• The Best Mediterranean Novels - Brandy Sour by Constantia Soteriou & Lina Protopapa (translator)
  • The Best Mediterranean Novels - Far by Rosa Ribas & Charlotte Coombe (translator)
  • The Best Mediterranean Novels - The Palace on the Higher Hill by Karim Kattan & Jeffrey Zuckerman (translator)
  • The Best Mediterranean Novels - Spanish Beauty Esther García Llovet and Richard Village (translator)
  • The Best Mediterranean Novels - The Little I Knew by Chiara Valerio & Ailsa Wood (translator)

The Best Mediterranean Novels, published by Foundry Editions

Publisher Foundry Editions was set up in 2023 to showcase beautiful writing, unusual storytelling, unforgettable characters and intelligent entertainment from across the Mediterranean region. Here are five of their most recent books, now available in English for the first time, from Spanish noir to historical fiction from Cyprus, an Italian bestseller and a family saga and gothic ghost story set in Palestine.

  • Short Classic Books - Animal Farm by George Orwell
  • Short Classic Books - Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote
  • Short Classic Books - Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk by Nikolai Leskov
  • Short Classic Books - Candide Voltaire, translated by Roger Pearson
  • Short Classic Books - Passing by Nella Larsen
  • Short Classic Books - The Abbess of Crewe by Muriel Spark

Short Classic Books

Classic books have stood the test of time and continue to appeal to new readers, but they can feel intimidating. Whether you want to ease your way into classic literature by starting with shorter books, don’t have much time to read, or simply admire writers who are able to say more with less, below is a list of short classic books recommended by experts on Five Books over the years.

  • Long Novels - Les Misérables by Victor Hugo
  • Long Novels - Homeland (Patria) by Fernando Aramburu and Alfred MacAdam (translator)
  • Long Novels - Life and Fate by Vasily Grossman and translated by Robert Chandler
  • Long Novels - In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust
  • Long Novels - The Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu & translated by Edward G. Seidensticker
  • Long Novels - Clarissa by Samuel Richardson

Long Novels

Shorter is better is the mantra of the digital age, but for some of us, there is no greater pleasure than reading a really long novel. Here we’ve listed some of the novels recommended on Five Books that are 400,000 words or more long, from literary classics to potboilers.

  • Short Novels - Orbital by Samantha Harvey
  • Short Novels - Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan
  • Short Novels - Piranesi by Susanna Clarke and Chiwetel Ejiofor (narrator)
  • Short Novels - The Invention of Morel by Adolfo Bioy Casares, translated by Ruth L. C. Simms
  • Short Novels - Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
  • Short Novels - We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson

Short Novels

A short novel can be the perfect way to occupy the mind during an empty evening or a long journey. One can also appreciate a well-written book’s true complexity when it can be read and digested in a single, immersive sitting. Here, we’ve pulled together a list of short literary novels—most of them fewer than 200 pages in length—that have been recommended on Five Books over the years.