{"id":131194,"date":"2025-10-19T01:46:39","date_gmt":"2025-10-19T01:46:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/131194\/"},"modified":"2025-10-19T01:46:39","modified_gmt":"2025-10-19T01:46:39","slug":"literary-hub-58-books-you-need-to-read-recommended-by-people-who-know","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/131194\/","title":{"rendered":"Literary Hub \u00bb 58 Books You Need to Read (Recommended by People Who Know)"},"content":{"rendered":"

In honor of Literary Hub\u2019s tenth birthday<\/a>, we asked over 200 authors, editors, booksellers, publishing professionals, and other literary luminaries to weigh in on a few questions about the past, present, and future of the literary world. We will be sharing their opinions on various subjects with you over the next weeks, but to start, we\u2019ve collated some of the best answers on one of our favorite questions: what\u2019s the best book you\u2019ve read recently?<\/p>\n

NB that \u201crecently,\u201d in this case, meant the last 25 years (we\u2019re long-term thinkers), and that rather than ask respondents to choose the best book\u00a0published\u00a0in the last 25 years, we asked them simply to pick the best books they\u00a0read\u00a0in the last 25 years, to get a more accurate sense of, well, what people are reading, be it new or old. Here are some of their responses, which reflect very little consensus\u2014suggesting that books might not be dying in a monotonous, homogeneous heap after all:<\/p>\n

*<\/p>\n

\"giovanni's<\/a><\/p>\n

James Baldwin\u2019s Giovanni\u2019s Room<\/a>.<\/strong> It\u2019s a perfect novel, and reads like it could have been published this year.<\/p>\n

\u2013Kelsey McKinney, author and co-owner at Defector<\/p>\n

Giovanni\u2019s Room<\/a>.<\/strong> \u201cI stand at the window of this great house in the south of France as night falls, the night which is leading me to the most terrible morning of my life. I have a drink in my hand, there is a bottle at my elbow. I watch my reflection in the darkening gleam of the window pane. My reflection is tall, perhaps rather like an arrow, my blond hair gleams. My face is like a face you have seen many times. My ancestors conquered a continent, pushing across death-laden plains, until they came to an ocean which faced away from Europe into a darker past.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the first paragraph. It\u2019s beautiful and embodied, and it immediately positions the reader just-so, so intelligently and succinctly, into a depressive act of atonement, and the text is so immersed in desire and the work is so descriptive, it feels beautiful. I love melancholy, grief, love, and this book fuses all I love.<\/p>\n

\u2013Terese Marie Mailhot, author<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Ghost Wall<\/a> by Sarah Moss.<\/strong> It\u2019s tight, highly original, and really speaks to the dangers that arise, particularly for girls and women, when a society glorifies its past and clings to a myopic understanding of history for its identity.<\/p>\n

\u2013Quan Barry, writer<\/p>\n

\"Magda<\/a>
The Door<\/a> by Magda Szab\u00f3<\/strong>, translated from the Hungarian by Len Rix. It was not written in the last 25 years, but I read it recently. It\u2019s one of those books that shreds every narrative rule and yet (or rather because of that) works so beautifully. It\u2019s riveting character sketch for 4\/5 and then all the plot is in the last 1\/5 and you don\u2019t mind at all. Also it has one of the best dog characters in literature.<\/p>\n

\u2013Rebecca Makkai, writer<\/p>\n

\"the<\/a><\/p>\n

The Stone Diaries<\/a> by Carol Shields<\/strong>\u2014it\u2019s big, it\u2019s ambitious, it\u2019s hilarious. There\u2019s a sentence on every page that you\u2019ll want to underline (unless you\u2019re tone deaf or without pencil). And no one reads it any more. But they should. Winning a Pulitzer doesn\u2019t always please posterity. But this one\u2014a novel about how our pasts our continually revised, to comic and tragic effect\u2014deserves to be remembered and rediscovered.<\/p>\n

\u2013Jonathan Lee, novelist & TV writer<\/p>\n

\"Helen<\/a><\/p>\n

The Last Samurai<\/a>, by Helen DeWitt.<\/strong> I don\u2019t know a single other book that is as brilliant and as captivating as this novel. This is proof that a novel doesn\u2019t need to be watered down in its style or ideas in order to hold a reader\u2019s attention. I wish we all aspired to write books this ambitious and good.<\/p>\n

