We enjoyed reading these books on holiday. You might, too
- A selection of titles chosen by The Economist’s journalists
Fiction
Devil in a Blue Dress. By Walter Mosley. Atria; 240 pages; $18.99. Profile; £9.99
This is the first book in a series featuring Easy Rawlins, an African-American private detective working in mid-century Los Angeles. Rawlins and his fearsome sidekick, Mouse, navigate America’s treacherous racial terrain with wit and grace. Every book in the series is worth reading, but start with this one.
Every Man Dies Alone. By Hans Fallada. Melville House; 592 pages; $22.99
Two ordinary Germans take it upon themselves to resist Hitler. A husband and wife begin writing postcards urging people to defy the Nazis, scattering them throughout Berlin, until a Gestapo detective hunts them down. A historical page-turner that trades the banality of evil for the stubborn persistence of good.
The Friends of Eddie Coyle. By George Higgins. Picador; 192 pages; $17.99
A spare, lean thriller, first published in 1970, about the workaday drudgery of the criminal underworld. Higgins was a prosecutor as well as a novelist, and he has an unfailing ear for dialogue. The title is ironic: Coyle has no friends, only people to betray or be betrayed by.
The Garden of the Finzi-Continis. By Giorgio Bassani. Knopf; 280 pages; $23. Random House; £23
Slim and elegant, this atmospheric novel evokes the lost world of interwar Italy and its Jewish population. The narrator recounts his lifelong love affair with the wealthy and refined Finzi-Continis, and especially with Micòl, the daughter of the family, as fascism slowly begins to restrict their lives.
The Goldfinch. By Donna Tartt. Little, Brown; 784 pages; $30 and £20
After a bombing at an art museum, a teenage boy makes an impulsive decision to steal a painting. In the years that follow, he has to deal with growing up, bereavement and protecting a priceless artwork. At almost 800 pages, this immersive novel is designed for long days by the pool.
The Imperfectionists. By Tom Rachman. Quercus; 368 pages; £10.99
Ever wonder what life might be like for an obituary writer or a corrections editor? A newspaper in Rome at the dawn of the internet age is the setting of this enjoyable novel; its staff are the characters. Each jewel-like story could stand on its own, but they are threaded together brilliantly.
To the Lighthouse. By Virginia Woolf. Vintage; 256 pages; £9.99
This modernist classic is a riveting summer book, which merits rereading. The Ramsay family spends every summer holiday in Scotland. But as the first world war looms, and the sea surrounds their holiday home in a thumping ebb and flow, routines are disrupted.
The Luminaries. By Eleanor Catton. Little, Brown; 848 pages; $27. Granta; £18.99
A 19th-century murder mystery is stretched out on a postmodern canvas. Set against the ice-capped Southern Alps, this novel depicts the boom and bust of New Zealand’s gold rush. Perfect for readers seeking an escape to a far-flung place.
Mothering Sunday. By Graham Swift. Knopf; 192 pages; $15. Simon & Schuster; £12.99
British authors specialise in novels in which hot, languid people spend hot, languid days in charming country piles: think of them as National Trust novels. “Brideshead Revisited” is one, “The Go-Between” another. This wonderful novella is a superb addition to the genre.
Nights at the Circus. By Angela Carter. Vintage; 368 pages; £9.99
Sophie Fevvers, a Cockney acrobat, claims to have “hatched out of a bloody great egg” and sprouted wings during puberty. Jack Walser, a journalist, follows her and her eclectic circus troupe across Russia and tries to disentangle truth from performance. A surreal fable.
No Great Mischief. By Alistair MacLeod. W.W. Norton; 296 pages; $16
The harsh, gorgeous landscape of Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, is the backdrop to this novel, which deals with physical labour, the undertow of family lore and what kin owe one another. A Scottish-Canadian history as finely woven as a tartan.
