Reading List
Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀
Novelist
Ayobami Adebayo’s first novel, Stay With Me, sets a Nigerian marriage under the pressure of childlessness and two families’ expectations, and won the 9mobile Prize for Literature in 2017. Her second, A Spell of Good Things, follows two households across a widening class divide and was longlisted for the Booker. She writes about private life as the place where public forces land hardest, and she is precise about money.
01
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Flesh
by David Szalay
“We see him conscripted into the army, later serving in Iraq, and eventually making his way to the glittering universe of London’s wealthy elite. Each phase of his life exposes him to new hierarchies and moral ambiguities. Through it all a hunger for connection, for recognition, for something resembling meaning, continues to pulse beneath the surface of István’s life.” — via Interview, November 2025
02
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The Rest of Our Lives
by Benjamin Markovits
“I loved how the novel draws us deep into the mind of a middle-aged man navigating a world that feels increasingly unwelcoming. There’s a quiet brilliance to the prose, it is wry, tender, and precise. Small, seemingly ordinary details slowly gather weight, accumulating into moments that are unexpectedly moving and profound.” — via Interview, November 2025
03
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Audition
by Katie Kitamura
“This eerie encounter with Xavier, who insists she is his mother, sets the tone for the novel’s central tensions. The book unfolds in two mirrored halves, each presenting a distinct version of events that challenge the reader’s perception of truth and memory. Through this dual narrative, the novel carefully examines questions of identity, perception, and the moments that can ripple outward to reshape the understanding of a life.” — via Interview, November 2025
04
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The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny
by Kiran Desai
“On the surface, this is the love story of Sonia, a writer, and Sunny, a journalist, both of whom are to varying degrees torn between India and America. While that thread is fascinating in itself, this is a multilayered novel that encompasses so much else. It unfolds across continents and generations, exploring not just Sonia and Sunny’s entwined lives but also the delicate, liminal spaces between two worlds.” — via Interview, November 2025
05
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The Land in Winter
by Andrew Miller
“It is such an elegantly written novel, with sentences so finely calibrated that Miller’s descriptions are infused with psychological weight. The effect is so successful that for instance, the descriptions of the weather transform a frozen landscape into a mirror of his characters’ inner lives.” — via Interview, November 2025
06
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Flashlight
by Susan Choi
“Flashlight opens with the mysterious disappearance of a young academic from a beach. Though his young daughter, Louisa, is found, she barely remembers all that has just happened. From there, the story traces the many lives of a man once known as Seok Kang. The son of Korean immigrants in Japan, he becomes Hiroshi to escape discrimination. Later on, as a student in the United States, he adopts the name Serk.” — via Interview, November 2025