Books To Sink Into When You’ve Got Nothing But Time, Suncream & A Cocktail With Your Name On It 

Let’s be real, while you’re baking in the sun by the pool, you need a book that is going to hold your attention for all those hours (and hours... and hours) of relaxation. From workplace affairs that hopefully won’t remind you too much of your desk back home and mind-bending cults offering an alternative life to time travels through eras gone by, there’s something for everyone in this holiday reading list. Stretch out on a sunbed, put your phone on DND and get stuck into these spellbinding stories...

Green Dot by Madeleine Gray

Imagine grabbing a drink with your work bestie, when suddenly they drop the bombshell that they’ve been having an affair with a married man from the office. Intrigued? That’s Green Dot. Madeleine Gray’s debut novel introduces us to Hera, a drily funny and disillusioned twentysomething. She lands her first ‘big girl’ job in Sydney as a comments moderator for an online news outlet, and is dismayed to discover that the 9 to 5 is even more mind-numbing than she feared. Desperate to spice things up, she falls into an all-consuming affair with Arthur, an emotionally unavailable man 20 years her senior. Oh, and his wife has no idea. Full of dark humour, witty insights and delusional passion, it’s the perfect holiday read to get through in one sitting – the moment you’re done, you’ll be desparate to dissect Hera’s painfully relatable missteps with a friend.

Colony by Annika Norlin

If you’re fascinated by cults, Annika Norlin’s Colony is your next shimmering, mysterious summer read. Translated from Swedish, it teeters on the edge of a thriller and slowly unravels the haunting backstories of a motley collection of misfits who have turned their backs on society to live alternative lives in the woods. When Emilie, a journalist recovering from a nervous breakdown, intrudes on the group, she disrupts more than just their routine, sparking discord and quickly becoming entangled in their lives. Psychedelic, strange and deeply absorbing, Colony poses the questions: who is the real ‘outsider’? What does it mean to live right? And who gets to decide – society, or the ones who walked away?

There Are Rivers in the Sky by Elif Shafak

If you’re looking for something that will stay with you long after you’ve dried off from your last swim, try Elif Shafak’s latest novel. A time-travelling epic that’s perfect for poolside pondering, There Are Rivers in the Sky catapults you from ancient Assyria to Victorian London, through war-torn Yazidi lands to a houseboat in the 21st century. Kings rage, a woman gives birth by a river, families flee war, ancestries are uncovered. Flowing through the entire book is a single drop of water that binds these lives together, through which Shafak shows us how rivers connect and carry us forward. The book feels almost magical, and yet it is deeply human – and a reminder of our responsibility to care for our world’s natural water sources. If you’re searching for uncharted depths in your summer reading, Elif Shafak‘s fluid voyage through history is for you.

In Ascension by Martin McInnes

While Martin McInnes’ astounding novel In Ascension leans towards sci-fi, it is set just a decade into the future – making its speculative elements feel all the more immediate. This isn’t just a space odyssey; what sets the novel apart is its delicate exploration of human relationships. Leigh is a reclusive scientist based in Rotterdam with a painful past, who pledges her life to the exploration of vast unknowns to (one can suspect) escape her memories. The book is pepperedw with gorgeous descriptions of a deep-sea mission that alters the divers in haunting ways, and the space sequences are so vast and alien that they’ll make you grateful to be on solid ground. The final chapter, told from Leigh’s sister’s perspective, is the real cherry on top, dealing with connection, wonder and just how little we know about the universe. Ambiguous, profound and transportive, this novel will allow you to travel even further beyond your holiday destination.

To Paradise by Hanya Yanigihara

Clocking in at over 700 pages, Hanya Yanagihara’s ambitious follow-up to A Little Life is the kind of sweeping, immersive saga that demands your full attention – perfect for a long, uninterrupted reading session. Set in a fictional New York, centred on a single townhouse in Washington Square Park, the story unfolds over a triad of interlinked stories and soars from 1893 to 2093. The first section imagines a society where sexuality is free from stigma (or so it seems), while later sections plunge you into an America ravaged by disease, pandemics and authoritarian control. Utopias and dystopias exist simultaneously, while each of the three timelines echo and enhance the other. This novel truly defies genre – it’s historical and yet futuristic, romantic yet philosophical. With Yanagihara’s characteristic intensity and compassion, this consuming novel is ideal for keeping you occupied poolside. Pick it up to forget reality and be transported to another era.