Your alternative summer reading list

The quit-the-rat-race-and-stay-on-holiday-forever one

Not Safe For Work, by Isabel Kaplan

If Beyoncé already has you rethinking the grind, then Kaplan’s glittering debut — a funny, spiky, compulsive story about a toxic workplaces, Lean-In culture and #MeToo — will have you doing a poolside power quit (‘Hello? Yes, I just called to say I’m done’). The (anonymous) protagonist is one of Hollywood’s rising star execs, but when she crosses paths with a bad boss, she must choose principles or complicity. Raven Luster Leilani is a fan.

4 Aug (£14.99; Penguin Michael Joseph)

The one that will make you stop wondering whether you should move to the country

Amy & Lan, by Sadie Jones

Sunday Times bestseller Jones’s latest is a bright, bittersweet novel set on a communal farm in the West Country. Amy and Lan are growing up in thrilling chaos: summer solstices, rutting animals, parents who don’t care about bedtimes. But bucolic idylls can’t last forever – and soon the very adult dramas are spoiling their barn party.

7 July (£16.99, Vintage)

The ‘ignore absolutely everyone because you cannot put it down’ one

The Last White Man, by Mohsin Hamid

Hamid’s last novel, Exit West, was a Booker-shortlisted sensation. And now his latest, The Last White Man, a disquisition on race, prejudice and power, will surely have a similar lasting impact. ‘One morning Anders, a white man, woke up to find he had turned a deep and undeniable brown,’ reads its first line; soon, there are reports of similar instances and people must confront their hardwired prejudices. A gripping, Kafka-esque premise.

11 August (£12.99; Hamish Hamilton)

The #hotmess manifesto

Square One, by Nell Frizell

In her memoir, The Panic Years, journalist Frizell captured the complexities and contradictions of womanhood and motherhood. In her fiction debut, she has written a relatable story about a slow-mo car crash version of early 30s-dom, where the Papier wedding invites just won’t stop coming and you still don’t haven’t a bloody clue. Thirty-year-old Hanna is single, back at home and living with her dad, who is also dating (shudder).

7 July (£14.99; Bantam)

The ‘don’t call her the new Sally Rooney’ one

Common Decency, by Susannah Dickey

Sad girls, married men, unanswered texts and silent, simmering resentment — so far, so Rooney-verse, but Dickey’s elan is entirely her own (not to mention, she’s from Derry and sets her books in Belfast, not Dublin). The novelist, whose thrilling 2020 debut Tennis Lessons established her as a one-to-watch, casts an unsettling, bewitching tale about loneliness, connection and obsession. Lily and Siobhan are neighbours and strangers — until Lily grows fixated on Siobhan and commences a twisted psychological campaign against her. Put it this way: it’ll put those noisy shaggers in number 6A into perspective.

21 July (£14.99; Doubleday)

The ‘don’t call it the new Secret History’ one

Disorientation, by Elaine Hseih Chou

If Donna Tartt set the bar for the noirish campus novel, Elaine Hseih Chou is setting a new bar for sharp, sideways takes on academia. When PhD student Ingrid Yang uncovers something about a famous Chinese-American poet, it leads her to a discovery that shakes her world to its core. Disorientation is witty, knowing and funny as it sends up privilege, entrenched institutions and ‘white guy’ academics.

21 July (£14.99; Picador)

The ‘wow, my family’s not so bad, I guess’ one

I’m Sorry You Feel That Way, by Rebecca Wait

Did somebody say dysfunctional? Sisters Alice and Hanna are by turns allies and enemies in the face of their disappointed, manipulative mother. Their brother Michael is a screaming bore — and don’t even mention their (mostly absent) father. The novel has earned comparisons to Meg Mason’s Sorrow and Bliss — aka everyone’s favourite book of 2020 — so bona fide hit status surely follows.

7 July (Quercus; £14.99)

The anti-rom-com

Notes on Heartbreak, by Annie Lord

Everyone gets dumped — not everyone is this eloquent on the topic of heartbreak. Vogue columnist Lord has written her own Time’s Arrow-style account of her long-term relationship, starting with the end and exploring in raw detail what went wrong after five intertwined years of in-jokes and declarations of infinite love. You’ll laugh and cry.

Out now (£16.99; Orion)

The one that’s more transportative than a long-haul flight

Pachinko Parlour, by Elisa Shua Dusapin

Claire is spending a hot, indolent summer in Tokyo, tutoring 12-year-old Meiko and living with her grandparents, who fled the Korean War for Japan and opened Shiny, a pachinko parlour in central Nipporo. This tale of shared history and identity is written in prose that crackles with intelligence and imagination.

18 August (£9.99; Daunt)

THE AIRPOD ESSENTIALS

‘Slow Burn: Roe v Wade’

‘Slow Burn’ has taken on Watergate, the LA riots and the Clinton impeachment — now it will trace the roots of Roe v Wade from the 1970s to our current, terrifying moment. Vital listening. Weekly, Apple Podcasts, out now