Beyond Yellow Brick Blog

25 Best Fiction Travel Books That Will Make You Want To See the World

travel based novels

Published: 11/20/2023

The Best Fiction Travel Books To Read Before Traveling

How many times have you finished reading a novel and immediately added the book’s setting to your travel bucket list ? If you’re anything like me, this happens all the time . To be brutally honest, I’m not sure I’ve taken a single trip in my life that wasn’t somehow been influenced by books.

Long before I had any notion of being a travel blogger (it was the 90s and blogs didn’t even exist!) Ann M. Martin’s descriptions of New York City in the Baby-Sitters Club book series inspired my love of the city. I read the American Girl Felicity books and longed to visit Colonial Williamsburg . As I got older, my studies of English literature inspired travels all over the British Isles . Closer to home, I picked up Curtis Sittenfeld’s Eligible and immediately knew I needed to visit Cincinnati .

I truly believe the best way to learn about a destination before traveling is through a good fiction book. For this post, I’ve teamed up with other travel bloggers to round up the novels that have inspired our travels .

Whether you’re headed to Cincinnati or Chile, we’ve founded the perfect book to pair with your travels . By reading these books before your trip, you’ll feel like you’re visiting an old friend when you finally reach your destination.

P.S. These novels also make excellent gifts for any travelers on your holiday gift list !

Pin these Travel Fiction Books and never wonder what to read next!

travel based novels

Best Fiction Travel Fiction Books to Read Before You Go to . . .

  • Botswana: No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith
  • Morocco: Salt Road by Jane Johnson
  • Istanbul: Museum of Innocence by Orhan Pamuk
  • Mumbai: Shantaram  by Gregory David Roberts
  • Thailand:  The Beach by Alex Garland

Barcelona: The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón

Eastern Europe: The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova

France: Languedoc Triology by Kate Mosse

  • Greece:  Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants by Ann Brashares
  • Ireland: The Lion of Ireland by Morgan Llywelyn

Paris: The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown

  • Naples:  My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante
  • Tuscany:  The Temptation of Gracie by Santa Montefiore
  • Whitby, England:  Dracula by Bram Stoker

Central America

  • Panama: The World in Half by Cristina Henríquez

North America

Alaska: The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah

Cincinnati: Eligible by Curtis Sittenfeld

  • Martha’s Vineyard: The Identicals by Elin Hildebrand
  • Mexico: The Battles In The Desert by José Emilio Pacheco
  • Michigan:  Tom Lake by Ann Patchett
  • New York City: Dash & Lily’s Book of Dares by Rachel Cohn & David Levithan
  • North Carolina: Where The Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
  • Seattle:  Where’d You Go, Bernadette   by Maria Semple

South America

  • Chiloe Island, Chile:  Maya’s Notebook  by Isabel Allende

Pacific Islands

  • Hawaii: Hula by Jasmin Iolani Hakes

Best Fiction Travel Books Set in Africa

travel based novels

Hi! I’m Ada, a travel writer based in northern Minnesota, on a mission to see the world. I use this travel blog to provide practical, no-nonsense travel tips and itineraries for both domestic and international travels.

travel based novels

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Skagit Valley, WA

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travel based novels

Botswana: The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith

When you pick up the first book in The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency you’ll meet Precious Ramotswe. Mma Ramotswe is a single woman in her 30s, born, raised, and living in Botswana, Africa .

After losing her beloved father, she’s faced with the task of deciding what to do with her life. She makes a bold choice and takes you along for the ride.

Throughout this interesting, funny, and heartwarming series – over 20 books and counting – the characters will become your friends. You’ll get to know the people in Mma Ramotswe’s life – her friends, her colleagues, her late father Obed Ramotswe. And you’ll get to know Botswana.

The series is written by Alexander McCall Smith, who includes the country of Botswana in the story as if it’s another character. Seen through the eyes of Precious Ramotswe, it’s a character you’ll fall in love with. She describes her home country with strong affection, and the gratitude she expresses for having grown up in the beautiful land will make you wish you’d grown up there too.

If you have plans to visit Botswana yourself, read at least a couple of these first. You’ll feel a bit like you’re going home.

Contributed by Deb of Introvert with Itchy Feet

Morocco: The Salt Road by Jane Johnson

The sense of place in Jane Johnson’s books never fails to transport you to the featured far-flung destinations, and The Salt Road in particular really captures the imagination.

The story focuses on the ancient trade route that ran from the Moroccan souks to the desert. Isabelle is the modern-day protagonist, embarking on a quest along the Salt Road , in search of answers about her past. Following in the historic footsteps of a Tuareg women, she traces this iconic route through many of Morocco’s most beautiful landscapes.

If you’re traveling to Morocco , reading this book before your trip will paint a vivid picture of the places you’ll likely visit. It focuses on lesser-known areas as well as the bustling medina in Marrakech and the Saharan desert . Of particular note is the Anti-Atlas Mountains region, a stunning area that’s rarely featured in other novels set in Morocco . You’ll learn about the rural way of life in this rugged land, as well as some of the best spots for hiking and climbing. The town of Tafraout is a focal point, and a great spot to base yourself for your own Anti-Atlas Mountains adventure.

Contributed by Heather of Conversant Traveller

Best Fiction Travel Books Set in Asia

Istanbul: museum of innocence by orham pamuk.

Museum of Innocence by Nobel-prize winner for literature Orhan Pamuk, is a tale of unrequited love and the complexities of human emotions, all set against the backdrop of a changing city. The story is set in Istanbul and revolves around the obsessive love of Kemal, a wealthy businessman, for his distant relative, Fusun. The novel is narrated from Kemal’s perspective and spans several decades, beginning in the 1970s.

The novel explores themes of love, memory, obsession, and the passage of time. It provides a detailed and intimate portrait of Kemal’s inner world and a vivid depiction of Istanbul’s evolving social and cultural landscape over the years.

As Kemal’s infatuation with Fusun deepens, he becomes increasingly fixated on preserving mementos and objects associated with their relationship. Every night, he visits her family for dinner and starts stealing little things from their house, ranging from teaspoons, hairpins and cigarette butts. Over the decades, these accumulate to thousands of little items/memories.

But Pamuk doesn’t stop there. He went ahead and actually opened a real museum with all the items Kemal had carried off over the years in the novel. An entrance ticket is printed in the novel’s final pages, allowing readers free entrance to the Museum of Innocence in the Cukurcuma neighbourhood.

For those who have read it, visiting the Museum of Innocence will likely be the highlight of your Istanbul itinerary .

Contributed by De Wet of  Museum of Wander

Mumbai: Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts

Shantaram is the story of Lin, a convict who escapes prison in Australia and ends up living in Mumbai, India . Lin becomes embedded in the underworld of the Mumbai mafia, all the while looking for love and a purpose in life. It’s a real page turner, very loosely based on the author’s experiences.

The city of Mumbai comes alive in Shantaram and is a central character to the story. The author lived in Mumbai and writes about the city as only an insider could.

Mumbai is already fascinating and well worth a visit, but after reading Shantaram you will be inspired to see Mumbai in a new way. Sites like the Taj Mahal Hotel , Leopold’s Cafe , and the iconic Air India building are already well known, but after finishing the book you’ll want to visit the more off the beaten path locations mentioned. Most memorable are the haunting and atmospheric Afghan Church , the Haji Ali mosque which is only accessible a few hours a day, vibrant Sassoon Dock and the walk along the Mumbai sea wall from Gateway of India to the Radio Club.

Many of the places mentioned in Shantaram are located in the Colaba area of Mumbai, the southernmost section of the city. There are many Shantaram tours available, but all of these sites are easily found and accessible on your own.

Contributed by Suzanne of Suzanne Wanders  Delhi

Thailand: The Beach by Alex Garland

The Beach by Alex Garland is a thrilling tale that takes readers on an unforgettable journey through Thailand’s exotic landscapes, including the fictional island of Koh Phi Phi . This captivating adventure novel tells the story of Richard, a young traveler searching for authenticity who discovers a mysterious hidden paradise.

Reading this book before venturing to Thailand is an excellent idea to soak up the magic of these places and to be ready to set off and discover the wonders of Thailand.

First, The Beach offers a fascinating insight into Thailand’s little-known places, encouraging travelers to explore beyond the traditional tourist destinations. The book reveals secret beaches, charming local restaurants, and off-the-beaten-track activities such as a night under the stars or a hike through the jungle, offering an authentic and memorable experience. Indeed, the book encourages people to interact with the locals, discover their culture, and participate in traditional celebrations.

The most striking aspect of this novel is how the island of Koh Phi Phi becomes a character. Garland describes the lush landscapes, secluded beaches, and crystal-clear waters with striking accuracy, creating an immersive atmosphere that makes the reader feel transported there.

Contributed by Victoria of Guide Your Travel

Best Fiction Travel Books Set in Europe

Exterior photo of the stone Carcassonne fortress in France with several turrets with cone shaped roofs, an arched front gate entrance, and battlements on the castle walls.

No, it’s not a fairy tale. You really can visit the medieval castles and other European haunts described in your favorite novels. Cité de Carcassonne , pictured above, features heavily in Kate Mosse’s Languedoc Triology. Now the historic town is a UNESCO World Heritage Site that belongs on any French itinerary.

Photo credit: melissa kruse of mountains & mahals .

As soon as I finished the last chapter of Carlos Ruiz Zafón’s The Shadow of the Wind , I immediately got on Google flights and searched for tickets to Barcelona .

In The Shadow of the Wind , Daniel, the son of widowed bookseller, happens upon the last copy in existence of a book by Julián Carax. Daniel falls in love with Carax’s writing, but his efforts to find more books by the same author takes him on a harrowing, unexpected adventure through Barcelona.

While this novel is anything but realistic, Zafón transports readers to the Spanish city in 1945. You’ll follow main character Daniel through Barcelona’s passageways, shops, churches, and hilltop mansions. In fact, Zafón depicts Barcelona in such specific detail that you can actually go on The Shadow of the Wind walking tours which take you to places like the Church of Santa Maria del Mar , Els Quatre Gats Café , Baixada de la Llibreteria and even the real-life locations of the novel’s fictional bookshops.

Even if you’re not a fan of gothic novels (I’m not), if you’re headed to Barcelona soon, give The Shadow of the Wind a try. I promise that Zafón’s haunting descriptions of the Spanish city will stay with you.

For anyone who loves historical fiction mixed with a dash of gothic thriller, The Historian will sweep you away to Eastern Europe in a modern retelling of the vampire myth. The plot centers around the idea that Vlad the Impaler – Dracula himself – never actually died, and follows three different characters through different time periods across Europe as they try to discern the truth.

You won’t get tips on where to stay or eat from this book, but the rich descriptions of places like Romania and Bulgaria ; Budapest and Istanbul will transport you. From ancient academic libraries in Istanbul to monasteries in Bulgaria to scenes in communist Hungary, this book uses place and history as an ancillary character.

While most of the plot takes place in Europe in the 1950s and 1970s, the majority of the places the author richly describes still exist today – and this book was the reason my first trip to Europe included Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria!

The history and folklore in this story are well-researched, and the sometimes-chilling addition of the potentially-undead makes it a really fun read. Just beware that you, too, may find yourself with a desire to see places like Wallachia , the Hagia Sophia , or Rila Monastery after reading this book.

Contributed by Amanda of A Dangerous Business Travel Blog

Kate Mosse’s Languedoc Triology consists of three historical fiction novels that intertwine the past and present with elements of mystery and adventure: Labyrinth , Sepulchre , and Citadel . The rich history of Carcassonne comes to life through Mosse’s vivid descriptions of the French setting and intricate architecture, making the medieval city a character of its own in the books.

Despite the books’ historical setting, visiting modern day Carcassonne will make you feel like you stepped back in time the same way Mosse’s writing transports you through time. The city is known for its stone wall fortifications and fairytale-like architecture. Mosse even includes a walking guide at the end of Labyrinth to take you to all the key sites that inspired her writing.

You can explore the cobblestone streets of the Cité de Carcassonne , a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and visit Chateau Comtal to learn more about the history and legends of the city. Another famous landmark mentioned in the books is Pont Vieux . This pedestrian bridge provides picturesque views of the fortified city and is a great spot for a sunset stroll between the old and new city. 

Carcassonne is the perfect destination for readers who enjoy Mosse’s enchanting stories and want to experience history first-hand.

Contributed by  Melissa of  Mountains and Mahals

Lion of Ireland by Morgan Llywelyn is an inspirational, fictionalized account of the life of Irish High King Brian Boru , a beloved hero who banished the Viking invaders from Ireland for the last time. As you read  Lion of Ireland , you’re sure to plant the seeds for an epic Irish adventure!

If you’re a fan of things that are old and ancient, this is a must read. The book is a wonderful mix of fact and folklore. As you read about the rolling green hills traveled by the King, you’ll start longing to visit the Emerald Isle. Happily, there are plenty of sites from the King’s realm you can still see today.

For example, no Ireland itinerary is complete without a visit to the Rock of Cashel , the seat of the ancient Kings of Munster. Boru ruled Ireland from a fortress atop this hill. After reading this book, you’ll also want to plan a trip to the Hill of Tara , the ancient ceremonial site where the rulers of Ireland were “crowned.” Visit the ruins of Innisfallen Abbey , located in Killarney National Park , where Boru studied as a youth. 

Naples:   My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante

For a page-turning series that you won’t want to put down (except to book flights to Italy ), look no further than Elena Ferrante’s captivating My Brilliant Friend series.

Told across four volumes, My Brilliant Friend catalogs the intense, lifelong friendship between Raffaella (Lila) Cerulla and Elena Greco, starting with the women’s upbringings in a very poor and isolated part of Naples in the mid-20th century.

After meeting in elementary school, the girls’ fates diverge significantly: despite both characters being intensely academically gifted, only Elena is able to pursue her education into adolescence and beyond, while Lila is prevented from doing so by economic and cultural circumstances. The consequences of this, for each woman individually as well as for their relationship, spin out for decades.

Exploring themes of friendship, family, ambition, feminism, and more, the series also brings to light 20th-century Italy in a vivid way, from political debates (fascism, communism, and beyond are more than academic considerations for many characters) to dazzling views of the Mediterranean Sea enjoyed from the island of Ischia .

While the city of Naples , from its poorest neighborhoods to its shopping districts to its food, is a  central heartbeat of the series, the Amalfi Coast , Ischia, Pisa , Florence , Milan , and more are also featured.

To understand Italy’s–and especially Naples’–cultural background before visiting, My Brilliant Friend does a phenomenal job of contextualizing recent history, while also including spellbinding descriptions that will leave you anxious to hop on a plane and bite into your first sfogliatella .

Contributed by Kate of Our Escape Clause

travel based novels

Any reader of Dan Brown’s  The Da Vinci Code will immediately recognize the glass pyramid outside of Paris’s Louvre museum.

If you enjoy reading mystery novels and are considering a trip to the French capital , a must-read is Dan Brown’s highly acclaimed novel, The Da Vinci Code ! The story begins in the heart of Paris , following Robert Langdon as he endeavors to solve a mysterious murder that occurs within the Louvre Museum .

While the premise might sound like a typical murder mystery, what sets The Da Vinci Code apart is the skillful and deliberate manner in which Brown blurs the boundaries between reality and fiction. Brown also captivates his readers by delving into the more enigmatic aspects of religion, challenging established norms and authority.

Simultaneously, he immerses readers in his world through engaging puzzles, intriguing facts, and historical insights of several famous landmarks, including the Louvre, Church of Saint-Sulpice , Champs-Élysée s, and other places across Europe.

So, if you’re planning a trip to Paris, be sure to check out The Da Vinci Code ! It makes exploring the city feel like you’re stepping into Dan Brown’s world and uncovering hidden secrets.

Contributed by Kristin of Global Travel Escapades

The Temptation of Gracie

Tuscany, Italy:   The Temptation of Gracie by Santa Montefiore

The Temptation of Gracie takes place in Tuscany, Italy and makes you long to travel there and experience its romantic and vivid ambiance. It’s about an elderly woman who, although she lived abroad in Italy as a young woman, has not travelled much at all since then.

The story takes place partially in the present day while she’s in her late 60s, but mostly through flashbacks to when she was young, in love, and living in Tuscany. In the present day, although it’s been 40 years since Gracie has set foot in Italy, she decides (to the surprise of her family and friends) that she is going on a tour to Italy to learn how to cook Italian food. Given that her family and friends have never known her to do anything adventurous, this comes as a surprise to them.

The beautiful Tuscan town and countryside in the book is so vividly described that you will almost taste it, hear it and feel like you’re there. It is sure to make you crave delicious Italian foods, wines and being able to wander through cobbled roads with old buildings, and experience Italy with loved ones.

The story is about lost love, friendship, second chances, and how travel bonds us. The Tuscany region in Italy includes beautiful countryside, as well as cities like Florence and Pisa – which make a great visit for solo travellers, couples and even families with kids.

Contributed by Kristin of Tiny Footsteps Travel

Whitby, England:   Dracula by Bram Stoker

Dracula by Bram Stoker is the novel which brought the idea of vampires into popular culture. Published in 1897, the novel follows lawyer Jonathan Harker as he travels to Transylvania to help Count Dracula purchase an English estate. Dracula travels by sea to Whitby,  England, where he preys on Harker’s fiancée. Harker joins Professor Van Helsing to find and destroy Dracula at his castle in Romania.

