There are books, you know, that you can’t help but have read. Works that are so important to their generation or that have had such an influence on their historical period that they absolutely must be read to understand how our society has become what it is today. Some stories bring to light the most authentic essence of the human being, the feelings that guide us and the primordial instincts that inevitably condition our choices; others, on the other hand, tell of alternative worlds and dystopian futures that have turned out to be almost prophetic for what we are today.
There are so many books and novels to read at least once in a lifetime and their choice can be so personal that it is impossible to group them all into one list, but we still tried. We offer you a first selection of those essential readings, of those authors that you cannot fail to know. Timeless titles that will enrich you and give you an unexpected, sweet, intense, frightening, distressing, enlightening experience a thousand emotions that explode in the mind impossible to forget. What are you waiting for? Read down below and find out which are the best books of all time.
Best books 2021
The word thief
The word thief by Abi Daréis a moving novel, which manages to denounce the abuses, injustices and illicit acts for which intersectional feminism has been fighting for years, undermining every preconception about Africa and outlining, with a style à la Mark Twain and an atmosphere reminiscent of Isabel Allende, a world made up of dozens of ambiguous three-dimensional characters, never reduced to the role of good or bad office workers. Written in the ungrammatical and simple language of the protagonist Adunni, but not for this trivial or difficult to follow, the work tells contemporary Nigeria from a sensitive and intelligent point of view: it is thanks to the honesty and sweetness of the narrating voice that the words they are frank and unsettling, allowing the reader to discover the inhumanities of which, just like Adunni, still too many young women in the world are victims.
Swifts
Fernando Aramburu is one of the most important contemporary European writers. The author of Patria (Guanda), a book that convinced audiences and critics, with which he won the European Witch Prize in 2018, is back in the bookstore with I rondoni (also translated by Bruno Arpaia) in which he tells the touching story of the 55-year-old Toni, a high school philosophy teacher who decided to commit suicide within a year, and who prepares for that moment meticulously (among other things, by writing a diary).
The Winter of the Lions
Often one looks at bestsellers with skepticism, a mixture of mistrust and cynicism that leads one to say: “It’s overrated, it can never be as good as they say”. Well, the time has come to put aside all prejudices, because The Winter of the Lions (North) is the concrete demonstration that there are magical books, capable of conquering different readers, with the unique and prodigious charm that only stories universals know how to have. Not that there were any doubts, since the same had also happened with the previous chapter of the Florio saga, The Lions of Sicily.
Best books of all time
Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen
Any list of great books must include Pride and Prejudice, it is now a universally recognized fact. Don’t be fooled by the tones of the book – beneath the sugary surface is a harsh display of the Georgian England wedding market. For every lucky Elizabeth, who tames the proud Mr Darcy and learns about herself, there is a Charlotte, resigned to spending her life with a fool.
The Chocolate Factory – Roald Dahl
Harry Potter may be more popular, but Willy Wonka is certainly stranger. From the bleak poverty in which Charlie Bucket lives with his family, to the spoiled, greedy and rude children who take part in the journey to Willy Wonka’s sweet and phantasmagoric factory, there is nothing artificially sweetened in Roald Dahl’s surprising work of fiction.
1984 – George Orwell
The quintessential dystopian fiction book, 1984 was so prescient that it became a cliché. But forget the Big Brother of Italia Uno and all the other banal parodies: in recent decades the original has lost none of its original strength. Orwell was interested in the mechanisms of totalitarianism and envisioned a society where the paranoid surveillance of the Soviets was emphasized to the utmost. Our hero, Winston, tries to resist in a gray world where a screen watches your every move, but courage is useless when the state creeps into your mind.
Great Expectations – Charles Dickens
Dickens was the social conscience of the Victorian era, but don’t be put off by this premise. Great Expectations is the fabulous story of the orphan Pip, the beautiful Estella and the frustrated Miss Havisham. Initially released in the form of individual episodes, you barely have time to recover from one climax before the next begins to unfold. All of this is obviously told in Dickens’ humorous and lush prose.