Non-fiction
Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly. By . HarperCollins; 416 pages; $24
An absorbing account of the drug-addled, profanity-filled life of a working chef. This culinary classic by the late, beloved Bourdain will give you a new appreciation for the people who make your food. It will also make you think twice about where and what you order. (Beware mussels and hollandaise sauce.)
Means of Control: How the Hidden Alliance of Tech and Government Is Creating a New American Surveillance State. By Byron Tau. Crown Publishing; 400 pages; $32
A startling exposé of how America’s government and the tech industry have allowed vast mountains of personal data to be mined, traded and commercially exploited. Important, disturbing and deftly explained by a seasoned investigative journalist.
The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York. By . Vintage; 1344 pages; $27.99 and £30
A 1,200-page tome on the rise and fall of the parks commissioner of New York may not sound like a natural summer read. But Robert Moses turned himself into one of the most powerful men in America and reshaped the geography of his city. This book reads like an epic novel and will change the way you understand politics.
A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush. By Eric Newby. HarperCollins; 256 pages; $16.75 and £10.99
When the author took out “Notes on the Bashgali Language” in the Hindu Kush he had presumably hoped to find the usual advice for how to order a cold beer. Instead he found phrases for “How long have you had a goitre?” and “I saw a corpse in a field this morning.” A funny, engrossing book.
Takeover: Hitler’s Final Rise To Power. By Timothy Ryback. Knopf; 400 pages; $32 and £27
A thorough account of the last months of the Weimar Republic. It takes readers into the room where it happened and shows how the petty jealousies, overconfidence, stubbornness and sheer exhaustion of Germany’s elite ushered a murderous sociopath into power.
A Time of Gifts. By Patrick Leigh Fermor. NYRB Classics; 344 pages; $17.95. John Murray; £16.99
In 1933, newly expelled from school, Leigh Fermor set off on a walk from the Netherlands to Turkey. In this book, which covers the journey to Hungary, he recounts his picaresque wanderings through a world on the brink of catastrophe. Arguably the greatest travel narrative ever written.
Traces of Enayat. By Iman Mersal. Transit Books; 280 pages; $18.95
The joint winner of this year’s James Tait Black Prize for Biography, this is an investigation into the suicide of a young writer whose only novel was published posthumously. With the lightest of touches it examines patriarchy, gender and class, exploring mid-20th-century Egyptian society in all its rich complexity.
Waterlog. By Roger Deakin. Vintage; 368 pages; £10.99
This is the book that inspired the wild-swimming craze, though do not let that put you off. It is odder and more eccentric than its dreary wet-suit-wearing evangelists may make you think. Follow the author as he splashes in the waterways of Britain. One to dip into, preferably when lying by a river.
West with the Night. By Beryl Markham. Lushena Books; 318 pages; £33
A book so good it made Ernest Hemingway feel “completely ashamed of myself as a writer”. In luminous prose, Markham recounts her childhood in British East Africa (now Kenya), her work as a daring bush pilot and her record-setting flight across the Atlantic in 1936.
Wind, Sand and Stars. By Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. HarperCollins; 240 pages; $17.99. Penguin; £8.99
Today planes merely have “pilots”. When the author took to the air, planes were flown by a far more glamorous breed: “aviators”. Those magnificent men in their flying machines and goggles took great risks—and wrote great yarns. In this book Saint-Exupéry crash-lands in the Libyan desert and has supper with snakes.
A Woman of No Importance. By Sonia Purnell. Little, Brown; 416 pages; £20
A gripping biography of Virginia Hall, a one-legged American woman considered by the Gestapo to be the Allies’ most formidable spy. Under the cover of journalism, she galvanised and organised French Resistance groups. An account of exceptional courage and heroism.
© 2024, The Economist Newspaper Ltd. All rights reserved.
From The Economist, published under licence. The original content can be found on www.economist.com
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Business NewsSpecial ReportWe enjoyed reading these books on holiday. You might, too
First Published:19 Oct 2024, 05:47 PM IST
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