I love a good short novel, but in a publishing world that increasingly prioritizes longreads, finding a great, contemporary story that's under 250 pages or so can be nigh impossible. For my fellow short-book lovers, I've got a list of 20 recent short novels that everyone should read.
If you're used to reading 400-plus-page tome after 400-plus-page tome, throwing short novels into the mix can be quite the trip. Short books don't suffer from the bloat that plagues overly long titles. Telling a story in fewer than 300 pages requires authors to cut every word that isn't totally necessary to their plots, which results in tight, clean storytelling.
For the purposes of this list, I have tried to select books published since 2000 and with fewer than 250 pages. Anne F. Garréta's Sphinx has been around for several decades, but only received an English translation in 2015, qualifying it — in this humble books writer's opinion — for inclusion here. None of the 20 titles on this list breaches the 300-page mark, which means that every single one of them is perfect for weekend reading. In fact, you could probably read most of them in a single day.
Check out my recommendations below, and share the recent short novels you think everyone should read with me on Twitter!
1'Human Acts' by Han Kang
Paperback Page Count: 224
Beginning with the violent military suppression of a student-led resistance movement in 1980, South Korean author Han Kang's 2014 novel, Human Acts, explores the decades-long impact of one casualty on the lives of those who knew him.
2'Binary Star' by Sarah Gerard
Paperback Page Count: 172
An astronomer with bulimia fights to reconcile her feelings for her long-distance boyfriend with his emotional unavailability in this stunning 2015 debut.
3'Mislaid' by Nell Zink
Paperback Page Count: 256
When an ill-advised marriage goes south, a white lesbian woman leaves her gay husband and young son behind to start a new life with their daughter, whom she raises under an assumed black persona.
4'Lost Boi' by Sassafras Lowrey
Paperback Page Count: 233
A queer, punk Peter Pan retelling? Yep. Lost Boi reimagines Pan as the fearless leader of a group of young, gay squatters, resisting the call to join Hook's brigade of leather-clad pirates.
5'Fever Dream' by Samanta Schweblin
Hardcover Page Count: 192
A young woman lies in a remote hospital, accompanied only by a boy who is not her son. On her deathbed, she recounts a dreadful poisoning that seemed to come from nowhere, and its effects on her family and friends.
6'Atmospheric Disturbances' by Rivka Galchen
Paperback Page Count: 256
In this unsettling 2008 novel from Canadian-American author Rivka Galchen, a doctor sets off in search of his wife after someone kidnaps her and leaves a lifelike replica in her stead.
7'The Queue' by Basma Abdel Aziz
Paperback Page Count: 224
Set in a surreal version of Egypt, The Queue centers on the ordinary citizens forced to wait in line before a Gate that never opens, in order to receive permission to perform even the most banal of tasks.
8'When the Emperor Was Divine' by Julie Otsuka
Paperback Page Count: 144
Julie Otsuka's debut novel, When the Emperor Was Divine, follows a Japanese-American family separated from their patriarch and sent to concentration camps during World War II.
9'Sphinx' by Anne F. Garréta
Paperback Page Count: 152
This experimental French novel tells the love story of I and A***, whose affair is rendered without any clues as to who is of what gender.
10'Flea Circus' by Mandy Keifetz
Paperback Page Count: 202
After her lover commits suicide, a young woman alphabetically catalogs their belongings and her memories.
11'The Birds of Opulence' by Crystal Wilkinson
Hardcover Page Count: 208
Matriarch Minnie Mae has presided over the Goode-Brown family of Opulence for decades, but she struggles to accept what she perceives as her descendents' shortcomings and slights.
12'Open City' by Teju Cole
Paperback Page Count: 261
Nigerian-born med student Julius wanders the streets of Manhattan at night, collecting stories from his diverse neighbors.
13'Exit West' by Mohsin Hamid
Hardcover Page Count: 240
Young couple Saeed and Nadia escape their fragmenting country through a magical door to Europe in this fast-paced novel of immigration.
14'The Orange Eats Creeps' by Grace Krilanovich
Paperback Page Count: 172
After her foster-sister disappears, a woman with ESP and a psychic connection to a Donner Party survivor sets out find her on "The Highway That Eats People."
15'The Guest Cat' by Takashi Hiraide
Paperback Page Count: 140
When two married, but disconnected, writers rent a guesthouse to get some work done, neither of them expects to fall in love with Chibi, their new neighbors' cat.
16'Dept. of Speculation' by Jenny Offill
Paperback Page Count: 180
Jenny Offill's delightful short novel, Dept. of Speculation, fast-forwards through a Brooklyn writer's marriage.
17'Home' by Toni Morrison
Paperback Page Count: 145
Hurt by the horrors of war and the racism he faces when he returns home to the U.S., a Korean War veteran dedicates himself to his sister: a victim of Southern eugenics.
18'The Clouds' by Juan José Saer
Paperback Page Count: 177
The recently discovered memoir of a 19th-century psychiatrist-in-training takes center stage in this clever novel from Argentinian author Juan José Saer.
19'A Separation' by Katie Kitamura
Hardcover Page Count: 231
After her husband mysteriously disappears in Greece, the unnamed narrator of Katie Kitamura's The Separation goes to find him.
20'The Dream-Quest of Vellitt Boe' by Kij Johnson
Paperback Page Count: 176
Based on H.P. Lovecraft's The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath, Kij Johnson's The Dream-Quest of Vellitt Boe sets a 55-year-old mathematics professor on a mission to save her star pupil.
