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The Old Man and the Sea
Ernest Hemingway, 1952
An old Cuban fisherman, unlucky for months, rows far out alone.
Won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1953. Source: Wikipedia
Short read, about 140 pages
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Of Mice and Men
John Steinbeck, 1937
Two drifting farmhands in California share one dream of a place of their own.
Short read, about 107 pages
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Giovanni's Room
James Baldwin, 1956
A young American in Paris, engaged to a woman, falls for an Italian barman.
Short read, about 159 pages
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The Stranger
Albert Camus, 1942
A clerk in French Algiers who won't pretend to feel what he doesn't.
Short read, about 159 pages
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Chronicle of a Death Foretold
Gabriel García Márquez, 1981
A whole town knew a man would be killed. Years later, someone asks why nobody stopped it.
Short read, about 122 pages
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Train Dreams
Denis Johnson, 2011
One labourer's life in the American West as railways and forests change around him.
Short read, about 116 pagesFinalist, Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, 2012.
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Convenience Store Woman
Sayaka Murata, 2016
A woman in Tokyo has worked happily at the same shop for years. Everyone wants her to change.
Short read, about 160 pagesAkutagawa Prize, 2016.
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