Best books to read
The desert of the Tartars – Dino Buzzati
Often compared to Kafka’s “The Castle”, The Desert of the Tartars is both a strong critique of military life and a reflection on the human thirst for glory. It tells of the young Giovanni Drogo, detached in a distant fort overlooking the vast Tartar steppe. Although he has no intention of staying there for long, Giovanni suddenly discovers that years have passed since, without realizing it, he has shared with his companions the anticipation for a foreign invasion that never occurs. Over time the fort is downgraded and Giovanni’s ambitions fade – until the day the enemy begins to focus on the desolate steppe.
Frankenstein – Mary Shelley
Surely it could not be missing from the best books ever. Shelley was only 18 when she wrote Frankenstein as a challenge to her future husband Percy Shelley and Lord Byron who came up with the best horror story. Put down green face paint and fake blood: Frankenstein’s monster is a complex creation that craves sympathy and companionship. About 200 years after its first publication, this gothic tale is more relevant than ever as genetics risks crossing every ethical and moral boundary of life.
Wuthering Heights – Emily Brontë
Will there ever be a novel that burns more passionately than Wuthering Heights? The forces that unite his ferocious heroine Catherine Earnshaw and the cruel hero Heathcliff are violent and indomitable, but rooted in a devotion that binds them since childhood, when Heathcliff obeyed Cathy’s every command. It is impossible to imagine that this novel could make the reader silently fall asleep: Emily Brontë’s vision of nature shines with poetry.
Moby Dick – Herman Melville
Marked as a whaling tale, a novel of unusual adventures and quirky characters, a symbolic allegory and a drama of heroic conflict – all at the same time – Moby Dick is first and foremost a great story, which has both humor and the simplicity of a sea ballad, both the depth and universality of a great odyssey.
Best selling books
The Da Vinci Code – Dan Brown
In 2009 Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code had already sold 80 million copies worldwide, at least according to the American press. The huge success of the Da Vinci Code brought back Dan Brown’s previous books, in particular Angels and Demons, the first episode of the series starring Robert Langdon. The novel also became an equally successful film, directed by Ron Howard and starring Tom Hanks as Langdon.
Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone – JK Rowling
It is difficult to say too much about the number of copies sold of the books of the Harry Potter saga created by JK Rowling, but according to some researchers, only Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, the first volume of the seven, should have exceeded 107 million alone. The complete series is expected to be around 450 million copies sold.
The Alchemist – Paulo Coelho
In 1988 Paulo Coelho, a semi-unknown Brazilian writer, published O Alquimista ( The Alchemist ). After a tiring start, the book climbed the classics around the world. In 2014, several journalistic sources, including the Huffington Post, attested that this super bestseller had now sold 65 million copies.
The Red Book – Mao Tse-Tung
As we know, the Chinese population was already quite large in the last century, and therefore it is really difficult to establish how many copies this book has sold. In fact, when Mao was the not-too-democratic president of China, printing his Quotes of him, for many Chinese publishing houses, was almost the only activity. Scholars have tried to calculate the incalculable number of copies distributed in China and abroad: we are talking about stellar numbers ranging from ” 800 million” up to ” 5 billion copies” (ie more than the world population then able to read it). Be that as it may, it certainly was a widely read book.
Best fiction books 2021
Crossroads – Jonathan Franzen
With 364 votes, Crossroads was voted best book 2021. Written by the American Jonathan Franzen and published by Einaudi , the book revolves around a family, a central theme for the writer. It is a long and at times difficult novel that contains in itself, not the story of a family, but the stories of the six characters that make it up, each with their own insecurities and frailties.
Klara and the sun – Kazuo Ishiguro
It is a story as sweet as it is difficult that of Klara, an android B2, who waits every day to be chosen by a little human to whom he can dedicate himself totally. She waits every day and observes the sun, the passers-by and the wonders outside the window where she is locked, until she is finally chosen by little Josie. When the evil that afflicts the child gets worse, Klara will sacrifice all of herself to save her.
