Summer Reads

Winner of the Whitbread Prize for Best First Novel.Agnes Day is mildly discontent. As a child, she never wanted to be an Agnes—she wanted to be a pleasing Grace. Alas, she remained the terminally middle class, hopelessly romantic Agnes. Now she's...

A New York Times Notable Book of the YearWinner of the Somerset Maugham AwardThe Country Life, Rachel Cusk’s third novel, is a rich and subtle story about embarrassment, awkwardness, and being alone; about families, or the lack of them; and about love in...

A Sunday Times (London) Top 100 Novel of the Twenty-First Century“No one has written better about what, I suppose, is generally known as female experience . . . All of it is familiar from life but not (thus far) from literature. Everything...

Since quitting work to look after his eight-year-old daughter, Alexa, Thomas Bradshaw has found solace and nourishment in his daily piano study. But his parents and in-laws wonder why he has swapped roles with Tonie Swann, his intense, intellectual wife...

Rachel Cusk’s second novel is a ruthless, surprising story of work, gender, and control.Ralph Loman is working in an unsatisfying job at a free London newspaper when Francine Snaith, a temporary secretary for a corporate finance firm, unexpectedly...

When eighteen-year-old Michael visits the Hanbury's remote family home he is captivated by their bohemian lifestyle. Years later, when he marries the strong-willed, beautiful Rebecca, he is secretly hoping to create his own version of that free-thinking...

Named a Best Book of 2020 by The Telegraph, The Times, and BBC History MagazineAn illuminating guide to the scientific and technological achievements of the Middle Ages through the life of a crusading astronomer-monk."Falk’s bubbling curiosity and strong...

'A subtle and beautiful book . . . Very few authors combine her acute psychological insight with her grace and style. There is plenty of life in the modern novel, plenty of authors who will shock and amaze you - but who will put on the page a beautiful...

'A subtle and beautiful book ... Very few authors combine her acute psychological insight with her grace and style. There is plenty of life in the modern novel, plenty of authors who will shock and amaze you - but who will put on the page a beautiful...

The Dutch people are some of the happiest in the world. Their secret? They are masters of niksen, or the art of doing nothing.Niksen is not a form of meditation, nor is it a state of laziness or boredom. It’s not scrolling through social media, or...

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE, THE HUFFINGTON POST, AND SHELF AWARENESS • “In Hausfrau, Anna Karenina goes Fifty Shades with a side of Madame Bovary.”—Time“A debut novel about Anna, a bored...

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Includes two new essays!NAMED ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY MICHIKO KAKUTANI, THE NEW YORK TIMES • NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY BUZZFEED, THE GLOBE AND MAIL, AND LIBRARY JOURNALFor readers of Nora...

“[N]uanced and uplifting.” —Buzzfeed“[V]ibrant and revealing. Ryan succeeds in capturing neurodiversity on the page.” —Publishers WeeklyOne of Bustle's Best Books of 2020! An unforgettable story of a fiercely original young woman, whose radical...

Winner of the Man Booker Prize.One of Entertainment Weekly's Top 10 Books of the Decade.One of the Top 10 Books of 2014 – Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times.A “thrilling, ambitious . . . intense” (Los Angeles Times)...

As long as we have been human, we have been mythmakers. In A Short History of Myth, Karen Armstrong holds up the mirror of mythology to show us the history of ourselves, and embarks on a journey that begins at a Neanderthal graveside and ends buried in...

The one and only from Emily Brontë, and it is a gut punch. A tragic story of class divides and revenge, Wuthering Heights is a classic tale of the power of love, and the devastation of love lost."May you not rest, as long as I am living. You said I...

A modern science fiction classic from an acclaimed bestselling author: The year is 2021. No child has been born for twenty-five years. The human race faces extinction.Civilization itself is crumbling as suicide and despair become commonplace. Oxford...

The One State is the perfect society, ruled over by the enlightened Benefactor. It is a city made almost entirely of glass, where surveillance is universal and life runs according to algorithmic rules to ensure perfect happiness. And D-503, the Builder,...

'Ingenious, horrifying' - GuardianIt started with fireballs raining down from the sky and crashing into the oceans' deeps. Then ships began sinking mysteriously and later 'sea tanks' emerged from the deeps to claim people . . .For journalists Mike and...

While walking in the Swiss Alps, two English travellers fall into a space-warp, and suddenly find themselves in another world. In many ways the same as our own - even down to the characters that inhabit it - this new planet is still somehow radically...