Some books feel like solitary walks, or moving through stillness, introspection, and the quiet landscapes of the human mind. I compiled a list of the books that introverts in particular will enjoy due to their calmness and emotional depth.
1 JOURNEY TO THE EDGE OF LIFE BY TEZER OZLU
Journey to the Edge of Life by the Turkish writer, Tezer Özlü is one of those books that feels less like a novel and more like being invited into someone’s restless, searching mind. Originally written in German and later translated into Turkish and reshaped by Özlü herself, the book sits somewhere between a travelogue, memoir, literary diary, and philosophical meditation on life, death, love, alienation, and writing. In 1982, Özlü travels across Europe by train, tracing the lives and deaths of the writers who shaped her inner world: Franz Kafka, Italo Svevo, and Cesare Pavese. The original German title, On the Trail of a Suicide, makes her obsession clearer, though the later Turkish title, Journey to the Edge of Life, captures the book’s wider emotional and existential terrain. Journey to the Edge of Life is a pilgrimage to graves and a journey through memories, ideas, loneliness, and the quiet hope literature offers when life feels unbearable. The book moves across cities: Berlin, Prague, Vienna, Zagreb, Belgrade, Trieste, Turin, each one triggering reflections on love, alienation, poverty, history, and mental illness. Hotel rooms blur into thoughts, thoughts blur into memories, and literature is everywhere: Leonard Cohen songs hum in the background, Pavese’s words line the walls, Frida Kahlo’s books sit on coffee tables. In Tezer Özlü’s world, literature means survival. BOOK REVIEW
2 BOOK OF CLOUDS BY CHLOE ARIDJIS
Book of Clouds by Chloe Aridjis is a deeply reflective and thoughtful novel with subtle elements of magical realism and a dreamlike atmosphere exploring themes of isolation, loneliness, solitude, the invisibility of people, their emotional displacement from the past, the impact of history on one’s life, the relationship between the city and the self-conveying the complexities of the inner life. The novel also captures the essence of Berlin and its abandoned spaces layered with history and life of a young immigrant woman searching for a sense of belonging. It offers the portrayal of post-Wall Berlin and the intricacies associated with the identity. Set in post – reunification Berlin of 2000s Book of Clouds tells a story of Tatiana, a young Jewish-Mexican woman in her late 20s. We meet her around 2007 at the time when she had been living in Berlin for the past five years and currently working as a transcriber for the reclusive elderly Jewish historian Dr Friedrich Weiss. As readers, we follow Tatiana as she spends her listless days in Berlin, being a solivagant, often doing solitary walks around the city and occasionally meeting the lonely and invisible to other Berliners. BOOK REVIEW
3 THE WALL BY MARLEN HAUSHOFER
Published in 1963, The Wall by the Austrian writer, Marlen Haushofer (born in 1920) is an absorbing, contemplative, nuanced and compelling dystopian novel focusing on the meaning of freedom, solitude, written word, one’s connection to the natural world and animals, memory, the power of nature, survival, the value of menial work, one’s compulsion to understand the world, the position of women in the society and their freedom to live according to their own norms outside of the widely accepted social structures, and on the women experiencing solitude without judgement. There is a peaceful quality about this novel defined by the spareness of its narrative and a sense of occhiolism. The Wall is a story of an unnamed woman in her 40s who finds herself cut off from the rest of the world by the sudden appearance of the wall made of unknow material that separates a part of the forest from the rest of the world. The appearance of the wall forces the narrator to immediately accept her new reality allowing her to move away from the known social structures. It is not only a physical object but also a psychological frontier. It erases her previous life. Once the wall appeared she immediately builds home with her animal; her life is ruled by care for them and governed by the seasons, harvests; she no longer has to rush anywhere. BOOK REVIEW
4 SPUTNIK SWEETHEART BY HARUKI MURAKAMI
Written in sparse, poetic prose, Sputnik Sweetheart by Haruki Murakami is a quiet, melancholic meditation on loneliness, connection, and the fragile boundaries of love. It explores what it means to reach beyond oneself, to cross emotional boundaries in search of intimacy, to live with unreturned affection, and how love shapes the texture of our everyday existence. Deceptively uncomplicated and simple on the surface, Sputnik Sweetheart is layered with emotional depth. It reveals the impossibility of complete love; how even the purest affection can turn into disconnection. When love fails, Murakami’s characters turn inward, retreating into the unreachable landscapes of their own souls. The story unfolds through K, a quiet, introspective schoolteacher in his late twenties, who deeply loves Sumire, an idealistic intense writer searching for meaning. Sumire, in turn, loves Miu, an older, emotionally distant woman haunted by her past.Murakami depicts two parallel worlds: the physical and the emotional. When a character is wounded by love, they seem to cross over to another dimension – a place both within and beyond themselves. All three are trapped in their existential solitude. BOOK REVIEW
