In a time when so much storytelling chases urgency — fast plots, clean resolutions, loud emotion — there’s something quietly radical about a novel that lingers. These nine books aren’t built to entertain in the traditional sense. They’re built to stay with you.
What they offer instead is something more disquieting: stories that resist easy categorization and ask you to sit with ambiguity. They unravel memory, blur reality and question the narratives we tell ourselves — about history, identity, even time itself.
Reading them is less like consuming a story and more like being slowly submerged in a state of mind. The language haunts. The structure disorients. And when you emerge, it’s with the uneasy clarity that something in you has shifted.
If you’re drawn to fiction that challenges, unsettles and lingers in the silence long after the last page, start here.
The Book of Disquiet by Fernando Pessoa
Fernando Pessoa was many writers, attributing his prolific writings to a wide range of alternate selves. This posthumously published work is a collection of fragmented reflections, dreams and observations that make up an “autobiography” of one of those selves. It delves into themes of existential angst, the nature of reality, and the introspective solitude of the individual. Pessoa’s poetic prose offers a profound meditation on the human condition and the elusive nature of identity.
Remainder by Tom McCarthy
After a traumatic accident leaves him with memory loss and a substantial settlement, the unnamed protagonist becomes obsessed with recreating and reliving past experiences. His quest for authenticity leads to increasingly elaborate and unsettling reenactments. McCarthy’s novel is a cerebral exploration of memory, identity and the blurred line between reality and simulation.
Montjoy by Curt Finch
After unearthing a Nazi diary, Jewish historian Owen Schoenberg embarks on a journey across Europe as he unravels the fantastic tale of a masked vigilante taking revenge against the Gestapo on the eve of WWII. This puzzle-box of a novella slowly unwinds as Schoenberg dives deeper into the mystery of the diary and his own tumultuous past, weaving a narrative of grief and identity and shining a dim light on the chilling ghosts that linger long after the clock tolls.
Walking on Glass by Iain Banks
This novel intertwines three seemingly unrelated narratives: a man pursuing an elusive love, a paranoid roadmender who believes he’s a galactic admiral trapped on Earth, and two war criminals confined in a surreal castle, tasked with solving an impossible riddle. As the stories unfold, connections emerge, challenging perceptions of reality and fiction. Banks crafts a thought-provoking exploration of the human psyche, delving into themes of obsession, confinement and the nature of reality.
The Kindly Ones by Jonathan Littell
Narrated by Maximilien Aue, a former SS officer, this novel offers a chilling, introspective account of his experiences during World War II. Aue’s narrative delves into the bureaucratic machinery of the Holocaust, personal moral decay and the banality of evil. Littell presents a harrowing exploration of guilt, complicity and the dark recesses of the human soul.
Flaubert’s Parrot by Julian Barnes
Geoffrey Braithwaite, a retired English doctor and Flaubert enthusiast, embarks on a quest to find the authentic stuffed parrot that once inspired the French novelist. Through this pursuit, Barnes crafts a metafictional narrative that blurs the lines between biography, literary criticism and fiction. The novel delves into themes of obsession, the elusiveness of truth, and the complexities of interpreting art and life.
Downriver by Iain Sinclair
In the decaying Docklands of 1980s London, a disillusioned film crew, led by a narrator resembling Sinclair himself, embarks on a quest to document the city’s eroded soul amidst failed redevelopment and historical amnesia. Structured as twelve interlinked tales, the novel interweaves spectral histories, urban legends and dystopian satire, blurring the lines between fact and fiction. Sinclair’s dense, allusive prose captures a city haunted by its past, where the Thames serves as both lifeblood and graveyard, where memory and myth converge.
The Sea by John Banville
Art historian Max Morden retreats to a seaside town after his wife’s death, confronting memories of a pivotal childhood summer and the loss of a young friend. Banville’s lyrical prose captures the ebb and flow of memory, grief and the passage of time. The novel is a poignant exploration of how the past continually shapes and haunts the present.
Austerlitz by W.G. Sebald
In this haunting novel, architectural historian Jacques Austerlitz embarks on a journey to uncover his suppressed past. As he delves into memories and historical records, he confronts the trauma of being a Jewish child sent to England via Kindertransport during World War II. Sebald’s narrative, interwoven with photographs and meditative prose, explores themes of memory, identity and the lingering shadows of history.