Jack – Marilynne Robinson
The family themes return, this time embodied in the figure of Jack, a man no longer young, who lives by expedients and brotherly alms, feeds on occasional meals, alcohol and shame, and now has a single ambition: harmlessness. In fact, to terrify him from the idea of returning home is the fear of causing new damage to his family after those already done in the past. For this reason he wanders and sleeps in the cemetery of Bellefontaine, when one night the teacher of high school Della Miles is fortuitously closed in the cemetery.
Whose fault is – Alessandro Piperno
On the podium in third place we find the novel by Alessandro Piperno Whose fault is it. A family novel too is published by Mondadori. This time, however, the narrator / protagonist seems to be a victim at the mercy of family and circumstances. The mixture of characters and linguistic registers contributes to form the portrait of a life split between two lives and two family stocks in the frame of Rome in the 90s. The protagonist / narrator / author – it is not possible to discern the voices well – as a victim will have to deal with himself and actually understand who is to blame.
Best Stephen King books
The Green Mile
The Green Mile is a novel written by King and published in 1996, which earned him the Bram Stoker Award. The curiosity of this project is its particular serial structure, which follows the style of Charles Dickens (the critics later recognized King, as the Dickens of our century ed). The novel tells the story of the Cold Mountain penitentiary and the narrow corridor of cells known as The Green Mile, which houses some inmates close to the electric chair. Convicted such as Billy the Kid Wharton and Eduard Delacroix are therefore watched by guards awaiting the day of their execution. One of them is the enigmatic giant John Coffey, a gigantic black man sentenced to death for raping and killing two little girls. But Coffey seems to hide some very particular talents.
Misery
Misery was published by Stephen King in 1987 and this work also earned him the Bram Stoker Prize. It is a thriller novel starring Paul Sheldon, a famous writer, who is kidnapped in an isolated Colorado house by Annie, a fan of hers with severe psychic disorders. The woman wants to take revenge on the writer, guilty of having “eliminated” Misery, her favorite character from her novels. Paul, subjected to terrible torture, to escape death will have to bring the character of Misery back to life by writing a new novel. From this novel was made the 1990 film Misery Must Not Die directed by Rob Reiner, which earned Kathy Bates the Oscar for the interpretation of Annie.
Shining
In the middle of the table we find the scariest hotel of all time. Shining is a horror novel published in 1977, the third work written by the King of Terror who will consecrate him in this genre. The story takes us inside the Overlook, a mysterious hotel located in the high mountains of Colorado. The hotel has been the scene of numerous crimes and suicides and seems to have absorbed the evil forces that manifest themselves especially in winter, when the hotel is closed. In the winter told by the novel, the new guardian of the Overlook is Jack Torrance, a failed writer, who will face the winter in the imposing hotel with his wife Wendy and their five-year-old son Danny. But the evil forces will not be long in manifesting themselves. The only thing that can save them is little Danny’s “shine”.
Pet Sematary
One of my favorite works is missing the podium by a whisker. Pet Sematary was published in 1983 and King himself explains that the novel is loosely based on The Monkey’s Paw, a popular story best known in the version written by William W. Jacobs. The story tells us about the Creed family, who move to Ludlow, Maine, where the head of the family Dr. Louis Creed has accepted the position of medical director of the University of Maine. Their life, however, begins to be marked by a series of dark and inexplicable facts, which will then see the protagonist of a strange Indian cemetery for animals … from where even the unfortunate Creed cat seems to be able to come back to life after an accident. A great classic that I highly recommend, even if you have to withstand the relentless chill of Ludlow Cemetery.
Best Sci-Fi books
The saga of Dan Simmons’ Hyperion
Among the best science fiction sagas, the books of the Hyperion cycle represent a particular case: the first novel, Hyperion, is almost unanimously considered one of the absolute masterpieces of contemporary science fiction. The Fall of Hyperion is also able to bewitch the reader in an extraordinary way, but then something happens, in the third book of the Simmons saga, Endymion. In this volume the tone of the narrative changes and, without spoiling, let’s say that the text has divided the readers, mainly for the tones that make it closer to travel literature than to science fiction.
The cycle of the Foundations by Isaac Asimov
Among the best science fiction books, the saga of Asimov’s Foundations certainly could not be missing. Authentic classic, it stands out for its brilliant ideas, very smooth writing, suspense and the presence of some unforgettable characters. If you haven’t read the saga yet, we reiterate that the Foundation’s original trilogy is a must. Here is some information about Asimov’s science fiction cycle that might be handy.
