The Best 20th Century Chinese Fiction Books, recommended by Lijia Zhang
While rooted in specific Chinese contexts, these books transcend cultural boundaries and speak to universal questions about dignity, freedom, identity, and the longing to be seen, says novelist and writer Lijia Zhang. She talks us through five of the best works of fiction to come out of mainland China in the twentieth century.
HISTORICAL FICTION The Vanished Days by Susanna Kearsley
“It unfolds from the Highlands all the way down to Edinburgh, and it builds and grows with the scenery of the story…It’s about a young widow called Lily, who is trying to claim her husband’s portion of money from the failed Darien expedition”—Ariel Lawhon, historical novelist
NONFICTION BOOKS Looking at Women Looking at War by Victoria Amelina
🏆 Winner of the 2025 Orwell Prize for Political Writing
“Victoria Amelina was a successful Ukrainian novelist and founder of a book festival, living in the Donetsk region of Eastern Ukraine…On 27 June 2023, she was in a pizzeria in Kramatorsk when it was hit by a Russian missile. Sixty-four were injured and thirteen killed. Victoria was amongst them”—Kim Darroch, diplomat
SCIENCE FICTION Annie Bot by Sierra Greer
🏆 Winner of the 2025 Arthur C Clarke Prize
“Annie is a companion, a manufactured housewife who is programmed to keep her husband happy. The husband’s best friend is a jerk and mistreats Annie, whilst the husband gets more and more unpleasant”—Andrew M. Butler, prize judge
HISTORY BOOKS The Price of Glory by Alastair Horne
“I was hugely influenced both by the book and by actually visiting Verdun…it was the most unbelievably destructive battle ever fought on the European continent, west of the old Soviet Union. It had an enormous symbolic significance”—David Marquand, 1934-2024
THRILLERS The Invitation by Lucy Foley
There’s a bit of Sleeping with the Enemy in there, the film with Julia Roberts. A haunting, unsettling vibe. It’s very glamorous, and I love the location. Lucy’s such a beautiful writer.”—Rachel Wolf, thriller writer
CLASSIC LITERATURE The Radetzky March by Joseph Roth
“The Radetzky March is about three generations of a family set during the twilight of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The first soldier in the Trotta family saves the Emperor Franz Joseph during battle and is elevated to nobility”—Phil Klay, author & U.S. Marine Corps veteran
FICTION Heart Lamp: Selected Stories by Banu Mushtaq 🏆 Winner of the 2025 International Booker Prize
“The way these women keep colliding with both tradition and modernity is so acutely observed. Anyone—of any gender or age or country—can’t help but relate to their struggles between past and present”—Anton Hur, judge, 2025 International Booker Prize
MYSTERIES The Way of All Flesh by Ambrose Parry
“It’s Edinburgh, 1847. Will Raven, medical student and apprentice to the illustrious James Simpson, has a terrible secret”—Jess Kidd, mystery novelist
FICTION
🏆 Winner of the 2018 Nobel Prize in Literature Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk
“It’s a murder mystery, and therefore it rattles along, but it’s also a philosophical contemplation on man’s relationship with the natural world, and our relationships to those that we deem to be marginal—at the edge of society—and how we react to them”—Bettany Hughes, historian
FUNNIEST BOOKS OF 2024 Glorious Exploits by Ferdia Lennon
“If you can take something like the failed invasion of Sicily in 412BC, and make a buddy comedy out of it—well, you’ve got something very unique.”—Justin Albert, judge, Wodehouse Prize for Comic Fiction
THE BEST BOOKS FOR KIDS Mythos by Stephen Fry
“Mythos by Stephen Fry is a humorous retelling of the Greek myths…after listening to it one time, my children (aged 12, 11 and 10) insisted on listening to it again”—Sophie Roell, editor of Five Books
NONFICTION BOOKS Ghosts of the Tsunami by Richard Lloyd Parry
“Richard Lloyd Parry was a foreign correspondent in Tokyo at the time of the Japanese tsunami in 2011. In telling the story of that disaster, he focuses on one village primary school where almost all the children lost their lives”—Kate Summerscale, writer
Best Beach Reads 2025
“Looking for the perfect books to escape with whilst you’re on holiday? From thrillers to romances and fantasy to cottage core, these are our top page-turners”—Francesca Martin, journalist
HISTORY BOOKS This Republic of Suffering by Drew Gilpin Faust
“I have seen one estimate that if we were to have the same number of people killed today, as a percentage of the American population, we would have lost six million people”—Brent Glass, public historian
AI BOOKS ChatGPT-4 offers its own opinions on artificial intelligence “These books offer valuable insights into the development, challenges, and future prospects of AI”—ChatGPT-4, AI chatbot
FANTASY Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo
“It’s set at Yale…We’re unravelling old mysteries around the campus. But the real pleasure of it is the amazingly rich, magical setting and magical system that Bardugo constructs, and the way in which it crosses with the young intellectual American aristocracy”—Lev Grossman, novelist
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