\u2013Isle McElroy, novelist<\/p>\n

\"swann's<\/a><\/p>\n

Lol. Um, Proust<\/strong><\/a>?<\/p>\n

\u2013Nick During, publicist<\/p>\n

\"when<\/a><\/p>\n

Impossible question, but I\u2019ll pick the last book I loved, which is by Benjamin Labatut. When We Cease to Understand the World <\/a><\/strong>is gorgeous, prosaic, and saying something very important about violence, genius, madness.<\/p>\n

\u2013Ingrid Rojas Contreras, writer<\/p>\n

This is obviously an incredibly difficult question so I\u2019m going to cheat and submit four: The Bear<\/a>, by Andrew Krivak<\/strong> (the best apocalyptic parenting narrative there is); Margaret the First<\/a>, by Danielle Dutton<\/strong> (compulsively readable, wickedly erudite); When We Cease to Understand the World<\/a>, by Benjamin Labatut<\/strong> (mindblowing and perfect); and Underland<\/a>, by Robert Macfarlane<\/strong> (somehow capturing the full breadth of what it means to be human in a book about underground spaces). Ok. If I had to pick just one, I\u2019d go with the Labatut.<\/p>\n

\u2013Jonny Diamond, Lit Hub EIC<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Philip Roth, Sabbath\u2019s Theater<\/a><\/strong>\u2014for the best last line and most romantic golden shower scene of all time.<\/p>\n

\u2013Jess Bergman, editor<\/p>\n

\"the<\/a><\/p>\n

The Swan Book<\/a> by Alexis Wright.<\/strong> A satire, not only did it gaff contemporary aboriginal life but also presented the problem of species diversity and the climate disaster in Australia.<\/p>\n

\u2013Terese Svoboda, writer<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Oblivion: Stories<\/a> by David Foster Wallace.<\/strong> A deeply disturbing masterpiece, the last great work of an author facing his own ultimate decline.<\/p>\n

\u2013Porochista Khakpour, author<\/p>\n

\"Kelly<\/a><\/p>\n

25 years ago I was 20 years old, and I had read nothing except Frank O\u2019Hara and Jane Eyre. That\u2019s about when I read Kelly Link<\/strong> for the first time, and so you know what, I\u2019m going to go ahead and say The Book of Love<\/strong><\/a>, Kelly\u2019s first novel, which came out last year, because I\u2019d been waiting twenty years for it and it was worth every second of the wait.<\/p>\n

\u2013Emma Straub, novelist and bookseller<\/p>\n

\"Rachel<\/a>
I was pretty blown away by Rachel Kushner\u2019s Creation Lake<\/a><\/strong>. The novel intertwines elements of espionage with philosophical explorations of human history, environmentalism, and the complexities of identity and manipulation. There was an aspect to the story that really hit my heart hard in Bruno Lacombe\u2019s radical philosophy, which posits that modern humans have lost their essential connection to the primal elements of existence. He believes that civilization has stripped people of their \u201csalt\u201d\u2014their raw, untamed nature\u2014leaving them spiritually and physically deficient. This idea weaves through the novel as Sadie, the protagonist, becomes increasingly drawn to Bruno\u2019s worldview, challenging her sense of self and mission. The theme explores how people navigate authenticity, survival, and the cost of returning to a more \u201cnatural\u201d state in a world shaped by technology and control.<\/p>\n

\u2013Brittany Ackerman, writer<\/p>\n

\"city<\/a><\/p>\n

City of Saints and Madmen<\/a> by Jeff VanderMeer<\/strong>. I can draw a straight line from reading this book as a freshman in college to me sitting here, writing to you right now. It\u2019s likely not an exaggeration to say that I would not be who I am without this book\u2014I certainly wouldn\u2019t be a writer. The book is a stitch-up of several stories, but it isn\u2019t a story collection and it isn\u2019t even really a novel in stories\u2014it\u2019s something more complicated, which is part of its charm: it is a novel wherein the main \u2018character\u2019 is the city of Ambergris and the stories recounted within are telling the city\u2019s story, even when they\u2019re sometimes very character-driven and, on their own, otherwise rather \u2018traditional\u2019 in their way. Reading this book not only infected my dreams (to this day, I dream of strolling down Albemuth Boulevard) but it changed the way I understood story. It\u2019s certainly the most important book of my adult life, which for me is the ultimate metric of \u2018best\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u2013Drew Broussard, writer\/bookseller\/Lit Hub Podcasts Editor<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a><\/p>\n

