Recommendations
What to read next
Each list is drawn from titles in the current festival programme, grouped by the mood they suit rather than by marketing category — with the actual books and covers so you can start tonight.
Literary Fiction
Quiet, character-led novels
For readers who like slow burns and sharp sentences.
Normal People
Sally Rooney · Ireland
On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous
Ocean Vuong · United States
The Vegetarian
Han Kang · South Korea
Girl, Woman, Other
Bernardine Evaristo · United Kingdom
Poetry
Poetry for slow mornings
Collections to keep beside the kettle.
Historical Fiction
Stories that travel through time
The past, told close-up.
The Forty Rules of Love
Elif Shafak · Turkey
Homegoing
Yaa Gyasi · Ghana
The Underground Railroad
Colson Whitehead · United States
The Shadow Lines
Amitav Ghosh · India
Memoir
Lives told honestly
First-person accounts, no varnish.
Strangers I Know
Claudia Durastanti · Italy
Mystery
Puzzles worth staying up for
Cases, clues and clean endings.
Speculative Fiction
Worlds slightly beside our own
One step off the edge of the familiar.
Fever Dream
Samanta Schweblin · Argentina
Time Shelter
Georgi Gospodinov · Bulgaria
American War
Omar El Akkad · Canada
Zoo City
Lauren Beukes · South Africa
Children's Literature
Read aloud with younger readers
Stories that work out loud.
Not sure where to begin?
Start with the author of the month on our portfolio page, or follow a narrative sequence — a curated reading arc with a set order and a live discussion at each stop.