Whitby is a fishing town and beach resort in North Yorkshire . It has an imposing, ruined abbey on a cliff overlooking the town, which can be reached by climbing 199 stone steps up the cliff side. Bram Stoker visited Whitby and was inspired by the town. In fact a history of Romania that he picked up in Whitby’s library provided the name for his creation.

The scene where Dracula arrives in Whitby is iconic; a deserted ship crashes into Whitby’s pier and a creature resembling a large black dog leaps ashore, running towards the 199 steps and the abbey.

Whitby would be a great place to visit even without its Dracula connection, but it makes the most of its creepy reputation, with events like Whitby Goth Weekend and regular ghost tours. 

Contributed by  Helen of Helen on her Holidays

Best Fiction Travel Books Set in Central America

Panama: The World in Half by Cristina Henriquez

The World in Half by Cristina Henríquez is a captivating novel that tells the story of Miraflores, a young woman living in Chicago.  When Miraflores discovered that her supposedly deceased father is actually alive in Panama , she secretly plans a trip there to uncover the mysteries of her family’s past.  

Reading The World in Half before traveling to Panama offers readers the opportunity to familiarize themselves with the country’s history, culture, and diverse population. It provides insights into the social and political dynamics of Panama. Readers will be able to enhance their travel experience with a greater understanding of the local customs and traditions.

What sets the book apart and makes its depiction of Panama special and memorable is Henríquez’s ability to capture the country’s essence. Through her writing, readers are transported to the lush landscapes of Panama. You feel like you are immersed in its vibrant street markets, lively festivals, and in the presence of lovely, gracious local people.

Contributed by Eleanor of Elevate Your Escapes

Best Fiction Travel Books Set in North America

Cincinnati downtown skyline, including the Great American Ball Park as seen from across the Ohio River at the base of the Roebling Bridge

Don’t write off Cincinnati as a sleepy Midwest city. After reading Curtis Sittenfeld’s  Eligible , I knew I needed to explore the Ohio city and I’m so glad I did! 

Wanna know the real reason I ended up in Alaska in winter ? I read Kristin Hannah’s The Great Alone the autumn before. After reading her beautiful depictions of life on the Kenai Peninsula , I knew I needed to get to Alaska asap.

In The Great Alone  (which takes its name from a line from a Robert Service poem) tells the story of the Allbright family in the 1970s. Ernt Allbright, a PTSD-suffering Vietnam veteran who abuses both alcohol and women, decides to escape suburban Seattle for the wilds of Alaska. He brings his wife and 13-year-old daughter on an Alaskan adventure that includes battling the elements and each other while also learning to trust, love, and let go.

I’ve read a lot of Kristin Hannah and The Great Alone is one of her best. The novel reads a little like a love letter to Alaska. Although the novel features a fictional town, you can find the landscapes Hannah describes in The Great Alone in the Seldovia area. This tiny town is located across the bay from Homer at the tip of the Kenai Peninsula outside of Anchorage.

You might not expect Cincinnati’s famous Skyline chili to make an appearance in a modern retelling of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice , but Curtis Sittenfeld somehow manages to pull it off.

In Eligible , Sittenfeld transports the Darcy family to modern-day Cincinnati, OH . Mr. Bingley is a reality tv star, Mr. Darcy is Bingley’s long-suffering childhood friend, and Mr. and Mrs. Bennet are irresponsible parents crippled by medical debt.

As much as Eligible is a clever adaptation of the Austen classic, it’s also a bit of a love letter to Cincinnati. Cincinnati is Sittenfeld’s hometown and she’s clearly fond of it. The Bennets reside in the Hyde Park neighborhood in a decrepit Tudor House and Sittenfeld spends most of the novel giving an extensive tour of Cincinnati with stops in the Over-the-Rhine neighborhood, dinner dates at Orchids and Boca restaurants, and some favorite attractions like the Freedom Center and Mercantile Library .

If you’re headed to Cincinnati soon, I highly recommend this fun rom-com romp through the city!

Martha’s Vineyard: The Identicals by Elin Hilderbrand

The Identicals , by Elin Hildebrand is the story of Harper and Tabitha Frost, twin sisters separated when their parents’ divorce.

Laid-back Harper grows up on Martha’s Vineyard with their father while reserved and serious Tabitha lives on Nantucket with their mother. This story about these rival sisters fits perfectly with the complicated and long-held rivalry between these two Massachusetts islands .

Elin Hildebrand has been writing about Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket for over a decade. The ease at which she incorporates local restaurants, beaches and landmarks into her stories could only be accomplished by someone who knows the island intimately.

Within the first few chapters Hildebrand manages to weave in the names and descriptions of favorite island locations. She reveals a hidden-gem beach at Cedar Tree Neck Preserve and a serene Japanese Garden on Chappaquiddick Island to escape the summer crowds. She also describes practical details like where her characters rent a car ( AA Island Auto Rental ) or go for a romantic sunset dinner ( The Outermost Inn ).

Hildebrand’s lived experience of Martha’s Vineyard, its people, and its hidden gems adds authenticity to the setting and makes the island feel like a character in its own right.

Contributed by  Maria of Martha’s Vineyard Travel Tips

Mexico: Battles in the Desert by Jose Emilio Pacheco

The Battles In The Desert is one of Mexico’s most treasured books about Mexico by a Mexican author. It is set in the Colonia Roma of Mexico City in the post-WWII era of President Miguel Alemán’s rapid modernization. Battles In The Desert has been translated into multiple languages (including English), adapted into a movie, and a song by the rock band Café Tacvba.

Intermediate-level Spanish learners will enjoy reading the story in the original Spanish if they choose to do so. José Emilio Pacheco was a celebrated poet whose prose is as enjoyable as the story itself. The main character is an elementary school student named Carlos who lives in the culturally diverse Colonia Roma with his middle-class family.

There are multiple references to the Avenida Alvaro Obregón , the most famous street in the Colonia Roma that every visitor to Mexico City has to explore The story feels like a love letter to the pop culture of the era. Carlos’ mother is an extremely religious figure in his life who does not like people who are not from Jalisco. Her family is from Guadalajara and was forced to leave because of the Cristero Religious Wars.

At school, Carlos is friends with a boy named Jim who was born in the United States. Jim invites Carlos to his house one day where Carlos meets Jim’s mother Mariana. She is a beautiful 28-year-old woman who makes sandwiches for the boys with a kitchen appliance imported from the United States. Carlos quickly becomes infatuated with his friend’s mom. He skips school to tell her his feelings which bring a number of repercussions.

Battles In The Desert is one of the most common books read in Mexican middle schools. It is a part of the local popular culture and something that is easily accessible to travelers. I highly recommend reading this book before traveling to the Colonia Roma in Mexico City.

Contributed by  Paul of Playas y Plazas

Michigan:   Tom Lake by Ann Patchett

Although this lovely book by Ann Patchett begins in a gymnasium in a small New Hampshire town and spends a few years in California, the heart and soul of  Tom Lake , which bounces back and forth in time, takes place in northern Michigan .

Part of it—at a fictional and idyllic summer stock theatre. And the other at a generations-old Michigan cherry farm on the shores of Lake Michigan and near Traverse City .

It is a beautiful story of love, friendship, loss, and relationships intricately woven into the play— Our Town . The main character of this book, while young, performs as Emily, the lead role, and is a natural, accidentally and briefly falling into the life of a professional actress. In the book, and later in life, she recollects her experiences and her short but intense relationship with a now famous movie star, an unknown at the time, to her three young adult daughters, all improbably home during lockdown in the summer of 2020 and helping with cherry picking.

Patchett does a masterful job of telling this gorgeous story and of conveying the startling beauty and peace of a northern Michigan in full bloom, which you will undoubtedly want to see for yourself after relishing this must-read.

Contributed by Janice of Gather and Go Travel

New York City:   Dash & Lily’s Book of Dares by Rachel Cohn & David Levithan

Dash and Lily’s Book of Dares by David Levithan and Rachel Cohn is a fun fiction book about two strangers who meet because of a notebook that one of them leaves at The Strand Bookstore in New York City’s Union Square .

Lily decides to leave a red notebook with a message in it in the stacks of books at The Strand when her family goes away for the holidays and she is alone in NYC. Dash finds the notebook, and returns it to the bookstore after completing his dare.

The characters pass the book back and forth as they wander through New York City before meeting each other in real life. Dash and Lily’s Book of Dares is a quick YA read with a sweet message and is a fun way to “see” New York City in December . The characters go to popular New York City attractions as well as to off-the-beaten path restaurants as they make their way through the city. 

As this book is the first in a trilogy, fans can continue to travel with Dash and Lily as they continue in New York City during The Twelve Days of Dash and Lily and when they travel to London in Mind the Gap Dash and Lily .

Contributed by Lanie of Make More Adventures

North Carolina:   Where The Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens

Written by an actual zoologist, Where the Crawdads Sing depicts a murder mystery set in the marshy coast of North Carolina in the mid-1900s. The story follows Kya, a young girl living isolated in the marsh and her connection to nature. Her narrative is fragmented with flashes forward to the present-day investigation of Chase Andrew’s murder.

The setting of the marshes in North Carolina ’s coast play a huge role in the book, and will bring reader’s back to a time of simple nature, before beach towns developed in popular spots on the shore. Author Delia Owens is well-aquanted with detailed descriptions of the flora and fauna in the area and does an incredible job of putting readers right into the environment with Kya.

North Carolina’s coastline is a beautiful destination for travelers looking to enjoy untouched nature. Where the Crawdads Sing depicts this soft, quiet marshland in such an alluring way, while at the same time bringing excitement and mystery through its plot.

Contributed by Michele of Adventures Abound

Seattle:   Where’d You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple

While most of Maria Semple’s popular novel, Where’d You Go Bernadette , is focused on planning a trip to Antarctica, I actually think this is the perfect novel to read before visiting Seattle, WA . In it, Semple tells the story of Bernadette Fox, a brilliant architect who has lost her way in the minutia of being a stay-at-home mom living in the Queen Anne neighborhood of Seattle.

Keep in mind, this is no love letter to Seattle. Bernadette’s pretty miserable about all aspects of her life including the city where she currently resides. She makes no secret that she straight up hates the people of Seattle.

But critics often show the world in the most striking detail. The book mentions several Seattle restaurants by name include Lola and Wild Ginger . You’ll also see the city’s Chihuly sculptures through Bernadette’s eyes and visit popular Seattle tourist attractions like the Space Needle and Pike Place Market . 

Semple chose to use fictional emails, articles, and other correspondence rather than prose to tell the story of Where’d You Go, Bernadette. Unique and fast-paced, I definitely recommend this fiction book before you travel to the Pacific Northwest.  

Best Fiction Travel Books Set in South America

Stone walls from an Incan building located in a green valley in Peru's Sacred Valley region

The beautiful landscapes of South America have inspired countless novels. Pictured is an Incan ruin in Peru’s Sacred Valley.

Chiloe Island, Chile:   Maya’s Notebook by Isabel Allende

Maya’s Notebook by Isabel Allende is a book that will introduce you to the magical mystic land of Chiloe Island , in the north of Patagonia .

The book follows Maya, a troubled young adult running away from her tumultuous life in America and settling in Chiloe Island with her grandmother. The book has two different storylines, the past and the present, introducing the land to the reader. One storyline is focused on Maya and her life, whilst the other on the rustic life in Chiloe, with its traditions, mysticism, and local beliefs.

Maya’s Noteboo k is a fantastic introduction to Chiloe Island. Reading it before travelling to Chiloe will help you appreciate its culture much more, and also understand the local traditions. One of these traditions is the curanto , a Mapuche cooking technique that sees meat, seafood and vegetables cooked underground. Taking part in a curanto dinner alongside the locals is a fantastic way to immerse yourself in the culture of the island. 

After you’ve read the book, walking on the streets of the towns in Chiloe will seem familiar. It will feel that you are part of Maya’s story.

Contributed by Joanna of The World In My Pocket 

Best Fiction Travel Books Set in the Pacific Islands

View of Kauai's North Shore and Hanalei Bay in the Pacific Ocean through a thick green veil of palm fronds and tropical plants.

Nothing will get you longing for the lush tropical landscapes of Hawaii and other Pacific Islands more than a good novel set on one of the islands.

Hawaii:   Hula by Jasmin Iolani Hakes

This novel is about three generations of women in Hawaii . In Hula by Jasmin Iolani Hakes, Hulali is a famous hula teacher, while Laka, her daughter, abandoned her family after winning the Miss Aloha Hula contest. The novel begins when Laka returns with her baby daughter, Hi`i in tow. As Hi`i grows, she wants to win Miss Aloha Hula more than anything, just like her mother did. But her relationship with her family and with Hawaii itself is complicated.

This is a book about community and belonging. It delves into the history of Hawaii, and it’s one of the great books to read before you go to Hawaii because it will make you more conscious of the nuances of Hawaii’s culture and history while also helping you be a more respectful tourist.

Contributed by Erin of Flying Off the Bookshelf 

Wrap-up: Best Fiction Travel Books To Read Before Your Next Trip

Hopefully this round-up of favorite novels helps transport you around the globe in more ways than one.

I’ve heard it said that a library card is the best passport you could ever have. Pair that library card with an actual passport and we’ve really got it made! Personally, I think reading is all the more rewarding when we first let a book transport us to a new place in the world and then later get to see that location with our own eyes.

I’m curious if a fiction book has ever inspired your travels. If so, please let me know what book you read and where you traveled to. Maybe we’ll do a round-up of favorite fiction books to inspire our travels every year!

If you enjoyed these 25 Best Fiction Travel Books, check out my other book-inspired travel!

travel based novels

  Ada is a travel writer based in northern Minnesota. She’s spent two decades as a freelance writer. She’s lived in three countries and has visited all 50 states. In addition to traveling the world, she runs a Boundary Waters outfitters and helps people plan canoe trips and other outdoor adventures in northeastern Minnesota.

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The 16 Best Travel Books to Inspire Wanderlust

Nothing inspires wanderlust like getting engrossed in a novel about traveling to a foreign land and the adventures that ensue. You can lose yourself in stories of love, heartbreak, redemption, and self-discovery whether you’re traveling abroad or back home planning your next adventure.

We have been traveling on and off for over 10 years, and along the way, we have taken a lot of long flights, train trips, and bus rides. We always make sure we have a good travel book tucked into our bag to get us through the journey. And if one of your friends is heading abroad, a good book with a heartfelt inscription from you on the front cover is a great travel gift !

Here is our list of the 16 best travel books that have inspired our trips around the globe! We hope that they inspire you to start planning your own adventure!

Disclaimer: This post may contain affiliate links. If you make a purchase or booking through one of our links we may earn a small commission (don’t worry, it’s at no extra cost to you).

16 Great Travel Books to Inspire Wanderlust

Best Travel Books: A Cooks Tour by Anthony Bourdain

1. A Cook’s Tour: Global Adventures in Extreme Cuisine

By anthony bourdain.

Anthony Bourdain changed the way the world thinks about food. He taught us to embrace all of the strange and unique cuisines across the globe and that some of the best meals are at a tiny plastic table down a random alleyway. Of course, most people are familiar with Bourdain due to his hit travel TV show , No Reservations . What most people don’t realize is that it was actually his take-no-prisoners, tell-all style of writing that launched his TV career.

A Cook’s Tour recounts Bourdain’s dining adventures across Portugal, France, Vietnam, Russia, Morocco, Japan, Cambodia, Mexico, and Spain . He eats a still-beating cobra heart in Hanoi (we’ve done this too!), samples half-formed duck embryos – otherwise known as balut  – in Cambodia (check!), and enjoys a  tagine in Morocco (been there too!).

Bourdain is a great storyteller, and by the end of this book, you’ll be both hungry and eager to plan your next trip.

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Best Travel Books: The Beach by Alex Garland

2. The Beach

By alex garland.

If you’ve done a bit of traveling and can’t seem to get “off the beaten path,” then try giving Alex Garland’s The Beach a read.

Richard is a British backpacker who is disillusioned with the well-trodden tourist circuit of Southeast Asia. While staying in a cheap hotel on Khao San Road in Bangkok, he is given a mysterious map to a beautiful beach, unspoiled by tourism, hidden in the Gulf of Thailand. He befriends a French couple, Françoise and Étienne, and together they set off to find the secret beach.

It’s a tale of paradise found (and lost) with plenty of adventure, romance, betrayal, and cannabis. It’s truly one of the best travel books out there and anyone headed to Thailand for the first time should read it!

Best Travel Books: Marching Powder by Rusty Young

3. Marching Powder: A True Story of Friendship, Cocaine, and South America’s Strangest Jail

By rusty young.

Although Marching Powder  was written by Rusty Young, it is really the story of Thomas McFadden, a British drug trafficker who was caught in Bolivia and imprisoned in Bolivia’s San Pedro prison.

San Pedro turns out not to be your typical prison. Inside its walls, you must pay rent for your jail cell and imprisoned drug lords are joined by their wives and children who enter and leave the prison freely. There is also an onsite cocaine manufacturing operation and a small bribe can get you out of (or into) the prison for a day.

Thomas begins running tours of the bizarre prison and they become a staple of the South American backpacker circuit. When Rusty hears about the tours he signs up for a night in the prison. He winds up staying for 3 months in order to document Thomas’ story and life in San Pedro.

