JENNIFER PLATT | In the bag: at a loose end about what books to put in yours?

I like big books, I cannot lie, but not to take on holiday. Books are judged by their size and I’m the holiday-size queen.

I guess that’s why folks love to take kindles on holiday, but I like printed books, which is why I take those that fit in my beach bag. I must admit, though, it is kind of huge. I also don’t have the mental capacity for a large book when I have time off.

I want fiction that’s engaging, but takes just a few days, even one sitting, to complete on the beach (if we’re allowed on the beaches this year!). So with this in mind, I keep slimmer editions for my summer break.

I have been caught a few times with what I consider duds. So now I read the first chapter to see if it works for me before packing it.

When These Mountains Burn by David Joy (Andre Deutsch) is a slim novel, packed full of vivid descriptions of a small, destitute mountain town in North Carolina and a desperate father whose addict son needs help. The opening chapter sweeps one into Ray’s world. “Sometimes he blamed himself for the boy’s faults. When his wife, Doris, got sick with cancer, Ray didn’t bat an eye when the pain meds walked off. He was too busy watching his wife shrivel down to nothing. Sometimes he wondered if his absence was to blame, but the truth was before the pills it was crystal and before the crystal it was pills and before that it was booze and weed and anything else he could get his hands on.” Then there’s the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) adding to the tragic mix by hunting down those supplying narcotics in the region.

Another book (just right for the beach where it’s sunny!) is a spine-chilling short story collection called Hauntings, edited by Niq Mhlongo (Jacana Media). There are 19 contributions from writers from all over Southern Africa — from Rešoketšwe Manenzhe, who was shortlisted for the Sunday Times Literary Award fiction prize this year for her debut novel, Scatterlings, to exceptional journalist and author Lucas Ledwaba. As Mhlongo says in his intro: “For me, reading each story was hypnotic. Some stories took me back to the schoolyard of my childhood experience, bringing back my past and its own geography with it. It was like returning to my nostalgic youth, particularly as the stories took me from the living to the dead and back again.”

On that note, there is Under The Whispering Door by TJ Klune (Pan Macmillan/Tor). It starts with a Scrooge-type character Wallace Price, who is firing his paralegal with no compassion and a disdain for her troubles. But he soon dies and reaper Mei finds him at his scantily attended funeral, where he hears his former colleagues discussing him and laughing about what an asshole he was. Mei takes him to Charon’s Crossing, where “the tea is hot, the scones are fresh and the dead are just passing through”. Wallace finds himself on a post-living journey of self-discovery. Bah humbug!

I loved the cover, a bright yellow jacket with a picture of a lemon that looks like a grenade, and the title, Today a Woman Went Mad in the Supermarket (Bloomsbury). It’s a collection of short stories by Hilma Wolitzer, mother of Meg Wolitzer who wrote the outstanding novel, The Wife. It became a film that got Glenn Close an Oscar nomination and a Golden Globe win. The title story was written in 1966. It’s not only a nod to that age, but also a frightening look at what has not changed for women. Elizabeth Strout, who wrote the intro, assures that the stories are funny and filled with pathos. I can’t wait to read the others. Strout writes about one, The Sex Maniac, whose first two lines are: “Everybody said that there was a sex maniac loose in the complex and I thought — it’s about time. It had been a long asexual winter.”

Colson Whitehead’s Harlem Shuffle (Little, Brown) may be the last on this list, but I think it will be the first I read this holiday season. The author of the award-winning The Underground Railroad, who is well known for his punchy storylines, dark humour and careful and tender construction of characters, recreates a 1960s New York in his eighth book. In it, you’ll find corrupt cops, gangsters, jewel thieves and other shady people. 

Happy holiday reading!