Our Favourite Quick Reads
Selected by the Bookshop
Fantastic books, all under 200 pages.
From the publisher:
'A book for children from 8 to 80. I love the humanity of this story and how one man's efforts can change the future for so many. It's a real message of hope.' Michael MorpurgoDiscover this beloved masterpiece of nature writing that is a…
From the publisher:
In Agua Viva Clarice Lispector aims to 'capture the present'. Her direct, confessional and unfiltered meditations on everything from life and time to perfume and sleep are strange and hypnotic in their emotional power and have been a huge…
From the publisher:
A writer returns to his college town, where he is to conduct what will be the final published interview with Thomas, his ninety-year-old mentor. But after he drops his smartphone in the hotel sink, he arrives at Thomas's house with no…
From the publisher:
If you loved BBC4's Hemingway , read the book that won Ernest Hemingway the Nobel Prize for Literature Set in the Gulf Stream off the coast of Havana, Hemingway's magnificent fable is the tale of an old man, a young boy and a giant fish. It…
From the publisher:
Barthes shares his passionate, in-depth knowledge and understanding of photography. …
From the publisher:
Robert Grainier is a day labourer in the American West at the start of the twentieth century - an ordinary man in extraordinary times. Buffeted by the loss of his family, Grainier struggles to make sense of this strange new world. As his…
From the publisher:
Translated by Tanya LeslieWinner of the Nobel Prize in Literature 2022In her spare, stark style, Annie Ernaux documents the desires and indignities of a human heart ensnared in an all-consuming passion. Blurring the line between fact and…
From the publisher:
Both devastating and funny, The Lonely Londoners is an unforgettable account of immigrant experience - and one of the great twentieth-century London novels. This Penguin Modern Classics edition includes an introduction by Susheila Nasta.At…
From the publisher:
Translated by Martin AitkenShortlisted for the International Booker Prize, The Employees is one of the most beloved and influential science fiction novels of the twenty-first century'I was obsessed from the first page to the…
From the publisher:
'Mishima's greatest novel, and one of the greatest of the past century' The TimesA band of savage thirteen-year-old boys reject the adult world as illusory, hypocritical, and sentimental, and train themselves in a brutal callousness they…
From the publisher:
A masterpiece of transgressive, surrealist erotica, George Bataille's Story of the Eye was the Fifty Shades of Grey of its era. This Penguin Modern Classics edition is translated by Joachim Neugroschal, and published with essays by Susan…
From the publisher:
Translated by Polly BartonLonglisted for the International Booker Prize 2025The award-winning, bestselling Japanese phenomenon. An extraordinary, thrilling novel about sex, disability and power'A must-read debut. Funny and frank, this book…
From the publisher:
Translated by Megan McDowellSOON TO BE A MAJOR NETFLIX DRAMASHORTLISTED FOR THE MAN BOOKER INTERNATIONAL PRIZE 2017'The book I wish I had written' Lisa Taddeo, author of Three Women and AnimalA young woman named Amanda…
From the publisher:
'The finest book ever written on nature and landscape in Britain' GuardianIntroduction by Robert Macfarlane. Afterword by Jeanette WintersonIn this masterpiece of nature writing, Nan Shepherd describes her journeys into the Cairngorm…
From the publisher:
A taut psychological thriller from 'a master crime writer' (Financial Times) -- now available in English for the first time Onizuka Kumako is a fierce woman: tall, beautiful, and not afraid to speak her mind. In Tokyo bars, she seduces…
From the publisher:
Translated from French by Mark HutchinsonA Leopard-Skin Hat may be Anne Serre’s most moving novel yet. Hailed in Le Point as a ‘masterpiece of simplicity, emotion and elegance,’ it is the story of an intense friendship…
From the publisher:
A vital and honest book exploring the pain of the immigrant experience and the turmoil it can carry across generations, from the winner of the Desmond Elliott PrizeDriven by a deep-seated desire to understand his mother’s life before…
From the publisher:
The first of his peerless novels of Cold War espionage and international intrigue, Call for the Dead is also the debut of John le Carre's masterful creation George Smiley. After a routine security check by George Smiley, civil servant…
From the publisher:
A wondrous tale of bonds forged when two men are pitted against each other on a remote island during the Highland Clearances, from the prize-winning author of West.LONGLISTED FOR THE 2024 HIGHLAND BOOK PRIZEWATERSTONES WELSH BOOK OF THE…
From the publisher:
