Tales of familial struggles, sinister truths and self-discovery occupy the mind on those well-earned vacations
There may only be a couple months left of summer, but the beach with its yellow sand and playful waves still beckon. Bring a thoughtful tome with you to pass time under the sunny skies.
Vera, or Faith
by Gary Shteyngart
Told through the clear and tender eyes of a child, Vera, or Faith is a classic tale of parents, children and the dark ironies of a rapidly transforming society. The Bradford-Shmulkin family is made up of the Russian, Jewish, Korean and New England White Anglo-Saxon Protestants. The youngest member Vera is observant and sensitive, and has a strong passion for language — she keeps a notebook in which she jots down words and phrases she wants to remember. She also loves her parents — biological and adopted — and relatives too much. In this story, award-winning author Shteyngart dissects what it takes for a 10-year-old to navigate life inside a dystopian America.
Pan
by Michael Clune
One day, in geometry class, Nicholas suddenly hyperventilates, causing him to feel separated from his body, and fearing for his sanity. The doctor says it is just a panic attack, but the 15-year-old has plenty of reasons to experience such emotions: He is poor, an outsider at school, and the child of divorced parents who lives with an absent dad in the bleak Chicago suburbs. Clune, recognised for his 2013 addiction memoir White Out: The Secret Life of Heroin, delves into the human psyche, bringing readers on a spiralling journey as Nicholas works towards discovering the alien he claims to be trapped in his body.
You Belong Here
by Megan Miranda
A master in mystery fiction, science teacher Megan Miranda is known for her captivating novels that hook readers from the first page. She approaches settings the same way she builds her characters, giving equal spotlight to each element that makes up a story. In You Belong Here, the small college town of Wyatt Valley is a trigger for nightmares for protagonist Beckett Bowery. When her daughter Delilah secretly applies to the very college Beckett fled and gets accepted with a full scholarship, she is forced to confront a past she has tried so hard to forget over the last two decades.
This Stays Between Us
by Sara Ochs
Ochs’ debut fiction The Resort was praised for its sinister and intriguing plot on a remote island in Thailand. Her second novel This Stays Between Us takes readers on a month-long trip to Australia with a group of students. Everyone is excited to swim with sharks, hike in the national park and see the country’s outback. It is all fun under the sun until one of them turns up dead. Ten years later, the group returns to the land Down Under as police discover new evidence pertinent to the case. One of them knows what happened, but will do anything to keep the truth buried.
Lonely Crowds
by Stephanie Wambugu
The themes of female friendship, ambition and identity are explored in this riveting debut by Wambugu, a sensational new talent from Kenya. Ruth, an only child of immigrants to New England who lives in the confines of an emotionally cold household, attends the local Catholic girl’s school on a scholarship. She is forcefully drawn into the orbit of Maria, a beautiful orphan whose Panamanian mother died by suicide and who is now taken care of by an unloving aunt. Their hard-to-define bond is tested when ambition and competition come into play. A final and fateful confrontation reveals what truly matters to them: their relationship or individual interests.
The Satisfaction Café
by Kathy Wang
Joan Liang’s life is marked by a series of unpleasant events: Her first marriage is short and disastrous, and her second forces her to get along with her husband’s racist family and acquaintances. As a child, she dreamt of starting an F&B business with nice employees and facilities that would make someone’s day. It is not until much later that this percolating idea materialises in the form of The Satisfaction Café — a talking therapy space dedicated to offering a listening ear to all who enter. This passion project turns her life around as well as offers comfort to those who step within.
Love Forms
by Claire Adam
When she was pregnant at 16, Dawn was sent away by her parents to have the baby in Venezuela, later giving her up for adoption. Now, at 58, divorced with two grown-up sons preoccupied with their own lives, Dawn longs to reconnect with her lost daughter. She ventures on an emotionally exhausting research — writing letters, browsing internet forums and performing DNA tests — to find out the truth, not just in regard to her child’s identity, but also her teenage self who had forgotten that traumatising chapter in her life. Heart-stirring and devastating, Love Forms depicts the enduring bonds between a mother and her child.
Our Last Resort
by Clémence Michallon
An up-and-coming name in psychological suspense, Michallon presents yet another page-turner after her successful debut thriller The Quiet Tenant (2023). In Our Last Resort, her narrative, which alternates between the past and present, centres around two old friends Frida Nilsen and Gabriel Miller, who share the same childhood and teenage trauma. Their tight-knit relationship shatters after a sudden, unspeakable tragedy. Ten years later, they convene at the Ara, a luxurious desert hotel in Escalante, Utah, to reconnect and reconcile. It all goes smoothly until another unfortunate incident befalls them, and they now have to find out whether they really ever knew each other after all.
This article first appeared on July 21, 2025 in The Edge Malaysia.
