My Favorite Short Novels
Discover the best short novels to read now, from Joan Didion's *Play It As It Lays* and Truman Capote's *Breakfast at Tiffany's* to gothic horror like *Carmilla*. This curated list of favorite fiction highlights powerful, concise storytelling, including works by Megan Abbott and H.P. Lovecraft—perfect for book lovers seeking memorable reads in one sitting.
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At the Mountains of Madness
by H.P. Lovecraft
Introduction by China Miéville Long acknowledged as a master of nightmarish visions, H. P. Lovecraft established the genuineness and dignity of his own pioneering fiction in 1931 with his quintessential work of supernatural horror, At the Mountains of Madness. The deliberately told and increasingly chilling recollection of an Antarctic expedition’s uncanny discoveries–and their encounter with untold menace in the ruins of a lost civilization–is a milestone of macabre literature. This exclusive new edition, presents Lovecraft’s masterpiece in fully restored form, and includes his acclaimed scholarly essay “Supernatural Horror in Literature.” This is essential reading for every devotee of classic terror.
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Play It As It Lays
by Joan Didion
A ruthless dissection of American life in the late 1960s, "Play It As It Lays" captures the mood of an entire generation. Joan Didion chose Hollywood to serve as her microcosm of contemporary society and exposed a culture characterized by emptiness and ennui.
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The Lover
by Marguerite Duras
A modern classic and international bestseller with more than one million copies in print, The Lover has been celebrated by critics and readers across the globe since its first publication in 1984. Set in the prewar Indochina of Marguerite Duras's childhood, this is the haunting tale of a tumultuous affair between an adolescent French girl and her Chinese lover. In spare yet luminous prose, Duras evokes life on the margins of Saigon in the waning days of France's colonial empire, and its representation in the passionate relationship between two unforgettable outcasts. This edition of The Lover includes a new introduction by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Viet Thanh Nguyen that looks back at Duras's iconic work, winner of France’s Prix Goncourt, as it approaches its fortieth anniversary in print.
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Modern Classics Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (Penguin Modern Classics)
by Spark, Muriel
No summary available.
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Queenpin
by Megan Abbott
By the author of Dare Me and The End of Everything A young woman hired to keep the books at a down-at-the-heels nightclub is taken under the wing of the infamous Gloria Denton, a mob luminary who reigned during the Golden Era of Bugsy Siegel and Lucky Luciano. Notoriously cunning and ruthless, Gloria shows her eager young protégée the ropes, ushering her into a glittering demimonde of late-night casinos, racetracks, betting parlors, inside heists, and big, big money. Suddenly, the world is at her feet—as long as she doesn't take any chances, like falling for the wrong guy. As the roulette wheel turns, both mentor and protégée scramble to stay one step ahead of their bosses and each other.
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Carmilla
by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu
Before DRACULA came CARMILLA A Strange Agony The exquisite and deadly vampire Carmilla haunts J. Sheridan LeFanu's influential novel. A Gothic tale of blood and terror, Carmilla inspired later classics by Bram Stoker and Robert Louis Stevenson, ever shadowed by a love that dare not say its name.
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The Coma
by Alex Garland
When Carl awakens from a coma after being attacked on a subway train, life around him feels unfamiliar, even strange. He arrives at his best friend's house without remembering how he got there; he seems to be having an affair with his secretary, which is pleasant but surprising. He starts to notice distortions in his experience, strange leaps in his perception of time. Is he truly reacting with the outside world, he wonders, or might he be terribly mistaken? So begins a dark psychological drama that raises questions about the the human psyche, dream versus reality, and the boundaries of consciousness. As Carl grapples with his predicament, Alex Garland - author of The Beach and the screenplay for 28 Days Later, plays with conventions and questions our assumptions about the way we exist in the world, even as it draws us into the unsettling and haunting book about a lost suitcase and a forgotten identity.
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Breakfast at Tiffany's
by Truman Capote
Breakfast at Tiffany's -- House of flowers -- A diamond guitar -- A Christmas memory.
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Disquiet
by Julia Leigh
Accompanied by her two children, Olivia leaves her violent marriage and returns to her childhood home in rural France, where she is joined by her brother Marcus and his wife Sophie, who are struggling to overcome their devastation over their stillborn baby. Original.
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Deadly Beloved
by Max Allan Collins
Female private eye Ms. Michael Tree takes on a case that looks open and shut, but may have ties to the murder of her husband. Based on characters from Collins' graphic novel series, Ms. Tree.