The Underground Man by Mick Jackson

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The Underground Man

Inspired and poignant tale of a lonely aristocrat

We’re fast approaching Booker Prize season and it feels like a great opportunity to share our favourite bygone Booker-tipped titles. One of the most memorable and marvellous is The Underground Man by Mick Jackson, shortlisted way back in 1997. Set in Victorian England and inspired by the real-life eccentricities of the fifth Duke of Portland, this is a fictionalised account of that gentleman’s life (although the truth is eye-popping enough, if like us, you feel compelled to do a bit of research after the final page). The story of a haunted soul who builds a network of tunnels beneath his ancestral home and descends into lonely madness, it’s a moving, funny and spellbinding read.

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The Shadow of the Object by Chloe Aridjis

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The Shadow of the Object

Wonderful Booker-longlisted novel of perception and awakening

This year’s Booker Prize is shaping up to be one of the best contested in years and singing to us from the 2026 longlist is The Shadow of the Object by Chloe Aridjis. This atmospheric tale of perception and awakening is told by Flora, a Mexican woman with a rich interior life, leading a somewhat sedate life in London. Whilst visiting her mother in Mexico City, Flora is badly bitten by the family dog and hospitalised. Here she meets Wilhelmina, elderly toy collector and magic lantern performer. Their strange affinity will come to challenge Flora’s notions of life, longing and loss.

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It Will Come Back to You by Sigrid Nunez

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It Will Come Back to You

A joy to read

It Will Come Back to You by Sigrid Nunez has been one of this summer’s many highlights. If the name doesn’t ring a bell, you have something to look forward to. Nunez’s National Book Award-winning novel The Friend still lingers in my mind. It Will Come Back to You is a collection of short stories written throughout her 30-year career. Her writing is deceptively simple, perceptive and very funny, with themes ranging from puberty to dementia, via mother-daughter relationships, an airport nightmare and a couple of dark sexual obsessions, one of which ends in murder. As The New York Times writes, these are “stories that remind us why Sigrid Nunez is one of our best writers”. True indeed.

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Exhibition by Alex Hyde

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Exhibition

Chasing the muse

Inspired by the intoxicating 1990’s world of the Young British Artists movement, Exhibition by Alex Hyde tells the story of an intense decades long relationship between two women: photographer Rabble Stone, and an unnamed and now dead celebrity artist. In an absorbing tale that encompasses the Cool Britannia era, female friendship, the concept of muse, sacrifice, and things left unspoken, Rabble addresses her friend directly, recalling the twists and turns in their relationship, from a student house share in Brixton to the heights of YBA stardom in London and New York.

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Jean by Madeleine Dunnigan

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Jean

Impressive debut outsider novel

A sultry debut novel for our sizzling summer, Jean by Madeleine Dunnigan is an absorbing story of alienation, longing and the search for self. Set in England, during the famously long, hot summer of 1976, it tells of Jean, a 17-year-old scholarship boy at a bohemian boarding school for challenging boys. An angry and solitary soul, Jean feels ill at ease and unwelcome in this monied environment. As exams loom and Jean trembles on the brink of an uncertain future, Dunnigan takes us into his mind, past and present, and his growing attraction to a boy named Tom, sportsman, temptation and catalyst.

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I Served the King of England by Bohumil Hrabal

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I Served the King of England

A compelling Czech modern classic

A 1971 Czech gem from the distinctive Vintage Classics list, I Served the King of England by Bohumil Hrabal gives us the tumultuous life story of Ditie, hotel waiter, entrepreneur and lover. Hung up on his stature (both physically and socially), but with the loftiest of ambitions, Ditie chronicles his life, a rise from impoverished beginnings in pre-war Prague to self-made millionaire, before losing it all again. In Hrabal’s humorous, often bawdy, philosophical tale, the events in Ditie’s life are inextricably linked to the years encompassing the Nazi annexation and Soviet communist occupation of his homeland. His journey from wily youth to chastened reflection is a remarkable one.

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London Falling by Patrick Radden Keefe

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London Falling

A visit to London's underworld

You might have heard about 19-year-old Zac Brettler’s death falling from a Thames luxury apartment block. Police ruled it to be suicide – MI6 surveillance cameras from across the Thames showed he jumped. Zac’s parents were not so sure. Determined to find out what happened and with the help of an investigative journalist, they start digging. What they unearth will leave you gobsmacked. London Falling by Patrick Radden Keefe is a gripping non-fiction book: well-researched, well-written, an almost unbelievable story and, ultimately, deeply sad.

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Summer reading 2026| Bookstoker.com

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Our Top Beach Reads 2026

Wondering what to read this summer? These are the books that we would pack in our suitcase. No trash here, just well-written, gripping, easily digestible books that will appeal to everyone. Enjoy!

 

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The Correspondent by Virgina Evans

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The Correspondent

The lost art of letter writing

Just in time for summer, Women’s Prize for Fiction has picked The Correspondent by Viriginia Evans as their 2026 winner. A perfect beach read, both light-hearted and serious, the novel is a series of letters, sent and received by the septuagenarian Sybil Van Antwerp. Sybil beautifully masters the art of letter writing and makes us all yearn for the days we wrote and received them ourselves. Through 11 years of correspondence with family, friends and a selection of random people, we get to learn about the ups and downs of Sybil’s life. A lovely, moving and melancholic book.

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Villa Coco by Andrew Sean Greer

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Villa Coco

A zest for life

Happily destined for the Summer Reads bestseller lists, Villa Coco by Andrew Sean Greer seems at first glance to follow the well-worn literary path of an American innocent abroad. It tells the story of an initially unnamed young man, a recently graduated archivist, hired to catalogue the artefacts and treasures of a grand Tuscan Villa. Upon arrival, however, he is plunged into a world of bizarre characters and strange events orchestrated by his employer, 92-year-old Coco, the Baronessa. Coco instantly nicknames him ‘Giovedì’, and along with her kooky companions, lights his way to a life well lived in Greer’s luminous tale of friendship, abiding secrets and sheer zest for life.

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