Books you can read in less than a week

When a mother disappears without a trace into the snowy Pyrenees, her husband and son are left to fend for themselves in a harsh and unforgiving landscape. In this delicate and psychologically intricate novella, Colm Tóibín charts the slow disintegration of a family, but also the unexpected possibilities that can emerge from absence. As Miquel grapples with his father’s silence and the reality of his mother’s departure, the arrival of an orphaned boy offers the promise of a different kind of life. This is a powerful, masterful exploration of betrayal, silence, and the quiet search for love.

In Watershed, Percival Everett turns his focus once again to the injustices of recent American history, exploring the relationship between Native American activists and Black Panther groups who bonded over their shared enemies in the 1960s Civil Rights movement. On a windswept landscape somewhere north of Denver, Robert Hawks, a feisty and dangerously curious hydrologist, finds himself enmeshed in a fight over Native American treaty rights. What begins for Robert as a peaceful fishing interlude ends in murder and the disclosure of government secrets.

Over just 208 pages, A Sport and A Pastime established James Salter's reputation as one of the finest writers of our time. It's a seductive, sexy read set in the 'sixties. A Yale dropout, Philip, is driving around France in a borrowed car when he begins an affair with a young shop-girl called Anne-Marie. In many ways, they're rather mismatched, but let's just say, not in others.

Perhaps best known for his Arthur C. Clarke Award-winning Children of Time series (three books at time of writing, each coming in at least 500 pages), Adrian Tchaikovsky’s Made Things is a dark yet whimsical fantasy tale full of magic, half-mages and puppet companions – and is only 224 pages long. Street thief Coppelia is forced to start working for a local crime lord, who wants her help in high-stakes heist. This could either make her fortune, or destroy her life. But then a surprising discovery threatens to tear their world apart, and they must face down a threat to the whole city of Fountains Parish.

This devastating novel is coming to Channel 4 in a six-part series in the autumn, and at a slim 208 pages you can easily fit in a read beforehand so you can compare the original with the adaptation. The book is set over twenty-four hours as the guests at a faded Scottish cabin park wait out the rain on the longest day of the year. With little else to do, twelve people sit cooped up with their families, watching the other residents. Slowly, one family, a mother and daughter without the right clothes or the right manners, begin to draw attention and tensions begin to rise as tragedy looms. Summerwater is a searing exploration of our capacity for both kinship and cruelty and a literary must-read in these divided times.

Think you know Cinderella? Think again. Freya Marske's retelling of the classic fairy tale is in some ways even darker than the original (Ella was murdered at sixteen, and her ghost is trapped inside her father's house, invisible to everyone except those infamous step-relations) and yet also much more romantic. Ella forges a careful friendship with a charm-seller and makes a bargain for three nights of almost-living almost-freedom. Now everyone will be able to see her. . .

Short books can be just as profound and moving as a long read, as Chetna Maroo's Booker-winning debut proves. Exploring themes of grief and sisterhood, this debut coming-of-age story packs all the feels into just 176 pages. Eleven-year-old Gopi has been playing squash for as long as she can remember. When her mother dies, her father enlists her in a brutal training regimen and soon, the game has become her entire world, causing a rift between Gopi and her sisters. But on the court, governed by the rhythms of the sport, she feels alive; the serve, the volley, the drive, the shot and its echo. This novel beautifully captures the ordinary as we follow a young athlete's struggle to transcend herself. 

In a small back alley in Tokyo, there is a café which has been serving carefully brewed coffee for more than one hundred years. But this coffee shop offers its customers a unique experience: the chance to travel back in time. This opportunity is not without risks: customers must sit in a particular seat, they cannot leave the café, and finally, they must return to the present before the coffee gets cold . . . Toshikazu Kawaguchi’s beautiful novel has stolen the hearts of readers the world over. Through it, we meet four visitors to the café and ask: what would you change if you could travel back in time?

Beneath the shadow of the Hollywood sign, a mountain lion roams the drought-stricken hills of ‘ellay’, teetering on the edge of a dangerous hunger. This lion, queer and introspective, wrestles with more than just survival in a world shaped by human intrusion. Fascinated by the absurdities and desires of the people below, they confront a profound question: Do they long to consume a human, or to become one? As the lion navigates its identity and isolation, the lines between predator and prey blur, in a thought-provoking exploration of desire, transformation, and the meaning of belonging.

Arriving in San Miguel, Mexico, a destination chosen to help her improve her Spanish, from her native India, young student Bonita is anonymous and acutely aware of the possibility of adventure stretching out ahead of her. But, as she sits in a park, silently watching this unfamiliar world go by, she meets a stranger who swears she knew Bonita’s mother as an art student decades before. This woman’s revelation leads Bonita on a journey to learn the truth of who her mother once was; a journey that will change their relationship for good.

Set on a remote and unforgiving island off the coast of Wales, Whale Fall is the story of Manod, a young woman with dreams of a life different from the one she is destined for. With war on the horizon, a move to the mainland seems unlikely, until two anthropologists arrive to study the island’s unique way of life. Manod hatches a plan to befriend them and secure a passage to a new future. At 224 pages, Elizabeth O’Connor’s haunting and highly anticipated debut novel is a read you can enjoy in one sitting.

In a serene mountain photography studio, nestled between this world and the next, visitors at life’s end awaken to a profound task. Handed a cup of tea, they are asked to select their most treasured memories, captured in photos representing every day of their lives. These chosen moments will be placed in a lantern, which, once spun, will guide them into the afterlife. From a Yakuza remembering a time of kindness to a woman rebuilding a shattered community, their stories reveal the bittersweet beauty of life’s fleeting moments. The Lantern of Lost Memories is a luminous Japanese tale, exploring how we are shaped by the people and moments we hold dear.

Raven Leilani is a funny and original new voice in literary fiction. Her razor-sharp yet surprisingly tender debut is an essential novel about what it means to be young now. Edie is messing up her life, and no one seems to care. Then she meets Eric, who is white, middle-aged and comes with a wife who has sort-of-agreed to an open marriage and an adopted black daughter who doesn’t have a single person in her life who can show her how to do her hair. And as if life wasn’t hard enough, Edie finds herself falling head-first into Eric’s family. 

Freelancer proofreader Fuyuko is shy and solitary. About to turn thirty-five, she is haunted by her past encounters, and is unable to even imagine a successful relationship. But she has one friend, Hijiri, and she loves the light. On Christmas Eve, the night of her birthday, Fuyuko leaves her home to count the lights, and an encounter with physics teacher Mr. Mitsutsuka opens up another dimension. Poetic, pulsing and unexpected, this is the third novel by internationally bestselling writer Mieko Kawakami.