Books To Read Performatively In An Airport

There’s nowhere quite like an airport to signal your cosmopolitan mindset, worldliness and sense of adventure. All it takes is the right book tucked under your arm as you wait to check in; laid carefully among your belongings as you pass through security; or held aloft as you browse its pages by the gate – the cover alone signifying a sense of character without you having to say a word.  

No matter how much you’re looking for someone to judge your book by its cover, it’s important to find one where the true appeal lies within its pages. That’s why we’re here to point you in the direction of books that deliver on both style and substance.

Might we suggest an eye-catching title from an independent press? (Not only do you support small businesses but take the time to read off the beaten literary track – how sophisticated of you.)  

We’ve gathered the standout titles from our go-to indie publishers that are gripping, global and guaranteed to pique the interest of your fellow passengers. Let’s just hope you’re not too engrossed in reading that you miss their approving glances.

Instantly recognisable by their striking blue-and-white covers, Foundry Editions publishes bold and distinctive global voices, specialising in bringing Mediterranean authors to a wider readership. Deepfake plunges you straight into the gritty underbelly of Athens with a hyper-contemporary work of fictive noir. Set against the shadowy backdrop of post-crisis Greece, the novel interrogates the sinister forces shaping modern society, from the rise of the far-right to the darkest sides of politics and sex work. A read for the kind of traveller who craves their fiction fast-paced, intriguing and impossible to put down.

Indie publisher And Other Stories has cleaned up at the International Booker Prize over the past two years, and this novel is the latest winner. Taiwan Travelogue takes the form of a rediscovered travel memoir from colonial-era Taiwan, playing with structure and place. Aside from the sensorial depictions of traditional Taiwanese food, this novelised travelogue interrogates the concept of home, patriotic independence and sapphic desire in a changing world. A worthy winner of the International Booker: a guaranteed status symbol in the airport lounge.  

Prototype Publishing’s compact books are distinctive, lyrical and always experimental. In The Seers, Hannah, an Eritrean refugee in London, moves from Kilburn foster homes to periods of rough sleeping in Bloomsbury. Through Addonia’s paragraph-free, stream-of-consciousness style, the novel foregrounds the often-overlooked intimate and sexual dimensions of refugee life. By exploring these life events, The Seers moves from the minutiae of the individual to wider explorations of generational trauma, war crimes, displacement and violence against women. It’s like nothing you’ll have read before, and the visceral, meaningful content and poetic style will have you recommending it to everyone at the gate.

As the leading global independent publisher of books from Africa and its diaspora, the pioneering Cassava Republic, founded in Nigeria, is getting its well-deserved flowers for Marcia Hutchinson’s The Mercy Step – it was shortlisted for the most recent Women’s Prize, so a perfect performative choice. Hutchinson’s debut work of autofiction begins in 1960s Bradford, northern England, where Mercy lives with her Windrush-generation parents, longing for escape from the confines of her small town, her father’s volatile temper and her mother’s neglect. Luminous and moving, you’ll fall in love with Mercy and her courage, hope and resilience. A cover that will stand out among the crowds and an ideal pick-me-up for a long plane journey.

Hagfish is the independent Brooklyn-based literary agency, editorial studio and publishing press dedicated to reviving overlooked, out-of-print and so-called ‘scuzzy’, unconventional titles, particularly those by women. They recently reissued Joan Silber’s 1980s book In the City, an electric tale of life among the bohemian circles of New York in the 1920s. It follows Pauline as she searches for possibility in a world of artists, writers and musicians. Silber captures the exhilaration of being young in a big city, waiting for life to begin, and the novel hums with glamour and promise; the perfect transportive read to pull out of your carry-on this summer – with the additional kudos of resurfacing a classic.