Hand luggage holiday reading: the best books for your carry on bag
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- Stylist Team
- Published
Some of the past year’s best novels are out in paperback just in time for your holiday. Here are the experts’ picks:
The Goldfinch
by Donna Tartt (£8.99, Abacus)
"Focusing on NYC teen Theo Decker as he comes to terms with his mother’s death, the Pulitzer Prize-winner has all the sinister undertones and well-developed characters that make Donna Tartt one of our best living authors." - Jess Bunyan, Blackwell’s
The Letter For The King
by Tonke Dragt (£7.99, Pushkin Children’s Books)
“If you find Game Of Thrones too gory or simply want to be ahead of the curve then this is for you. It’s an epic adventure that will sweep you up into a world of knights, villainy and peril." - Melissa Cox, Waterstones
The lie
by Helen Dunmore (£7.99, Vintage Children’s Classics)
"This is simply magnificent: an astounding achievement. It is 1920, and a young man returns to Cornwall after fighting in the First World War. Ahead of him await the terrible consequences of a lie." - Judy Finnigan, Richard And Judy Book Club
Meeting The English
by Kate Clanchy (£7.99, Picador, out 19 June)
"Set in 1989, a naïve Scottish teen moves to London as a carer for a famous playwright; this is funny, touching and just right for the hottest days of the year." - Isabel Berwick, judge, The Desmond Elliott Prize 2014
Trilobites and Other Stories
by Breece D’J Pancake (£8.99, Vintage, out 25 June)
"Breece D’J Pancake’s short stories about life in West Virginia are simple, rich with dialogue and precious: he only wrote 12 before committing suicide at 26." Anna Fielding, editor, Emerald Street
The River of no Return
by Bee Ridgway (£7.99, Penguin)
"A Marquess vanishes from the battlefield during the Napoleonic Wars, washing up in London in 2013. He must try to change the past in this hugely entertaining, well-researched historical adventure." - Jonathan Ruppin, Foyles
And The Mountains Echoed
by Khaled Hosseini (£7.99, Bloomsbury)
"The bestselling author of The Kite Runner returns with this heartbreaking epic that bridges continents and generations to show how our choices resonate far and wide." - Amy Adams, Stylist’s Book Wars editor
The Lowland
by Jhumpa Lahiri (£8.99, Bloomsbury)
"Opening in Sixties Calcutta and ending in 21st-century America, this story of two very different brothers whose opinions ultimately drive them apart is a family saga, political drama and love story in one. Just brilliant." - Rebecca Le Fevre, Daunt Books