Douglas Adams’ Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
Let’s move on to humorous science fiction and the great Douglas Adams: the series Guide to the Galaxy for hitchhikers is unparalleled not only for its ability to make people laugh, but also for the characters always over the top, the brilliant ideas, brilliant and sometimes nonsense and the very pleasant reading. Guide to the Galaxy is a guaranteed fun, and by reading it you can begin to understand the jokes present largely on the internet, other books, films or TV series relating to the number 42 (the answer to the big question) and the enormous value of towels.
The Orson Scott Card Ender Cycle
A very famous sci-fi trilogy, the Orson Scott Card saga is set in a future where humanity has managed to survive, not easily, two invasions by aliens called Scorpions. Ahead of the third invasion, some of the most gifted children in the world are being trained in the War School to become commanders. Among them also Ender Wiggin. The first book of the cycle, Ender’s Game , earned the author a Hugo Award and a Nebula Award, and the second book won both major science fiction literary awards the following year. The series consists of Ender’s Game, Ender’s Ransom and Ender III, Xenocide ; the Card saga mixes military science fiction with political, social and psychological insights and is a cycle that cannot be missed in the fans’ library.
Best self help books
Who moved my cheese?
This book came out in 1998 and quickly became a best-seller. In fact, it remained on the New York Times Best Books list for nearly five consecutive years, a real hit for those times. Spencer Johnson makes a simple yet devastating analysis of resistance to change and the importance of adapting to environmental conditions. The book is based on four characters, two mice and two small humans, who live in a large labyrinth and eat cheese. One fine day, one of the cheese reserves runs out and so later we can see how each of the characters copes with the problem.
The knight in the rusty armor
Robert Fisher left me pleasantly surprised with a motivational psychology book about a person who is unable to express their feelings. This work has been incredibly successful all over the world, especially since his teaching is valid for both adults and children. Know that in some pages the story seems to fade, but then it regains all its vigor. The protagonist is a knight who loves his family, but often overshadows it because he has more “important” things to do. Over time, his armor oxidizes and becomes his prison. When the knight realizes that he is no longer able to love him, he begins a journey in which he meets several characters who will help him reflect on the importance of expressing his feelings about him and opening up to the world.
Looking for meaning in life
Classifying this book as a motivational psychology book would be almost sacrilegious; however, from a certain point of view it is. Viktor Emil Frankl tells us about his experiences as a prisoner in the Auschwitz concentration camp during the Second World War. However, do not expect the classic book that addresses these problems using the most diverse literary resources. It is a gritty book in which the author, who was a psychiatrist, tried to understand the psychological changes that were taking place in people, even if he does not always manage to do so, often yielding to the need to tell his own experiences.
Instructions for making yourself unhappy
A short book, written in a simple way and full of funny stories that make reading enjoyable. Paul Watzlawick invites us to reflect on the wrong attitudes we assume and the inadequate interpretations we give of facts and which determine our behavior. His writing, sometimes as delicate as a rose petal, sometimes as sharp as a razor, stimulates introspection.
Best historical fiction books
The last king
First chapter of the series “The stories of the Saxon kings” – Terra degli Angli, 866: a land divided into small territories led by barbarian rulers. Ferocious men, Vikings, Northern warriors come to raid, kill, conquer. The young Uhtred, heir to the title of aldermanno of Bebbanburg, after the death of his father is adopted by the Norman king Ragnar: in a few years he learns to fight with courage and to go to sea, and becomes for Ragnar like a son. But the intrigue, the passion and finally the betrayal bring Uhtred back to his old tutor, who introduces him to the only ruler able to oppose the men of the North: Alfredo, who will one day be called the Great. But to regain his title, Uhtred will have to face the enemy in the open.
