Bucket List: Classic Summer Reads!

6 sizzling novels to take on holiday

A ROOM WITH A VIEW: E.M. FORSTER (1908) 

Lucy has her horizons broadened on a trip to Florence where she meets George, a radical freethinker. The pair share a passionate kiss in Fiesole. Whisked back to England by her chaperone, Lucy gets engaged to a ‘suitable’ – and suitably wealthy – suitor, Cecil. At the end of the novel, Lucy returns to Florence on her honeymoon. But who is she married to?

BRIDESHEAD REVISITED: EVELYN WAUGH (1945)

The first time Charles stays at Brideshead, he and Sebastian have the Flyte family’s opulent stately home to themselves. They spend a hedonistic summer exploring the estate and raiding the wine cellar, before taking the train to Venice where Charles is introduced to Sebastian’s enigmatic father. In the autumn, the young men return to Oxford to face some harsh realities.

CALL ME BY YOUR NAME: ANDRÉ ACIMAN (2007)

A sudden and powerful attraction develops between 17-year-old Elio and Oliver, a 24-year-old archaeology student, who are holidaying with Elio’s parents on the Italian Riviera. At first each feigns indifference but during the restless summer weeks that follow, undercurrents of obsession and fear, fascination and desire intensify their passion.

TIGERS IN RED WEATHER: LIZA KLAUSSMANN (2012)

Nick and her cousin, Helena, have grown up together, sharing long hot summers at Tiger House, the family’s estate on Martha’s Vineyard. With husbands and children of their own, they keep returning. But beneath the familiar buzz of parties, cocktails, moonlight and jazz, all is not what it seems. This year the glamourous façade finally begins to crack.

THE BEACH: ALEX GARLAND (1996)

Richard, a backpacker in Thailand, is given a map to a hidden island beach that is said to be a heaven on earth, inhabited by a select few. He sets out to find the beach and discovers a small community of travellers who have left the outside world to live a largely self-sufficient life of leisure. Richard finds the lifestyle idyllic. Then things start to unravel.

THE MAGUS: JOHN FOWLES (1965)

Nicholas breaks up with his girlfriend and accepts a teaching position on a remote Greek island, where he meets Maurice, a wealthy Greek recluse with interests in art, psychiatry, theatre and perhaps the supernatural. As the school term unfolds, Nicholas is drawn into an elaborate psychological game, which gradually unravels his sense of reality.