I guarantee no one is going to have this same answer but honestly, I was taken apart and put back together by The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Frye<\/a> by Rachel Joyce.<\/strong> AND also Half a Life<\/a> by Darin Strauss<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\u2013Mira Ptacin, narrative journalist and memoirist<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The Days of Abandonment<\/a> by Elena Ferrante<\/strong>\u2014it\u2019s as close to flawless as a novel can get.<\/p>\n

\u2013Erin Somers, novelist and books reporter<\/p>\n

\"Edith<\/a><\/p>\n

Because there\u2019s no way I can possibly pick a favorite, here is a tie. The Age of Innocence<\/a> by Edith Wharton<\/strong> is a perfect novel. And One Hundred Years of Solitude<\/a> by Gabo<\/strong> was the most involving, sweeping reading experience I\u2019ve ever had.<\/p>\n

\u2013Brittany K. Allen, writer<\/p>\n

\"all<\/a><\/p>\n

All My Puny Sorrows<\/a> by Miriam Toews<\/strong> or Cassandra at the Wedding<\/a> by Dorothy Baker.<\/strong> Any book that centers love, friendship, dependence, entwinement, with humor, grace, sadness, pathos, that has such immense warmth and care at the core, is the best kind of book to me.<\/p>\n

\u2013Julia Hass, Book Marks Associate Editor<\/p>\n

\"My<\/a><\/p>\n

Ferrante\u2019s Neapolitan quartet<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2013Matthew Salesses, writer<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Donna Tartt\u2019s The Secret History<\/a>.<\/strong> Lush, satirical, terrifying, endlessly clever, and sometimes when I reread it I sympathize with these terrible children and sometimes I think I\u2019m peering directly into hell. This one is ripped off so often by writers who don\u2019t come close to conjuring its magic\u2014I think the imitators forget how funny this book is, how deeply pleasurable the prose.<\/p>\n

\u2013Brittany Cavallaro, novelist and poet<\/p>\n

\"a<\/a><\/p>\n

This is too difficult to answer especially since the last 25 years takes me to 13 years old, so basically this period is my entire reading history. So I\u2019ll just pick the first best book I remember reading which was A Wrinkle In Time<\/a> by Madeline L\u2019Engle<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\u2013Hannah Lillith Assadi, novelist<\/p>\n

\"2666\"<\/a><\/p>\n

2666<\/a> by Roberto Bola\u00f1o and Natasha Wimmer<\/strong> (because it was devastating and delightful); close runner-up would be Vernon Subutex 1<\/a> by Virginie Despentes and Frank Wynne<\/strong> (because it\u2019s a spellbinding, breathtaking feat).<\/p>\n

\u2013Jennifer Croft, writer and translator<\/p>\n

\"Virginie<\/a><\/p>\n

Vernon Subutex<\/a> (trilogy) by Virginie Despentes, translated by Frank Wynne.<\/strong> Very few people write about the unhoused in contemporary literature, and why not? Maybe it\u2019s because to write fiction takes immense privilege; Despentes does so with style and significance. It tackles a gentrifying Paris, fascism, racism, Islamophobia, fame, money, sex, drugs, and rock \u2018n\u2019 roll. Her hero, Vernon, is a fallen Gen-Xer trying to survive it all\u2014and the book is critical of his generation\u2019s hypocrisies. It has a kaleidoscope of characters I still think about. A huge series in France, less so in the U.S., and that boggles my mind because it\u2019s a masterpiece.<\/p>\n

\u2013Alex Gilvarry, author<\/p>\n

\"his<\/a><\/p>\n

My God, how dare you make me choose. Okay: Edgar Telles Ribiero, His Own Man<\/a>, translated by Kim Hastings.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2013Molly Odintz, CrimeReads Managing Editor<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

White Oleander<\/a> by Janet Fitch.<\/strong> This is the first book I ever encountered that seemed to understand the very particular sensation of being a girl surviving in the world, living in grief for a mother who is still alive but unreachable. It is unmatched in its lyric beauty and reads like an epic. It goes to such surprising territory and captures California\u2019s rough beauty. It\u2019s a hypnotizing book and no matter how many times I read it, I burst into tears every time.<\/p>\n

