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Under 150 pages Book Recommendations
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items Discover a treasure trove of literary delights with our collection of Short Gems Under 150 Pages That You'll Devour, Not Abandon! Lose yourself in these compact yet captivating tales that pack a punch. From gripping novellas to poignant short stories...
Sally Rooney's Mr. Salary is a beautifully written exploration of complicated relationships, vulnerability, and the quiet forces that shape our connections. The story, told through Sukie's eyes, reveals the weight of her love for Nathan—intense, over...
Mr Salary by Sally Rooney
Annie Ernaux’s Simple Passion is a raw, unflinching exploration of love, obsession, and emotional surrender. In her characteristic sparse style, Ernaux takes us through the intensity of a passionate affair, examining how it consumes both the heart an...
Simple Passion – WINNER OF THE 2022 NOBEL PRIZE IN LITERATURE by Annie Ernaux
Crossing the Water captures the final years of Sylvia Plath's creative brilliance, offering readers a glimpse into her world of stark imagery and raw emotion. Published posthumously in 1971, this collection complements her earlier works like Ariel, p...
Crossing the Water by Sylvia Plath
Yoko Tawada’s The Bridegroom Was a Dog is a provocative and haunting tale that intertwines the absurd with the profound. Mitsuko, a schoolteacher with an unconventional approach to life, tells her students a fable about a princess who marries a dog—o...
The Bridegroom Was a Dog by Yoko Tawada
In Whites, Otegha Uwagba crafts an insightful and personal essay that addresses the mental and emotional labor required of Black people when navigating the intricacies of racism and whiteness. Through her reflections on George Floyd's murder and the ...
Whites by Otegha Uwagba
In Weasels in the Attic, Hiroko Oyamada presents a quietly surreal narrative that explores the intricacies of human connection, masculinity, and modern life in Japan. Across three dinners, two friends delve into offbeat conversations about fish-breed...
Weasels in the Attic by Hiroko Oyamada, David Boyd
In Exteriors, Annie Ernaux offers a series of fragmented journal entries spanning seven years, painting a vivid portrait of contemporary life on the outskirts of Paris. Her reflections on fleeting encounters, moments on the periphery of daily existen...
Exteriors by Annie Ernaux, Tanya Leslie
In A Man’s Place, Annie Ernaux reflects on the life of her father, a man marked by his lack of formal education, his struggle for material comfort, and his emotional detachment. Through sharp, almost clinical observations, Ernaux uncovers the quiet s...
A Man's Place by Annie Ernaux
In Happening, Annie Ernaux offers a raw and haunting account of her personal experience with an unwanted pregnancy in 1963, a time when abortion was illegal in France. At 23, Ernaux grapples with shame and societal judgment, leading her to a desperat...
Happening by Annie Ernaux
In The Hour of the Star, Clarice Lispector delivers a profound and striking narrative about Macabéa, a poor, unremarkable young woman living in the slums of Rio. Despite her hardships—her unattractive appearance, dead-end job, and unfaithful boyfrien...
Hour of the Star by Clarice Lispector, Benjamin Moser
The Blind Owl is an extraordinary journey into the depths of despair and the human psyche. This modern Iranian classic, rich in symbolism and surreal imagery, chronicles the descent of a young man consumed by loss and a spiraling madness. Hedayat’s w...
The Blind Owl by Sadegh Hedayat, Naveed Noori
Annie Ernaux’s I Remain in Darkness is a tender and heart-wrenching account of the pain that accompanies the slow unraveling of a loved one through Alzheimer’s disease. With poignant precision, Ernaux reflects on her role as a daughter, navigating th...
I Remain in Darkness – WINNER OF THE 2022 NOBEL PRIZE IN LITERATURE by Annie Ernaux, Tanya Leslie
Sylvia Plath’s Ariel is a haunting collection of poems that explores the depths of despair, vengeance, and beauty with razor-sharp clarity. Comprising works like “Lady Lazarus,” “Daddy,” and “Edge,” these poems were written in the final years of Plat...
Ariel by Sylvia Plath
Ocean Vuong’s Night Sky with Exit Wounds is a collection that resonates deeply with the weight of history, survival, and transformation. His poetry grapples with the Vietnamese refugee experience, tracing three generations of conflict and displacemen...
Night Sky with Exit Wounds by Ocean Vuong
For Now is a candid, insightful exploration of Eileen Myles' creative journey, offering an unflinching look at the world through their unique lens. This volume, part of the Why I Write series, reflects Myles' ability to blend personal experience with...