We actually tried to visit the San Pedro prison when we were in La Paz, but by that time the Bolivian government had cracked down on the illegal tours.

Best Travel Books: The Cloud Garden by Tom Hart Dyke & Paul Winder

4. The Cloud Garden: A True Story of Adventure, Survival, and Extreme Horticulture

By tom hart dyke and paul winder.

The Cloud Garden  tells the story of a fearless young backpacker, Paul, and an impetuous botanist, Tom. Together they decide to attempt a crossing of the impenetrable stretch of swamp and jungle between Panama and Colombia known as The Darién Gap. This no man’s land is also full of guerrillas (not to be confused with gorillas) and drug smugglers. It’s not exactly the kind of place you want to go on vacation but Paul is hunting for adventure, and Tom is hunting for orchids.

Unfortunately, just a short way from the Colombian border, they are captured by a paramilitary group and held against their will for 9-months. Their tale is chock full of suspense, wit, and even a bit of Stockholm syndrome.

We are often told by friends and family not to go somewhere because it is too dangerous. For the most part, we go anyways and discover friendly people and fun adventures. But this travel novel is an example of what happens when you push your luck just a little too far!

Best Travel Books: Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts

5. Shantaram

By gregory david roberts.

Shantaram is an epic saga of loss, hope, faith, and redemption. The protagonist is a convicted Australian bank robber who escapes prison and flees to Mumbai, India (called ‘Bombay’ at the time) to build a new life. Along the way, he works as a slum doctor, drug dealer, passport forger, weapons smuggler, and Bollywood actor.

While some of the events mirror the author’s life, much of the story is obviously fiction or at least significantly embellished. It’s a beautiful read full of gang fights, romance, and impossibly heroic moments. A bit like the main character in your own Bollywood movie.

While many of our book recommendations are quick reads, Shantaram is almost 1,000 pages. It’s the perfect travel novel if you have an extremely long bus ride or flight ahead of you.

Best Travel Books: A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson

6. A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail

By bill bryson.

A Walk in the Woods  recounts Bill Bryson’s attempt to hike the entire 2,100 miles of America’s Appalachian Trail with his overweight, chain-smoking friend, Stephen Katz. Along the way, they meet a host of interesting thru-hikers and develop a begrudging appreciation for the beautiful and fragile wilderness of the United States.

Bryson has a great sense of humor and all of his books will make you chuckle, though this one makes a particularly great gift for hikers. Many people prefer his travel novel about Australia, In a Sunburned Country,  but I have a soft spot in my heart for A Walk in the Woods. Perhaps because I grew up in East Tennessee, just 20 miles from the Appalachian Trail.

Best Travel Books: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert M. Pirsig

7. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values

By robert m. pirsig.

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is much more than just a travel book. It tells the story of a man and his son on a cross-country motorcycle trip from Minnesota to California. The book deviates from the main storyline quite often to delve into philosophical pondering (which is the real focus of the book).

It’s an incredibly interesting book if you have an interest in eastern philosophy or if you just want inspiration for a motorcycle trip across the US . Although according to the author, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance “should in no way be associated with that great body of factual information relating to orthodox Zen Buddhist practice. It’s not very factual on motorcycles, either.”

Best Travel Books: Papillon by Henri Charrière

8. Papillon

By henri charrière.

Papillon is the “autobiographical” story of Henri Charrière. He is a French safecracker wrongly convicted of murder and sentenced to a life of hard labor on the penal colony of Devil’s Island (French Guiana). The ensuing tale spans 14 years and involves numerous jailbreak attempts – some successful, some not.

There is a question as to how much of the novel is true with some critics claiming it is about 90% fiction. Regardless, Charrière is a great storyteller and the book became an immediate success upon its release in 1969. It has since been translated into 21 languages and made into a movie three times.

Best Travel Books: Round Ireland with a Fridge by Tony Hawks

9. Round Ireland with a Fridge

By tony hawks.

You’ve probably had a few too many drinks and made a ridiculous bet with your friends before. And you probably woke up the next morning with a hazy memory of the terms of your silly bet and never actually followed through with it. In the book  Round Ireland with a Fridge , Tony bets a friend that he can hitchhike around the circumference of Ireland with a refrigerator in one month.

He realizes the foolishness of this claim when he wakes up hungover the next morning. But rather than take the easy way out, he decides to give it his best shot. So with his trusty mini-fridge in tow, he sticks out his thumb and heads off on an adventure that turns him into a national hero.

It’s a hilarious tale that will have you believing in the kindness of strangers and the luck of the Irish!

Best Travel Books: The Damage Done by Warren Fellows

10. The Damage Done: Twelve Years of Hell in a Bangkok Prison

By warren fellows.

Warren Fellows was a drug smuggler who trafficked heroin from Thailand to Australia and got caught. This book is not meant to proclaim his innocence. In fact, Fellows makes it clear that he was guilty (but mainly unlucky).

Fellows is given a life sentence in Bangkok’s notorious Bang Kwang prison. His account of the living conditions and punishment that he endured for over a decade makes prisons in the USA look like 5-star hotels.

It may be obvious to you at this point that I am very intrigued by foreign prisons. So intrigued, in fact, that I actually visited an inmate in Bangkwang prison during a trip to Bangkok in my youth. It turned out to be far less interesting than I was expecting and a bit strange as the inmate wanted me to deliver cryptic messages to people around Bangkok. Better to just stick to reading about them…

Best Travel Books: Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad

11. Heart of Darkness

By joseph conrad.

Heart of Darkness  was written over a century ago but still remains a fascinating read. It’s the tale of Charles Marlow, a riverboat captain and ivory transporter obsessed with the “blank places on the earth”. Otherwise known as those areas that are unmapped and uncivilized.

He journeys up the Congo River in Africa in search of the mysterious ivory trader, Krutz. Marlow’s trip into the heart of the African continent is full of vivid imagery and shines an uncomfortable light on the practice of imperialism in the 19th century.

While the story takes place in Africa, this book was the inspiration for the cult classic movie Apocalypse Now set in Vietnam (it’s also the namesake for one of the best new breweries in Saigon ). Whether you’re headed to Africa or Southeast Asia, this is a classic quick read.

Best Travel Books: Travels with Charley by John Steinbeck

12. Travels with Charley: In Search of America

By john steinbeck.

In Travels with Charley , John Steinbeck recounts his 1960s road trip around the United States with his French Poodle, Charley. Steinbeck was nearing the end of his life and wanted to see America one last time. So he bought a GMC pickup truck, outfitted it with a camper named Rocinante (after Don Quixote’s horse), and set off on his epic journey to rediscover the country he spent his life writing about.

It’s best to not take the story as an actual autobiography. His older son later remarked that “Steinbeck was at heart a novelist” who would never let the truth get in the way of a good story. And it is a great story. In fact, it’s one of the best travel books for anyone planning an American road trip .

Best Travel Books: The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

13. The Alchemist

By paulo coelho.

Recommending The Alchemist  may be a bit cliché. However, it’s one of the best travel books in the world for good reason. The Alchemist is the quintessential traveler’s tale of learning to listen to your heart and following your dreams.

Santiago is a young Andalusian shepherd who decides to give up his flock of sheep and journey to Africa in pursuit of his personal “treasure” which he believes is at the Pyramids. Along the way, he loses everything he owns (a few times), meets a king, falls in love, and much more.

The Alchemist is a quick, easy read and is a great place to start if you’re looking for a little travel inspiration.

Gift Idea - Lonely Planet: The Travel Book

14. The Travel Book: A Journey Through Every Country in the World

By lonely planet.

Lonely Planet’s The Travel Book is not actually a travel novel. It’s a brief overview of every country in the world. Each entry includes beautiful photos, fun facts, and a few key phrases in the local language. Lonely Planet describes it as “850 images. 230 countries. One complete picture.”

At approximately 450 pages, the Travel Book is huge and heavy. So you certainly wouldn’t want to bring it along on your trip. But it’s the perfect coffee table book to help you find inspiration to plan your next exotic vacation.

Gift Idea: Atlas Obscura

15. Atlas Obscura: An Explorer’s Guide to the World’s Hidden Wonders

By joshua foer, dylan thuras, and ella morton.

If you prefer visiting obscure destinations overstaying in 5-star hotels,  Atlas Obscura  is the perfect travel book for you! “Inspiring equal parts wonder and wanderlust”, this oddball travel book details 700 of the most bizarre sites around the world.

It’s another book that is better suited for the coffee table at home than your suitcase. But, flipping through the Atlas Obscura will definitely make even the most content homebody curious about visiting some of these off-the-beaten-path adventures.

Best Travel Books: Microadventures by Alastair Humphreys

16. Microadventures: Local Discoveries for Great Escapes

By alastair humphreys.

Alastair offers a fresh take on the concepts of travel and adventure in his book Microadventures . He believes that you can take the spirit of a great big adventure and squeeze it into a short time period with a small budget.

He challenges everyone to get out of their comfort zone. Even if it’s just spending the weekend camped on a nearby hillside or taking a swim in a lake close by. You don’t have to book a plane ticket to experience adventure, sometimes it’s waiting for you right in your own backyard!

Looking for even more inspiration? Here are 10 more amazing travel books we love but just didn’t quite make the list:

Best Travel Books: Dark Star Safari by Paul Theroux

What’s your favorite travel book? Tell us in the comments so we can add it to our list!

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Best Travel Books and Novels

About the Author:

Nick Wheatley

Nick took his first solo trip abroad to Ireland and Scotland when he was just 19. Since then he has visited over 70 countries around the world (plus 45 states in the USA). He coupled his passion for travel photography with Val’s passion for writing and thus Wandering Wheatleys was born. He now lives in Asheville with his two rambunctious kids, Humphrey and Wilhelminha. Besides photography, Nick loves eating the weirdest food he can find in a country (sheep’s brain currently sits in first place) and making Val get up an hour before sunrise to make sure he gets “the good light”.

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12 thoughts on “the 16 best travel books to inspire wanderlust”.

travel based novels

These are amazing books on the list that I noted everything except for the Alchemist as I’ve been reading that a lot of times already, it’s my favorite travel book that’s why. Although I am passionate about travel books, I’ve never heard the rest of the list so this is a good information for me. I will definitely start with “A Cook’s Tour” by Anthony Bourdain, that got me interested more.

travel based novels

Being passionate about books from childhood, books have always been the wings that fueled my travel imagination. Many of the places that I visit today are places that I have already visited through the books that I have read. This is an awesome list of books. I have read quite a few of them. my all time favourites are Papillon and The Alchemist.

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Best Time Travel Books

Embark on a journey through time with this list of widely acclaimed time travel books. whether for adventure, historical exploration, or quantum conundrums, these titles have been recognized and repeatedly highlighted by top science fiction reviewers and readers alike..

Best Time Travel Books

  • Destinations

Wild Junket

50 Best Travel Books to Feed Your Wanderlust

50 Best Travel Books to Feed Your Wanderlust

Last Updated on June 1, 2022

The best travel books are often the ones that have the power to transform you as much as a journey does. My love for travel books was probably the reason why I became a travel blogger and writer . I have always been obsessed with travel books, especially biographies of adventurers who have embarked on extraordinary journeys.

Seven Years in Tibet , by Heinrich Harrer, inspired me to visit Tibet; Blaine Harden’s Escape from Camp 14 was the reason why I went to North Korea . Reading George Orwell’s Burmese Days when traveling in Myanmar made me connect with the country in ways I never thought was possible.

To celebrate my love for travel books, I have compiled a list of 50 best books for travelers with the help of the WildJunket community. I hope these travel novels, memoirs and kids’ books will feed your wanderlust and provide some armchair travel for you.

50 Best Travel Books to Feed Your Wanderlust

Best Travel Books

Table of Contents

The Kite Runner — Khaled Husseini

  • One Hundred Years of Solitude – Gabriel Garcia Marquez

The Alchemist — Paulo Coehlo

Shantaram — gregory david roberts, on the road — jack kerouac, a woman in jerusalem — a.b. yehoshua, burmese days: a novel — george orwell, american dirt — jeanine cummins, the great alone — kristin hannah.

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Next Year in Havana — Chanel Cleeton

Desert flower — waris dirie, african diary — billy bryson, blood river: a journey to africa’s broken heart — tim butcher, gratitude in low voices — dawit gebremichael habte, it’s our turn to eat — michela wrong, bad lands: a tourist on the axis of evil — tony wheeler, escape from camp 14 — blaine harden, lands of lost borders — kate harris, seven years in tibet — heinrich harrer, sold: a story of modern-day slavery — zana muhsen, the choice — edith eger, under the tuscan sun — frances mayes, a year in provence — peter mayle, driving over lemons – chris stewart, eat pray love — elizabeth gilbert, a walk in the woods — bill bryson, wild — cheryl strayed, into the wild — jon krakauer, blue highways: a journey into america — william least heat-moon, the divide: a 2700 mile search for answers — nathan doneen, the lost city of z — david grann.

  • The Motorcycle Diaries – Ernesto Che Guevara

Life and Death in the Andes – Kim MacQuarrie

In patagonia – bruce chatwin, marching powder – thomas mcfadden and rusty young, in a sunburned country — by bill bryson, the happy isles of oceania — paul theroux, the sex lives of cannibals — j. maarten troost, blue lattitudes — tony horwitz, a land of two halves — joe bennett.

  • Journeys of a Lifetime — National Geographic

Wonders of the World — Lonely Planet

How to travel the world on $50 a day — matt kepnes.

  • The Adventure Traveler’s Handbook — Nellie Huang

Explorers: Amazing Tales of the World’s Greatest Adventurers — Nellie Huang & Jessamy Hawke

Beginner’s world atlas — national geographic kids, let’s explore activity book — lonely planet kids, this is… travel — miroslav sasek, hello, world — ashley evanson, best travel novels and stories (fiction).

My number 1 absolute favorite book of all time! This award-winning travel novel tells the story of a boy named Amir and his close friend Hassan. The story is set against a backdrop of tumultuous events, from the fall of Afghanistan’s monarchy  to the the exodus of  refugees  to  Pakistan , and the rise of the  Taliban regime. The book’s most shocking scene depicts an act of sexual assault that happens against Hassan that Amir fails to prevent. This book has been made into a film too — check out my list of the best travel movies of all time !

best books about travel - the kite runner

One Hundred Years of Solitude  – Gabriel Garcia Marquez

One of the most influential literary works of our time,  One Hundred Years of Solitude is the masterpiece of Nobel Prize winner, Gabriel Garcia Marquez. He not only rose to become one of Latin America’s most renown figures, he also put Colombia on the map. This book tells the story of the rise and fall, birth and death of the mythical town of Macondo through the history of the Buendiá family. Inventive and amusing, the novel definitely gets you drawn to the underground world of Latin America.

fiction books about travel - one hundred years of solitude

Another one of my favorite authors, Coehlo is well known for his thought-provoking travel novels. The Alchemist is his best book, in my opinion. The travel story follows the journey of an Andalusian  shepherd boy named Santiago to the Pyramids in search of answers. Troubled by a  recurring dream , he asks a  Gypsy   fortune teller  about its meaning. The woman interprets the dream as a prophecy telling the boy that he will discover a treasure at the  Egyptian pyramids.

the alchemist - best books about traveling

Set in the underworld of contemporary Bombay, Shantaram is an epic travel fiction story narrated by Lin, an escaped convict who flees maximum security prison in Australia. Accompanied by his faithful friend, Prabaker, the two enter Bombay’s hidden society of beggars and gangsters, prostitutes and holy men. Lin searches for love and meaning while running a clinic in one of the city’s poorest slums. Burning slums, romantic love and prison agonies — this huge novel has a passionate love for India at its heart. 

books about travel - shantaram

Inspired by his own adventures across the United States, Jack Kerouac’s travel novel tells the story of two friends whose cross-country road trips are a quest for meaning and true experience. On the Road  is the quintessential American vision of freedom and hope, a book that changed American literature. I remember reading this as a teenager, and dreaming of doing a road trip across the USA after that.

best travel books - traveling literature - on the road

This bestselling travel novel tells the story about the struggle to identify a nameless victim in the wake of a terrorist bombing in Israel. A human resources man is appointed to investigate her identity. As the facts of the woman’s life take shape — she was a beautiful engineer from the former Soviet Union, a non-Jew on a religious pilgrimage to Jerusalem —he yields to feelings of regret and even love. Both serious and highly entertaining, A. B. Yehoshua astonishes his ability to get into the soul of Israel today.

fiction books travel - a woman in jerusalem

This fiction book about travel paints a picture of Burma (now Myanmar) during the   waning days of the British Empire, when Burma was ruled as part of  British India . The novel is centered around John Flory, a white timber merchant who forms a friendship with Veraswami, a black doctor. Orwell actually spent five years as a police officer in the  Indian Imperial Police  force in Burma, and gave interesting observations of the country during the colonization period.

travel fiction books - george orwell

The newest title on this list of best travel books, American Dirt is a current bestseller on Amazon. The novel centers around Lydia Quixano Pérez who lives in the Mexican city of Acapulco. She has a comfortable life, but is forced to flee to the United States after her journalist husband runs a tell-all profile of a drug cartel. Instantly transformed into migrants, Lydia joins the countless people trying to run away from something. It is a literary achievement filled with poignancy, drama, and humanity on every page.

fiction books on travel - american dirt

Another travel bestseller that sparked my interest in Alaska,  The Great Alone depicts a desperate family who seeks a new beginning in the near-isolated wilderness of Alaska after the Vietnam War. The Allbrights find a fiercely independent community of strong men and even stronger women. The long, sunlit days and the generosity of the locals make up for the newcomers’ lack of preparation. But as winter approaches and darkness descends, Leni and her mother learn the terrible truth: they are on their own.

fiction books travel - the great alone

A beautifully-written travel novel packed to the brim with Cuban spirit and forbidden passion — perfect for those who have a crush on Cuba (me!). After the death of her beloved grandmother, a Cuban-American woman travels to Havana , where she discovers the roots of her identity—and unearths a family secret hidden since the revolution. 

travel novels - next year in havana

TIP: I recommend getting a Kindle Paperwhite ebook reader if you don’t have one. You can store a ridiculous amount of books on it and read it anywhere you are. Either buy books individually or sign up to Kindle unlimited (first month is a free trial).

