A vacation carries its own gravitational pull toward the long read. Perhaps you’re somewhere sunny, unpacked for the week, settled into a lounger on the beach. Or maybe you’re closer to home, with a day off and a few hours set aside for losing yourself in a book. Either way, a holiday read is in order.
Which begs the question: is a light, pithy book the best choice for when you’re already chilled out? You might argue that typical ‘beach reads’ are best saved for winter, when sunshine is in short supply and you need some serotonin. Service95’s founder Dua takes the opposite approach, packing weighty summer tomes instead (This House Of Grief came with her to the beach last year). Surroundings blissful enough to counter a book's darker turns make for the ideal setting to sink into one.
Read on for our favourite hefty novels, helpfully arranged by page count (starting at a relatively modest 430 – it’s OK, you can do it). Because there’s nothing quite like the subtle flex of bringing a brick of a book out of your bag – especially when they’re as absorbing as these.
The Emperor’s Children by Claire Messud
Marina, Danielle and Julius are a trio of privileged, entitled adults in their mid-thirties, navigating Manhattan. The Brown graduates are coasting through the media workforce with varied levels of success, and they remain disillusioned with a New York life that isn’t quite living up to the glossy version they’d imagined. They are envious of each other, stew in their petty NYC-problems and are constantly chasing a dream that evades them at every turn. It’s highly detailed and philosophically meandering, so if you love to hate the characters in your book (I know I do) then this is the incendiary, and certainly weighty, book for you at a solid 430 pages.
Flashlight by Susan Choi
Many years previously, Louisa, aged 10, and her father went for a walk by the ocean. Suddenly, she finds herself alone on the beach, her father gone. His body is never found. The ripple effects of this tragic event echo through Louisa’s family, colouring Flashlight with an inescapable sense of loss and melancholy. Susan Choi’s multigenerational, Women’s Prize-shortlisted novel spans lifetimes and the world, crossing from Korea to Japan to Midwest America. The kind of book that lingers long after you’ve finished, and it clocks in at a good 450 pages – a substantial and fully immersive read.
Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
Over a densely packed near-700 pages, Hilary Mantel takes us through the life of Thomas Cromwell, from a modest brewer’s son to one of the most powerful men in 16th-century England, and Henry VIII’s most trusted advisor. If you love a historical novel set in Tudor England then look no further than this legendary tome, which is as well-researched as Hamnet but with the tension and character-driven suspense of The Secret History. One to tackle with lots of downtime on your hands, then get stuck into its sequels, Bring Up the Bodies and The Mirror and the Light (be warned, you may need to purchase extra baggage to bring them all in your case).
The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese
Written by the eminent Ethiopian American author Abraham Verghese, The Covenant of Water follows three generations in 20th-century Kerala, South India. A Christian family is afflicted by a strange phenomenon known only as ‘the Condition’, a curse in which at least one family member of each generation is destined to die by drowning. It begins with the story of a 12-year-old girl sent to an arranged marriage, who later becomes Big Ammachi, the family’s matriarch. Another story runs alongside it, of a Scottish doctor who travels to India and eventually uncovers what is behind the family’s mysterious drownings. Historical, lush and restorative, stay with this one through all 715 pages for a genuinely rewarding read.
Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke
At a whopping 1,000 pages, tackling Jonathon Strange and Mr Norrell at the beach will guarantee you won’t run out of reading material. This historical-meets-fantasy novel opens in 1806 England, ravaged by the Napoleonic War, its once great tradition of magicians all but faded. One remains: the elusive Mr Norrell, who astonishes London with his powers. With the rise of the young, gifted and reckless magician’s novice Jonathon Strange, the two men become locked in a battle that will have terrifying consequences. Written in the tone of an Austen or Dickens novel, Susanna Clarke’s enchanting, witty and masterful tome more than justifies its epic length. Once it draws you in, those pages just seem to magically melt away.
