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A book for the beach

Guardian writers choose their favourite reading to stretch out in the sun with
  • travelling books

    Books go on holiday: your summer reading roams the world – in pictures

    They don’t often get snapped, but books are surely the most important travel companions – so this summer we asked you to photograph them. They have been to some enviable locations
  • Inspector Montalbano

    A book for the beach: The Snack Thief by Andrea Camilleri

    Tim Maby: Wily but decent, this detective is more concerned with the human characters around him than simple crime-solving

  • Edward Fox in The Day of the Jackal

    A book for the beach: The Day of the Jackal by Frederick Forsyth

    Forsyth's classic thriller unfolds at a leisurely pace that makes it the perfect holiday read, says reader Daniel Gooding

  • Beach in Maine

    A book for the beach: Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood

    Laura Oliver: One man's struggle to make sense of the dystopian world he has helped create offers a compelling escape – of a kind
  • Arizona desert

    A book for the beach: Modern Ranch Living by Mark Poirier

    Paul Simon: Believable characters and an underlying positivity make this tale of two mixed-up Arizonans' broiling summer a perfect sunbathing companion
  • A butterfly is caught in a spider web

    A book for the beach: The Collector by John Fowles

    No book will make you appreciate the great outdoors more than this creepy locked-room horror story

  • The Count of Monte Cristo

    A book for the beach: The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas

    Imogen Russell Williams: With high adventure, derring-do and thrills to keep the drowsiest sunbather awake, this is perfect holiday reading

  • Siberian mountains

    A book for the beach: Kolymsky Heights by Lionel Davidson

    Maxton Walker: A book that will deliver a palpable Siberian chill, however hot the weather when you read it

  • Bute

    A book for the beach: A Girl is a Half-formed Thing by Eimear McBride

    James Murray: The austere, disjointed beauty of this intense account of broken family life is perfectly suited to the raw drama of a Clydeside coast

  • Summer wood

    A book for the beach: In the Woods by Tana French

    A shocking tragedy in an otherwise idyllic childhood summer comes back to haunt its sole survivor in adulthood – all the ingredients for a tense thriller that's perfect holiday reading

  • Village cricket

    A book for the beach: August Folly by Angela Thirkell

    Village cricket and amateur dramatics are the closest this 1930s novel of the upper middle class at play comes to tension, but it is a sunny treat
  • Dubai

    A book for the beach: Duma Key by Stephen King

    A deeply spooky story of a man falling apart, this is perfect terror in the sunshine – but watch out once night has fallen

  • Highway in North Dakota

    A book for the beach: American Gods by Neil Gaiman

    David Barnett: This grand tale of ancient gods struggling to survive in today's USA has a chilly setting but provides a great summer escape

  • Holkham Beach, north Norfolk

    A book for the beach: The Sea Around Us by Rachel Carson

    Billy Mills: For the reluctant but curious holidaymaker, this combination of science and scintillating prose provides fascinating insights into the mysteries of the tides

  • Rio Sainte Sofia

    A book for the beach: Beastly Things by Donna Leon

    The 21st Commissario Brunetti mystery finds the series' characters and setting as vital as ever. An excellent holiday companion

  • Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea

    A book for the beach: Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne

    A thrilling adventure with a compellingly Byronic central character, this is a perfect seaside read – though it might put you off going swimming

  • JD Salinger

    A book for the beach: Franny and Zooey by JD Salinger

    A sojourn with Salinger's family of squabbling siblings may be exhausting, but it is never dull, writes Nicola Davis

  • The Moonstone

    A book for the beach: The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins

    Unfolding in unhurried episodes, this 'first and best of modern English detective novels' is perfectly paced for stints on the sand, writes Keren Levy

  • Confused bank robber

    A book for the beach: The Thought Gang by Tibor Fischer

    Situationist bank robberies and 'edited highlights' of western philosophy provide some great light entertainment about weighty matters
  • Blindfolded teenage girl

    A book for the beach: The City And The City by China Miéville

    Reader James Cole on a tale of two cities which rewards the sort of leisurely rereading that only a holiday can offer

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