The Atlantic's Summer Reading Guide

"It’s going to be a great getaway, Sammie’s friends promise: Adam’s bachelor party will take place in El Campo, a futuristic bastion of hedonism floating in international waters, where there will be no wives or girlfriends, just good old-fashioned dude time. What could go wrong? ... El Campo, stocked with ghoulish, hyper-capitalistic entertainment (you can 3D-print and hunt your own clone), straddles the line between hysterical and hair-raising. Sammie’s trip there goes poorly, but it’s a lot of fun to read about." — Emma Sarappo

"As a first-time parent going through a brutal first winter with my infant son, I read Isola as a testament to human resilience. As a feminist, I discovered an allegory about the risks many women face when pursuing their desires. And as a participant in corporate America, I found unexpected lessons in managing up. Few other books can take you through Renaissance France, the arctic wilderness, and a thicket of sexist constraints in such an engaging way." — Olga Khazan

"The Book of Records takes place in a postapocalyptic limbo called The Sea, where past, present, and future fold in on themselves and thoughts float in the air like dust. It’s a giant structure—maybe also a metaphysical construct—on an island in the middle of an ocean, full of refugees from some vaguely described ecological and political catastrophe... With The Sea, Thien literalizes a state of mind, the in-betweenness that comes before one makes a major decision." — Gal Beckerman

"In his new story collection, Park, the author of two approachably surreal novels, sends his reader on a set of mind-opening trips, drawing absurd connections and inventing wacky situations.. Even when Park writes about mundane experiences—his stories chronicle time spent online, on college campuses, and in post-divorce apartments—he is taking us someplace new." — Maya Chung

"Cosby is a leading author of rural southern noir, and his latest crime thriller follows Roman Carruthers, a money manager for Atlanta’s Black elite, who returns to the Virginia town where he grew up... The flashy sequences of violence feel apt for TV (Netflix, along with Steven Spielberg’s production outfit and the Obamas’ media company, is working on a series), but the novel’s real draw is the quieter ache of a family torn apart." — M. C.

"Kuang’s follow-up to her best-selling literary novel, Yellowface, is cast in the mold of her earlier fantasy work, the Poppy War trilogy and Babel. Katabasis takes its title from the Greek term for a journey to the netherworld, but its protagonist, the Cambridge graduate student Alice Law, has something more ambitious in mind: She’s going to venture to hell, find the soul of her freshly dead thesis adviser, Professor Jacob Grimes, and pull him back into the world of the living... Kuang reminds readers that there’s more to life—and death—than work." — E. S.

"Girlie Delmundo—not her real name; she adopted it for her high-stress job—is a content moderator at a massive tech firm. Her work involves filtering through a carousel of online horrors so crushing that there are typically three or four suicide attempts among her co-workers each yea... But her life transforms when she gets a cushy position as an elite moderator for a virtual-reality firm... The new gig is great, at least for a while. (All may not be as it seems there.) Her new boss, William, also happens to be a total stud, and his presence transforms Castillo’s flinty satire of the tech industry into a sultry romance novel." — Valerie Trapp

"In March 2022, New York magazine published an article asking, “Why Is Everyone Suddenly Reading Cassandra at the Wedding?” It was a good question. The book—about a brilliant, struggling, self-involved graduate student, the titular Cassandra, who returns home for her twin sister’s titular wedding—wasn’t a hit when it was first published in 1962, or either time it was rereleased, in 2004 and 2012. Only more recently has it enjoyed a renaissance. I will be honest: I can’t comprehend why it’s ever been anything but a sensation... Cassandra at the Wedding is smart, funny, and shattering all at once." — E. S.

"In March 2022, New York magazine published an article asking, “Why Is Everyone Suddenly Reading Cassandra at the Wedding?” It was a good question. The book—about a brilliant, struggling, self-involved graduate student, the titular Cassandra, who returns home for her twin sister’s titular wedding—wasn’t a hit when it was first published in 1962, or either time it was rereleased, in 2004 and 2012. Only more recently has it enjoyed a renaissance. I will be honest: I can’t comprehend why it’s ever been anything but a sensation... Cassandra at the Wedding is smart, funny, and shattering all at once." — Faith Hill

"Brookner is beloved for her intimate, sharp-as-nails character studies; Dolly is not among her best-known novels, but it turns a particularly canny lens on the pettier side of human psychology, unforgettably capturing a woman who desires a much more splendid life—more wealth, more recognition, and, above all, more affection—than the one she’s ended up living... The novel is, ultimately, a superb portrait of flawed charisma, of a woman who is irritatingly present, constantly angling, and utterly magnificent to behold." — Jane Yong Kim