Ships of the vikings
“Report of three imaginary but plausible journeys undertaken by Orm the Red, son of Toste, a skilled, resourceful, pragmatic and slightly hypochondriac Norman ‘The ships of the Vikings’ blends in its pages all the literary devices developed by the great European writers during the nineteenth century, a penetrating and forgiving ironic look at the same time as never to be found in Dickens; a sharpness of wit and a disenchantment worthy of Stendhal; an epic imbued with Tolstoy’s anti-epic sensibility; and the Herculean narrative thrust, agile and powerful, by Alexandre Dumas. Like half of the great novels of the European tradition, it is full-bodied, violent, far-reaching and sings of wars, treasures and astonishing feats of men and kings; like the other half, it is intimate, family and tells of the rhythm of the seasons and of life in villages and farms, of marriages, births and the hearts of women who capture with all too much intuition the immense presumption of bloodthirsty men and kings “(Michael Chabon)
The name of the rose
November 1327. The novice Adso da Melk accompanies Friar Guglielmo da Baskerville, in charge of a subtle diplomatic mission, to an abbey in upper Italy. Former inquisitor, friend of Guglielmo di Occam and Marsilio da Padova, friar Guglielmo finds himself having to unravel a series of mysterious crimes (seven in seven days, perpetrated in the enclosure of the abbey wall) that bloody a labyrinthine and inaccessible library. To solve the case, William will have to decipher clues of all kinds, from the behavior of the saints to that of heretics, from necromantic writings to the language of herbs, from manuscripts in unknown languages to the diplomatic moves of men of power. The solution will come, perhaps too late, in terms of days, perhaps too soon, in terms of centuries.
The cathedral of the sea
Barcelona, 14th century. Little Arnau’s eyes are captured by the walls of a large church under construction. A decisive meeting, since the history of Santa Maria del Mar will be the cornerstone of the events of its existence. Son of a fugitive servant, in the Catalan capital Arnau he finds refuge and that freedom that still embodies the spirit of Barcelona, at the time in full turmoil: the old feudal institutions are at sunset while merchants and bankers are on the rise and the city is engaged in battles for control of the seas. Meanwhile, the Inquisition threatens the coexistence of Christians, Muslims and Jews … A character of unusual temperament and humanity, Arnau does not hesitate to devote himself enthusiastically to the project of the “people’s cathedral”. And in the shadow of those towers he will have to fight against hunger, injustice and betrayal, religious barriers.
Best mystery books
Ten little indians (… and then no one was left)
Ten people strangers to each other were invited to stay in a beautiful villa on Nigger Island, not knowing the name of the generous host. Yet, some out of curiosity, some out of need, some out of opportunity, have accepted the invitation. And now they are there, on that island that rises from the sea. They didn’t find the landlord waiting for them. But they found a poem hanging over the fireplace in each room. And an inhuman, piercing voice that accuses them of all being murderers. For the guests it is the beginning of an interminable nightmare.
Rebecca
The second lady de Winter has it all: youth, attractiveness, ingenuity which, combined with dreamy features, has all the appearance of a profound innocence, of an angelic candor. She has a rich and elegant husband, Maxim. And now, thanks to her marriage, she has a princely mansion in Cornwall that is silent and full of secrets. Only a shadow prevents her from being happy. Rebecca, her first wife. Rebecca’s specter – evoked relentlessly by Manderley’s housekeeper, Mrs Danvers – haunts the new Mrs de Winter …
The assassination of Roger Ackroyd
King’s Abbot is a small town in the English countryside where everyone knows each other and nothing special ever happens. But one day something happens: the richest man in the country, Roger Ackroyd, is murdered just as he was about to read a letter that would have shed light on a mysterious suicide. The crime throws the community into dismay. However, not everyone has to complain about what happened, at least this is how a funny stranger who recently moved to the village to grow pumpkins seems to believe: the man, the incomparable Poirot, manages to discover that reality is very different from what it appeared.
The case of poisoned chocolates
A package is delivered to the Rainbow Club in London. It is addressed to Sir Eustace, one of the partners, and contains a box of chocolates, a gift from the famous confectionery firm Mason & Sons. But the grumpy Sir Eustace hates chocolates and so gives them to another club member, Graham Bendix, who has just lost a bet with his wife whose stake was a box of chocolates. Bendix comes home, offers them to his wife, eats a couple too, and goes out in the early afternoon. A few hours later the woman dies. Poisoned. Who did it?
