Seichō Matsumoto – A Quiet Place (1971). A 2016 translation of a 1971 Japanese novel. A man investigates the mysterious death of his wife and is drawn into committing a crime of his own. The drama is slow and repetitive in places but the novel really kicks off in the second half. #SeichoMatsumoto

Jeremy Cooper – Brian (2023). A deeply lonely man goes to watch films at the BFI on London’s South Bank. He works for Camden Council and finds human interactions difficult. It’s a desperately sad and poignant novel that also works as a book about the redemptive power of the arts. #JeremyCooper

Jodi Picoult – Small Great Things (2016). Book club novel. A black nurse is blamed for killing a white supremacist’s baby. More substantial than I expected, it’s a powerful study of racism in America. Never simplistic, it explores how all-pervasive and insidious prejudice can be. #JodiPicoult

Adam S. Leslie – Lost in the Garden (2024). A psychedelic folk-horror novel. Society has broken down as ghosts stalk the English countryside. Three friends drive to the village of Almanby, a forbidden zone of sinister pagan strangeness. Funny, unusual, creepy and highly readable. #AdamSLeslie

Samantha Harvey – The Wilderness (2009). A man with Alzheimer’s tries to make sense of a disintegrating reality, as he recalls fragments of his life with his mother, wife, children and lover. An ever-shifting narrative brilliantly casts doubt on itself to replicate his condition. #SamanthaHarvey

Cathy Sweeney – Breakdown (2024). Novel. Bored and unhappy, a middle-aged woman suddenly leaves her Dublin home, husband, family and job and embarks on a trip that ends at a Welsh cottage. The idea of seeking personal freedom is more interesting than the rather prosaic execution. #CathySweeney

Graham Swift – Mothering Sunday (2016). In 1924, a young maid, Jane Fairchild, meets her well-to-do lover, Paul Sheringham, who is about to marry someone of his own class. But events don’t go to plan. A compassionate and beautifully written novel. Up there with Swift’s best work. #GrahamSwift

Ali Smith – Autumn (2016). Daniel is 101 years old and close to death. Elisabeth is 32 and devoted to him. The novel tells the story of a strange friendship against the backdrop of the Brexit vote and a changing Britain, with impressionistic digressions on art, time and morality. #AliSmith

Ian McEwan – Enduring Love (1997). Joe’s life unravels after he witnesses a ballooning accident. He’s plagued by a delusional stalker, who endangers his safety and his marriage. An expertly constructed psychological thriller that explores human behaviour with empathy and insight. #IanMcEwan

David Szalay – Flesh (2025). Highly readable Booker Prize winner: an account of one man’s life. István grows up in Hungary and has periods in the army (Iraq) and as a wealthy property developer (London). Believable and poignant experiences rendered in a hypnotically “flat” style. #DavidSzalay

Deborah Levy – Real Estate (2022). An impressionistic and highly readable memoir (the third in a loose trilogy) featuring reflections on places the author has lived and people she’s known. Witty and beautifully written meditations on writing, growing older and the nature of love. #DeborahLevy

Charlotte Philby – Edith and Kim (2022). Book club novel. Written by the granddaughter of Kim Philby, this is an account – blending fact and fiction – of Edith Tudor-Hart and her links to the Cambridge spy ring. It seems disjointed and assumes too much knowledge of actual events. #CharlottePhilby

William Boyd – Gabriel’s Moon (2024). Book club novel. It’s the early 1960s. Travel writer Gabriel Dax finds himself entangled in a web of international intrigue, led by a glamorous MI6 handler. Many twists and turns mingle with an interesting side plot about a childhood tragedy. #WilliamBoyd

Muriel Spark – The Public Image (1968). Booker-shortlisted novel. An actress obsesses over her public image above all else. She has a loveless marriage and her jealous husband finds an extreme way to ruin her career. Intriguing and sharply satirical, but somehow oddly unlikeable. #MurielSpark

Bonnie Garmus – Lessons in Chemistry (2022). A witty, entertaining novel about a chemist who becomes a TV cook. A strong character with an amazingly intelligent daughter (and dog), Elizabeth says exactly what she thinks and battles social repression in the late 1950s/early 1960s. #BonnieGarmus

