Forget boring lists and classics that no one ever finishes. These stories are hot, smart, witty, and written for anyone who wants to escape—or finally find themselves—in pages that smell of summer and fresh black. This is our list of the top 10 books for summer reading.
Summer is the season of escapes. Not just to the beach, the mountains or cycling adventures – but to those stories that instantly disconnect us from reality and tie us to ourselves. Reading in the summer is not an obligation, but a luxury – and that is why the selection should be all the better. Because there is no room for boredom in a hammock and in a beach bag only for the best company among the covers.
But what to read that will truly be a mutual pleasure – for the heart and for the brain? For women who want more than a generic romance. For men who are willing to admit that a story has completely exhausted them emotionally. For anyone looking for intelligent plots, well-developed characters, and a sentence that stays in your head long after the book is closed. Here it is 10 novels, which are topping reading lists around the world – and deserve to be read this summer.
The Ministry of Time - Kaliane Bradley
A combination of time travel, love story, and British humor with a dystopian twist. Imagine: the British government launches a secret program to bring people from the past to present-day London—including an eccentric 19th-century explorer. His companion is a modern woman with a cool detachment and a sharp mind. What follows is more suspenseful and more entertaining than most “time travel” novels you’ve ever read. It’s a story about identity, about belonging, about a love so impossible you almost want to experience it.
Real Americans - Rachel Khong
This is not just another family saga. Rachel Khong—an author who can put into words what others say in 300 pages—unveils the multigenerational story of a Chinese-American family torn between ambition and belonging, between silence and revelation. It is a deftly structured novel that moves between time periods and narrative voices, yet remains startlingly clear. At the heart of the novel is the question: Who are we if no one tells us where we come from? If you enjoyed the works of Celeste Ng, Khong will delight you – and leave you with a quiet void that only great literature can fill.
James-Percival Everett
Everett, the literary samurai without a filter, in the novel James reimagines the classic “Huckleberry Finn” through the eyes of Jim—an enslaved man who was virtually voiceless in the original. Here, he gets it—and how. Jim is intelligent, sarcastic, angry, and human to the core. The novel is both a literary tour de force and a political statement, full of irony, subtle satire, and shocking truths about America, its past, and its ever-present present. James is a book that should be read by anyone who believes we know the classics – and anyone who wants to truly understand them.
The Hunter – Tana French
Although it takes place in a sleepy Irish village, The Hunter It has no sleepy energy. On the contrary – beneath the surface of the seething and silence lurk dirty secrets, lies and strange pub conversations that could ruin everything. French remains a master of atmosphere and slow-simmering tension, with a style that is impossible to imitate. The main character, a detective who could deserve his own Netflix spin-off, investigates a gold mystery that ends in blood. If you want a thriller that breathes with a rural pulse and breathes with great writing – this is it.
Martyr! – Kaveh Akbar
Poet Kaveh Akbar entered the literary scene with this novel with a power that cannot be ignored. Martyr! is the story of a young man searching for meaning – in faith, art, love and his own identity as a Muslim and an American. The novel is witty, painful, strange and magical, full of side mini-revelations about life that you want to underline and put on the fridge. Somewhere between an existential novel and a pop-culture reflection, it is Martyr! a book that you read slowly – not because it's difficult, but because you want it to take longer.
Fire Exit – Morgan Talty
Morgan Talty already with his collection of short stories Night of the Living Cut did not leave readers indifferent. In Fire Exit ...and shifts it up a gear. The protagonist, Raymond, discovers that he has a daughter—a grown woman who never knew he existed. Set in the context of the Penobscot tribe in Maine, the story explores relationships marked by silence, loss, and quiet despair. But Talty doesn't moralize—she writes gently, subtly, with humor that comes from the truth. This is a novel for anyone who understands that family can sometimes be the scariest thriller of all.
The Paris Novel - Ruth Reichl
If you're the type of person who believes that life's biggest turning points happen over lunch - then this is the book for you. Ruth Reichl, former food critic of the New York Times, tells the story of a young American woman who escapes to Paris in the 1960s and discovers love there—for food, for the city, for herself. This is not just a culinary ode, but a novel about women who dare to do more. The smell of fresh baguettes, the murmur of the Seine, and the first bite of the perfect coq au vin—it’s all in this book and more. Read with a snack in hand.
Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder - Salman Rushdie
Salman Rushdie confronts the assassination attempt that nearly cost him his life in this stunning, almost brutally honest memoir. Knife is not just a diary of recovery, but a reflection on free speech, physical vulnerability, art and perseverance. Rushdie writes without self-pity, but with a keen sense of drama and truth. This is not easy reading – but it is essential, for anyone who believes in the power of words. Or as he says: “Writing didn’t save me – but it was all I had.”
The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store - James McBride
A novel that someone should have written a long time ago – but fortunately it was written by McBride, who can handle stories like a jazz musician with a melody. A body is found in a small town in Pennsylvania. But this is not a crime novel. It is an ode to humanity, warmth, solidarity between Jews and black Americans in the 70s. Every character is memorable, every line of dialogue has heart, every page breathes with something old and at the same time incredibly current. McBride writes as if she knows all of us – and knows that we need stories that believe in people.
Worry – Alexandra Tanner
If you want something David Sedaris and Phoebe Waller-Bridge could write together – Worry is the right choice. Two sisters, one apartment, a bunch of anxiety and a bunch of “what am I doing with my life” moments. Tanner dissects millennial traumas, family dynamics and the witty cynicism of the modern world with surgical precision. A novel that is gentle and sharp at the same time – like a good espresso that first caresses you and then shakes you.
These books aren't just for the beach – they're for the list of books you'll recommend to others one day. Some will make you cry, others will brighten your day, and still others will quietly change you. But they're all worth your time. And let's face it – If we're reading in the summer, it shouldn't be boring.