Best romance books
Anna Karenina
Tolstoy saw in this book, considered a masterpiece of realism, his first true novel. In 1887 Tolstoy himself, about the beginning of Anna Karenina, claimed to have imagined, while lying on the sofa, a “naked female elbow of an elegant aristocratic arm” and that from there he was so haunted by that image that he had to create a incarnation. Although most of the Russian critics had crushed the work by calling it “a frivolous tale of the events of Moscow’s high society”, according to Dostoevsky “Anna Karenina as a work of art is perfection … and nothing of the European literature of our time can to be compared to her “.
Jane Eyre
After a difficult childhood, young Jane finds the way to redemption: she gets a job as a governess at the home of a wealthy gentleman, Mr. Rochester. The two begin to get to know each other, confront each other and learn to respect each other. From respect comes love and the possibility for Jane of a peaceful life. But just when a wonderful future appears near, a terrible truth comes to light, as if to show that Jane cannot be happy, she cannot have love, she cannot escape her fate.
Bramble Birds
The history of the Clearys begins in the early 1900s and ends in the present day, in the great natural scenery of Australia. The years consume lives in a story of feelings and passions, of faith and love, on which the sense of divine justice extends grave and inexorable. The characters, above all, memorable female figures, tender and proud – meet their destiny like the thorn birds of the Australian legend, looking for the thorns with which they kill themselves.
The pages of our life
North Carolina, 1946: the story of Noah, a young country man who is passionate about poetry, unfolds in a pristine corner of America. Thirty-one years and a dream come true upon returning from the war: living in the large farmhouse near the river. But something is missing in Noah: it’s Allie, the girl he met fourteen years ago and loved like no other. Unable to find her, Noah intends to live off those sweet memories that arise in her golden solitude of hers … Until, unexpectedly, she returns to see him once more before marrying the lawyer she is promised to.
Best horror books
It by Stephen King
Stephen King’s most famous novel that best sums up its themes: good, evil, friendship and the loss of innocence, all concentrated in Derry, a small town in the American province. Of Ita lot has been written and two cinematographic transpositions have been seen (which do not give credit to the novel). What else to say about this work of over a thousand pages that has attracted an audience not necessarily made up of passionate readers? That it is worth reading just to understand the reason for such a success. As you do so, you will discover the talent of an author who has long been underestimated. The only flaw of this encyclopedic novel: the length. The king of horror – let’s face it – is also the king of “elongated soup” and certain pages could have been condensed more effectively. But perhaps even in this lies the magic: getting lost in its most futile passages, certain that, sooner or later, the broth will become a thrill.
The exorcist by William Peter Blatty
Thirteen million copies sold prompted Warrner to make a film that became a cornerstone of horror cinema. But the novel is no less. The author, William Peter Blatty, was inspired by a news story involving a boy from Maryland in 1949. Romance, the story tells of Regan McNail, 12, the daughter of an actress, who begins to have aggressive attitudes. Her mother, an atheist, only after trying the path of psychiatry turns to a priest, Damien Karras, whose faith is in crisis. The novel has a prose that captivates and explores the psychology of the characters well, especially that of Father Karras, but the real protagonist is evil. An evil, it is appropriate to say demonic, because it escapes logic, science and common sense and prompts the reader to question its origin, its meaning in the world.
Dracula by Bram Stoker
Dracula (here in the Newton Compton edition, translated by Paola Faini) by Bram Stoker (1847-1912), for its part, is one of the models of horror books on vampires. Specifically, it transports us to a castle in Transylvania where Count Dracula, as a gentleman as he seems, reveals himself to be a vampire who, using his powers and his thirst for blood, tries to carry out a diabolical plan, unless he is stopped. by the few people aware of his true nature, and still in time to save the young Lucy from his clutches.