'A great shout of life and individuality ... an act of defiance that gladdens the soul' Guardian Lolly Willowes, so gentle and accommodating, has depths no one suspects. When she suddenly announces that she is leaving London and moving,…
From the publisher:
Described as 'a metaphysical shocker' at the time of its release, Muriel Sparks' The Driver's Seat is a taut psychological thriller, published with an introduction by John Lanchester in Penguin Modern Classics.Lise has been driven to…
From the publisher:
'Tender and elegant' Guardian'Unlike anything else in modern English literature' D.J. Taylor, SpectatorA damaged survivor of the First World War, Tom Birkin finds refuge in the quiet village church of Oxgodby where he is to spend the summer…
From the publisher:
A bold and brilliant short work by the author of Grief is the Thing with Feathers and Lanny.…
From the publisher:
Considered an 'audacious' second novel, GIOVANNI'S ROOM is set in the 1950s Paris of American expatriates, liaisons, and violence. This now-classic story of a fated love triangle explores, with uncompromising clarity, the conflicts between…
From the publisher:
Set against the frozen waste of a harsh New England winter, Edith Wharton's Ethan Frome is a tale of despair, forbidden emotions, and sexual tensions, published with an introduction and notes by Elizabeth Ammons in Penguin Classics.Ethan…
From the publisher:
Trailblazing author Isabel Waidner returns with an existential cat-and-mouse story of grief, loss, ambition, and the possibility making oneself anewTwo men meet in a flat in London. They are total strangers and yet they look remarkably…
From the publisher:
An exhilarating winter tale of two sisters drawn into a new life of risk, passion and possibility, from the Sunday Times bestseller.‘Tessa Hadley is my favourite author’ KATE ATKINSONOn a winter Saturday night in…
From the publisher:
A new translation of the legendary Mexican classic of magic realism which went on to inspire the works of Gabriel García Márquez and Mario Vargas LlosaWith an Introduction by Gabriel García MárquezA new…
From the publisher:
WITH A NEW INTRODUCTION BY ANDREY KURKOVA rich, successful Moscow professor befriends a stray dog and attempts a scientific first by transplanting into it the testicles and pituitary gland of a recently deceased man. A distinctly worryingly…
From the publisher:
One of the BBC's '100 Novels That Shaped Our World''Rhys took one of the works of genius of the 19th Century and turned it inside-out to create one of the works of genius of the 20th Century' Michele RobertsJean Rhys's masterpiece tells the…
From the publisher:
A brilliant novella from a legendary figure in American fictionA young woman drifts through dimly lit bars and rented rooms, reporting from the erogenous zones of New York and Europe. Encountering increasingly…
From the publisher:
All Tom’s friends really are superheroes. Tom even married a superhero, the Perfectionist. But at their wedding the Perfectionist is hypnotized by her ex, Hypno, to believe that Tom is invisible.Nothing he does can make her see him.…
From the publisher:
Longlisted for the Man Booker International Prize'A savagely short novel of immeasurable ambition and violent beauty. This is the language of genius.' Juan Pablos Villalobos'How often, honestly, does the unveiling in translation of a…
Recommended by Anya
‘Weasels in the Attic explores themes of masculinity and marriage in contemporary Japan, weaving together three interconnected stories that follow old friends at different points in their lives. The characters find themselves in unsettling, almost dreamlike situations – moments that push them towards uncomfortable truths. This surreal novella is full of intrigue, and has a banging cover.’
From the publisher:
'On that day, ten years ago, I saw my parents for the last time. Since then I’ve changed phone numbers, houses, continents, I’ve erected an impregnable wall and put an ocean between us. They’ve been the best ten years of…
From the publisher:
Translated from Persian by Faridoun FarrokhThe internationally acclaimed masterpiece from one of Iran's most influential writers - a powerful and essential tale of female freedom.‘The best feminist novel I know. It's thrilling,…
From the publisher:
Translated by Elisabeth JaquetteLonglisted for the 2021 International Booker Prize | Shortlisted for the 2020 National Book Award for Translated LiteratureMinor Detail begins during the summer of 1949, one year after the war that the…
From the publisher:
WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY MONICA ALIThe love affair between Maurice Bendrix and Sarah, flourishing in the turbulent times of the London Blitz, ends when she suddenly and without explanation breaks it off. After a chance meeting rekindles his…
Latest booklists
Latest booklists
