While on vacation, there’s nothing more enjoyable than being completely absorbed by a good novel. So here is our selection of the best summer books to move you, thrill you, and take you on a journey.
A deckchair, the gentle sound of the waves, a refreshing cocktail, and a good book… Paradise? No, just vacation—a perfect time for relaxation and cultural discoveries. Shoelifer has selected its current six favorite novels (though not necessarily written in 2024). Our special summer book list takes you from the Italian-American Mafia of the 1930s to Nigeria in the 2010s, with stops in 1910 Vienna, the Turkish-Syrian border, and Egypt (among others). Literature is both the most beautiful journey and the only way to live a thousand and one lives and still make it home in time. . Ready to be tempted by our summer books?
The Family, Naomi Krupitsky
Among this year’s summer books, The Family by Naomi Krupitsky is probably number one. It’s at the top of the shelves in all the (good) bookstores in Morocco and Europe. Published in the U.S. in 2021 and written by an unknown author, this novel entered the New York Times bestseller list in its first week of publication. It was only translated into French at the end of 2023. The story takes place in 1930s New York, where immigrants from all over the world settle. In the modest neighborhood of Ray Hook in Brooklyn, two little girls—Sofia and Antonia—live next door to each other and are best friends, almost like sisters.
In addition to their shared Italian heritage, their fathers are both part of the Mafia. Sofia and Antonia grow up in an environment that is both dark and friendly, where silence is law and Mafioso wives live in fear. They promise each other never to marry a Mafioso when they grow up. But, of course, the two girls will have very different destinies. Engaging, subtle, and overflowing with endearing characters, it is asaga of the Italian-American Mafia over 20 years, seen through a female lens. Engaging, subtle, with dense and endearing characters.
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Americanah, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Also in our summer book selection is Americanah, written by the talented Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie from Nigeria. A feminist and pop culture icon (adored by Rihanna and Beyoncé), a major figure in English literature, this author does not disappoint with her third novel.
Americanah tells the story of a Nigerian student named Ifemelu who goes to study in the United States and discovers that she is Black. Before leaving Nigeria, the young woman had no awareness of the concept of “race,” a complex and explosive issue in North America. Ifemelu decides to create a blog about racial issues, where she mocks both Whites and African-Americans. Consider this selected passage: : “Dear Non-American Black, when you make the choice to come to America, you become black. Stop arguing. Stop saying I’m Jamaican or Ghanaian. America doesn’t care.” This book is both witty and very informative.
Zamir, Hakan Günday
For once, here is a novel written by a man in our predominantly female summer book selection. If you don’t know Hakan Günday, it’s time to remedy that. This Turkish author, born on a Greek island, won the Prix Médicis étranger for his novel Encore in 2015, which tells the story of a smuggler from Turkey. This time, Günday returns with Zamir, named after its protagonist.
As a baby, Zamir was disfigured by a bomb fragment in a refugee camp on the Turkish-Syrian border. He becomes the advertising mascot of a hypocritical (and corrupt) humanitarian organization, All for All. Once grown up, Zamir frees himself from the NGO and his victim status to become a mysterious negotiator, traveling the world with a single goal: to establish peace. While it’s a cynical and biting novel about the business of war, it is nevertheless sprinkled with hope.
Remember the Bees, Zineb Mekouar
After The Chicken and its Cumin (2022), Moroccan writer Zineb Mekouar returns with Remember the Bees. We welcome her to our summer book selection. This novel has a certain Marcel Pagnol feel to it. The plot? Anir, a ten-year-old boy from the High Atlas, is introduced to nature and beekeeping by a loving grandfather. Fortunately, Grandpa is there, because Anir’s mother is losing her mind and his father has run off to Tangier. There is also a heavy secret that weighs on this family. The story takes place in Inzerki, home to (truly) the world’s oldest collective apiary. It is a moving tale about ecology and passing on tradition, where Zineb Mekouar displays her sensitivity and deep empathy.
The Cairo Bookstore, Nadia Wassef
In 2002, Nadia created the Diwan bookstore in Cairo with her sister, Hind, and their friend Nihal. For twelve years, these young women from good families, coming from the bourgeoisie, overcame the twists and turns of national bureaucracy, disputes with their employees, and the troubles of their personal lives as women, to keep their extraordinary bookstore alive and revolutionize the book trade. This story is told by one of Diwan’s founders (which has since become a franchise), Nadia Wassef. This rich novel is a small fresco on contemporary Egypt, shaped by antiquity, colonialism, and pan-Arabism. A gem of a summer book that you’ll devour.
The Unknown Woman of the Portrait, Camille Peretti
Last but not least in our summer book selection: The Unknown Woman of the Portrait, the multi-award winning ninth novel of the French author, Camille Paretti, published in 2024. Set in Vienna in 1910, Gustav Klimt’s Portrait of a Lady was bought by an anonymous collector in 1916. It was stolen in 1997, then reappeared in the gardens of a modern art museum in Italy. No expert, museum curator, or police investigator has been able to identify the young woman depicted in the painting, nor the mysteries surrounding it. So Camille Peretti imagined the fate of this young woman and that of her descendants. The author takes us to Vienna at the beginning of the 20th century, to Texas during the eighties, to Manhattan during the Great Depression, and then to contemporary Italy. Dramas, passionate and thwarted loves, disappearances, secrets, and family intrigues—it has everything.
