Thinking of novellas for our next podcast episode and would love to share some of your thoughts! What are some of your favorite novellas, and why? Do you seek out novellas? Please share with @bibliopaul.bsky.social and I!
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If we're talking about sub-200, I will add McCarthy's Child of God to my suggestions. It's not for the faint of heart, and it makes you feel like you need to wash your hands afterward.
Just finished reading The Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas and Dom Casmurro by Machado de Assis and I was sucked into both stories by how original both stories are and the beautiful language.
Stones in a landslide by Maria Barbal stunning tale of a young girl moving to another village and it being a different world an early book from peirene press
If you’re interested in horror novellas I would recommend titles from @weirdpunkbooks.bsky.social I recently read To Offer Her Pleasure by Ali Seay and it was creepily satisfying. Also did you enjoy Great Fear on the Mountain? My book club pretty much hated it, but I thought the concept was cool.
I haven’t read Great Fear on the Mountain yet, I’m afraid, but I’m excited to! And one of the reasons we are so excited about novellas is that we can get a taste of many types, so thanks for pointing us to @weirdpunkbooks.bsky.social!
I loved The English Understand Wool by Helen DeWitt. Such complex family dynamics and caustic wit packed into a tiny ND storybook volume—I want to collect them all!
A wonderful topic for discussion! Last year, I wrote a post about some favourite haunting, atmospheric novellas, partly because the novella form seems so well suited to conveying an unsettling/haunting atmosphere - long enough to establish the mood and short enough to sustain it effectively.
Minor Detail by Adania Shibli
The Possession of Natalie Glasgow by Hailey Piper
The Driver's Seat by Muriel Spark
Dear Laura by Gemma Amor
Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke by Eric LaRocca
Some of the novellas I've enjoyed are the three D. H Lawrence published together (The Fox, The Captain's Doll and especially The Ladybird). St Mawr is considered a novella by some but I think it's a novel. The Aloe by Katherine Mansfield (the original version that she sent to Virginia Woolf).
Jen Craig's Panthers and The Museum of Fire is on my to-read list. I also want to read more New Zealand ones, especially by Frank Sargeson, who wrote a few novellas and the one by Greville Texidor.
THE STEPDAUGHTER by Caroline Blackwood, a deliciously blistering novella on relationships where the narrator's misplaced rage and ranting is utterly compelling.
KICK THE LATCH by Kathryn Scanlan, a vignette- style book brilliantly capturing the panorama of a woman's life on the Midwest racetracks.
Fever Dream by Samanta Schweblin, Megan McDowell
(Translator), From the Land of the Moon by Milena Agus, Ann Goldstein (Translator), The Murder of Halland by Pia Juul
It's amazing how much they do in so few pages and how they demand to be reread immediately.
Novellas are a great way to explore the work of a new author *or* to have a short “break” between longer reads.
Some faves:
Small Things like These- Claire Keegan
Chess Story - Stefan Zweig
The Guest Cat - Takashi Hiraide
I'm not keen on the word "novella" (they're just novels that happen to be short) but whatever the name, I love them: they don't waste words. E.g.:
Candide (Voltaire)
A Month in the Country (J L Carr)
After Midnight (Irmgard Keun)
The Uncommon Reader (Alan Bennett)
Aunts Aren't Gentlemen (Wodehouse)
As Dorothy Parker said in her review of "Breakfast at Tiffany's" (another great one): "I promised my mother I should never use that wretched word 'novella'..."
She called "Breakfast at Tiffany's" "a short novel or, if you wish, a long short story".
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https://jacquiwine.wordpress.com/2024/11/21/ten-haunting-atmospheric-novellas-i-highly-recommend/
The Possession of Natalie Glasgow by Hailey Piper
The Driver's Seat by Muriel Spark
Dear Laura by Gemma Amor
Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke by Eric LaRocca
TRAFIK by Rikki Ducornet
WE'RE SAFE WHEN WE'RE ALONE by Nghiem Tran
CECILIA by K-Ming Chang
Do you have a cut-off for what a novella is? When does it becomes a story, or a novel? To me it feels like 70-150 pages.
KICK THE LATCH by Kathryn Scanlan, a vignette- style book brilliantly capturing the panorama of a woman's life on the Midwest racetracks.
(Translator), From the Land of the Moon by Milena Agus, Ann Goldstein (Translator), The Murder of Halland by Pia Juul
It's amazing how much they do in so few pages and how they demand to be reread immediately.
Some faves:
Small Things like These- Claire Keegan
Chess Story - Stefan Zweig
The Guest Cat - Takashi Hiraide
Candide (Voltaire)
A Month in the Country (J L Carr)
After Midnight (Irmgard Keun)
The Uncommon Reader (Alan Bennett)
Aunts Aren't Gentlemen (Wodehouse)
She called "Breakfast at Tiffany's" "a short novel or, if you wish, a long short story".