Best Travel Books Based in Africa

I’m a huge fan of autobiographies, and this is definitely my favorite. Waris Dirie is a Somali-born supermodel with an exceptional story to tell. In this travel book, she shares her story of how she escaped from the nomadic tribe she was born into, across the dangerous Somali desert, to London. She eventually became an internationally renowned fashion model and a human rights ambassador for the U.N.

best travel biography - desert flower

Bill Bryson is a best-selling travel writer, and one of my favorite writers of all time. His writing is witty and light-hearted, making for the best entertainment if you want to “travel” without leaving home . In this book, Bryson shares his journey to Kenya , describing his hilarious observations about Kenyan culture, geography, and politics. He also talks about his visits to poverty-fighting projects run by  CARE International , to which he donated all royalties for the book.

best books on travel - african diary

This thrilling autobiography was written by Butcher, who was sent to Congo as an Africa foreign correspondent for British newspaper the  Daily Telegraph . The book follows Butcher’s mission to recreate the expedition of explorer Henry Stanley, traveling alone through the Congo. Butcher had not only the courage, but the insight to tell a great story of a country struggling to emerge from a history of colonial rule.

best book about travel - blood river

Reading this travel biography on a recent trip to Eritrea definitely made my experience all the more meaningful. The travel book tells the story of Eritrea from a human angle, and it’s packed full of history and interesting political events. The author fled his homeland of Eritrea as a teenager in the midst of the ongoing Eritrean-Ethiopian war. Crossing illegally into Kenya, he experienced the abuse and neglect known by so many refugees around the world. 

good books about travel - gratitude in low voices

As a correspondent specializing in Africa, Michela Wrong covered events in Cote d’Ivoire and former Zaire, before moving to Kenya. In this book, she covers the story of a Kenyan whistle-blower who became simultaneously one of the most hated and admired men in Kenya. It reads like a political thriller while probing the very roots of the continent’s predicament.

books for travellers - its our turn to eat

Best Travel Books Based in Asia

For those who have a special interest in “forbidden lands” (like I do), this is one of the best books on travel to dangerous places . Lonely Planet’s co-founder Tony Wheeler gives a witty first-hand account of his travels through places often perceived as having some of the most repressive regimes in the world: Afghanistan, Albania, Burma, Cuba, Iran, Iraq, Libya, North Korea and Saudi Arabia.

best books about travelling - bad lands

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A travel book that truly shook me to the core, Escape from Camp 14 is the biography of Shin Dong-hyuk, the only known person born inside a North Korean prison camp to have escaped. Author Blaine Harden unlocks the secrets of the world’s most repressive totalitarian state through the story of Shin’s shocking imprisonment and his astounding getaway. Shin knew nothing of civilized existence—he saw his mother as a competitor for food and snitched on her to the guards. His mother and brother were killed before him.

best travel books from asia - escape from camp 14

This is a travel biography of Harris’ journey by bicycle along the Silk Road. Pedaling mile upon mile in some of the remotest places on earth, she realized that an explorer is the kind of person who refuses to live between the lines. The farther she traveled, the closer she came to a world as wild as she felt within. This book helped me face my fears during difficult times, and will hopefully help you challenge your limits too.

travel memoir - lands of lost borders

This book was the reason why I traveled to Tibet . Made famous by the travel movie starring Brad Pitt, Seven Years in Tibet is the autobiography of Austrian  mountaineer  Heinrich Harrer. The adventure travel book covers the escape of Harrer from a British internment camp  in India to Tibet . He spent several years in Lhasa, and subsequently became a tutor and friend of the  14th Dalai Lama . One of the best travel books I’ve read.

best travel stories - seven years in tibet

In this incredible autobiography, Zana Muhsen tells her harrowing story of being sold to Yemen as a teenager. Born and bred in Birmingham, Muhsen was only 15 when her father told her (and her sister) they were spending the holidays with family in Yemen. After their arrival, they realized they had been literally sold into marriage.  They had to adapt to a completely alien way of life, with frequent abuse and the ordeal of childbirth on bare floors. 

best travel non fiction - sold

Best Travel Books Based in Europe

I just finished this book, and literally couldn’t stop turning the pages! Written immaculately in a haunting yet hopeful voice, The Choice is a memoir of the author’s own unthinkable experience in Nazi concentration camps during the Second World War. She was just a teenager in 1944 when she was sent to Auschwitz. There, she experienced one of the worst evils the human race has ever known. When the camp is finally liberated, she is pulled from a pile of bodies, barely alive.

best travel books about europe - the choice

One of the best travel books about Europe, Under the Tuscan Sun actually inspired me to visit Italy when I was just a teenager. The travel memoir, written by American author Frances Mayes, describes her experience of traveling to Italy and falling in love with the Tuscan countryside. She and her husband decide to buy and restore an abandoned villa, but the renovations prove to be a long, tedious but rewarding experience. It has also been made into a Hollywood travel film.

books about world travel - under the tuscan sun

In this best-selling travel memoir, Peter Mayle  shares all the ups and downs of his first year in  Provence . Mayle and his wife are met with unexpectedly fierce weather, underground  truffle  dealers and unruly workers, who work around their  normalement  schedule. His light-hearted take on life as an outsider in provincial France is both funny and charming at the same time.

best books for travelers - a year in provence

A hilarious and insightful biography by Stewart, this inspiring travel book talks about the author’s experience of leaving his life in the UK and moving to a farm in southern Spain. At the age of 17, he retires as the drummer of Genesis and moves to a remote mountain farm in Andalucia without any electricity or running water. I read this book while living in Spain , and his hilarious anecdotes definitely struck a chord!

driving over lemons - inspiring travel book

Another travel book made famous by the wanderlust movie , this is true story of American author Elizabeth Gilbert. On the surface, Gilbert had everything many of us dream of having – a husband, a house, a successful career – yet she felt lost. Newly divorced and at a crossroads, Gilbert embarks on a quest for self-discovery. She discovers the true pleasure of nourishment by eating in Italy , the power of prayer in  India , and, finally and unexpectedly, the inner peace and balance of true love in  Indonesia .

wanderlust books - eat pray love

Best Travel Books Based in North America

The Appalachian Trail stretches from Georgia to Maine and covers some of the most breathtaking terrain in America: majestic mountains, silent forests, sparking lakes. And Bill Bryson is definitely the most entertaining and interesting guide you’ll find. He introduces us to the history and ecology of the trail and to some of the other hardy (or just foolhardy) folks he meets along the way – and a couple of bears. This book has also been adapted into a traveling film .

travel adventure books - a walk in the woods

This bestseller is Cheryl Strayed’s memoir of her 1,100-mile solo hike along the  Pacific Crest Trail , beginning in the  Mojave Desert and hiking through California and Oregon  into Washington.  Seeking self-discovery and solutions to her personal grief, Strayed set out on her journey, alone and with no prior hiking experience. One of the best travel books of all time, Wild is an incredible reminder of how a journey can be pivotal in helping us understand more about ourselves.

non fiction travel adventure books - wild

This non-fiction book tells the remarkable story of a young man’s solo adventure in Alaska. In 1992, he left his well-to-do family, hitchhiked to Alaska and walked alone into the wilderness north of Mt. McKinley. He had given $25,000 in savings to charity, abandoned his car and most of his possessions, burned all the cash in his wallet, and invented a new life for himself. 

best travel books - into the wild

Blue Highways features an unforgettable journey along the backroads of USA . The author set out with little more than the need to put home behind him and a sense of curiosity about “those little towns that get on the map”: Remote, Oregon; Simplicity, Virginia; Why, Arizona; Whynot, Mississippi.” His adventures, his discoveries, and his recollections of the extraordinary people he encountered along the way amount to a revelation of the true American experience.

books about road trips - blue highways

A must read for Canada-philes, this book tells the epic adventure Doneen took across his country. Discover a world of bears, bivy sacks and mountain weather. Follow his journey the Great Divide, the world’s longest mountain bike route, stretching 2700 miles along the Continental Divide from Alberta to the US-Mexico Border.

best travel books from canada - the divide

Best Travel Books Based in South America

Described as “a tale of deadly obsession in the Amazon,” this non-fiction book details the journey that British explorer Percy Fawcett and his son took in search of an ancient city in the rainforest. It is a cross between a crime novel (that actually happened) and travelogue. Fawcett and his son went missing and their story continues to be shrouded in mystery.

adventure travel books - lost city of z

The Motorcycle Diaries  – Ernesto Che Guevara

For a peek into South America during the revolution days, join Argentinian revolutionary Che Guevara as he travels the length of South America. He traverses the continent on his trusty 1939 Norton 500 motorcycle and shares intriguing observations in his travel-diary-turned-biography. This memoir is highly entertaining, and features exclusive, unpublished photos taken by the 23-year-old Ernesto on his journey across a continent. Definitely one of the best travel books of all time!

wanderlust books - the motorcycle diaries

I read this adventure travel book during my 5-month backpacking trip through South America, and highly recommend it to anyone interested in this continent. EmmyAward-winning author Kim MacQuarrie takes us on a historical journey through the Andes, the world’s longest mountain chain. He brings fresh insights and contemporary connections to fabled characters like CharlesDarwin, Pablo Escobar, and Che Guevara. Beautifully written and thought-provoking, Life and Death in the Andes  shows us South America as no one has before.

adventure travel books - life and death in the andes

Bruce Chatwin’s exquisite account of his journey through Patagonia gives an exhilarating look at Patagonia, a place that still retains the exotic mystery of a far-off, unseen land. An instant classic upon publication in 1977, his travel memoir teems with evocative descriptions, remarkable bits of history, and unforgettable anecdotes. Fueled by an unmistakable lust for life and adventure and a singular gift for storytelling, Chatwin treks through “the uttermost part of the earth” in search of almost-forgotten legends. 

best travel memoirs - in patagonia

Rusty Young was backpacking in South America when he heard about Thomas McFadden, a convicted English drug trafficker who ran tours inside Bolivia’s notorious San Pedro prison. Intrigued, the young Australian journalist went to La Paz and joined one of Thomas’s illegal tours. They formed an instant friendship and then became partners in an attempt to record Thomas’s experiences in jail. The result is Marching Powder , a true story about friendship, betrayal, and compassion in one of the world’s most notorious prisons.

best travel biographies - marching powder

Best Travel Books Based in Oceania

Yet another book by my beloved writer Bill Bryson, this memoir describes his travels through Australia, as well as his comical conversations with people about the country’s  history ,  geography , unusual flora and fauna. He also included several stories about Australia’s 19th-century explorers and settlers. The book definitely gives interesting insights into Australia , and makes for an entertaining read. I love Bryon’s light-hearted style of writing and wry sense of humor.

best travel authors - bill bryson

I read this book years ago, but I remember it was the reason that brought me to Papua New Guinea . This is a must-read for any island lover! In this book, Theroux shares his journey through the Pacific Islands shortly after the break-up of his first marriage. Starting in New Zealand, he travels to  Australia  and  Papua New Guinea  and then follows the clusters of islands throughout the  Pacific Ocean , passing through  Easter Island  and finishing his trip in  Hawaii .

books to read while travelling - happy isles of oceania

In this memoir, Troost describes the two years he and his girlfriend spent living in the  Pacific  island nation of  Kiribati . It provides interesting (and at times comical) insights into the people of Kiribati and their unique customs. He shares how he adjusted to an over-whelming fish-based diet, extreme heat, and an ineffective government, which the author describes as “Coconut Stalinism – though  Stalin , at least, got something done.”

best books about traveling - sex lives of cannibals

In an exhilarating tale of historic adventure, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author retraces the voyages of Captain James Cook, who drew the map of the modern world.  Tony Horwitz vividly recounts Cook’s voyages and the exotic scenes the captain encountered:  taboo rituals, cannibal feasts, human sacrifice. He also relives Cook’s adventures in Tahiti, Savage Island, and the Great Barrier Reef to discover Cook’s embattled legacy in the present day.

travel biographies - blue latitudes

After 10 years in New Zealand , Joe Bennett asked himself what on earth he was doing there. Other than his dogs, what was it about these two small islands that had kept him here for so long? Bennett thought he’d better pack his bag and find out. Hitching around both the intriguingly named North and South Islands, with an eye for oddity and a taste for conversation, Bennett began to remind himself of the reasons New Zealand is quietly seducing the rest of the world.

world travel books - land of two halves

Best Travel Guide Books & Compilations

Journeys of a lifetime   — national geographic.

This lavish volume reveals National Geographic’s top picks for the  world’s most fabulous journeys , along with practical tips for your own travels. Compiled from the favorite trips of National Geographic’s travel writers, this inspirational book spans the globe to highlight the best of the world’s most famous and lesser known sojourns. It presents an incredible diversity of possibilities, from ocean cruises around Antarctica to horse treks in the Andes. 

best books for travelers - national geographic

Lonely Planet reveals 101 spectacular sights and how to see them on any budget. Inspiring and practical, with expert advice on how and when to visit, where to stay and a range of itineraries, you’ll discover how to visit the world’s wonders in a way that suits you. This collection of  Wonders of the World includes both natural and human-made sights across the world. They represent the best and most extraordinary ‘places to be seen’. This coffee table book is one of the best gift ideas for travelers !

best books on travel - wonders of the world

Check Price on Lonely Planet

Written by a fellow travel blogger , this travel book is a great go-to guide for budget travelers seeking to see the world on a budget. It features detailed pricing and destination information so you can travel better and know what to expect when you visit places around the world. This New York Times best-selling book was dubbed “The bible for budget travelers” by the BBC.

best books about travel - travel the world on $50 a day

Check the Price on Amazon

The Adventure Traveler’s Handbook   — Nellie Huang

A bit of shameless plug for my own book! The Adventure Traveler’s Handbook provides a mixture of on-the-ground tips and inspirational stories for both new and experienced outdoor explorers. I share all my personal tips and stories, covering all aspects of adventure travel from technical planning and training to travel safety and winter survival skills. This is an indispensable guide to exploring bold new ways to travel.

Check out other titles in The Traveler’s Handbook series:

  • The Solo Traveler’s Handbook
  • The Food Traveler’s Handbook
  • The Luxury Traveler’s Handbook
  • The Volunteer Traveler’s Handbook
  • The Creative Traveler’s Handbook
  • The Career Break Traveler’s Handbook
  • The Cruise Traveler’s Handbook

best travel books - adventure traveler's handbook

Best Travel Books For Kids

Writing this book was one of the biggest adventures I’ve ever embarked on in my life and I’m incredibly proud of it. Perfect for kids aged 7-11, this beautifully illustrated book is a collection of awe-inspiring travel tales and swashbuckling adventures.

Explorers focuses on 50 of the world’s greatest explorers and their impressive achievements. The book is filled with beautiful illustrations, hand drawn maps and photographs. There are also incredible cross-sections revealing the amazing detail inside Spanish galleons, lost cities, and spaceships. 

best travel literature - explorers

This world atlas for kids is fun, engaging, and informative. I bought this book recently for Kaleya and it’s been so much fun introducing her to world-famous landmarks and wildlife. It is jam packed with bright, bold images, large maps, and lively information about the world’s land, people, and animals. The Beginner’s World Atlas  is suitable for kids ages 5–8. 

best travel books for kids - world atlas

This series of sticker activity books are my daughters’ favorite as they are educational, interactive and fun. We bought the safari-themed sticker book for our South Africa trip and she used it everywhere, even on the safari jeep. This is definitely an excellent companion to have if you’re going on an African safari with kids .

“Let’s Explore” series is definitely one of the best books for traveling with the little ones. They also have books with ocean, jungle and savanna themes. Lonely Planet Kids has a lot of interesting titles, including the  Adventures Across the Globe sticker book  that covers interesting places around the world.

travel books for kids - lets explore

Featuring retro art work and bite-sized fun facts, this series of books were first published in 1960 and now updated for the 21st century. The series not only cover cities like New York, Paris, Hong Kong and Rome, but also countries including Ireland, Australia and Israel. These are fun and engaging books packed full of trivia and info.

best travel books - this is the world

Hello, World is an exciting board book series that pairs early learning concepts with colorful, stylish illustrations of cities around the world. The series has books on New York, London, Rio de Janeiro, Tokyo and Paris. Each title has a different theme (book of numbers, sounds and colors etc.). This book series is suitable for babies and toddlers aged below 3.

best travel books - hello world tokyo

What do you think of this list of best travel books? There are hundreds and thousands osf books about travel, but only a handful truly have the power to transform us. Did I miss any of your favorite travel novels or biographies? Fill free to let me know in the comments field below!

