The Leopard by Giuseppe di Lampedusa (Pantheon, $14). One of the greatest historical novels of all time, up there with War and Peace and Marguerite Yourcenar’s Memoirs of Hadrian. It deals with the nature of time and the caprices of history, as well as power, love, and appetites, with vivid poetic precision. Set in mid-19th century Sicily, the book smells of gorgeous danger and sexy lassitude.
Sacred Hunger by Barry Unsworth (Norton, $15). An award-winning novel that speaks directly to the subject I’ve been saturated in for the past few years: the slave trade. Deeply researched and slightly crazy, but written with startling immediacy.
The Alexandria Quartet by Lawrence Durrell (Penguin, $14 for each novel). I hated this quartet of novels when I read it at age 16, dismissing it as D.H. Lawrence with olive oil. Obviously, I was too young. I reread the quartet this summer and thought it one of the most astonishing performances in fiction—the last word on the self-deceptions of sex and love.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
The Gastronomical Me by M.F.K. Fisher (North Point, $15). A collection of pieces by the greatest American writer whom no one in Britain has heard of. Absurdly pigeonholed as a food writer, Fisher does, indeed, write about food—but in all its connections with our thoughts, senses, passions, and memories.
Westward Ha! by S.J. Perelman (Burford, $13). Woody Allen and Groucho learned their best bits from Perelman. This is the sublime Sid in full cry: merciless, hilarious, immortal.
Zeno’s Conscience by Italo Svevo (Vintage, $15). Weird, funny, and deadly. Svevo’s 1923 novel begins with the narrator trying to find a
crisis grave enough to justify giving up smoking. He fails. It ends with the First World War, a shocking coda. In between, monstrous, sweet truths, and lies about love and marriage. What else is there?
-
One great cookbook: ‘The Woks of Life’The Week Recommends A family’s opinionated, reliable take on all kinds of Chinese cooking
-
Digital addiction: the compulsion to stay onlineIn depth What it is and how to stop it
-
Can Trump bully Netanyahu into Gaza peace?Today's Big Question The Israeli leader was ‘strong-armed’ into new peace deal
-
Lou Berney’s 6 favorite books with powerful storytellingFeature The award-winning author recommends works by Dorothy B. Hughes, James McBride, and more
-
Elizabeth Gilbert’s favorite books about women overcoming difficultiesFeature The author recommends works by Tove Jansson, Lauren Groff, and more
-
Fannie Flagg’s 6 favorite books that sparked her imaginationFeature The author recommends works by Johanna Spyri, John Steinbeck, and more
-
Jessica Francis Kane's 6 favorite books that prove less is moreFeature The author recommends works by Penelope Fitzgerald, Marie-Helene Bertino, and more
-
Keith McNally's 6 favorite books that have ambitious charactersFeature The London-born restaurateur recommends works by Leo Tolstoy, John le Carré, and more
-
Garrett Graff's 6 favorite books that shine new light on World War IIFeature The author recommends works by James D. Hornfischer, Craig L. Symonds, and more
-
Helen Schulman's 6 favorite collections of short storiesFeature The award-winning author recommends works by Raymond Carver, James Baldwin, and more
-
Beatriz Williams' 6 timeless books about history and human relationshipsFeature The best-selling author recommends works by Jane Austen, Zora Neale Hurston, and more