\u2013Chelsea Bieker, novelist<\/p>\n

\"Anna<\/a><\/p>\n

Anna Karenina<\/a>.<\/strong> The way it investigates human psychology absolutely floored me the first time I read it, and I make it a habit to reread the book every year, which teaches me something new every time.<\/p>\n

\u2013Esm\u00e9 Weijun Wang, writer<\/p>\n

\"moby<\/a><\/p>\n

Five books immediately come to mind that fundamentally changed my sense of how words can speak to human experience\u2014all of which I read in the last 25 years and none of which were published in the last 25 years (sorry): Moby-Dick<\/strong><\/a>, James Baldwin\u2019s essays<\/strong>, Virginia Woolf\u2019s To the Lighthouse<\/a><\/strong>, Annie Ernaux\u2019s Simple Passion<\/a><\/strong>, and Doris Lessing\u2019s The Golden Notebook<\/a><\/strong>\u2014clich\u00e9, maybe, but they were all ecstatic reading experiences I\u2019ll never forget.<\/p>\n

On the contemporary side, it\u2019s poetry that mostly comes to mind: Ocean Vuong\u2019s Night Sky with Exit Wounds<\/a><\/strong> is a book that still stays with me\u2014his novels are poetry, too, don\u2019t let anyone fool you. Ecco\u2019s 2015 anthology of Jorie Graham\u2019s poetry<\/strong><\/a> and that doorstopper of Louise Gl\u00fcck\u2019s poetry<\/strong><\/a> FSG put out in 2012 also mean a lot to me. But also John Jeremiah Sullivan\u2019s book of essays Pulphead<\/a><\/strong> seems criminally under-read, and I would add Svetlana Alexievich\u2019s Secondhand Time<\/a><\/strong> to this list, too. Ok, also Ben Lerner\u2019s Leaving the Atocha Station<\/a><\/strong> and 10:04<\/strong><\/a>, which I think are best read as a diptych.<\/p>\n

\u2013Elianna Kan, literary agent<\/p>\n

\"the<\/a><\/p>\n

The English Patient<\/a> by Michael Ondaatje.<\/strong> I read this novel in 2008, as a junior in college. The book came to me at that impressionable time of my life when I secretly wanted to be a writer but didn\u2019t have the courage to admit it aloud. The language, the characters, the final image\u2014they imprinted in me in a way that has changed the way I write and see art.<\/p>\n

\u2013Crystal Hana Kim, writer<\/p>\n

\"Merritt<\/a><\/p>\n

Love Me Back<\/a> by Merritt Tierce<\/strong>, because it changed my perspective about what fictional motherhood can look and sound like.<\/p>\n

\u2013Courtney Maum, author and publishing expert<\/p>\n

\"Kiese<\/a><\/p>\n

Heavy<\/strong><\/a>, for its unwavering honesty and brutality.<\/p>\n

\u2013Nathan Deuel, writer and teacher<\/p>\n

\"magnetic<\/a><\/p>\n

I\u2019m torn between Linda Gregerson\u2019s Magnetic North<\/a><\/strong> and Frank Bidart\u2019s Half-Life: Collected Poems 1965-2016<\/a>.<\/strong> Bidart\u2019s tracks the development and remarkable range of a truly singular voice in American poetry\u2014elegies, persona poems, the intimate and the abstract, the anxieties and perversions and intimacies of historical and invented figures in addition to \u201cthe poet\u201d himself. Gregerson\u2019s shows her at the peak of her signature tercets, weaving together the microscopic and the grand threads of science, art, and history into wonderfully rich sonic landscapes. Gregerson\u2019s is a book, a mind, a poetics that demand an attentive, intelligent reader\u2014something I wish more books of poetry would do.<\/p>\n

\u2013Corey Van Landingham, poet<\/p>\n

\"hilary<\/a><\/p>\n

C\u2019mon, this is impossible! I\u2019m inclined to say the Wolf Hall<\/a> trilogy<\/strong> since they saw me through the early pandemic and, like much else from that time, they live large in my memory.<\/p>\n