Disclaimer: Some of the links in this post are affiliate links. If you buy or book something with my links, I’ll get a small commission at no extra cost to you . 

Inspired? Pin it!

best travel books - books about travel - travel novels

Nellie Huang

Nellie Huang is the founder of WildJunket. Originally from Singapore, Nellie has traveled to over 140 countries across 7 continents. As an adventure travel blogger, she has a special interest in unusual destinations and deep experiences. Her work has appeared in many major publications including BBC Travel, CNN and LonelyPlanet.com. Read more about her here and get more life updates from her on her Facebook and Instagram .

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The Comments

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Andreas Moser

“Blue Highways” is really beautifully written. The book about the book, “Writing Blue Highways”, is also quite interesting, at least for writers.

And “Into the Wild” also inspired me to just leave the office and go for a long walk: https://andreasmoser.blog/2011/03/26/into-the-wild/

It sounds like you found the book “Wild” much better than I found the movie.

Oh yes, “Escape from Camp 14” is truly shocking, although I wouldn’t classify it as a “travel book”. I don’t think the protagonist saw it as such.

There are two other quite good books for anyone interested in North Korea: https://andreasmoser.blog/2017/12/20/nk-books/

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Yes it was shocking. I guess the protagonist saw it as his story, but it is set in North Korea and definitely gives an interesting peek into life in the concentration camps. Thanks for sharing more books on North Korea!

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Jørn Bjørn Augestad

I’ve written a book about my travels to every country in the World and wish I would have made it to top 50:P

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Gaurav Karanwal

Oh yes, The Alchemist is surely one of the best.

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Thanks! There are a lot of books on this list that are not on other travel bloggers list so it’s great to see, especially from all over the world and different authors, especially authors who have come from those countries or had experiences themselves.

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MIke Honeycutt

Thanks for this. Planning to travel next year.

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Literary Voyage

17 Best Travel Adventure Books

This post may contain affiliate links that earn me a commission at no additional cost to you.

Dreaming of an adventure? These travel adventure books will spark your wanderlust!

While I am an avid traveler, I am also a bit of a wimp. The extent of my “extreme” travel adventures was attempting (and failing) to summit a volcano in Guatemala.

When it came down to it, I opted to stay in the warmth of my tent instead of scrambling the final 1,000 feet to the top in the pitch darkness at four in the morning.

So it’s safe to say that while I may not be that adventurous myself, I LOVE getting swept away reading about crazy adventures that happened to other people.

There is nothing like being on the edge of my seat as I read about people facing peril and defying death as they survive after being stranded in the wilderness, hiking solo across large swaths of land, or brave a deathly mountain summit. It transports me without leaving the comfort of home!

So if you are craving an adventure too, these are the best travel adventure books that will fuel your wanderlust and have you staying up late to finish them.

adventure travel train

Where we love to grab our travel adventure books:

  • Sign up for a free trial of Audible:  Get 30 days of free access to thousands of audiobooks, and one free premium title of your choice. Perfect for listening on the go!
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Best Travel Adventure Books

wild

Wild by Cheryl Strayed

This travel memoir follows Cheryl’s journey hiking the Pacific Crest Trail solo. Driven by grief after her mother’s death, she embarked on a hike more than one thousand miles long at age twenty-six for an unforgettable experienced that maddened, strengthened, and ultimately healed her.

Buy on Amazon | View in Goodreads

Into Thin Air

Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer

This gripping nonfiction account of a disastrous Mount Everest expedition is told in a way that will have you flipping the pages long through the night until you’ve finished it. Jon Krakauer is a journalist who was invited along on a fateful expedition that left several of his fellow hikers dead.

bad karma

Bad Karma by Paul Wilson

In the summer of 1978, twenty-one-year-old Paul Wilson jumps at the chance to join two local icons on a dream surf trip to Mexico, unaware their ultimate destination lies in the heart of drug cartel country. This exhilarating travel memoir will make you feel like you are there.

lands of lost borders

Lands of Lost Borders by Kate Harris

Canadian Kate Harris dreamed of adventures ever since she was young. In between studying at Oxford and MIT, she set off with her childhood friend on the adventure of a lifetime: bicycling the Silk Road. Her memoir follows her journey exploring remote Central Asia by bike.

Tracks

Tracks by Robyn Davidson

Robyn Davidson completed an epic adventure when she walked alone more than 1,700 miles through the Australian Outback with four camels and her dog at age twenty-seven. Tracks is her memoir detailing the experience and the people she met along the way.

the lost city of the monkey god

The Lost City of the Monkey God by Douglas Preston

Journalist Douglas Preston and a team of scientists embark on a harrowing adventure into the heart of Honduras, in search of a legendary lost city in the middle of the jungle.

alone in antarctica

Alone in Antarctica by Felicity Aston

Felicity Aston, physicist and meteorologist, took two months off from all human contact as she became the first woman, and only the third person in history, to ski across the entire continent of Antarctica alone. With just her cross-country skis, she embarked on an epic journey across the ice.

A Walk in the Woods

A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson

The Appalachian Trail is one of America’s biggest adventures, stretching over 2,100 miles from Georgia to Maine, a journey not for the faint of heart. Travel writer Bill Bryson tackles the trail and writes about his experience in this memoir, which is both funny and moving.

lost city of z

The Lost City of Z by David Grann

In 1925, a British explorer ventured into the Amazon rainforest in search of a fabled civilization. He never returned. Eighty years later, a journalist retraces his footsteps in an attempt to find out what really happened, and discover the truth of this mythical Amazonian city.

wild by nature

Wild by Nature by Sarah Marquis

Adventurer Sarah Marquis chronicles her ambitious journey hiking solo over 10,000 miles around the world, from the Gobi Desert to Siberia, in this travel memoir.

Touching the Void

Touching the Void by Joe Simpson

This harrowing story follows two young hikers attempting to complete an unclimbed route in the Peruvian Andes when a horrific accident during their descent occurs.

438 days

438 Days by Jonathan Franklin

This is a remarkable true survival story about a Salvadoran fisherman working in Mexico when he got lost at sea for 438 days before washing ashore on the far side of the Pacific.

The Sex Lives of Cannibals

The Sex Lives of Cannibals by J. Maarten Troost

He expected paradise, but what he got was an entirely different story. This memoir chronicles the author’s hilarious two-year odyssey in the distant South Pacific island nation of Kiribati, and all the mishaps and misadventures he had along the way while he was there.

dark star safari

Dark Star Safari by Paul Theroux

A rattletrap bus, dugout canoe, cattle truck, armed convoy, ferry, and train are just some manners of transportation Paul Theroux takes on his overland journey from Cairo to Cape Town. In the course of his epic voyage, he endures danger, delay, and dismaying circumstances.

The Beach

The Beach by Alex Garland

This is the book that inspired thousands of backpackers to make their way to Thailand in search of paradise. This novel is about a young backpacker who arrives in Bangkok, learning about a mythical location known only as “The Beach” that is the closest thing to Eden on Earth.

Vagabonding

Vagabonding by Rolf Potts

Part travel memoir and part practical how-to guide, this book provides advice for the art of long-term travel, as told by veteran budget traveler Rolf Potts.

In a Sunburned Country

In a Sunburned Country by Bill Bryson

Travel writer Bill Bryson provides a wonderful glimpse into traveling Australia in his book  In a Sunburned Country . He brings to life the land of the friendliest inhabitants, the hottest, driest weather, and the most peculiar and lethal wildlife to be found on the planet.

These are some of the best travel adventure books.

Have you read any of these travel adventure books? Do you have any other favorite books that I should add to this list? Let me know in the comments below!

Related:  25 Brilliant Travel Memoirs by Women

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A traveler reads whil​e floating in the Dead Sea.

18 Inspiring books to gift travelers this holiday

From novels to cookbooks, these travel page-turners are sure to please everyone on your list.

All the #instatravel posts or Tripadvisor reviews can’t take the place of a gorgeous photo book or a compelling travel tale that you can get lost in. These 18 new books will inspire wanderlust, shine a light on a corner of the world you might not have known about, and help you explore more deeply once you are there. You’re sure to find something for a favorite traveler on your holiday list—or for yourself.

Cooking in Iran: Regional Recipes and Cooking Secrets , by Najmieh Batmanglij

News headlines don’t often show the side of Iran that fills the appetizing pages of Batmanglij’s latest cookbook, packed as it is with some 250 recipes and 400 photographs. The Tehran-raised, Washington, D.C.-based Batmanglij traveled 10,000 miles throughout her home country to trace the roots of traditional Persian dishes, document the bounty of local markets, and cook with local chefs, from saffron-rich Khorasan province to the famed wine region of Shiraz.

Basque Country: A Culinary Journey Through a Food Lover’s Paradise , by Marti Buckley

An Alabama chef who has lived in San Sebastián, Spain , for more than eight years, Buckley evokes the spirit of the Basque people through cultural insight and classic recipes. Travelers can recreate tasty bites such as salt fish croquettes or gâteau Basque.

Let’s Eat France! , by François-Régis Gaudry

This six-pound compendium of everything French cuisine is a light-hearted collection of recipes (from mayonnaise to cassoulet); tips (best gastronomy museums, a guide to wild berries); a tour of the country via its breads, wines, and signature dishes; and anecdotes on star chefs from Julia Child to Daniel Boulud. [ Discover the chocolate capital of France. ]

Cuban Flavor: Exploring the Island’s Unique Places, People, and Cuisine , by Liza Gershman

With its tropical Caribbean setting, Cuba has always been rich in a variety of fruits and the bounties of the sea. But the country’s complex history has often meant shortages in food, fuel, and other resources. This photo-filled cookbook celebrates Cuban culture and the people behind the food, capturing a resilience, which, as Gershman writes, “perfumes every savory dish.”

Photo Books

Spectacle: rare and astonishing photographs , by national geographic.

The more than 200 images that animate this coffee table book are divided into chapters titled Chaos, Surprise, Beauty, and Awe. Nearly all of them are bound to spark a #travelgoal, from the tree-root-tangled temples of Cambodia’s Angkor Wat, to the sculptures of the annual Burning Man festival, in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert. [ These photos prove how wild Burning Man really is. ]

the spectacle cover art

In the introduction to this stunning photo book, National Geographic staff photographer Mark Thiessen writes: "Each shot took planning, commitment, dogged determination, and sometimes dumb luck … and a little bit of magic.”

Born to Ice , by Paul Nicklen

Born and raised on Baffin Island, in Arctic Canada , award-winning National Geographic photographer Paul Nicklen has long had a love affair with polar regions. This substantial keepsake photo book captures the lives of leopard seals, whales, walruses, polar bears, penguins, and narwhals, and is infused with the urgency Nicklen feels about preserving a beloved landscape that is rapidly disappearing.

Paris Echo , by Sebastian Faulks

With chapters titled after Paris Métro stations, this twisty story told through two narrators—an American academic researching World War II Paris and a teenage Moroccan immigrant—is at heart a love letter to Paris’s historic streets and odd corners, tourist attractions and flaneur-inviting neighborhoods. [ Read more about people-watching in Paris .]

Where the Crawdads Sing , by Delia Owens

This best-selling, Reese Witherspoon Book Club pick immerses readers in North Carolina ’s coastal marshlands while telling a tale that’s part murder mystery, part coming-of-age narrative. You’ll fall in love with the main character, abandoned 10-year-old Kya, who learns to survive amid the blade grass, palmettos, and cattail lagoons.

  • Nat Geo Expeditions

What We Were Promised , by Lucy Tan

Although with less designer-name-dropping than the Crazy Rich Asians series, Tan explores similar themes of class, newly acquired wealth, and family tradition in her novel set in Shanghai. After achieving success in the U.S., Lina and Wei return to China as wealthy expats but life amid Shanghai’s high-rises and shopping malls isn’t what they expected, particularly when Wei’s long lost brother comes back into their lives.

Little , by Edward Carey

This curiosity-filled novel about the life of Madame Tussaud is enlivened with old-timey illustrations by Carey himself. Set in the years before and during the French Revolution, diminutive Marie moves to Paris after being orphaned and becomes assistant to a doctor who makes wax models of body parts. A must-read for anyone who’s ever visited Madame Tussauds wax museum in London or any of its other 20 outposts around the world. [ Madame Tussaud used beheaded politicians to create her original waxworks . ]

RELATED: 14 Epic Libraries Around the World

the Abbey Library of Saint Gall in Switzerland

Arctic Solitaire , by Paul Souders

Souders’ quest to photograph polar bears led to this memoir detailing a series of solo, accident-prone adventures piloting a 22-foot boat through Arctic waters. The search for the iconic animal takes Souders from Hudson Bay up to Repulse Bay, in northern Canada , stopping at Inuit villages along the way. [ Here's how people live in the Arctic. ]

To Shake the Sleeping Self , by Jedidiah Jenkins

We might have heard this story before—young man quits job and his prescribed life and hops on a bike for a long-distance adventure (this time from Oregon to Patagonia) to find himself. But this memoir stands out for its frank honesty about the author’s emotional journey, as someone struggling with his evangelical Christian upbringing and his sexual identity. “I am on this bike, on my spirit quest,” he writes. “This is where people have revelations.”

Pay No Heed to the Rockets: Life in Contemporary Palestine , by Marcello di Cintio

Traveling through the West Bank, into Jerusalem , across Israel, and into Gaza, Di Cintio reveals life in contemporary Palestinian territories through the lens of its authors, books, and literature. He meets writer Maya Abu-Alhayyat at Café Ramallah, smoking a nargileh under a poster of Elvis. He finds the cultural hub of Gaza at the Gallery Café, where he chats with theater impresario Jamal Abu al-Qumsan. Throughout he finds “no life undarkened…by conflict” but also “no life wholly defined” by it either.

Lands of Lost Borders: A Journey on the Silk Road , by Kate Harris

With a lifelong “mad longing for a world without maps,” Harris undertakes an epic cycling adventure along the Silk Road. She marvels at the Mars-like landscape of the Tibetan Plateau, indulges in calorie-dense khachapuri adjaruli (cheese and egg-filled bread) in Georgia , and interviews government ministers about wilderness conservation in Tajikistan .

Go Find: My Journey to Find the Lost—and Myself, by Susan Purvis

What’s it like to be lost, really lost? Purvis has been there, both physically and emotionally, but this memoir recounts how she found her way back to her true self, with the help of a Labrador retriever she names Tasha and trains in search-and-rescue in the avalanche-prone mountains around Crested Butte, Colorado .

Land of the Dawn-Lit Mountains , by Antonia Bolingbroke-Kent

Despite suffering from panic disorder (a malady she says she shares with Charles Darwin), the intrepid Bolingbroke-Kent sets off on a solo adventure across a lesser-known part of India , Arunachal Pradesh. Her travelogue sensitively captures the history, landscapes, and people of this isolated, mountainous state.

The Library Book , by Susan Orlean

For those of us for whom libraries are a travel destination, Orlean’s latest book is on our holiday wish list. Consummately curious, Orlean delves into the case of the 1986 fire that devastated the Los Angeles Public Library, the largest library disaster in U.S. history. Who started it? Why? Woven throughout, we learn about the compelling—and quirky—history of libraries in general.

The Immeasurable World: Journeys in Desert Places, by William Atkins

They may seem dry and lifeless, but desert landscapes, as fans know, are far from monochrome. Atkins journeys to eight of the world’s great deserts, following the trail of Wilfred Thesiger in the Empty Quarter of Oman, volunteering with an immigrant-aid non-profit in the Sonoran desert, and visiting the church of St. Antony in Egypt ’s eastern desert, one of the oldest monasteries in the world.

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They inspire us and teach us about the world: Meet our 2024 Travelers of the Year

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9 Books to Spark Your Wanderlust in 2023

By CNT Editors

The Best Travel Books to Inspire You in 2023

Armchair travel. We’ve all indulged in it via daydreams and  Parts Unknown,  with weekly trips to  The White Lotus and afternoons spent leafing through the pages of this very magazine. But our editors, avid readers that they are, know that the most transportive (and transformative) stationary adventure is often to kick back with a good book. And we read a lot of those in 2022—from immersive  travel writing  that challenges the reader to breezy beach reads designed to be read on the sand. Here, we’ve rounded up the fiction and non-fiction books that sparked our wanderlust over the past year. Whether you are an accomplished bookworm yourself, or have simply resolved to crack even just one book in the New Year, we’ve got you covered.

