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Summer reads 2023: best books to take on holiday

By Lucy Brooks on 12/6/2023

What makes a summer read? It’s a book that engrosses through the flight and keeps you glued to the sunlounger, while transporting your frazzled brain away to another world. It’s a chance to fall back in love with reading, away from the daily grind. Most of all it’s a book that feels special and deserving of your precious leisure time. Whether you want to keep your brain buzzing with a literary masterpiece, or embrace the guilty pleasure of a beach read, we’ve got you covered with a guide to the best new books of summer 2023.

Yellowface by R.F. Kuang

Dark, juicy and deadly, Yellowface is a riotous satire on white privilege. Athena is the toast of the literary world, while her friend and fellow writer June is a nobody. So when June witnesses Athena die in a freak choking accident, she jumps at the chance to steal her friend’s masterful new manuscript and pass it off as her own. The only snag? June is white, and the novel is rooted in the intricacies of Chinese labourers’ experience during WW1. With a new Asian-sounding nom-de-plume and an ethnically misleading author’s photo, June takes the publishing world by storm. But this sparkling success is increasingly threatened by the deceptions that lurk in the shadows.

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Published 25 May

Tom Lake by Ann Patchett

The masterful Ann Patchett (The Dutch House, Bel Canto) explores the lives of parents before they had children. When Lara’s daughters return to the family home in 2020, they quiz their mother about her youthful romance with a famous actor. Glimpsing into their mother’s past gives the daughters a new perspective on their own lives and must re-think their family history. Spanning youthful passion to domestic pressures, Patchett’s ever-lucid prose builds a family saga that will have you hooked.

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Published 1 August

Really Good, Actually by Monica Heisey

Though it came out in the depths of January, Really Good, Actually has big beach-read energy. As the screenwriter of seven-time Emmy award-winning series Schitt’s Creek, Monica Heisey has proven comedy clout. Her much-hyped debut novel crackles with all one-liners and lovable characters you'd expect. Really Good, Actually follows newly divorced 29-year-old Maggie as she struggles to pay her rent, despairs over a pointless PhD and attempts to embrace casual sex. Instead of 'happily ever after', this is a celebration of chaos and making mistakes that will make all hapless millennials flinch with recognition. Bitterly and brutally observant, you can tell the story draws on Heisey's own experience as a young divorcee. It’s rare to find a book with comedy and depth in equal measure.

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Published 17 January

Small World by Caleb Azumah Nelson

Over three summers in London and Ghana, this lyrical and expansive story explores the father-son bond. In a close knit black community in south London, Stephen expresses himself through his love of music: dancing, singing, playing the trumpet. But how can Stephen’s rhythms reconcile with his father’s notions of shame and sacrifice? As he moves from his London home to his Ghanaian heritage, where can Stephen feel safe and free? Caleb Nelson’s artful and heartfelt prose has its own musicality, immersing us in Stephen’s world. Read it now, ahead of the TV series that has already been commissioned.

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Published 11 May

The Happy Couple, Naoise Dolan

Building on the skills for sparky comedy and shrewd observations showcased in Exciting Times, Naoise Dolan explores the lead up to a wedding through shifting perspectives. We hear about the titular happy couple, Celine and Luke, via their closest friends. Needless to say this is no happily ever after fairytale ending; instead, we find a complex web of societal pressures, ambivalence and denial. Skewering away at sentimentality to give us a sharper take on the heteronormativity fuelling modern relationships, Dolan creates a truly millennial rom-com, where the comedy trumps the romance.

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Published 25 May

Big Swiss by Jen Beagin

With a big budget HBO series starring Jodie Comer already in the works, Big Swiss is one of the buzziest books of the summer. Greta lives in a small town outside NYC and makes a living transcribing audio recordings of people’s sex therapy sessions. So far, so strange. But when a particular client piques Greta’s interest, and then appears in real life in a local dog park, things get really zany. An unlikely combination of deranged sex comedy and insightful trauma study, this extraordinary novel easily wins kookiest and most memorable book of the year.

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Published 18 May

Happy Place by Emily Henry

As author of best-selling Beach Read, Emily Henry is reigning queen of frothy, feelgood escapism. Think chicklit, but with enough zest to keep your brain engaged. Her new book Happy Place revolves around the awkward ache of faking it after a break-up. Harriet and Wyn were the perfect couple – until they decided to stop being a couple. The only obstacle to this separation is their upcoming group holiday, a treasured tradition they can’t bear to complicate for everyone else. So they decide to pretend, and play happy families just once more. But the pressure cooker of heartbreak, lies, close friends, free-flowing wine, sea air and sunshine means nothing quite goes to plan.

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Published 27 April

The Late Americans by Brandon Taylor

The Late Americans is a sophisticated, character-driven chronicle of contemporary life on a Midwestern university campus, from Booker-nominated Brandon Taylor. It follows a group of mostly queer men through a tumultuous year of sex, provocations and self-discovery. Taylor weaves together backstories, as each chapter takes a different character’s perspective, to expose the urges and dreads that connect us all. The imagery packs more power than the plot or characters, leaving you with thought-provoking vignettes.

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Published 22 June

I Have Some Questions for You by Rebecca Makkai

Murder, intrigue and the evocative backdrop of a New England boarding school make I Have Some Questions for You irresistible for fans of dark academia and Donna Tartt’s The Secret History. Pulitzer finalist Rebecca Makkai draws us into a murky rabbit hole of family tragedy and long-forgotten secrets, with a crime drama that encompasses potent issues such as class, race and gender. When accomplished podcaster Brodie Kane returns to her alma mater to teach, she gets drawn into a crime she’s chosen to forget, unsettling secrets that have remained for over 30 years.

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Published 2 February

Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld

As her loyal followers will attest, Curtis Sittenfeld has a knack for observational comedy and vividly wrought characters. The author of Prep and American Wife turns her talents to the small screen. TV writer Sally pokes fun at the way that average but charming men get to date total knock-outs, while the equivalent never happens for women. But then comes the meet-cute, as a pin-up pop star with a taste for supermodels suddenly takes an interest in Sally. Enjoy the warmth, comedy and wry send-up of social dating norms.

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Published 6 April

Bad Summer People by Emma Rosenblum

If you miss the bitchy, bratty cast of Succession, Bad Summer People serves up another slice of detestable American wealth – with fewer boardrooms and more beaches. Emma Rosenblum’s addictive debut follows the families who holiday on the ultra exclusive Fire Island. A handsome new outsider and a body found face-down under the boardwalk smash the status quo, exposing the ugly secrets behind this perfect facade. Pacy plot and gossipy glamour promise to keep you reading late into the night, even after a few cocktails.

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Published 8 June