\u2013Stephen Sparks, bookseller<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Dodge Rose<\/a> by Jack Cox<\/strong> (Dalkey Archive, 2016). This miraculous debut novel has all the hallmarks of a modernist masterpiece, yet it never feels like an imitation or a throwback. In its lithe 201 pages, Cox manages to weave a complex narrative about a pair of young women and the recently deceased widow whose estate they are trying to get in order while incorporating everything from dense Australian property law legalese to onomatopoeic piano-busting pyrotechnics, from eerie Sebaldian black-and-white photos to bravura Joycean punctuation-free streams of consciousness. It\u2019s a book about ownership, history, family, law, revenge, and\u2014in a somewhat subterranean way\u2014colonialism. By burying this story of the indigenous peoples of Australia beneath the larger narrative, letting it only emerge through hints and hushes, Cox mirrors, and thus deliberately showcases, the ways in which colonial powers subjugate through fictions (whether literary, historical, legal, economic, etc). In a better world, novels of this level of sophistication, beauty, erudition, ambiguity, and play would come along more frequently and dominate the literary discourse.<\/p>\n

\u2013Tyler Malone, writer and professor<\/p>\n

\"john<\/a><\/p>\n

John Berger, Portraits<\/a>.<\/strong> This book has universes within universes. It is humane, political, searching, wise, as if speaking to us from all times. It holds a lifetime of trying to see.<\/p>\n

\u2013Madeleine Thien, novelist<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Gilead<\/a> by Marilynne Robinson.<\/strong> A beautiful and curious book.<\/p>\n

\u2013James Folta, Lit Hub Staff Writer<\/p>\n

\"end<\/a><\/p>\n

Yu Miri\u2019s The End of August<\/a> (tr. Morgan Giles)<\/strong> is a colossally ambitious and impossibly inventive novel that reckons with cycles of colonial violence and familial betrayal. There are so many incredible ideas on display in this book (one chapter follows a single gust of wind from one side of town to the other, weaving in and out of scenes through drafty windows and chimneys) and you\u2019d be hard pressed to find a book more densely-packed with those moments that you make you go \u201cwow I didn\u2019t even know you could do that!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013James Webster, Marketing Director (Deep Vellum \/ Dalkey Archive)<\/p>\n

\"Mrs<\/a>
Not published within the last 25 years, but Mrs. Bridge<\/strong><\/a> was an absolute revelation as I was trying to figure out if I could write fiction. It cracked open the possibilities of novels in ways I\u2019m still thinking about.<\/p>\n

\u2013Jessie Gaynor, writer & Lit Hub editor<\/p>\n

\"Jennifer<\/a><\/p>\n

I\u2019m going to go with one of my favorites. A Visit from the Goon Squad<\/a> by Jennifer Egan<\/strong>. It was a book that I got to read for review as a blank template\u2014my galley, which I still have, doesn\u2019t include a single blurb. Even the hardcover only got advance praise from Kirkus and PW. Now we know that it was brilliantly written, heartbreaking, encompassed art and fandom, how we live in the present moment, and is refreshingly innovative in form. A blazing prizewinner. But to be able to encounter that from the start and think, Wow! Everyone should read this! And then they did. What a cool book experience.<\/p>\n

\u2013Carolyn Kellogg, writer and editor<\/p>\n

\"seiobo<\/a><\/p>\n

L\u00e1szl\u00f3 Krasznahorkai\u2019s Seiobo There Below<\/a>, tr. Ottilie Mulzet, <\/strong>has been the most enduringly impactful to me personally.<\/p>\n

\u2013Brad Johnson, bookseller<\/p>\n

\"At<\/a><\/p>\n

At the Autopsy of Vaslav Njinski<\/a> by Bridget Lowe.<\/strong> It\u2019s the Exile In Guyville of the 21st century thus far, has influenced many poets\u2019 new work, and is an authentic extension of the work of both Dickinson and Plath.<\/p>\n

\u2013Peter Mishler, poet and Lit Hub contributing editor<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I\u2019m only thirty, so this basically a question that applies to my entire reading life! If I had to pick one, I\u2019d have to say, reading Franny and Zooey<\/strong><\/a> at 19 changed the entire course of my life in at least 4 or 5 different ways.<\/p>\n

\u2013Sarah McEachern, Rights Director at Deep Vellum<\/p>\n

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