For Now by Eileen Myles
Água Viva is a beautifully disorienting meditation on existence itself. Lispector’s prose pulses with an urgency to “capture the present,” and her reflections on everything from time to sleep create an intimate and hypnotic experience. The stream-of-...
Agua Viva by Clarice Lispector, Stefan Tobler
Natalia Ginzburg's The Dry Heart is a chilling exploration of isolation, obsession, and the quiet unraveling of a life. Through the eyes of a lonely young woman, Ginzburg masterfully depicts a slow descent into a tragic and inevitable act. The narrat...
The Dry Heart by Natalia Ginzburg, Frances Frenaye
In The Coral Sea, Patti Smith offers a deeply emotional tribute to her late friend and collaborator, Robert Mapplethorpe. With haunting, lyrical prose, Smith reflects on his life, his artistry, and the painful journey of his final days. This intimate...
The Coral Sea by Patti Smith
In The Hole, Hiroko Oyamada skillfully explores the unsettling and often surreal experience of self-discovery amidst monotony. Asa, the protagonist, grapples with the pressures of living near her in-laws and adjusting to a rural life that feels incre...
The Hole by Hiroko Oyamada, David Boyd
Ms Ice Sandwich is a tender and introspective exploration of youth, longing, and the bittersweet passage of time. Through the eyes of a young boy captivated by a woman at the local sandwich counter, Mieko Kawakami beautifully captures the complexitie...
Ms Ice Sandwich by Mieko Kawakami
Cold Enough for Snow is a quiet yet profoundly evocative exploration of the spaces between people — a mother and daughter reconnecting during a delicate journey through Tokyo. As they wander through galleries, cafes, and the city's canals, their conv...
Cold Enough for Snow by Jessica Au
In The Flowers of Buffoonery, Osamu Dazai presents a fascinating portrait of human absurdity and despair, set in a seaside sanatorium. The story unfolds through Yozo Oba, a character familiar to readers of No Longer Human, as he recovers from a suici...
The Flowers of Buffoonery by Osamu Dazai, Sam Bett
Zadie Smith’s Intimations is a beautifully personal and reflective collection of essays, capturing the raw emotions and subtle shifts we all experienced during lockdown. With the same sharp intelligence and wit that has made her one of today’s most e...
Intimations by Zadie Smith
The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa invites readers into a delicate world of memory, loss, and self-discovery. Through the eyes of Yayoi, a young woman surrounded by the love of her seemingly perfect family, we witness the unsettling realization that som...
The Premonition by Banana Yoshimoto, Asa Yoneda
Minor Detail by Adania Shibli is a haunting and deeply reflective exploration of memory, violence, and the lasting impact of war. Set in the aftermath of the 1948 Nakba, the novel opens with the brutal act of an Israeli soldier capturing and killing ...
Minor Detail by Adania Shibli, Elisabeth Jaquette
The Factory by Hiroko Oyamada is a thought-provoking modern fable that captures the eerie, surreal reality of work and its dehumanizing effects. Three employees, each assigned to seemingly mundane tasks in an industrial complex, find their lives cons...
The Factory by Hiroko Oyamada
Idol, Burning by Rin Usami is a gripping exploration of obsession, fandom, and the complexities of adolescence. High schooler Akari’s life revolves around her “oshi,” Masaki Ueno, a pop idol who seems to be the center of her universe. But when a rumo...
Idol, Burning by Rin Usami, Asa Yoneda
Toshiki Okada’s The End of the Moment offers two captivating, deeply introspective stories that explore the complexities of human connection. In the first, a couple finds a brief, transformative escape from their struggles on the eve of the Iraq War....
The End of the Moment We Had by Toshiki Okada, Samuel Malissa
The Bear and the Paving Stone by Toshiyuki Horie, winner of the Akutagawa Prize, is a captivating collection of three stories that blend memory, war, and the inevitable pull of the past. Each tale transports readers into a world where history and ide...
The Bear and the Paving Stone by Toshiyuki Horie, Geraint Howells
Slow Boat by Hideo Furukawa is a poignant and introspective novella that traces the journey of a man trapped in the cyclical disappointments of life and love. Living in Tokyo, he faces the aftermath of failed relationships, his own personal failures,...
Slow Boat by Hideo Furukawa, David Boyd