Sometimes there are books that make it impossible to immediately return to normal life. You read it and that's it: the rest ceases to exist. Every word is gripping, every scene seems to be experienced by you personally. These are not just good novels. This is a hit to the heart, informs Ukr.Media.
This selection contains exactly such stories. The ones that captivate you at first and then don't let go. They have strong prose, real pain, complex themes, deep images. They are read with gusto, with a lump in your throat and with the feeling: “How well written.” And so, this is the kind of literature that I want to recommend to everyone.
“Children Rule the Ball” by Delphine de Vigan
In her novel “Children Are Always Right,” French writer Delphine de Vigan explores one of the most pressing issues of our time — the transformation of childhood into an object of the media industry. What happens when childhood becomes content? When children collect millions of views on YouTube? The author opens the door to the world of blogger's glossy reality — and shows at what cost the illusion of family happiness is created.
The plot centers on a family of popular child bloggers who have become real YouTube stars. Their mother, Melanie, was unable to realize her ambitions in real life, so she decided to turn her children's lives into an endless reality show. Kimmy and Sammy grow up in a world where they are a project, a brand, video content. Where any manifestation of emotions is material. Where their consent is not asked.
The reader has to see how the sincere smiles and joy of children in the commercials turn into a forced representation, where the only way to survive is to submit to “parental authority” veiled as “care.” The novel reads like a social thriller, but at the same time leaves a deep ethical mark. It is read with a lump in the throat – and remains in the memory for a long time.
“Song of Lonely Whales at 52Hz” by Sonoko Matida
They say that somewhere in the ocean there lives a whale that sings at a frequency of 52 Hz – the only one of its kind that no one can hear. This real-life fact became a metaphor for Sonoko Matida's novel – a quiet, achingly beautiful story about loneliness and the possibility of being heard.
The girl Kiko flees from her past to a seaside town, to a house where everything is overgrown and long forgotten. The locals shun her, discuss her, fear her. But everything changes when Kiko meets a boy whose trauma mirrors her own – and a connection arises between them, devoid of words but full of understanding.
This is not a loud novel. It is a burning whisper. Slow, almost transparent prose, as if soaked in the sea wind. And at the same time, terribly important. Because we are all sometimes the same whales on a different frequency.
“To the very paradise” by Hanya Yanagihara
Hanya Yanagihara is an author who is hard to get over. In “To the Paradise,” she takes it even further, creating a three-part story spanning three centuries, three worlds, and dozens of destinies intertwined with the idea of freedom, love, and finding one's place.
The first part is 1893: an alternative America. The second is 1993: the era of AIDS and personal loss. The third is 2093: a totalitarian future.
What unites all these stories? People trying to find their way to their own “paradise.” The heroes, despite different eras and circumstances, always strive for something higher, and in this desire lies the deep philosophical basis of the novel.
“The Power of the Dog” by Thomas Savage
“The Power of the Dog” is a psychologically intense and subtle novel by American writer Thomas Savage, first published in 1967. The story takes place in the 1920s in the vast expanses of Montana, among the dusty prairies and the smell of tobacco, where the life of cowboys has long become routine.
Brothers Phil and George live on a large ranch, running it together. But they are two completely different people. Phil is charismatic, intelligent, and sarcastic. George is good-natured, leisurely, and silent. And then one day he brings home a new wife – the quiet widow Rose – and her teenage son Peter.
Phil immediately sees Rose as a threat to both his family and the authorities. He despises and humiliates her. He waged a silent psychological war against her. He also reached out to her withdrawn, frail son, Peter, whose arrival at the ranch changed everything much more than it seemed at first glance.
Savage has written a story in which the characters knowingly sacrifice their happiness—and perhaps don't even realize why. Here, everyone's silence speaks louder than their words, but behind the outward restraint lies a real storm.
“Still Water” by Sandra Newman
This is a story about love that does not fit into the framework of time. In New York in the early 2000s, Kate lives – a little strange, a little withdrawn, extremely sensitive. Every night she plunges into dreams, where she becomes a woman from the 16th century, familiar with Shakespeare, and each time she wakes up with an increasing conviction: these dreams are not just dreams. This is another life, another reality. And in it she changes the course of history.
What began as an ode to love and an alternate reality gradually becomes a painful chronicle of loss and inner fragmentation. Kate loses her footing, time unravels, and at the same time, the true depth of her connection with Matt, the only one who believes in her while she still can, is revealed.
This is a novel about how easy it is to upset the balance. How love and time are not always allies. How those who feel more are often left alone in a world that strives for simplicity.
Sandra Newman has created something incredibly sensitive: a blend of fantasy, philosophy, and painful prose about mental instability, love, and the impossibility of living in one dimension. It's a novel that leaves a mark—and forces you to reconsider reality.
Джерело: ukr.media
