The summer season is the perfect time to delve into short books: instead of scrolling through Instagram or simply for sheer enjoyment. Our selection features five distinct books, ranging from Joan Didion’s novel to a work by the science fiction master Robert Heinlein, all of which can be absorbed in a single evening.
“Play It As It Lays”, Joan Didion
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A brilliant writer who began her career at the editorial office of American Vogue, a Hollywood screenwriter, an intellectual, a style icon: Joan Didion is an inspiring figure. Her texts, which are a benchmark of New Journalism and combine the power of literary prose with sharp reportage, have been scarcely translated into Ukrainian, making “Play It As It Lays” an excellent opportunity for those who haven’t yet read Didion in the original to finally encounter her work.
The 1970 novel chronicles 1960s California: glamorous, harsh, and cynical. The protagonist, Maria Wyeth, an actress whose career failed in the fiercely competitive world, is navigating a marital breakdown and an internal crisis, attempting to find herself amidst chaotic relationships. The events unfold between Hollywood and the desolate highways, which symbolize her escape and isolation. “Play It As It Lays” is a subtle and poignant novel about Hollywood, loneliness, and unfulfilled dreams.
“Urbino”
” a.k.a. Baumgartner”, Paul Auster
Paul Auster is a renowned American author, known for novels such as “Moon Palace,” “Timbuktu,” “Mr. Vertigo,” and screenplays for numerous films, including “Smoke” and “Lulu on the Bridge.” His novella ” a.k.a. Baumgartner” is a poetic, beautifully crafted, and meditative tale about emotions, fragility, and love after loss.
Seymour Baumgartner is a philosophy professor and a widower, a man learning to live in the wake of his wife’s passing. Many years have passed, but the memories of their shared life remain vivid, filling his days, drawing him back to the past, and compelling him to continually re-examine love, creativity, and the serendipity of human existence. This novel is perfectly suited for unhurried reading in a tranquil, solitary setting, perhaps in the mountains or at a country house.
“Stary Lev Publishing House”
“The Listening Party”, Katie Kitamura
Katie Kitamura, whom you might know from her novel “Intimacies,” is among the most compelling contemporary American writers, deeply versed in philosophy and the arts. Her novels dissect modern individuals and their relationships with themselves and their surroundings. Her acclaimed novel “The Listening Party,” which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 2025, has been published in Ukrainian, exploring the masks we wear in our interactions with loved ones and colleagues.
Two individuals meet at a New York restaurant. She is a celebrated actress immersed in rehearsals for a new play. He is an attractive young man who claims to be her son… What follows is a performance: the book is divided into two parts, and in the second, the protagonist acknowledges the man as her son, even though this is impossible. The author compels us to ponder: where lies the boundary between performance, deception, and reality?
“The Door into Summer”, Robert Heinlein
Robert Heinlein is a luminary of world science fiction, a bestselling author adept at creating captivating worlds one longs to escape into.
“The Door into Summer,” his bestseller first published in 1956, has been repeatedly recognized as a premier science fiction novel. Heinlein’s protagonist is Dan Davis, an engineer who invented a unique robotic assistant. While Dan was engrossed in brilliant innovations, he was betrayed by his fiancée and friend, who seized control of his company and sent him to a place from which return seemed impossible. However, the talented engineer finds a way to travel through time and locate his door into summer, in order to return home and… to his beloved cat.
“КСД”
“Where the Sun Sets”, Olena Pshenichna
Olena Pshenichna’s novel tells the story of Vera, a pensioner who finds herself in a nursing home at the onset of the full-scale war. Disoriented, 72-year-old Vera, whose son is fully immersed in volunteer work and unable to care for his mother, encounters embittered, prickly elderly residents who simply watch their lives fade like the setting sun each day. Olena Pshenichna’s touching and deeply human book focuses on a theme rarely addressed – the feelings, fears, and hopes of elderly individuals nearing the end of their lives.
“Labirint”