You may have packed the suntan lotion, bikini and hat for your summer break – but don’t forget a good read as well.
Whether you’re heading to an idyllic beach, a fascinating city or just enjoying a staycation at home, there are plenty of novels to help you escape. Here are 11 to consider…
THE WOMAN IN SUITE 11 by Ruth Ware
Published by Simon and Schuster, £16.99
A decade on, this gripping follow-up to the New York Times bestselling author’s The Woman In Cabin 10 – adapted for a Netflix series starring Keira Knightley – is set on the beautiful shores of Lake Geneva, where a terrified woman is held in a suite belonging to the hotel’s billionaire owner.
It sees the return of journalist Lo Blacklock, now married with children, who is invited to the grand opening of the exclusive Swiss hotel, only to find herself being asked for help by the wife of the billionaire, who claims she is being held prisoner in her marriage.
SOMEWHERE ONLY WE KNOW by Cathy Bramley
Published by Orion on July 31, £16.99
The bestselling author of the Lemon Tree Café sees a woman grieving over the loss of her daughter, but when she finds her late child’s travel journal, she sets out on the gap year trip the 23-year-old had dreamed of taking. Memories of a romantic summer in Bali soon come flooding back, along with an old flame.
GREAT BIG BEAUTIFUL LIFE by Emily Henry
Published by Viking, £20
The TikTok sensation and bestselling romantic novelist, whose books have sold over 10.5 million copies worldwide, brings readers this terrific beach read about a journalist, Alice Scott, who tracks down former heiress and party girl Margaret Ives on a remote US island, keen to pen the reclusive star’s memoir. But when a rival journalist turns up, things get heated, professionally and personally.
A PARTICULARLY NASTY CASE by Adam Kay
Published by Orion on August 28, £20
Anyone taking a late summer break who loved former junior doctor Adam Kay’s hilarious and heartbreaking memoir This is Going to Hurt should bag a copy of his debut novel, which has been described as ‘hilarious, macabre and heartrending in equal measure’. It begins when a hospital consultant dies of a heart attack and his fellow doctor smells foul play. But then another doctor dies in similar circumstances, and the investigation begins.
MY OTHER HEART by Emma Nanami Strenner
Published by Hutchinson Heinemann, £18.99
Female friendships form the heart of this coming-of-age story across continents and generations, from the journalist who has spent much of her life living in Southeast Asia, Australia and the US.
Beginning in 1998, it sees Mimi Traung lose her toddler at Philadelphia Airport, after which she is bundled onto a plane back to Vietnam and it seems her daughter is lost to her forever. Some 17 years later, she returns to look for her. Meanwhile, two best friends, both part Asian but from very different backgrounds, plan to travel to search for their roots. Eventually, the three women come face-to-face and have to confront the people they truly are.
THE COMPOUND by Aisling Rawle
Published by The Borough Press, £16.99
Anyone who follows reality shows with scepticism should bag a copy of this debut from the Irish ex-bookseller, which features a literary slice of Love Island and Big Brother in its setting. It centres on Lily, who wakes up in the compound of the title surrounded by other gorgeous girls, all waiting for a group of men to join them after traversing a desert to escape a war-torn world.
It all seems a familiar shallow environment until the producers start asking contestants to perform sick challenges, with gruesome results. Dark humour abounds, but the underlying message of this literary gem is more about the dangers of materialism and the lengths some people will go to cash in on fame.
THE TREASURES by Harriet Evans
Published by Viking, £16.99
The first in the Sevenstones Trilogy – a new family saga set over 50 years and three generations, from the bestselling author of the Beloved Girls – is set in 1965 and follows Alice and Tom as they grow up in New York and Notting Hill respectively, and are one day connected by a lost treasure, a forgotten letter and a life-changing phone call. Over a period of huge change as the Vietnam War and counterculture movement come to a head, Sevenstones – a house full of history and secrets – remains a constant.
WHISTLE by Linwood Barclay
Published by HQ, £20
The bestselling thriller writer makes his first foray into horror with this tale about successful children’s author Annie, who moves with her young son Charlie to a small town in upstate New York to recover from the sudden death of her husband and to escape a scandal ignited by one of her books. But when Charlie finds a forgotten train set in a locked shed at their new home, things start to get spooky, as she begins to hear a train at night, even though there isn’t a line for miles. And she also starts drawing a sinister new character who has no place in her children’s books.
DREAM COUNT by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Published by Fourth Estate, £20
For those who might have missed this release in spring, pick up a copy of this eminent author’s first novel in 12 years, centring on female experience complicated by layers of race, wealth and shame. It focuses on four African women living on either side of the Atlantic, in very different circumstances, but in some way connected. One is a wealthy travel writer seeking love, while her best friend is a lawyer who is fervently aware of her biological clock. There’s also a housekeeper and a high-flyer trying to work out what she wants in life.
YOU ARE HERE by David Nicholls
Published by Sceptre, £9.99
Just out in paperback for those who don’t have an e-reader or luggage space for a hefty tome, this love story has all the trademark humour, heartache and hope of Nicholls’ work, from One Day to Us and Starter for Ten, all of which were adapted for the screen.
It sees two lonely people thrown together by a mutual friend on the coast-to-coast walk, often in driving rain and soggy anoraks. Slowly, through their inner turmoils – he’s a geography teacher mourning the end of his marriage, she’s a divorced copy editor – they find friendship, comfort and hope in each other.
MEN IN LOVE by Irvine Welsh
Published by Jonathan Cape on July 24, £20
For those who like grittier reads, this sequel to Trainspotting brings back Renton, Spud, Sick Boy and Begbie as they leave heroin behind and seek joy on the dance floor, at the end of the Thatcher years. Their journey to redemption takes in Edinburgh, London, Amsterdam and Paris – and to Sick Boy’s wedding day.