5 ALL THE LOVERS IN THE NIGHT BY MIEKO KAWAKAMI
All the Lovers in the Night by the Japanese writer, Mieko Kawakami is a beautiful novel exploring a quiet tragedy of the ordinary life and loneliness of its inhabitants. Written with so much compassion, this novel is also an ode to the life of introverted individuals and those who look for basic human interaction and affection based on integrity and empathy. All the Lovers in the Night explores themes of loneliness, solitude, one’s need to love and to be loved, the awaking of the self-worth, the meaning of kindness and indifferent attitudes towards those who sink into depression, memories and how we remember people who are no longer part of our lives, the perception of one’s occupation as the indication of person’s place within the society, women’s place in the society as a single woman, a married women with children, and an unmarried woman with a child, the importance of choice in life and what we give up every time when choosing a given path. BOOK REVIEW
6 BRIAN BY JEREMY COOPER
Brian is a profoundly moving meditation on the meaning of solitary life, of art and cinema in shaping one’s perception of and connection with the world, of the hidden depths of human soul often kept private in fear of misunderstanding and stigma, and of the importance of companionship and community. This is a subtle novel of great depth focused on the interiority of life enriched by art. Jeremy Cooper thoughtfully and empathetically chronicled life of a gentle soul spanning thirty years starting in the early 1990s all the way up to the present times. Brian is a Northern Irish man in his late 30s when we meet him in the novel. In the early years of his professional working life Brian tried his best to socialise but he struggled with the rules of small talk and social cues. He never knew what to say to anyone. He holds a clerical role at the Camden Housing Department, and previously he worked as a clerk at the large builder’s merchant company in Clapham in South London. As an antidote to self-inflicted solitude, Brian became a member of the British Film Institute (BFI). Films made him feel less alone. Anonymity remained an integral part of Brian’s pleasure in going to the cinema. As his retirement approached, Brian had mixed feelings about stopping work. He was anxious about how to occupy the empty days ahead. Within three years of his retirement, we witness Brian experiencing problems with his sight and memory. This is the time when we as readers depart Brian. BOOK REVIEW
7 THE ODD WOMAN AND THE CITY BY VIVIAN GORNICK
The Odd Woman and the City by the American writer Vivian Gornick is a memoir consisting of series of colourful and evocative vignettes, each of them depicting the life lived alone in the megalopolis like New York City with all the shades of the urban existence, and the anthology of intimate reflections on solitude, ageing, friendship and romantic love, the value of meaningful conversation and companionship in one’s life to forge deep human connection and platonic relationships with those around us especially as we grow older. This collection portrays the life of an older woman living alone in the city whose identity is not defined by the narrow social norms or by romantic love and for whom life has not turned out as expected. The vignettes are full of poignant and thought-provoking musings on reading and the importance of literature in shaping one’s identity and interests. Books here serve as a vessel to finding solace in the world that is constantly in rush. The Odd Woman and the City captures the life lived deeply and thoughtfully, with all its challenges and idiosyncrasies veiled in the urban atmosphere of New York City. Gornick is such a sharp observer of human condition. Her writing is insightful, moving and relatable for those living in the cities and those loving literature. We experience the inner workings of Gornick’s mind and her essential humanity. BOOK REVIEW
8 AN UNNECESSARY WOMAN BY RABIH ALAMEDDINE
An Unnecessary Woman by Rabih Alameddine tells the story of Aaliya, a 72-year-old woman living in Beirut. She is a recluse who lives her life through literature. The novel portrays an older woman reflecting on her life, questioning whether it was meaningful and whether she was, in some way, “necessary.” This tale is a confession of an introvert—a love letter to literature. It is full of reflections on loneliness, disconnection, and society’s treatment of outsiders. We follow Aaliya across the present and the past, exploring her family history and her failed marriage. The complex, rich history of Lebanon forms the backdrop of the story, shaping both Aaliya and the world she inhabits. An Unnecessary Woman is full of nuanced musings and inner monologues from a woman who has chosen to defy social norms and live according to her true self. Reflections on literature, art, music, and philosophy will warm the heart of any bibliophile. The portrayal of solitude and its importance in every introvert’s life is beautifully shown throughout the story. BOOK REVIEW
