I’m not a writer, publisher, editor, or creator of anything that has to deal with literature or media. I just really enjoy reading…. I crave being transported to a world I know isn’t real but can still feel like it is…. Anytime there’s a mystery, untrustworthy narrator, or an ending you can’t see coming, I am all for it. So here are my top picks for both lovers of fiction and those simply wishing they had someone to tell them what to try.

Of all the novels I have read over the course of Europe’s numerous lockdowns, these books in particular gripped me the most, some even lingering in my memory more than a year later. Whether they left me sobbing or laughing, whether they were frustrating or heart-wrenching, each of these novels taught me something. Is that, after all, not exactly what books are for?

Read on to discover the 10 novels that saved my lockdown.