Deborah Levy – The Man Who Saw Everything (2019). Impressionistic novel. After Saul Adler is hit by a car on Abbey Road, he experiences thoughts and memories from East Berlin in 1988 and London in 2016. It’s elegant and witty, but the shifting narrative tricks can be infuriating. #DeborahLevy

Heidi Amsinck – Last Train to Helsingør (2018). Book club read. “Spooky” short stories set in Copenhagen. Repetitive themes (objects with eerie powers, obsession, possession, ghosts, murder, abduction) and predictable endings make it a major chore to finish. Was it written by AI? #HeidiAmsinck

Ben Markovits – The Rest of Our Lives (2025). Booker-shortlisted road-trip novel of mid-life reflections. A man drives his daughter to college, then just keeps on driving. A less effective version of Richard Ford’s Frank Bascombe novels, although it does improve as it progresses. #BenMarkovits

Jim Mowatt – From Parkrun to London Marathon (2016). Enjoyable account of a 52-year-old’s introduction to running. Overcoming apathy and injury, he eventually takes part in the celebrated London 26-miler to raise funds for Save the Rhino. An unpretentious, highly accessible read. #JimMowatt

Patricia Highsmith – Carol (1952). A brilliant novel about the love between two women in the early 1950s. Highsmith writes with huge sensitivity and is perfect on the nuances of conversation and gesture. And while it’s not a thriller, elements of that genre are expertly woven in. #PatriciaHighsmith

Han Kang – The Vegetarian (2007). First published in South Korea and translated to English in 2015, this is a dark and upsetting tale of obsession. Yeong-he decides to give up meat and then not to eat food at all, with profound implications for herself and her family. Disturbing. #HanKang

Charlotte Rogan – The Lifeboat (2012). Book club novel. 1914. A luxury liner sinks, leaving 39 people in a tiny lifeboat. Hungry and desperate, they face moral choices about who should survive. Gripping and multi-layered, it makes wider points about gender roles and human nature. #CharlotteRogan

Nicola Barker – TonyInterruptor (2025). A heckler at an improvised music event sparks a discussion about honesty and artifice played out across a set of extreme characters in witty, vivid prose. Barker’s fiction isn’t for everyone, and may infuriate, but the energy is undeniable. #NicolaBarker

Percival Everett – The Trees (2022). Three detectives investigate a series of brutal, race-related murders in Money, Mississippi that appear to be tied to the history of lynching. Highly readable and often very funny, the novel has too many characters but still works beautifully. #PercivalEverett

Rose Tremain – Absolutely & Forever (2023). Brilliant novel set in England in the 1960s and 1970s. Marianne is torn between exotic Simon, who she loves, and dull, reliable Hugo, who loves her. A sophisticated study of relationships and family, written with empathy and subtle wit. #RoseTremain

Victoria Hislop – The Thread (2011). Book club read. A laboured romance/family saga based on events in Thessaloniki, Greece, from 1917–2007. Clichéd and unsubtle, it races along with some silly plot twists, one-dimensional characters and awkward attempts to weave in real history. #VictoriaHislop

Yoko Ogawa – The Memory Police (1994). Dystopian fable translated from Japanese. A young woman observes the Memory Police removing objects, one at a time, to leave a barren island without any culture or hope. A condemnation of authoritarianism, more relevant than ever. #YokoOgawa

Charlotte Wood – Stone Yard Devotional (2023). A woman retreats from society to live at a New South Wales convent. Surprisingly addictive Booker-shortlisted novel blends recollections of the past with day-to-day observations of a mouse plague and the return of a dead nun’s bones. #CharlotteWood

Vladimir Nabokov – Laughter in the Dark (1932). A brilliant and disturbing novel with touches of the darkest comedy imaginable. A wealthy German is manipulated by a young woman and her previous lover who scheme to take his money. Nabokov’s perfectly controlled prose is a delight. #VladimirNabokov

Percival Everett – James (2024). Booker-shortlisted. A brilliant reworking of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, from the perspective of the escaped slave Jim – a literate man who has to pretend to be uneducated around white people. A harrowing, compassionate and gripping novel. #PercivalEverett

Luke Haines – Freaks Out! Weirdos, Misfits and Deviants: The Rise and Fall of Righteous Rock ’n’ Roll (2024). Part memoir, part history of out-there pioneers. Haines has no time for Prince or Bowie. He’s lucid on The Shadows, Bucks Fizz and the horror of musicians wearing shorts. #LukeHaines

