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Original poster

Any ideas for short novel choice for book group?

87 replies

Clawdy · 19/03/2026 12:26

My book group choice next, and for various reasons, we've got less time to read it, so I need a shortish novel! Any ideas?

OP posts:
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DreamingOfGeneHunt · 30/04/2026 09:13

I recommend this a lot on here: The Fortnight in September by R.C Sheriff.

Scout2016 · 30/04/2026 09:06

Tilt by Emma Pattee
Easy Meat by Rachel Trezise, which are both set over a day and follow one character (day of an earthquake and brexit vote day.)

A Family Matter by Claire Lynch

Scout2016 · 28/04/2026 20:57

Cassandra At The Wedding by Dorothy Baker
Confessions of A Failed Southern Lady by Florence King

208 pages long - Bilgewater by Jane Gardem

Scout2016 · 28/04/2026 20:44

"Passing" that a PP suggested is a great shout.

These were rather emotional - not sure how short you want?
Little Boy Lost by Marghanita Laski
Doreen by Barbara Noble

Dappy777 · 23/04/2026 17:37

Virginia Woolf: To the Lighthouse
Aldous Huxley: Chrome Yellow
George Orwell: Coming up for Air
Iris Murdoch: The Severed Head
Evelyn Waugh: Vile Bodies

MNLurker1345 · 22/04/2026 20:23

KidsAndDogsGalore · 19/03/2026 13:14

Want something a bit deeper?
The Royal Game by Stefan Zweig is my all-time favourite book.

Thanks for this recommendation. I have read Zweig, but not this. Will do.

My recommendation - ‘Raising Hare’ by Chloe Dalton.

It was our most recent read. We all enjoyed it immensely.

EggplantSurprise · 22/04/2026 20:22

SnowFrogJelly · 22/03/2026 01:09

Completely disagree about Claire Keegan.. Small Things is full of compassion and hope

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Because CK ends the story before we have to see Bill, his wife and his daughters suffer for his actions — his business potentially founder as the convent withdraws its business and pressures other businesses and individuals in the town to do the same, the girls be penalised educationally and in terms of future jobs and marriageability etc, Bill, whose background makes him vulnerable, be stripped of all he’s managed to claw together, possibly his marriage, as his wife is clearer-eyed than he is about social penalties etc. Ireland in the eighties was in deep recession, very poor and brutal in many ways.

The end where he’s carrying the girl through the town is absolutely brave and touching, but whatever future he’s carrying her towards, his own is bleak. It’s a humane, morally good decision, but also one that’s going to involve a terrible cost for his family as well as for him.

If CK hadn’t chosen to end there it would be a far bleaker story. She does something similar in ‘Foster’ where she ends with the girl running into the arms of her foster father, not with the bit immediately after, where she will have to go back up the lane into her brutal, neglectful family while her temporary parents drive home, heartbroken at another loss.

Perplexed20 · 22/04/2026 20:18

SnowFrogJelly · 22/03/2026 01:09

Completely disagree about Claire Keegan.. Small Things is full of compassion and hope

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Me too.

Perplexed20 · 22/04/2026 20:16

Foster or small things by clare keegan

Turn of the Screw - Henry James

Ilovemyshed · 22/04/2026 20:13

The Cone Gatherers by Robin Jenkins
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
The Keeper of the Bees bu Gene Stratton Porter
White Boots by Noel Streatfield
Anything written by Nevil Shute
Cheap Day return or Too Few for Drums or All over the Town by Delderfield

123teenagerfood · 22/04/2026 20:05

Troubling Love by Helena Ferrante

SnowFrogJelly · 22/03/2026 01:09

EggplantSurprise · 20/03/2026 10:04

I agree, but so is Claire Keegan’s Small Things Like These, which is about poverty, small town class prejudice, institutional cruelty and the oppression of women, and So Late in the Day, which is about the self-pity and anger of a common or garden misogynist.

I tend to be slightly puzzled as to her popularity. Her work is beautifully and carefully written, but her vision is unvaryingly bleak. Perhaps it’s in part the brevity.

I’ve noticed other publishers grasping that readers seem to like short stories sold as books — several I know of are commissioning their writers to write a short story they will publish as a tiny book, and Colm Toibin has (slightly cheekily) brought out an old short story from one of his collections and published it as a short book.

Edited
Show quote history

Completely disagree about Claire Keegan.. Small Things is full of compassion and hope

Screamingabdabz · 21/03/2026 09:23

Mulledjuice · 19/03/2026 15:21

Dear God no!

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I would agree, and most of our group hated it, but I only recommend it because it led to one of the most animated nights of discussion - marriage, sex, marital expectation - all the biggies…

Original poster
Clawdy · 21/03/2026 08:08

Yes, we did A Month In The Country a few years ago, everyone liked it.

OP posts:
YourAmplePlumPoster · 20/03/2026 23:15

I will definitely read A Month in the Country now.

Meem321 · 20/03/2026 21:53

Recommend these 3:

On Chesil Beach
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
Before the Coffee Gets Cold

PingoDome · 20/03/2026 16:52

Heartburn by Nora Ephron (has bonus recipes)

elliesmummy19 · 20/03/2026 16:30

My book club read I Who Have Never Known men last year. I absolutely loved it and it was very popular with the other members too.

BauhausOfEliott · 20/03/2026 16:26

Mulledjuice · 19/03/2026 15:21

Dear God no!

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Oh, I think it would be a great book group read. I'm not in a book group I've discussed it at length with lots of people!

EggplantSurprise · 20/03/2026 11:10

CurlewKate · 20/03/2026 11:01

A Month in the Country by JL Carr. A GLORIOUS book.And super short.

I’m delighted there are so many other JL Carr fans on here! Though I’ve never dared to read any of his others, in case they spoil the perfection of AMITC. My former publisher published one of his novels and said he was incredibly cantankerous.

YourAmplePlumPoster · 20/03/2026 11:08

The Comfort of Strangers, Ian McEwan.

YourAmplePlumPoster · 20/03/2026 11:04

Laughter in the Dark, Vladimir Nabakov. A chilling story of psychological abuse.
Then and Now, Somerset Maugham. The story of Machiavelli.

CurlewKate · 20/03/2026 11:01

A Month in the Country by JL Carr. A GLORIOUS book.And super short.

nongnangning · 20/03/2026 10:56

Another vote for Three Days in June by Anne Tyler. Deals with some themes of being middle-aged in a lovely way.

EggplantSurprise · 20/03/2026 10:50

Chemenger · 20/03/2026 10:07

To be fair I Who have Never Known Men is a pretty bleak book too.

Edited

Yes, absolutely. That’s another book whose recent surge in popularity I’m bemused by! I read it in French at some point in the 90s, and know it was reissued in a rejigged translation, but not sure why it was so huge, I remember it as being unrelievedly grim. I know the author fled Belgium with her family when the Nazis invaded.