Short on time? Here are the best under-200-page books for when you want a quick but really great read
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There are plenty of brilliant books that are short but perfectly formed and will keep you enthralled to the last page.
Unless you’ve got some serious commuting time, it can be tricky to make time for a spot of reading, especially if many of the books in your TBR pile are big chunky numbers that feel like mountains to climb rather than enjoy. A long and detailed novel can feel like a huge accomplishment once you’ve made it to the last page, but getting to that point can sometimes feel like a slog.
But the beauty of literature is that there is something out there to suit everyone’s tastes and reading speeds, and there are plenty of books – fiction and non-fiction – that are shorter yet still interesting, engaging and brilliant reads. And they just require a fraction of your time.
So, here are 15 of the best books weighing in at under 200 pages to keep on hand for when you find yourself short on time.
Cursed Bread by Sophie Mackintosh
Spring 1951. Four people meet in a small French town: the baker and his wife; the ambassador and his wife. Two belong to the town, two are outsiders. Some time later, strange things start happening. Horses drop dead in the fields. Children grow wild and unbiddable. Ghosts are sighted after dark. Someone is playing a dangerous game of cat and mouse – but who is the predator and who their prey?
Shop Cursed Bread by Sophie Mackintosh (Penguin) at Bookshop.org, £9.99
Summerwater by Sarah Moss
It is the summer solstice, but in a faded Scottish cabin park the rain is unrelenting. Twelve families look on as the skies remain resolutely grey. But there is one particular family, a mother and daughter, with the wrong clothes and the wrong manners. They start to draw the attention of the others. Who are they? Where are they from?
Tensions are rising, something is unravelling, and as darkness finally falls, a match is lit …
Shop Summerwater by Sarah Moss (Picador) at Bookshop.org, £9.99
The Vegetarian by Han Kang
Yeong-hye and her husband are ordinary people – a dutiful wife and a mild-mannered office worker. One day, prompted by grotesque recurring nightmares, Yeong-hye decides to become a vegetarian. But in South Korea, where vegetarianism is almost unheard-of and societal mores are strictly obeyed, it is a shocking act of subversion.
Shop The Vegetarian by Han Kang (Granta) at Bookshop.org, £9.99
Intimacies by Lucy Caldwell
Shop Intimacies by Lucy Caldwell (Faber & Faber) at Bookshop.org, £9.99
Babylon, Albion by Dalia Al-Dujaili
Babylon, Albion offers a deep and lyrical exploration of identity and migration, and how our place in the world is entwined with our natural surroundings. Tracing the rich heritage of both the oak and the date palm, Iraqi marshes and Loch Ness monsters, Al-Dujaili marries Arab and Islamic mythology with the English and Christian pastoral. She draws from a range of sources to consider in a new light the communal lush, wild – and at times, dark – places we share.
Shop Babylon, Albion by Dalia Al-Dujaili (Saqi Books) at Bookshop.org, £12.34
Orbital by Samantha Harvey
Winner of the Booker Prize 2024, Orbital asks questions about the state of our planet but with light, hope and a refusal to sink into complete despair. The novel follows a team of astronauts on the International Space Station who are collecting meteorological data and conducting scientific experiments. But mostly they observe. Together, they watch their planet, circling it 16 times, spinning past continents and cycling through seasons. And they begin to ask: “What is life without Earth? What is Earth without humanity?”
Shop Orbital by Samantha Harvey (Vintage Publishing) at Bookshop, £9.99
Dead Animals by Phoebe Stuckes
A young woman wakes after a house party with scratches and bruises – and a gap in her memory. As the violent truth comes back to her in a series of events she struggles to name, her anger grows. She finds some solace in the enigmatic and captivating Helene, who also knows what the man at the party did. This act of violence demands one in return, and Helene is planning her revenge. But this novel asks who in this world can afford to ask for justice.
Shop Dead Animals by Phoebe Stuckes (Hodder & Staughton) at Bookshop, £16.99
McGlue by Ottessa Moshfegh
A story of love and murder at sea: McGlue is down in the hold, still too drunk to be sure of his name, situation or orientation. But he has blood on his hands. He may have killed a man. And that man may have been his best friend. As the ship makes its way home to Massachusetts, intolerable and painful memories accompany McGlue’s reluctant sobriety.
Shop McGlue by Ottessa Moshfegh (Vintage Publishing) at Bookshop, £8.99
Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan
“It is 1985, in an Irish town. During the weeks leading up to Christmas, Bill Furlong, a coal and timber merchant, faces his busiest season. As he does the rounds, he feels the past rising up to meet him – and encounters the complicit silences of a people controlled by the church.”
Shop Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan (Faber & Faber) at Bookshop, £9.99
Convenience Store Woman by Sakaya Murata
Convenience Store Woman tells the story of 36-year-old Keiko, who has been working in the same supermarket for 18 years. Even though her family wishes she had a ‘normal’ job and wonders why she’s never had a boyfriend, Keiko is happy working in the store and will do anything to keep things that way. It’s a light read as well as a witty and deeply satisfying story.
Shop Convenience Store Woman by Sakaya Murata (Granta) at Bookshop, £9.99
Assembly by Natasha Brown
What happens when you do all the right things but something still doesn’t feel quite right? The narrator of Assembly is a Black British woman preparing to attend a lavish garden party at her boyfriend’s family estate in the English countryside. But at the same time, she’s considering the carefully assembled pieces of herself and if it’s time to take them apart.
Shop Assembly by Natasha Brown (Penguin Books) at Bookshop, £9.99
Simple Passion by Annie Ernaux
The winner of the 2022 Nobel Prize in Literature writes about the desires and passions of a human heart caught up in an all-consuming passion. Blurring the line between fact and fiction, Ernaux attempts to chart the emotional and physical course of her two-year relationship with a married man.
Shop Simple Passion by Annie Ernaux (Fitzcarraldo Editions) at Bookshop, £7.99
Elena Knows by Claudia Piñeiro (translated by Frances Riddle)
Elena is dealing with Parkinson’s and refusing to accept the official ruling that her daughter Rita died by suicide. Determined to find the person to blame for her daughter’s death, Elena is prepared to go to great lengths to find out what happened. It’s a novel that unveils more than the secrets of its characters.
Shop Elena Knows by Claudia Piñeiro (Charco Press) at Bookshop, £11.99
Men Explain Things To Me by Rebecca Solnit
If you want to read something witty and engaging, Rebecca Solnit’s Men Explain Things To Me is a collection of feminist essays that brilliantly explores a range of issues in a patriarchal culture and society. Topics include Virginia Woolf’s embrace of mystery, not knowing, doubt and ambiguity, an inquiry into marriage equality and an exploration of the scope of contemporary violence against women.
Shop Men Explain Things To Me by Rebecca Solnit (Granta) at Bookshop, £9.99
The Lost Daughter by Elena Ferrante (translated by Ann Goldstein)
Now a film starring Olivia Colman, Dakota Johnson and Paul Mescal, The Lost Daughter is a story of womanhood and motherhood, and the complex feelings around them. The book follows a woman’s quiet seaside holiday that takes a turn when her fixation on a young mother staying at a nearby villa awakens memories from her past.
Shop The Lost Daughter by Elena Ferrante (Europa Editions) at Bookshop, £8.99
Images: courtesy of publishers