Harper Lee – To Kill a Mockingbird (1960). Second reading. Set in 1933–1935, this is a brilliant novel written from a child’s perspective. There’s warmth, wit and great human empathy in Scout’s story, which details her family’s experience of racism in the Alabama town of Maycomb. #BookSky #HarperLee

Rachel Kushner – The Mars Room (2018). Brilliant Booker-shortlisted novel. Romy Hall is serving two consecutive life sentences at Stanville Women’s Correctional Facility, California. Prison life is explored via a multi-perspective narrative that is insightful, witty and poignant. #BookSky

Yael van der Wouden – The Safekeep (2024). Debut novel set in the Netherlands in 1961. Isabel lives reclusively, observing rigid routines in her family home. Then her brother’s girlfriend Eva comes to stay and changes everything. Brilliant character portrait in mesmerising prose. #YaelVanDerWouden

Rachel Kushner – Creation Lake (2024). Remarkable novel. Sadie Smith (not her real name) is a US spy who infiltrates a French eco-commune. Its members are guided by the enigmatic Bruno, who lives in a cave and preaches via e-mail about Neanderthal life. Engaging and darkly comic. #RachelKushner

Paul Maunder – The Wind at My Back: A Cycling Life (2018). An engrossing and illuminating meditation on what it is to ride a bike. Maunder explores his relationship with the landscape and creativity, articulating his impressions of cycling through urban, suburban and wild spaces. #PaulMaunder

Chetna Maroo – Western Lane (2023). Booker-shortlisted novel with a quiet intensity. An 11-year-old girl becomes obsessed with playing squash to help cope with the death of her mother and as a way to feel closer to her father. Some illuminating observations about life and family. #ChetnaMaroo

Haruki Murakami – Norwegian Wood (1987). Book club read. A Tokyo student flits between two women he loves. It’s set in 1969–1970, but there’s little sense of the period. The focus on mental health issues is arguably ahead of its time. A bit clumsy overall and not really my thing. #HarukiMurakami

Sally Carson – Crooked Cross (1934). Book club read. In a German town in 1932–1933, a family and a community are ripped apart by the rise of the Nazi party. The novel starts slowly but steadily builds in power, and the doomed young couple – Lexa and Moritz – are memorably evoked. #SallyCarson

Patricia Highsmith – The Two Faces of January (1964). Superb thriller: a love triangle between a con artist, Chester, his pretty wife and an obsessive young man who helps Chester conceal a crime. Tension is ramped up across the streets, bars and hotels of Athens, Crete and Paris. #PatriciaHighsmith

Laurie Lee – Cider with Rosie (1959). Beautifully written account of traditional Cotswolds village life circa World War I. Lyrical and witty, Lee captures a lost world. I’d have preferred an overarching narrative, as some episodes seem disjointed, but other passages are riveting. #LaurieLee

Andrew McMillan – Pity (2024). Book club read. A powerful novel set in a Barnsley mining community. The impact of history and sexuality on three generations of men is examined via a multi-viewpoint narrative (including academic “fieldnotes”) that gains in gravitas as it unfolds. #AndrewMcMillan

Evelyn Waugh – Vile Bodies (1930). Uneven satire on the “bright young things” boozing and partying in London between the wars, and also the news media that reported on them. There are witty moments (mainly with the eccentric colonel), but it’s disjoined, with too many characters. #EvelynWaugh

Marilynne Robinson – Jack (2020). Book club read. Drama about a mixed-race couple, Jack and Della, and their forbidden romance in post-war St. Louis, USA. It’s insightful and nicely written but can seem longwinded, too – even though some of the most interesting scenes flash past. #BookReviews

Yrsa Sigurdardottir – I Remember You (2012). Book club novel. A formulaic horror-thriller set in the Icelandic fjords. A missing boy connects two seemingly unrelated plots. It’s way too long and turgid. Never truly scary, parts of the novel feel more Scooby Doo than Stephen King.

Carys Davies – West (2018). An intriguing short novel. American settler Cy Bellman sets off on an epic trip to investigate rumours that dinosaurs still roam in America. He leaves behind his vulnerable young daughter Bess. It’s quirky and nicely written but slightly underwhelming. #BookReviews