All products featured on Condé Nast Traveler are independently selected by our editors. However, when you buy something through our retail links, we may earn an affiliate commission.

travel based novels

The Penguin Book of Italian Short Stories by Jhumpa Lahiri

My lack of familiarity with Italy’s modern literature, combined with my interest in novelist Jhumpa Lahiri’s immersion in the country’s language and literary traditions, motivated me to order this collection of 40 tales from 20th-century Italian writers, which Lahiri edited. The Pulitzer Prize winner curated a super sharp collection from authors who were both known to me (Italo Calvino, Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa) and those unfamiliar (I enjoyed discovering Natalia Ginzburg), translating many of them herself, to telegraph an Italy you don’t see through travel: The dusty backroads of  Sicily in the early 1900s; hardscrabble towns beyond  Florence ; male and female protagonists struggling through banal life choices. More than a varied journey that jumps between eras and places in an often-overlooked Italy, this collection demonstrates the power of fiction to enlighten audiences on cultures and histories that are not their own (nearly half of the stories had never been translated before), mostly thanks to the stewardship of Lahiri herself. — Erin Florio , executive editor

travel based novels

The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James

“It’s nothing to come to Europe … It doesn't seem to me one needs so many reasons for that. It is something to stay at home; this is much more important.” I found a weathered and water-damaged copy of this masterpiece sitting alone on a  Brooklyn stoop this spring and began devouring it immediately—it is by far the longest and most difficult spontaneous read I’ve ever embarked on, and my found edition quickly became mine as I underlined passages more than I did not. Protagonist Isabel Archer is a young American woman, one less in control of her own desires than she is aware, visiting distant relatives in England. Her aunt takes her as a companion on a tour of Europe, and as she traipses from  Paris to  Florence  Archer makes a suitor out of just about every man she encounters. Firmly declining proposal after marriage proposal, Isabel is determined  to accomplish the abstract and impossible: to know everything about the world and about herself before she can marry. What better way to do so than to travel?— Charlie Hobbs , editorial assistant

travel based novels

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt

I was already planning a trip to  Savannah when I picked up the non-fiction novel by journalist John Berendt, which is a page-turning murder mystery and a human interest masterpiece all in one. But it inspired me to make sure I experienced all the smallest nooks and crannies of Georgia’s oldest city—from subterranean antique shops to Flannery O’Connor’s historic childhood home, the Spanish-moss-strewn cemeteries, and an beloved drag show (yes, Club One) that lived up to the hype. Berendt lived the remote-work life, well before we all caught on to it, in order to live out his dream of transplanting to Savannah in the 1980s. The Southern Gothic tale that unfolds shortly after his arrival is one that strings together the small community’s dark past and its many eccentric personalities to paint a colorful picture of a Low Country gem that you can only experience through its people. — Shannon McMahon , editor, destinations

travel based novels

Bluets by Maggie Nelson

In her poetic prose, Maggie Nelson writes a personal exploration of her encounters with the color blue in life and love, and misery and pain. Catching sight of fragments of blue in my own life, Nelson has inspired me to count the colors in all my adventures. Navigating and experiencing travel through the lens of color opens up new and exciting emotions, connections, and realizations. I now find myself asking questions like: Which other city have I seen with this palette before? What does the color of this food remind me of? I jot down my answers and it becomes a story of its own. — Jessica Chapel, editorial assistant

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travel based novels

Less Is Lost by Andrew Sean Greer

I fell for the somewhat hapless, super awkward, but rather relatable Arthur Less in Andrew Sean Greer's Pulitzer Prize-winning 2017 novel  Less during a jaunt around Europe, not unlike the protagonist. This fall, Less entered my life once again with Greer's sequel  Less is Lost . The novel—at times laugh-out-loud funny, deeply heart warming, and an apt portrayal of the current state of America—sees Less once again on a journey; this time on an unexpected  road trip across the United States where he finds himself in unpredictable situation after unpredictable situation. From beginning to end, I found myself armchair traveling through Greer's metaphors and vivid-yet-quirky descriptions from California to New Mexico to Georgia. I was ultimately left with an optimistic view of humanity—and an itch to rent a camper van, grab my dog, and get lost. — Scott Bay , associate editor

travel based novels

Lizzie and Dante by Mary Bly

This summer, when it seemed like everyone was traipsing around Europe, I was reading  Lizzie & Dante , a delicious rom-com about a woman who vacations at a seaside resort on Elba, an island off the  coast of Italy . The titular character, Lizzie (a Shakespeare scholar, because of course), meets a handsome Italian chef and his precocious daughter, and romance ensues. There are yachts,  secret ocean coves, and mouthwatering accounts of a crabby chef’s set menu that’ll have you ready to plan a trip to Elba (or at the very least, make a reservation at a very expensive Italian restaurant). The main character is on holiday with her best friend and his movie star boyfriend, giving it a touch of  The White Lotus  energy, but with far more likable characters. — Madison Flager , senior commerce editor

travel based novels

Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys

This year, I revisited a book I was assigned in high school when it caught my eye on a shelf in New York 's McNally Jackson Nolita, showcased with a group of “eerie” titles in the month of October. In the 1966 novel  Wide Sargasso Sea , Dominican-British author Jean Rhys gives the infamous madwoman in the attic from  Jane Eyre a story, and a life. The feminist, post-colonial prequel is set in the Caribbean, part one in  Jamaica during the protagonist’s childhood, and part two in Dominica during her toxic honeymoon with Mr. Rochester. The descriptions of these islands are at once beautiful and haunting. Take, for example: “The road climbed upward. On one side the wall of green, on the other a steep drop to the ravine below. We pulled up and looked at the hills, the mountains, and the blue-green sea. There was a soft warm wind blowing but I understand why the porter had called it a wild place. Not only wild but menacing. Those hills would close in on you.” These locations are not romanticized—they’re integral to the story Rhys tells about race, power, and assimilation—and in that way, this read will prompt your interest in them in more ways than one. — Alex Erdekian , travel bookings editor

travel based novels

Pachinko by Min Jin Lee

I was utterly transported by the epic sweep of this beautiful, terribly sad historical novel about the Korean experience in  Japan over the course of the 20th century. (I read it right around the time Apple TV+ released its miniseries based on the book, and while I know many people who have enjoyed the screen version, this might be a case where the book hit me so hard I’ll never want to see the adaptation.) The vividly wrought locales are essential to Lee’s storytelling, especially the spartan but pristine world of Yeongdo, a fishing village on a tiny island off the coast of Busan more than a hundred years ago, and the rough-and-tumble milieu of Osaka at mid-century, with its squalid Korean ghetto, crowded markets, and illicit pachinko parlors. There are also gripping forays into Tokyo, Nagano, and the Japanese countryside. I found it to be such an illuminating portrayal of the fraught interlaced history of these two wonderful countries, and a reminder of how deeply I want to spend time in both. — Jesse Ashlock , deputy global editorial director and head of editorial content, U.S.

travel based novels

The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller

I read Madeline Miller’s  Circe years ago, and was blown away by how she brings Greek mythology to life in a totally fresh format. I finally got around to reading her debut novel,  The Song of Achilles  (2011), about that Achilles—and  that heel—this year, and it reminded me just how transportive mythology can be. It inspired me to buy a book on Sicilian mythology  while on the island over the summer , and my 2023 resolution is to read up on local stories before future trips. (Currently accepting recommendations of books tied to Kenyan and Peruvian folklore for my winter travels.) — Megan Spurrell , senior editor

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15 Travel Books That Will Give You Serious Wanderlust

A man walking in a library full of books

The end of the year is just that time for favorites lists – and I’ve written about the best travel books many times over! I love talking about travel books. Why? Because part of the tool belt of any traveler is a good book. Long bus, train, or plane rides can get pretty boring and can give you a lot of “dead” time if you haven’t mastered the art of the 10-hour blank stare. Additionally, reading travel books helps you learn about the destinations you are visiting. The more you know about a place, the more you can understand a place.

I am a voracious reader and even used to have a book club on this website where I shared all the books I read. Today is another one of those days where I share some of the books I’ve read recently! If you’re looking for some great reads, here are my current list of the best travel books to inspire you to travel to far-off lands:  

1. The Alchemist , by Paulo Coelho

The Alchemist

2. Love With a Chance of Drowning , by Torre DeRoche

Love with a chance of drowning

3. The Caliph’s House: A Year in Casablanca  by Tahir Shah

The Caliph's House: A Year in Casablanca

4. On the Road , by Jack Kerouac

on the road

5. Looking for Transwonderland , by Noo Saro-Wiwa

Looking for Transwonderland book cover

6. The Lost City of Z , by David Grann

The Lost City of Z book cover

7. The Beach , by Alex Garland

the beach book cover

8. Vagabonding , by Rolf Potts

vagabonding cover

9. In A Sunburned Country , by Bill Bryson

In a Sunburned Country cover

10. Dispatches from Pluto , by Richard Grant

The cover of the book Dispatches from Pluto: Lost and Found in the Mississippi Delta

11. Turn Right at Machu Picchu , by Mark Adams

Turn Right at Machu Picchu book cover

12. A Year of Living Danishly , by Helen Russell

A Year of Living Danishly: Uncovering the Secrets of the World's Happiest Country by Helen Russell

13. The Art of Travel , by Alain de Botton

The Art of Travel book cover

14. From Scratch: A Memoir of Love, Sicily, and Finding Home , by Tembi Locke

From Scratch book cover

BONUS: Ten Years a Nomad: A Traveler’s Journey Home , by me!

Ten Years a Nomad by Matt Kepnes

Books about travel inspire us to go visit far-off lands and imagine us doing incredible things. Bryson’s In a Sunburned Country inspired me to visit Australia! I hope these travel books inspire you to travel the world and feed your wanderlust. If you have any suggestions that I can add to this best travel books list, leave them in the comments.

If you’d like to see some of the other books I’ve recommended (or are currently reading), check out this page I created on Amazon that lists them all!

You can also find them listed in our Bookshop store, which helps support locally-owned bookstores. If you’re in the US, click here to check out my Bookshop store!

Book Your Trip: Logistical Tips and Tricks

Book Your Flight Find a cheap flight by using Skyscanner . It’s my favorite search engine because it searches websites and airlines around the globe so you always know no stone is being left unturned.

Book Your Accommodation You can book your hostel with Hostelworld . If you want to stay somewhere other than a hostel, use Booking.com as it consistently returns the cheapest rates for guesthouses and hotels.

Don’t Forget Travel Insurance Travel insurance will protect you against illness, injury, theft, and cancellations. It’s comprehensive protection in case anything goes wrong. I never go on a trip without it as I’ve had to use it many times in the past. My favorite companies that offer the best service and value are:

  • SafetyWing (best for everyone)
  • Insure My Trip (for those 70 and over)
  • Medjet (for additional evacuation coverage)

Want to Travel for Free? Travel credit cards allow you to earn points that can be redeemed for free flights and accommodation — all without any extra spending. Check out my guide to picking the right card and my current favorites to get started and see the latest best deals.

Need Help Finding Activities for Your Trip? Get Your Guide is a huge online marketplace where you can find cool walking tours, fun excursions, skip-the-line tickets, private guides, and more.

Ready to Book Your Trip? Check out my resource page for the best companies to use when you travel. I list all the ones I use when I travel. They are the best in class and you can’t go wrong using them on your trip.

Got a comment on this article? Join the conversation on Facebook , Instagram , or Twitter and share your thoughts!

Disclosure: Please note that some of the links above may be affiliate links, and at no additional cost to you, I earn a commission if you make a purchase. I recommend only products and companies I use and the income goes to keeping the site community supported and ad free.

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40 Best Time Travel Books To Read Right Now (2024)

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Travel back in time with the best time travel books, including engrossing thrillers, romance, contemporary lit, and mind-bending sci-fi.

Best Time Travel Books featured image with clock like structure with blue and green electric lightning coming out of it

Table of Contents

Best Time Travel Books

Books about time travel promise to not only transport you across time periods and space – Doctor Who-style – but also tesser you into new dimensions and around the world. Most readers already know about classics like The Time Traveler’s Wife , A Christmas Carol , and The Time Machine .

For romance time travel, grab In A Holidaze or One Last Stop . For contemporary and new time travel books, Haig’s The Midnight Library and Serle’s In Five Years captivated our hearts and minds.

Recursion re-kindled our love for science fiction, and Ruby Red transported us to 18th-century London. Books like Displacement promise intuitive and raw commentary about generational trauma and racism in graphic novel form.

Below, find the best time travel novels across genres for adults and teens, including history, romance, classics, sci-fi, YA, and thrilling fiction. Get ready to travel in the blink of an eye, and be sure to let us know your favorites in the comments. Let’s get started!

Contemporary & Literary Fiction

If you enjoy contemporary and literary fiction filled with strong main characters, these are some of the best books in the time travel genre. Uncover new releases as well as books on the bestseller lists. Of course, we’ll share a few lesser-known gems too.

In Five Years by Rebecca Serle

In Five Years by Rebecca Serle book cover with sketched city of New York City

Would your life change if you had one seemingly real dream or premonition? What if some key facts were missing but you had no idea? Can we change the future?

One of the best books about time travel and friendship, don’t skip In Five Years . In fact, we read this New York City-based novel in half a day. Have the tissue box ready.

Dannie nails an important job interview and is hoping to get engaged. Of course, this is all a part of her perfect 5-year plan. Dannie has arranged every minute of her life ever since her brother died in a drunk driving accident.

On the night of Dannie’s “scheduled” engagement, she falls asleep only to have a vision of herself 5 years into the future in the arms of another man. Did she just time travel or could this be a dream? When Dannie arrives back in 2020, her life goes back to normal. …That is until she meets the man from her dream.

We were expecting In Five Years to be a time travel romance story; however, this is a different type of love and one of the best books about strong friendships .

Read In Five Years : Amazon | Goodreads

Before the coffee gets cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi

Before The Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi book cover with two chairs, blue wallpaper, and cat on the ground

Translated by Geoffrey Trousselot | We just love Japanese literature . One of the most debated time travel books among our readers – you’ll either love it or hate it – Before the coffee gets cold takes place at a cafe in Tokyo, Japan.

Along with coffee, this 140-year-old, back-alley cafe lets visitors travel back in time. Four visitors at the cafe are hoping to time travel to see someone for the last (or first) time. The way each patron views the cafe says a lot about them. The details and repetition are everything.

True to the title, visits may only last as long as it takes for the coffee to grow cold. If they don’t finish their coffee in time, there are ghostly consequences.

Before the coffee gets cold asks, who would you want to see one last time, and what issues you would confront?

Along with the many rules of time travel, these visitors are warned that the present will not change. Would you still travel back knowing this? Can something, anything, still change – even within you?

The story has a drop of humor with a beautiful message. We shed a tear or two. Discover even more terrific and thought-provoking Japanese fantasy novels here .

Read Before the coffee gets cold : Amazon | Goodreads

If you are looking for the most inspiring take on time travel in books, Haig’s The Midnight Library is it. This is one of those profound stories that make you think more deeply . TWs for pet death (early on) and suicide ideation.

The Midnight Library by Matt Haig

The Midnight Library by Matt Haig deep blue book cover with large library structure

Imagine if you could see your other possible lives and fix your regrets. Would that path be better? Would these changes make you happier?

Set in Bedford, England, and at a library , Nora answers these questions as she intentionally overdoses on pills. Caught in the Midnight Library – a purgatory of sorts – Nora explores books filled with the ways her life could have turned out. She tries on these alternative lives, pursuing different dreams, marrying different people, and realizing that some parts of her root life were not as they seemed on the surface.

Find hope and simplicity in one of the most authentic and heaviest time travel novels on this list. Haig addresses mental health through a new lens that is both beautiful and moving.

With a team full of avid readers and librarians, discover our top selections featuring more books about books .

Read The Midnight Library : Amazon | Goodreads

The Two Lives of Lydia Bird by Josie Silver

The Two Lives of Lydia Bird by Josie Silver book cover with silhouette of two people embraced and kissing next to bike with basket

Some of the best time travel books are those with alternate realities, including The Two Lives of Lydia Bird . There are content warnings for prescription pill addiction and more.

Set in England, Lydia and Freddie are planning their marriage when the unthinkable happens. Freddie dies in a car accident on the way to Lydia’s birthday dinner. In a matter of seconds, Lydia’s world falls apart. She isn’t sure how she will survive. When Lydia starts taking magical pink sleeping pills, she enters an alternate universe where Freddie is alive and well.

Caught between her dream world and real life, Lydia must decide if she will give in to her addiction – living in a temporary fantasy world – or give it up completely.

While the repetitive and predictable plot drags a bit – slightly hurting the pacing – the overall story shows emotional growth and the nature of healing after loss. And, as Lydia soon learns via her dreams, no love is perfect. Maybe her future was destined to be different anyway, which is reminiscent of Matt Haig’s The Midnight Library .

Read The Two Lives of Lydia Bird Jose Silver : Amazon | Goodreads

The First Fifteen Lives Of Harry August by Claire North

The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North book cover with young boy holding a series of rectangular mirrors that grow progressively smaller

If you are looking for more suspenseful books about time travel and like Groundhog Day , check out The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August. However, this is not just one day on repeat; instead, this is a lifetime.

Harry August is repeatedly reborn into the same life, retaining his memories each time. No matter what Harry does or says, when he lands on his deathbed, he always returns back to his childhood, again and again. On the verge of his eleventh death, though, a girl changes the course of his life. He must use his accumulated wisdom to prevent catastrophe.

Read The First Fifteen Lives Of Harry August : Amazon | Goodreads

An Ocean of Minutes by Thea Lim

An Ocean of Minutes by Thea Lim book cover with blue cloudy like shy and dots in circular pattern

When it comes to time travel books, An Ocean of Minutes is one of the most original takes about time travel’s effects on alternate history.

Polly and Frank are deeply in love in 1981 when a pandemic devastates the planet. By the end of 1981, time travel (invented in this alternate reality in 1993) has been made available.

