Laura van den Berg's 6 favorite books with hidden secrets
The author recommends works by Patricia Lockwood, Gillian Flynn, and more

When you make a purchase using links on our site, The Week may earn a commission. All reviews are written independently by our editorial team.
In Laura van den Berg's latest novel, "State of Paradise," a woman returns to her Florida hometown and finds it plagued by cults, missing-persons cases, and floods. Below, van den Berg recommends six other books about homecomings.
'Hangman' by Maya Binyam (2023)
A man returns to sub-Saharan Africa from America after decades away. Binyam's inventive debut dispenses with names, and the death of the narrator's seatmate during the flight, at once shocking and deadpan, sets the tone for the defamiliarization that awaits. Buy it here.
Subscribe to 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.
'No One Is Talking About This' by Patricia Lockwood (2021)
An unnamed social media star must return home after her sister's pregnancy takes a devastating turn. The novel begins in the banal absurdity of social media — called "the portal" here — but lands in a place of deep feeling. The book is a wonderful companion to Lockwood's 2017 memoir, "Priestdaddy." Buy it here.
'Pedro Páramo' by Juan Rulfo (1955)
After making a promise to his mother on her deathbed, a man travels to the town of Comala, in western Mexico, with the intent to meet his father, Pedro Páramo, for the first time. Instead, the son discovers a literal ghost town. Buy it here.
'Our Share of Night' by Mariana Enríquez (2022)
This epic novel is bookended by two homecomings, only home happens to be an occult stronghold tucked away in the Argentinian countryside. On each return, two of the central characters, a father and his son, must confront their powers, their wounds, and their fates. Buy it here.
'Sharp Objects' by Gillian Flynn (2006)
A young Chicago journalist who is haunted by the mysterious death of her sister many years earlier is assigned to return to her hometown of Wind Gap, Mo., to investigate a murder. The truths that she uncovers blow up her own understanding of her past. Buy it here.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
'Earthlings' by Sayaka Murata (2018)
As children, the narrator and her cousin, during a yearly visit to a family mountain house, construct a private world in which they are extraterrestrials. Years later, the narrator and her cousin return to the mountain house and attempt to live outside society. The results are shocking. Buy it here.
This article was first published in the latest issue of The Week magazine. If you want to read more like it, you can try six risk-free issues of the magazine here.
-
Kartoffelsalat (potato salad) recipe
The Week Recommends German dish is fresh, creamy and an ideal summer meal
-
6 peaceful homes near small towns
Feature Featuring doors with local topographical maps in Oregon and a 1850s homestead-turned-house in Vermont
-
Too Much: London-set romantic comedy from Lena Dunham
The Week Recommends Megan Stalter stars as a 'neurotic' New Yorker who falls in love with a Brit
-
Apocalypse in the Tropics: a 'troubling' portrait of modern Brazil
The Week Recommends Petra Costa's sobering documentary examines the rise of right-wing evangelical Christianity in Brazilian politics
-
Murderland: a 'hauntingly compulsive' book
The Week Recommends Caroline Fraser sets out a 'compelling theory' that toxins were to blame for the 1970s serial killer epidemic
-
The 2025 James Beard Award winners
Feature Featuring a casually elegant restaurant, recipes nearly lost to war, and more
-
Film reviews: Superman and Sorry, Baby
Feature A hero returns, in surprising earnest, and a woman navigates life after a tragedy
-
Music reviews: Lorde, Barbra Streisand, and Karol G
Feature "Virgin," "The Secret of Life: Partners, Volume Two," and "Tropicoqueta"