents by Michael Crummey, cover design by Emily Mahon, cover painting by Diana Dabinett (Doubleday)
** The Island of Sea Women by Lisa See (Scribner)
The Memory Police by Yōko Ogawa, cover design by Tyler Comrie (Pantheon Books)
The Most Fun We Ever Had by Claire Lombardo, cover design by Emily Mahon, cover art by Joel Penkman, photo by Patrizia Savarese (Doubleday)
The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead, cover design by Oliver Munday, cover photo by Neil Libbert (Doubleday)
The Penguin Book of Christmas Stories by Jessica Parkinson, cover design by Matthew Young (Penguin)
The Penguin Book of Italian Short Stories by Jhumpa Lahiri, cover painting by Nathalie du Pasquier, cover design by Tom Etherington (Penguin)
The Plotters by Un-Su Kim, cover design by Michael J. Windsor (Doubleday)
The Shadow King by Maaza Mengiste, cover design by Lynn Buckley (W. W. Norton Company)
The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides, cover design by Anne Twomey (Celadon Books)
The Uninhabitable Earth: Life After Warming by David Wallace-Wells, cover design by Richard Green (Tim Duggan Books)
The Unpassing by Chia-Chia Lin, cover design by June Park (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
The Volunteer by Salvatore Scibona, cover design by Rachel Willey (Penguin)
** The Wall by John Lanchester (W. W. Norton Company)
The White Death: An Illusion by Gabriel Urza, cover design by Joan Wong (Nouvella)
** There Will Be No Miracles Here: A Memoir by Casey Gerald (Penguin)
Thick: And Other Essays by Tressie McMillan Cottom, cover design by Oliver Munday (New Press)
Three Women by Lisa Taddeo, cover design by Greg Heinimann (Bloomsbury)
To Keep the Sun Alive by Rabeah Ghaffari, cover design by Donna Cheng (Catapult)
** Tokyo Ueno Station by Miri Yū (Tilted Axis Press)
Turbulence by David Szalay, cover design by Lauren Peters-Collaer (Scribner)
Vacuum in the Dark by Jen Beagin, cover design by Alex Merto (Scribner)
Very Nice by Marcy Dermansky, cover design by Janet Hansen, cover illustration by Justin Metz (Knopf)
Vincent and Alice and Alice by Shane Jones, cover design by Nicole Caputo (Tyrant Books)
We Cast a Shadow by Maurice Carlos Ruffin, cover design by Rodrigo Corral (One World)
Zen: The Art of Simple Living by Shunmyō Masuno, cover illustration by Harriet Lee-Merrion (Penguin)
What do you think of these book cover designs?
What do you think of the best book covers 2019? Which one is your favorite? Are any of your own favorites missing? Do you have any recommendations that should be added? I’d love to hear your thoughts on this list of the best book covers 2019 in the comments below.
Looking for more on book design?
If you’re looking for more about book design, see these related articles:
- Best Book Covers 2019
- Penguin English Library: The Complete List
- Best Book Covers 2018
- Penguin Clothbound Classics: The Complete List
- Best Book Covers 2017