Because of this invention, individuals can sign on to work for the TimeRaiser corporation in order to escape or save their loved ones in the present. Due to a flaw in the technology, though, they can only transport people for 12 years. This prevents them from stopping the pandemic by just 6 months.

When Frank gets ill, Polly signs up, both agreeing they will meet back up in 1993. Now alone in the future, Polly has to learn to navigate a world she has less than zero preparation for. In this world, she is a time refugee, bonded to TimeRaiser without a physical cent to her name.

Lim uses the time travel mechanic to cleverly explore the subject of immigration, forcing the reader to follow Polly blindly into a world they should know, but don’t. This is what makes An Ocean of Minutes one of the most unique time travel novels on this reading list.

Read An Ocean of Minutes : Amazon | Goodreads

Time Travel In Science Fiction

For fantasy and sci-fi lovers, take a quantum leap into fictional worlds, quantum physics, possible futures, black holes, and endless possibilities. See if you can tell the difference between the real world and new dimensions.

Recursion by Blake Crouch

Recursion by Blake Crouch book cover with infinity symbol and yellow lettering for title on gray cover

Recursion is one of our all-time favorite time travel books to gift to dads who love sci-fi. Can you tell what we gave our dad for Christmas one year?

In Recursion, no one actually physically time travels – well, sort of. Instead, memories become the time-traveling reality.

Detective Barry Sutton is investigating False Memory Syndrome. Neuroscientist Helena Smith might have the answers he needs. The disease drives people crazy – and to their deaths – by causing them to remember entire lives that aren’t theirs. Or are they!?

All goes to heck when the government gets its hands on this mind-blowing technology. Can Barry and Helena stop this endless loop?

Recursion is also a (2019) Goodreads Best Book for Science Fiction.

Read Recursion : Amazon | Goodreads

This Is How You Lose The War by Max Gladstone and Amal El-Mohtar 

Best Time Travel Books, This Is How You Lose The War Max Gladstone book cover with red cardinal and blue jay

A Goodreads runner-up for one of the best science fiction novels (of 2019) – and one of the shortest time travel novels on this list – This Is How You Lose The Time War follows two warring time-traveling agents falling in love through a letter exchange.

Red and Blue have nothing in common except that they travel across time and space and are alone. Their growing and forbidden love is punishable by death and their agencies might be onto them.

In a somewhat beautiful yet bizarre story, we watch as Red and Blue slowly fall for each other and confess their love. They engage in playful banter and nicknames. Every shade of red and blue reminds them of each other.

The first half of the novel is a bit abstract. You might wonder what the heck you’ve gotten yourself into. However, once you get your feet planted firmly on the ground of the plot, the story picks up and starts making more sense.

We can’t promise you’ll love or even understand This Is How You Lose The Time War – we aren’t sure we do. However, this is truly one of the most unique sci-fi and LGBTQ+ time travel romance books on this reading list – written by two authors. Also, maybe crack out the dictionary…

Explore even more of the best LGBTQ+ fantasy books to read next.

Read This Is How You Lose The War : Amazon | Goodreads

All Our Wrong Todays by Elan Mastai

All Our Wrong Todays by Elan Mastai book cover with bright yellow title

A debut novel, All Our Wrong Todays is both a humorous and entertaining time travel book that speaks to how we become who we are.

In 2016, technology perfected the world for Tom Barren. However, we all know that perfection doesn’t equate to happiness. Barren has lost his girlfriend, and he just happens to own a time machine… Now, Barren has to decide if he wants to keep his new, manipulated future or if he just wants to go back home to his depressing but normal life.

Read All Our Wrong Todays : Amazon | Goodreads

Here And Now And Then by Mike Chen

Here And Now And Then by Mike Chen book cover with person in gold running on infinity ribbon with city

Imagine getting trapped in time and starting over. That’s exactly what happens to IT worker, Kin Stewart, in one of the bestselling science fiction time travel books, Here And Now And Then .

Stewart has two lives since he is a displaced time-traveling agent stuck in San Francisco in the 1990s. He has a family that knows nothing about his past; or, should we say future. When a rescue team arrives to take him back, Stewart has to decide what he is willing to risk for his new family.

Here And Now And Then is a time travel book filled with emotional depth surrounding themes of bonds, identity, and sacrifice. Find even more books set in San Francisco, California (and more!).

Read Here And Now And Then : Amazon | Goodreads

How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe by Charles Yu

How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe by Charles Yu book cover with sketched people on red background with gray section with words

How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe is one of the most unusual books about time travel out there.

Our protagonist Charles Yu lives in a world where time travel exists and is readily available to the average person. And yes, he is named after the author, and yes, it is as meta as it sounds; and yes, this is just the beginning of this speculative fiction time travel book.

Charles Yu’s day job is spent repairing time machines for Time Warner Time. But in his free time, he tries to help the people who use time travel to do so safely and to counsel them if things have gone wrong.

It’s no surprise that Charles’ entire life revolves around time travel since his father invented the technology many years ago. And then he disappeared. In fact, Charles is also trying to find out just what happened to his dad, and where – or when – he’s gone.

How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe won’t be for everyone, but it’s one of the best time travel books if you want delightfully meta, fantastically non-linear, and very very weird.

Read How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe : Amazon | Goodreads

The Vanished Birds by Simon Jimenez

The Vanished Birds by Simon Jimenez book cover with purple, yellow, and red circular swirls

For beautiful, lyrical time travel novels about found family and love, The Vanished Birds is a must-read.

Nia Imani exists outside of time and space. She travels in and out of the world through a pocket of time with her space crew. They emerge to trade or sell goods every eight months. But eight months for them is 15 years for everyone else.

She has lived this way for hundreds of years. Though she has her crew, and there are people she shares connections with sporadically throughout their lives, she is lonely. And although she barely ages, she watches friends and lovers grow old and die.

One such person is Kaeda, who meets Nia for the first time when he is 7. The next time he sees her, he has aged 15 years, while she is only months older. She continues to come every 15 years of his life, always looking the same.

Then one day a mysterious, mute boy falls from the sky into Nia’s life. His name is Ahro, and there’s something extra special about him. Something that could revolutionize space travel forever. And now there might be people after Ahro who won’t love him the way Nia does.

If you love a character-driven book with exquisite prose – and a few time warps – this is one of the best time travel books for you.

Read The Vanished Birds : Amazon | Goodreads

Night Watch by Terry Pratchett

Night Watch by Terry Pratchett book cover with illustrated people in purple walking down street with green and yellow hued houses

Night Watch is one of the most fun and thrilling books about time travel. It’s also a bit ridiculous and very very British.

Why can’t policing just be simple? All Sam Vimes wanted to do was capture and arrest a dangerous murderer. But thanks to those damned wizards and their experiments, he and the killer have both been accidentally thrown back in time thirty years.

And to top it off, the man who would have become a mentor to young Sam Vimes in the past has been killed in the process! How’s Vimes going to get this all sorted out?

The City Watch he’s spent years improving is just a bunch of semi-competent volunteers at this point. He’s got no money, no clothes, and no friends. But at least he’s making enemies fast. Can he catch the killer, stop history from not repeating itself, and get home to his family? Oh, and the city’s about to dissolve into civil war. Typical.

Night Watch is perfect if you prefer your time travel books to be fantasy-based.

P.S. There may be mild spoilers for previous books in the Discworld series, but this can be read as a standalone. And if you only ever read one Discworld novel, this is one of the best there is – and so far the only one of the Discworld books with time travel!

Read Night Watch : Amazon | Goodreads

The Future of Another Timeline by Annalee Newitz

The Future of Another Timeline by Annalee Newitz book cover with purple, gray, and green lettering for title

The Future of Another Timeline is one of the few time travel books to explore history through a feminist lens.

In 1992, Beth – a high school senior – and her friends Heather, Lizzy, and Soojin attend a riot grrl concert with Heather’s boyfriend Scott. But afterward, one of Scott’s not-so-funny sexist jokes gets out of hand and Lizzy accidentally kills him. Now they’re on the run, and the bodies just keep piling up.

Meanwhile, in 2022, Tess is part of a group of women and non-binary people working together to change history. They have the use of five time devices which only allow them to travel backward and back to the present day – but never forwards.

Beth and Tess come from two wildly different times (1992, and 2022, respectively). But, while Beth is busy making history, Tess is quite literally trying to change it. However, both of them want the same thing: a better world. When their worlds collide, will they be able to save each other – and the world?

The Future of Another Timeline is a time travel fiction celebration of feminism and queerness with lots of sci-fi and punk rock thrown in. This is one of the best time travel novels for those who enjoy stellar women making history .

Read The Future of Another Timeline : Amazon | Goodreads

The Kingdoms by Natasha Pulley

The Kingdoms by Natasha Pulley book cover with ladder like spiral swirl

The Kingdoms is wildly imaginative and sure to enchant fans of time travel books, alternative history stories, and tales about parallel universes.

In 1898 Joe Tournier steps off a train and suddenly can’t remember anything that comes before that moment. The world he now finds himself in is as foreign to him as it is to us: an alternate history/reality where the UK lost the Battle of Trafalgar and is now a French colony.

In this world, the British are kept as slaves. Napoleon is a popular name for pets, and tartan is outlawed. Since Joe arrives on a train from Glasgow speaking English and wearing tartan, there is some speculation he might be from The Saints, a terrorist group based in Edinburgh fighting for freedom.

But all Joe remembers is the fading image of a woman and the name Madeline. Although he is identified by his owner and brought “home,” Joe is determined to find this Madeline. And his resolve is only strengthened when he receives a postcard signed ‘– M’ and dated 90 years in the past.

Discover even more books about Scottish culture, history, and everyday life.

Read The Kingdoms : Amazon | Goodreads

The Light Brigade by Kameron Hurley

The Light Brigade by Kameron Hurley book cover with human like person in gear and lit hole with blue radiating from it

The Light Brigade is one of the best time travel stories for anyone who loves character-driven tales or books about war and conflict.

As war wages on Mars, the military has devised the perfect soldier to fight on the frontlines: being made of light. The Light Brigade, as they’re called back home, is made up of soldiers who have undergone a procedure that breaks them down into atoms capable of traveling at the speed of light. They are the perfect soldiers, but broken people.

The book follows one such soldier, Dietz, an eager new recruit who is experiencing battle out of sync with everyone else. Because of this, she – and we – see a different reality of the war than the one presented by the Corporate Corps. As Dietz becomes more and more unstuck in time, she becomes more and more unsure of her own sanity and the role she is playing in this war.

Read The Light Brigade : Amazon | Goodreads

The Umbrella Academy by Gerard Way

The Umbrella Academy Vol. 1 by Gerard Way and Gabriel Ba book cover with illustrated image of person's body meshed with a guitar

You Look Like Death Volume 1 | Now a popular (and excellent) Netflix TV show, The Umbrella Academy is one of the best time travel books of all time.

One day, forty-seven children are suddenly and inexplicably born to women who were not previously pregnant. Eccentric millionaire Reginald Hargreeves goes around the world buying as many of the surviving children as he possibly can. He is able to get seven.

These children, it turns out, all have superpowers (except, it seems, for the unremarkable Number Seven aka Vanya). They become the crime-fighting group: The Umbrella Academy.

Fast forward several years, and Number Five, whose special power is that he can travel in time a few seconds or minutes per go, has mysteriously appeared after Hargreeves dies. And now he brings warning of an apocalypse – one which he insists none of his siblings will survive.

The Umbrella Academy series currently has three volumes, all packed with tales of time travel, parallel worlds, family drama, and lots of epic battles. We’ve absolutely loved this time travel book series so far; we can’t wait to see what Gerard Way does with future installments.

Discover even more great books with music, musicians, and bands.

Read The Umbrella Academy : Amazon | Goodreads

Historical Fiction

Travel back in time to witness wars and history. See what happens if you try to rewrite the future. Many of these historical fiction books with time travel promise to teach you more.

The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton

The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton book cover with black background and gold writing

We have a plethora of Agatha Christie fans amongst our Uncorked Readers , and Turton’s The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evenlyn Hardcastle is inspired by Christie.

Similar to Levithan’s Every Day , each day, Aiden wakes up in a different body from the guests of the Blackheath Manor. Trapped in a time loop, Aiden must solve Evelyn Hardcastle’s murder to escape. In the process, he navigates the tangled web of secrets, lies, and interconnected lives of the guests. Can he identify the killer and break the cycle?

The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle is an award-winning historical thriller and one of the best time travel novels if you enjoy Downton Abbey and Groundhog’s Day . Discover even more great books set at hotels, mansions, and more.

Read The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle : Amazon | Goodreads

Outlander by Diana Gabaldon

Outlander Series Diane Gabaldon book cover with old building on blue background

Travel back in time to Scotland in one of the most well-known time travel book series (and now TV series) of all time. Outlander is a part of pop culture. A New York Times bestseller and one of the top 10 most loved books according to The Great America Read, get ready to enter Scotland in 1743.

Claire Randall, a former British combat nurse, walks through an ancient circle of stones and is transported into a world of love, death, and war. This is a place of political intrigue, clan conflicts, and romantic entanglements. Claire must navigate the unfamiliar landscape while grappling with her feelings for the dashing Jamie Fraser.

Encounter even more cult-classic books from the ’90s like A Game Of Thrones , which is perfect for fantasy map lovers .

Read Outlander : Amazon | Goodreads

11/22/63: A Novel by Stephen King

Best Time Travel Books 11/22/63: A Novel book cover with newspaper clipping of JFK being slain in Dallas

Written by bestselling author, Stephen King, 11/22/63 is one of the best award-winning time travel books for historical fiction lovers. Set in 1963 when President Kennedy is shot, 11/22/63 begs the question: what if you could go back in time and change history?

Enter Jake Epping in Lisbon Falls, Maine.  Epping asks his students to write about a time that altered the course of their lives. Inspired by one of those haunting essays, Epping enlists to prevent Kennedy’s assassination.  How is this time travel possible? With the discovery of a time portal in a local diner’s storeroom…

11/22/63 is one of the most thrilling and realistic books about time travel, according to both critics and readers.

Read 11/22/63 : Amazon | Goodreads

Kindred by Octavia E. Butler

Kindred by Octavia E Butler book cover with young black woman's face and wooden houses that she is looking down upon

If you are looking for historical fiction novels about time travel that address slavery and racism, be sure to check out Butler’s Kindred. This is also one of the best books published in the 1970s .

One minute Dana is celebrating her birthday in modern-day California. The next, she finds herself in the Antebellum South on a Pre-Civil War Maryland plantation. Dana is expected to save the plantation owner’s son from drowning. Each time Dana finds herself back in this time period as well as the slave quarters, her stays grow longer and longer as well as more dangerous.

Examine the haunting legacy and trauma of slavery across time. For younger readers, there is also a graphic novel adaptation . Discover more books that will transport you to the South .

Read Kindred : Amazon | Goodreads

What The Wind Knows by Amy Harmon

Best Historical Fiction Time Travel Books What The Wind Knows by Amy Harmon book cover with white woman's face with reddish brown hair and waves

A bestseller and Goodreads top choice book, if you devour historical Irish fiction, What The Wind Knows will transport you to Ireland in the 1920s.

Anne Gallagher heads to Ireland to spread her grandfather’s ashes. Devastated, her grief pulls her into another time. Ireland is on the verge of entering a war, and Anne embraces a case of mistaken identity. She finds herself pulled into Ireland’s fight for Independence at the risk of losing her future life. She also falls for another main character and doctor, Thomas Smith.

What The Wind Knows is one of the best time travel novels that both romance and fantasy readers can appreciate. Witness connections that transcend time.

Read What The Wind Knows : Amazon | Goodreads

The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes

The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes book cover with person in skirt and stripped leggings glowing gold

Known for being one of the best time travel books for thriller lovers, The Shining Girls also has the reputation as the spookiest novel on this reading list.

Kirby Mazrachi is the last shining girl – a girl with a future and so much potential. Harper Curtis is a murderer from the past meant to kill Mazrachi. However, Kirby is not about to easily go out without a fight, leading her on one violent quantum leap through multiple decades.

As Kirby races against time to track down a serial killer and unravel the mysteries of the House, encounter themes of resilience, fate, and the shining spirit that can transcend even the darkest forces.

Read The Shining Girls : Amazon | Goodreads

Time Travel Romance Books

We love a good time-travel romance novel, but we also understand how hard it can be to hold onto love when time is so unstable. From queer love stories set on trains to holiday celebrations, fall in love across time with these books.

One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston

One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston book cover with one woman on a pink train and another walking by

From bestselling author, Casey McQuiston of Red, White, & Royal Blue – one of our favorite LGBTQ+ books for new adults – don’t miss the most-talked-about book (from 2021), One Last Stop.

Twenty-three-year-old August is quite the cynic and living in New York City. Up until now, August has jumped schools and towns as often as you change a pair of socks. August has also never been in a serious relationship and wants to find “her person.” August’s life suddenly changes, though, when she meets a beautiful and mysterious woman on the train.

Jane looks a little…out of date… and for good reason; she’s from the 1970s and trapped in the train’s energy. August wants nothing more than to help Jane leave the train, but does that mean leaving her too?

A feel-good, older coming-of-age story, laugh out loud and be utterly dazzled as you follow love across time and space. You’ll cozy (and drink) up in the parties and community surrounding August. One Last Stop is one of the all-time best LGBTQ+ time travel books – and perfect if you enjoy books that take place on trains .