The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux
We now come to one of the horror books of which several cinematographic transpositions have alternated, The Phantom of the Opera (Newton Compton, translation by Maurizio Grasso) by Gaston Leroux (1868-1927), which tells the grim love story between Christine and Erik. The first is a young and inexperienced soprano, while the second is a hideous looking man, who therefore tries to hide behind a mask. The consequences of his behavior generate an intertwining between adventure and mystery, in which the darkest suggestions are not lacking.
Best books of 2022
The fourth prophecy
Tui, Spain, 1944. The end is near. Lúcia dos Santos feels it. Twenty-seven years ago, in Fatima, she was chosen by Our Lady to keep her last secret, with the promise to take it with her to her tomb. But now Lúcia has to break that oath. She can no longer be silent, the latest prophecy is too dangerous: if he died with her, the whole world would be lost… Lisbon, today. There are ten days to go until Sister Lúcia’s canonization mass, when Cal Donovan is urgently recalled to the Vatican. The Pope received an anonymous letter in which he is ordered to resign before the ceremony… Glenn Cooper , author of the trilogy of the Library of the Dead and other successes, returns with The Fourth Prophecy (North, translated by Barbara Ronca).
The gingerbread house
It’s 2010. Within a decade, Bix’s new technology, “Take back the Unconscious”, which allows you to access any memory you’ve ever had and share it in exchange for accessing other people’s memories, has seduced multitudes. . But not all of them. Through a series of fascinating interlocking narratives, Jennifer Egan sheds light on the consequences of “Take Back the Unconscious” by illustrating the lives of different characters whose paths intersect over the decades. The gingerbread house (Mondadori, translation by G. Pannofino) is not only intellectually dazzling, but it is also a testimony of the tenacity of the human aspiration to authentic relationships, to love.
The nights without sleep
February 2020: while the media spread the first still confused rumors about a virus that is claiming victims in China and seems to have also arrived in Italy, the Milan Police Headquarters is faced with a macabre discovery and the hypothesis of a serial killer who rages against women, sowing indecipherable clues. The investigations are entrusted to the commissioner Mario Mandelli of the Violent Crime Analysis Unit… Gian Andrea Cerone is making his debut for Guanda with the noir The nights without sleep, immediately protagonist in the standings.
Bluebeard’s castle
Fourteen years have passed since the events told in Terra Alta, the first book of the series, published by Guanda, by Javier Cercas, focused on the character of Melchor Marín. Cosette, her daughter, is now seventeen and has just discovered that her father lied to her: her mother, Olga, did not die in an accident, but was killed by Melchor’s obstinacy in wanting to discover the culprits of her. Cosette, in a rage, leaves for a short vacation in Mallorca. Days pass, however, and traces of her daughter disappear. Melchor decides to go to Mallorca in person, where no one seems willing to help him, until.
Best true crime books
Emma Donaghue’s Red Ribbon
Inspired by a murder on the Welsh border in 1763, Emma Donahue’s third novel tells the fascinating story of a prostitute with a dark obsession with clothes. A compelling story about voluptuousness, wealth and despair, The Red Ribbon is a must for true crime fans.
Emma Cline’s The Girls
In her debut novel, Emma Cline takes inspiration from the history of the Manson family and the murders they perpetrated to create a violent and seductive narrative about female adolescence and how troubled the path of growth can be. A novel that will hypnotize you from the first page.
The Other Grace by Margaret Atwood
Margret Atwood’s name was made famous in Italy thanks to the Netflix series “The Handmaid’s Tale” (The Handsmaid Tale), based on the novel of the same name. Atwood is also the author of the novel Alias Grace, whose story is based on a real news story. In 1843, Thomas Kinnear and his housekeeper Nancy Montgomery were found murdered, and two members of the servants were charged with the murder. From this story, Atwood takes inspiration to create her compelling narrative about a woman sentenced to life in prison for murdering her employer and a doctor who tries to help her uncover the truth.
Lolita by Vladamir Nabokov
According to Sarah Weinman in her new book “The real Lolita”, Vladimir Nabokov‘s controversial classic is inspired by the real kidnapping and rape of Sally Horner. Although Nabokov has repeatedly denied any connection between her novel and this news story, the similarities – a young girl, her older man, travel, traumatic sexual abuse – are too obvious to ignore.
