Long Books for Short Days

Eight books to get you through the winter

Where I want to read all winter

There’s something about this time of year, when the days are shorter and colder, and I find myself spending more time indoors that makes me want to curl up with a giant book. You know, something I can really sink my teeth into, something that feels like a challenge, that I can get lost in. I want an all-encompassing story that will suck me down into its roiling undertow and sweep me out to sea, making me forget that it’s miserable outside and that we’ve got about 3-4 months of dreary winter weather ahead.

So, I’m going to get to the point. For this installment of Point of Departure, I’ve got a list of chunky books to get you through the colder months. All of these are works of immersive fiction that I love and recommend often. These are novels where, despite having read some of them years ago, the characters are still dear to me, and scenes still linger, vivid in my mind.

Starting from the shortest (shortest long book, that is), working our way up to the longest, here are 8 long books that will envelop your mind and last until spring. Enjoy.

Beauty is a Wound, 470 pages

“One afternoon on a weekend in May, Dewi Ayu rose from her grave after being dead for twenty-one years.” So goes the opening line of Beauty is a Wound by Eka Kurniawan. Hard not to be hooked from the jump with an intro like that. This book is soooo much fun and so intense! Kurniawan was born in West Java, Indonesia, and this book pulls from Indonesian folklore and storytelling styles, giving it a unique, wry comic voice.

Beauty is a Wound tells the story of Dewi Ayu, a Dutch-Indo prostitute, and her four beautiful daughters. The story starts with Dewi’s upbringing, adolescence, and adulthood, with the lives of her daughters unfurling from around her like petals– all connected and held by the crucial center that is their mother.

Awful things happen in this book, and the third person omniscient narration style does not mince words– but comedy and legend are infused throughout so that you’re buoyed by the fast-paced story that never stops running– it’s like hearing the latest gossip from your chatty friend who knows everyone.

Also – and I can only speak for myself here – I haven’t read a lot of work by Indonesian authors or work about Indonesia. I loved that this was a humorous story about serious things, telling the story of a nation’s checkered past that has been beset by colonialism, a grievous struggle for independence, a 1965 massacre of “communists,” and many more terrors and triumphs. Beauty is a Wound will carry you far, far away, chew you up, and spit you out. It is excellent.

The World According to Garp: 544 pages

Irving is popular, so maybe people have read this one, but it’s too good not to include. The World According to Garp by John Irving is hard to describe because what is it about? Sort of… everything? It begins with a woman named Jenny Fields, a teacher and a nurse, who becomes a feminist icon despite having zero interest in being an icon of any sort. Her only son, Garp, comes about during this strange time in Jenny’s life, though the story is about his life.

Reading the back of a book that basically says, “It’s about a guy and his life; growing up, school, becoming a writer, his family, all that.” sounds boring as hell because, well, who cares? But I promise you will care – about Garp and his mother and wife and children and their friends– very much. The World According to Garp is a comic tragedy, or perhaps a tragic comedy– my perception changes depending on the mood I’m in. But the characters are among some of the best you’ll read. They’re funny, dynamic, and deeply human. It’s a pleasure to read, and I often find myself thinking, “I wish I could read a book just like that again.”

The Heart’s Invisible Furies, 585 pages

GOD, I love this book. It might be my most frequently recommended title, and honestly, I’ve never had one person say they didn’t like it.

John Boyne’s The Heart’s Invisible Furies is about a boy, Cyril, growing up in 1940s Ireland. The story follows Cyril throughout decades of his life, starting in Ireland, then to Amsterdam, then to the USA, then back to Ireland. It is a coming-of-age story about finding and understanding yourself. It's also a beautiful, heartbreaking story of what it means to belong to a place and what it means to have a family– even if that family falls outside of the traditional imagination. This book neatly handles the joys and horrors of being alive, with all its beauty and devastation.

And, somehow, the book manages to be hilarious throughout. The quick wit and sarcastic dialogue had me laughing out loud several times. The characters are impossible and ridiculous and charming in a way that feels true to life and truer still to the family dynamics they navigate together (Charles and Maude were EXCEPTIONAL characters, I got such a kick out of them).

Not to turn this into a gift guide, but if you need a book for someone and are not sure what to go with, this is the book. Just make sure to get yourself a copy while you’re at it.

The Shards, 595 Pages

It ain’t no Point of Departure Joint™️ without a mention of Bret Easton Ellis, bitch!!!!! The Shards is Bret Easton Ellis’ most recent novel, published in 2023. Like most of his other work, it’s set in LA, and it has a streak of autofiction running through it– though this book probably more than any of the others, since the main character’s name is also Bret Ellis. Spooky!!

In The Shards, Bret Ellis, is a 17-year-old student at a posh prep school in Beverly Hills. Bret is busy enjoying his senior year, exploring his sexuality, and partying when a new student, Robert Mallory, shows up at school. Mallory is charming, intelligent, and good-looking– young men and women alike are drawn to him, but Bret can’t shake the feeling that there’s something off about this guy.

At the same time, a serial killer is terrorizing LA with gristly murders and seems to be edging closer to Bret’s life. Where does reality begin and imagination end? This is the haunting question that The Shards grapples with throughout, along with the notion that often, the most dangerous people in our lives are those that are, seemingly, most innocuous– and closest to us.

