As the days grow colder and the nights get longer it’s time to settle down and enjoy a mini masterpiece. Ella Berthoud has some great suggestions

The dark Christmas season is an excellent time to read books that will only take a couple of hours at the most to imbibe, possibly accompanied by a glass of mulled wine or spiced apple juice. One of the best is of course A Christmas Carol, which can be read aloud in 90 minutes. Many people read it as a tradition once a year, which is a lovely ritual. You might prefer, however, to try a book that takes you somewhere utterly unexpected, like opening a Christmas present you’ve no inkling of – either who it’s from or what it might contain. To that end, I’m suggesting a handful of short books to either read yourself or give as gifts to friends or loved ones.

Let’s start with Hunger by Choi Jin-young. This is a bestseller in South Korea, and at only 125 pages long it ticks all the boxes for a quick and satisfying read. It has a seductive picture on its red cover of lovers swimming in noodles, promising a flavourful and spicy meal. You certainly get that and more. We know from the first page that Gu is dead, and that Dam is eating him so as to keep him with her for at least 1,000 years. Cannibalism, destitution, desperation and undying love are the themes of the book, which is rich, shocking and surprising, sometimes leaving you with a sense of something slightly unappealing between your teeth, and at others leaving you with a memory of boundless and unequivocal love.

After this you might need something to restore your sense of goodness in the world, and who better to guarantee such a feeling than Alan Bennett? The Lady in the Van is an excellent fireside read that will warm the cockles of your heart. Based on the true story of Margaret Fairchild, a woman who lived in an old van on Bennett’s driveway for 15 years, the book is a hilarious, poignant description of his interactions with this mysterious woman. After offering to let her live outside his house on a posh street in Camden Town, an unexpected friendship grows between them, with Bennett lovingly revealing the japes and escapades that she got up to in the past. Margaret (who calls herself Mary) is a total eccentric with hidden depths, who for various reasons is on the run from the law, and through her nightmares we are given glimpses into her past. At around 100 pages it’s a short book but utterly restorative.

Treacle Walker by Alan Garner is an excellent novella that delves into the roots of something very mystical and strange – perfect for those long dark evenings when shadows are enigmatic, and the whole world feels rather liminal. Joe, the child at the centre of the book, has a lazy eye, no obvious parents, and a house in the middle of some tangled woods. One day he meets a rag-and-bone man called Treacle Walker who tells him his lazy eye is in fact a gift – it allows him to experience time both in the instant and the eternal. Joe is drawn into the parallel world of a comic book where he fights alongside Kit the Ancient Brit, Whizzy Wizard and the Brit Bashers. A book with a sense of mythical truth featuring characters who are equally rewarding and perplexing, this is a short, dense novella packed with metaphors and ideas that will have you wanting to read it again and again.

At just 160 pages, another classic novella worthy of investigation is A Whole Life by Robert Seethaler. Conveying, as the title suggests, an individual’s entire time on earth, it follows Andreas Egger, a man who knows every peak and rivulet in the Austrian alps landscape he where he lives. Andreas’ life is unremarkable in that he doesn’t do anything beyond loving, surviving, and dreaming, but something about the writing has the reader falling in love with this character and his simple mountain life. The modern world passes by our hero, who remains largely in solitude even when tourists start to visit his valley – though he briefly spends time as a prisoner of war in Russia. Andreas lives almost entirely in the moment, a physical life with a scythe and rough shoes, sleeping under the stars, adoring the mountains, feeling the moss under his back, and having a sense of the living, breathing rocks around him. A deeply moving, evocative read, this will have you in its thrall like a starry night in the alps.

As a total contrast to these tales, now turn to Strange Pictures by Uketsu, a graphic novel that’s a puzzle as much as a story, which wills you to decipher the plot – a classic whodunit told by a craftsman who is chillingly good at his craft. It’s a murder mystery but not in the cosy crime genre, so if you’re squeamish it’s not for you. However, if you enjoy a patchwork of crime and horror, an addictive plot and an invitation to become the detective, this is a great way to spend a long dark evening. It’s a bit longer than the others at 240 pages, but there are lots of pictures, so it’s still definitely a one evening’s read. Enjoy these, then finish off the dark season with a bit more Dickens: delve into Christmas Stories: A Classic Collection for Yuletide, which features A Christmas Carol along with other of his lesser known Christmas stories.

Ella Berthoud is an artist and bibliotherapist. You can book a bibliotherapy session with her on her website, ellaberthoud.com.

This article is from Idler #106.

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