This book is gripping and will have you questioning the characters and yourself at every turn. You come away from this book unable to discern the truth of where Bret the Character and Bret the Author each begins, ends, and overlaps.

The Little Friend, 640 Pages

Since bursting onto the literary scene with her hit The Secret History, Donna Tartt has written a book every 10 years, give or take. The Secret History has sold over 2.3M copies in English alone, and The Goldfinch, her third book, won the Pulitzer. Her second book, The Little Friend, was, by comparison, a flop. When I first came across it by chance at my local bookstore, I was shocked to learn Tartt even had another book– how had I not heard of it?

Turns out– this book rocks. I liked it more than The Goldfinch, though perhaps not as much as The Secret History– though it’s the work of hers that I think of most often.

There is a very specific approach to take when reading this book, which is this: do not worry about the plot, enjoy the ride. This book is slow. If you are someone who needs a plot-driven book, walk away from this one. I started out antsy for this book to get going, wondering when something was going to "happen." Things happened, certainly, but not in the traditional novel format, where the plot builds toward a climax, followed by a tidy resolution.

Donna Tartt writes vividly; her characters are richly detailed; warm-blooded, and real. Every single character, from stubborn, daring 12-year-old Harriet, to her proud Grandmother, Edie; to the small-town criminals Danny and Farish, to Harriet's depressed, pill-addled mother, is believable and intricate; their lives are kaleidoscopic, messy, and utterly human.

As the book continued, I fell more deeply under Tartt's spell, let go of the need for something to "happen," and succumbed to the inimitable excellence of her writing. Tartt writes the real and mundane in such a way that it becomes anything but. Would recommend this if you are in the mood for a wandering, true-to-life read with unforgettable characters.

A Little Life, 720 pages

Hard for me to write about this one. A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara is my favorite book of all time. People have a LOT of thoughts about this one, and honestly, I’m not really interested in the discourse. I know that might sound pig-headed, but I don’t mean it to be. What I mean is that this reading experience is one that I’m keeping for myself; I will protect it always.

I am prone to gushing, so I will bear that in mind and try to keep this brief. I have never been so moved by a book, more in love with characters, more affected by their lives. There’s something about a book that follows characters across a lifetime– if done well– where those characters end up following you, the reader, for a lifetime, and that is the case with this book.

The story starts with a group of four friends from an unnamed Boston university, now beginning their adult lives in New York City. The group of them, JB, Malcolm, Willem, and Jude, will remain connected throughout their lives, mainly because of Jude, whose brutal past is the connective tissue for the rest of the group, holding them all painfully, imperfectly, together as lifelong friends.

If you are looking for a life-changing (I am not being hyperbolic) reading experience, this is it.

Ambergris, 880 pages

Bro. Where to even START with this one!? The thing that immediately comes to mind is that Gaga clip: “Talented, brilliant, incredible, amazing, show-stopping, spectacular, never the same, totally unique…” Ambergris is all of those things and then some.

Technically a trilogy, Ambergris, by Jeff VanderMeer, is 3 connected books in one, though I don’t know if you can buy them separately? They’ve floated in and out of print several times, with this tome being the latest rendering. Anyhow. The point is Ambergris has the world-building that Dune wishes it was accomplishing. The depth of this book is fucking unreal. VanderMeer creates a seedy, fictionalized world that is literally haunted by the fungus of its past, and yes, that is a mushroom reference. The underbelly of the titular city, Ambergris, is unspooled across 3 books, laying out a textured chronicle of a city in peril, its tumultuous history rampant with religious wars, cultural upheaval, betrayal, magic, and secrecy.

My best friend and I read this book at the same time, and it has since cemented itself into the vernacular of our relationship– we are constantly reminded of Ambergris, referencing it, comparing it to other works we’ve read, unsurprisingly finding it superior to most things. This book gets under your skin and takes root in your mind. It is unlike anything else.

Lonesome Dove, 950 pages

Here we are, the final boss of the long books. Clocking in at 960 pages, Larry McMurtry’s Pulitzer-winning Lonesome Dove is LONG. But don’t be intimidated by the length– you will surge through this book and miss it bitterly once you have finished.

Lonesome Dove is a Western epic set in 1870 about two ranchers from a tiny town called Lonesome Dove, Texas. Captain Woodrow F. Call and August “Gus” McCrae, along with their outfit from Cattle Creek Ranch, set out to drive thousands of cattle from across the Mexican border up to Montana, a place they’ve only heard stories about. This is the telling of their adventures across the American frontier and the cast of characters they encounter along the way.

This book is a slow burn, but it’ll break your fuckin’ heart. Funny, devastating, beautiful, bleak, and just so, so good. Such evocative, subtle writing and exceptional storytelling. The characters are lifelike and fully realized; long after reading this, you’ll recall them fondly, like an old friend. McMurtry deftly weaves a massive and complex story in a way that is breathtaking, brilliant, and nimble. Reading this is a delight; I can’t recommend it enough.

SOOOOO what do we think? Have you read any of these? Any other long books you’d add to the list? I’m looking for recs, so please leave yours in the comments!

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