Read One Last Stop : Amazon | Goodreads

The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

Best Time Travel Books Fiction The Time Travelers Wife by Audrey Niffenegger book cover with young girl's legs with long white socks and black shoes next to men's pair of brown shoes

The Time Traveler’s Wife is one the top time travel romance novels – and not just because the story features a librarian . We are so biased.

Henry and Clare have loved each other pretty much forever. Unfortunately, Henry has Chrono-Displacement Disorder, sporadically misplacing him in time. Of course, this time-traveling dilemma makes Clare’s and Henry’s marriage and future together pretty darn interesting.

Grab some Kleenex as they attempt to live normal lives and survive impending devastation. The Time Traveler’s Wife has also been made into a romantic movie classic . Watch even more fantasy movies with romance .

Read The Time Traveler’s Wife : Amazon | Goodreads

In A Holidaze by Christina Lauren

In A Holidaze by Christina Lauren green book cover with holiday lights

If you are looking for a sweet and sexy holiday rom-com set in Utah, grab In A Holidaze by Christina Lauren.

Mae leaves her family and friend’s Christmas vacation home after drunkenly making out with an old childhood friend. Blame the spiked eggnog. Unfortunately, Mae’s secretly in love with her best friend’s brother, Andrew. On the ride to the airport, Mae wishes for happiness just as a truck hits her parent’s car. 

Mae lands in a time-travel loop where her dreams start coming true.  Is it too good to last?   What happens when she isn’t happy once again? Is she trapped?

For holiday books about time travel, this one is sure to put you in the Christmas spirit if you enjoy movies like Holidates  or  Groundhog’s Day . It’s light with a happy ending – typical of this author duo. We also recommend In A Holidaze if you are looking for Christmas family gathering books – a big request we see here at TUL.

P.S. Did you know that Christina Lauren is a pen name for a writing duo, Christina Hobbs and Lauren Billings? Christina Lauren also wrote The Unhoneymooners , which was also hilariously enjoyable and set on an island .

Read In A Holidaze : Amazon | Goodreads

A Knight In Shining Armor by Jude Deveraux

Time Travel Romance A Knight In Shining Armor by Jude Deveraux book cover with pretty beige stucco house with yard and flowering bushes

For cozy time travel romance books and a feminist tale set abroad, try A Knight In Shining Armor .

Dougless Montgomery is weeping on top of a tombstone when Nicholas Stafford, Earl of Thornwyck, appears. Although this armor-clad hunk allegedly died in 1564, he stands before her about to embark on a journey to clear his name. Convicted of treason, Montgomery vows to help her soon-to-be lover find his accuser and set the record straight.

Read A Knight In Shining Armor : Amazon | Goodreads

The Night Mark by Tiffany Reisz

The Night Mark by Tiffany Reisz book cover with lighthouse

Set in South Carolina, if you love lighthouses and beach vibes, you’ll find something enjoyable in the time travel romance, The Night Mark .

After Faye’s husband dies, she cannot move on and recover. Accepting a photographer job in SC, Faye becomes obsessed with the local lighthouse’s myth, The Lady of the Light.

Back in 1921, the lighthouse keeper’s daughter mysteriously drowned. Faye is drawn into a love story that isn’t hers and becomes entangled in a passionate and forbidden love affair.

Read The Night Mark : Amazon | Goodreads

The Seven Year Slip by Ashley Poston

The Seven Year Slip by Ashley Poston book cover with two people standing around title on yellow background

Anyone who likes their time travel books to have a magical love story should pick up The Seven Year Slip for their next read. It’s one of our favorite magical realism novels .

When Clementine’s aunt dies, she inherits her fancy New York apartment on the Upper East Side. Although Clementine would really rather have her aunt back and can’t imagine living in her home, she eventually forces herself to move in and inhabit her aunt’s space.

And not long after, she wakes up to discover a strange man in her living room… except it’s not her living room, it’s her aunt’s… from seven years ago. Clementine’s aunt always said her apartment held a touch of magic; sometimes it created time slips that brought two people together when they were at a crossroads.

But what happens when you start to fall for someone stuck seven years in the past? Clementine knows there’s no future together, but she also can’t let go of this link to her aunt.

Like her previous speculative fiction romance, The Dead Romantics , Ashely Poston’s unique time travel tale is full of heartache and grief. However, it will also make you swoon. Basically, this one is a must if you are a fan of time travel romance books.

Read The Seven Year Slip : Amazon | Goodreads

Classic Books

No time travel reading list would be complete without the classics. Below, uncover just a few great time travel novels that started it all.

The End of Eternity by Issac Asimov

The End of Eternity by Issac Asimov book cover with turquoise strip

The End of Eternity is said to be one of Asimov’s science fiction masterpieces. This is also one of the most spellbinding books about time travel – although some criticize the story for its loopholes.

Harlan is a member of the elite future known as an Eternal. He lives and works in Eternity, which like any good time travel novel, is located separately from time and space.

Harlan makes small changes in the timeline in order to better history. Of course, altering the course of the world is dangerous and comes with repercussions, especially when Harlan falls in love.

Read The End of Eternity : Amazon | Goodreads

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

Classic Time Travel books, A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens with man carrying a young boy with cane on his back

It goes without saying that Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol is one of the most famous and best time travel books for classic lovers – and a literary canon-worthy Christmas novel.

Ebenezer Scrooge is a greedy, lonely, and cruel man who truly has no Christmas spirit. Haunted by the ghosts of the past, present, and future, Scrooge must find the ultimate redemption before it’s too late. Does he have a heart?

Find even more classic and contemporary ghost books , including a few unique takes on ghosts.

Read A Christmas Carol : Amazon | Goodreads

Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut

Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut book cover with yellow skull on red background

Slaughterhouse-Five is a somewhat bizarre time travel book about finding meaning in our sometimes fractured and broken lives. It’s also one of the most popular books published in the ’60s .

Similar to The Time Traveler’s Wife, Billy Pilgrim is “unstuck” in time in Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five. Drafted into World War II, Pilgrim serves as a Chaplain’s assistant until he is captured by the Germans. He survives the bombing at Dresden and ultimately becomes a married optometrist. Things get a little wild…

Suffering from PTSD, Billy claims that he is kidnapped by aliens in a different dimension. Like most time travel novels, the story is out of order and Billy travels to different parts of his life.

Aliens come in all shapes and sizes; have more alien encounters with this reading list .

Read Slaughterhouse-Five : Amazon | Goodreads

A Connecticut Yankee In King Arthur’s Court by Mark Twain

A Connecticut Yankee In King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain book cover with young man in suit looking at knights on horses

First published in 1889, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court is one of the most popular classic and satirical time travel novels that’s set close to our childhood home. Having grown up in CT close to the old Colt factory, this story makes us smile.

Hank Morgan supervises the gun factory and is knocked unconscious. Upon waking, he finds himself in Britain about to be executed by the Knights of King Arthur’s Round Table in Camelot.

Morgan uses his future knowledge to his advantage, making him a powerful and revered wizard, which unfortunately doesn’t quite save him as he hopes. Not to mention that Morgan tries to introduce modern-day conveniences and luxuries to a time period that isn’t quite ready for them.

Read A Connecticut Yankee In King Arthur’s Court : Amazon | Goodreads

The Time Machine by H.G. Wells

Classic Time Travel novels The Time Machine by H.G. Wells book cover with shapes

The Time Machine is one of the best frontrunner time travel books of all time. Published in 1895, the Time Traveler recalls his exhausting time travel adventures to incredulous believers. He even disappears in front of them.

Blended with fantasy and science fiction over the course of 800,000 years, the Time Traveler battles “bad guys.” He also loses his time machine, debatably falls in love, and meets the underground dwelling Morlocks.

Read The Time Machine : Amazon | Goodreads

Young Adults Books

For young adults and teens – plus adults who appreciate YA – read the best middle-grade and high school time travel books. We’ve included more time travel graphic novels and manga here too.

Displacement by Kiku Hughes

Displacement by Kiku Hughes book cover with illustrated two people walking away from each other but both looking back and fire tower along fence in the background

For historical YA graphic novels , Displacement is one of the must-read books about time travel that will teach young readers about generational trauma, racism, politics, and war.

Follow Kiku, who is displaced in time, back to the period of U.S. Japanese incarceration [internment] camps – essentially glorified prisons – during WW2. Kiku begins learning more about her deceased grandmother’s history, which mirrors the horrid actions under former President Donald Trump. How can Kiku help stop the past from repeating itself, and more so, how can we?

In a simplistic but powerful style of storytelling, Hughes’s emotional YA WW2 book is accessible to young readers. Displacement is also one of the shorter and quicker books with time travel on this list. Find even more LGBT+ graphic novels to read – one of our favorite genres.

Read Displacement : Amazon | Goodreads

The Girl From Everywhere by Heidi Heilig

YA Time Travel Books The Girl From Everywhere by Heidi Heilig with red sailed shop on water and woman looking through a crack

Changing the past can be pretty tempting. We’ve even seen that The Flash cannot resist. However, altering the course of history can be dangerous…

The first of two YA time travel books, Nix is the daughter of a time traveler. Her dad can sail anywhere on his ship, The Temptation. Her dad has his own temptation, though: to travel back to Honolulu in 1868, the year before her mom dies in childbirth. Nix’s father threatens to possibly erase her life and destroy a relationship with her only friend.

Discover even more great books about maps. Or, travel via armchair with these ship books.

Read The Girl From Everywhere : Amazon | Goodreads

Ruby Red by Kerstin Gier

YA Time Travel Books Ruby Red by Kerstin Gier book cover with jewels and portrait of a woman from the 18 century England on red background

Translated by Anthea Bell | If you are looking for time travel in books and enjoy YA historical fiction, try Ruby Red , which is the first in the Ruby Red Trilogy.

Gwyneth Shepherd quickly learns that she can easily time travel, unlike her cousin who has been preparing her entire life for the feat. Gwyneth wants to know why such a secret was kept from her. There are so many lies. Gwyneth time travels with the handsome Gideon back and forth between modern-day and 18th-century London to uncover secrets from the past.

Back in our MLIS and library days, Ruby Red was one of our favorite YA time travel books to recommend since so few knew about the series. Just a small warning that this enemies-to-lovers trope is a tad sexist, though. Find books like Ruby Red on our books with red (and more colors) in the title reading list .

Read Ruby Red : Amazon | Goodreads

Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs book cover with levitating young girl on black and white cover

A little creepier for young adult time travel novels, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children is all about time loops. We’ve only read the first in this eerie series that mixes manipulated vintage photography with a suspenseful and chilling story.

Jacob discovers a decaying orphanage on a mysterious island off the coast of Wales. Known as Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, the building isn’t exactly abandoned… Jacob runs into peculiar children who might be more than just ghosts.

If you are looking for Kurt Vonnegut-esque time travel books for teenagers, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children is for you. Find even more great adult and YA haunted house books to add to your reading list .

Read Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children : Amazon | Goodreads

A Wrinkle In Time by Madeleine L’Engle

A Wrinkle In Time by Madeleine L'Engle book cover with space

One of the most well-known books about time travel for families – made even more popular by Oprah and Mindy Kaling, A Wrinkle In Time , is the first book in The Time Quintet .

Although a time travel book series for elementary and middle-grade students – and also a 1963 Newbery Medal winner – adults will love the lessons and whimsical sci-fi quality of A Wrinkle In Time.

Meg Murray and her brother, Charles Wallace, go on an adventure in time to find and rescue their father. Their dad disappeared while working for the government on a mysterious tesseract project.

Watch this thrilling time travel adventure mixed with a coming-of-age story and a little girl power, too.

Read A Wrinkle in Time : Amazon | Goodreads

Orange by Ichigo Takano

Orange by Ichigo Takano book cover with illustrated three people wearing brown slacks and green blazers with trees behind them

Translated by Lasse Christian Christiansen and Amber Tamosaitis | This YA sci-fi romance manga is one of the most endearing time travel books you’ll ever read.

On the first day of 11th grade, Naho oversleeps for the first time ever. She also receives a letter that claims to be sent from herself 10 years in the future. The letter tells her both of the two big things that will happen to her that day as proof of sender: she will be late, and there will be a new kid in class named Naruse Kakeru from Tokyo who will sit next to her.

Naho is unsure if she trusts the letter, or whether or not she should heed its warnings – especially since it talks about past regrets and trying to undo them.

Orange is an adorable, but heartbreaking time travel manga that teaches us the meaning of friendship, love, regret, and so much more. If you’re looking for the best books about time travel for teens, Orange is the perfect option (and adults will love it too).

Read Orange : Amazon | Goodreads

If you devour the time travel genre, don’t miss these great movies…

If you enjoy books that take you back in time, you might also appreciate these top movies with time loops . Would you be able to fix past mistakes, fall in love, and you know, maybe not die this time? Find out if these protagonists succeed.

Travel Back In Time With These Reading Lists:

  • Best ’90s Books
  • Iconic ’80s Books
  • Best WWII Historical Fiction

Christine Owner The Uncorked Librarian LLC with white brunette female in pink dress sitting in chair with glass of white wine and open book

Christine Frascarelli

Writer Dagney McKinney white female with light brown hair wearing a purple shirt and smiling

Dagney McKinney

45 Comments

Hi, nice list but just FYI you have one of the novels named incorrectly: it should be All Our Wrong Todays, not All Our Wrongs Today.

Thanks for letting us know! Every year, this list grows, and sometimes we miss a few mistakes.

The Things Are Bad Series by Paul L Giles is the funniest, most insightful time travel books I’ve ever read. It has everything!

Thanks so much for the review and rec!

Dream Daughter by Diane Chamberlain is an engrossing time travel book that I enjoyed immensely.

Our readers and contributors are big Diane Chamberlain fans. Thanks!

A huge time travel fan. A great list. Another time travel book recommendation: Oona Out of Order by Margarita Montemore. Wonderful story.

Thank you so much for the kind words and recommendation! We’ll have to check it out.

Great list, thanks. I also love seeing all the recommendations in the comments. I would add the Chronos Files series to your list. And, of course, the film ABOUT TIME, which is fantastic!

Thanks so much for the recommendations. We appreciate it!

You missed Jack FINNEY’s book, Time and Again. Best time travel book ever!

Thanks for sharing your favorite time travel book. We appreciate it.

Dinosaur Beach by Keith Laumer The Big Time by Fritz Leiber The Anubis Gates by Tim Powers The Jesus Incident by Frank Herbert Timeline by Michael Crichton

Thank you for the great time travel book suggestions!

The Other Me, by Sarah Zachrich Jeng. I didn’t know this was going to be a time travel book when I started, as it was listed in an intriguing review of “Thrillers about Women Breaking Free, Losing Control, and Taking Charge”. Very imaginative and well done story about a woman who walks into a bathroom at an art opening in Chicago and suddenly finds herself at a birthday party in an Italian restaurant in central Michigan.

This sounds like an awesome time travel book — it wasn’t on our radar. Thanks so much for the suggestion.

On my time travel TBR is a middle grade called Saving Lucas Biggs, a YA called Time Travel for Love and Profit, and either time Travelers wife or here and now and then.

Time Travel For Love and Profit sounds really sweet. If I have extra time this month, I want to read it! Thanks so much for the recommendation.

One of my biggest recs for time travel is Beyond the Moon by Catherine Taylor – I read it as an arc a few years ago and absolutely adored it. It’s one of those really underrated books that I love to recommend!

I haven’t read that one yet — and you know how much I love time travel stories! I’ll have to check it out; thanks so much for the rec!

I loved “A Wrinkle in Time” when I was a kid. Now as an old kid, I love “the Invisible Library” series by Genevieve Cogman. : -)

Me too — and I enjoyed the movie! I’ll have to check out The Invisible Library series. Thanks so much for the recommendation.

Not sure how you missed Jack Finney’s “Time and again”, my absolute favorite time travel book of all time. Finney has written others, but don’t miss this one! Simply, non-mechanical “travel” with photos of New York City as the protagonist sees it. Simply magical.

Thanks so much for sharing your favorite time travel novel! We appreciate it.

@M.A., YES! This was the best time travel novel I ever read! It has been one of my favourite genres ever since.

Great list! I love The Time Traveler’s Wife. A terrific book is A Scientific Romance by Canadian author Ronald Wright. We assume that the future will be more advanced but this book turns that notion on its head. It plays off an H. G. Wells mystery and environmental disaster. I love libraries so much. My childhood vacations involved a huge box of library books and a tent.

Thanks so much for the book recommendation. A Scientific Romance sounds really good. I definitely love and appreciate the library, too. A tent with books sounds fabulous. I think we might need this in adulthood still.

I know Crystal has told you…but *OUTLANDER.* Not sure what else to add, aside from that I have put these books on my list…and you really must read Outlander…it takes a bit to sink into…but it’s worth it. I started the show before I read the book, in fact when my husband was at a bachelor party. Next thing you know, we’re visiting the Outlander tourist spots in Scotland! xx

Yes, hahaha. Whenever I do a contributor guest post, everyone puts Outlander on it too. I haven’t seen the show yet–that or GOTs , ekkkk!!! That’s hilarious that you started Outlander while your husband was at a bachelor party. Scotland is on my to-see list! So what do you fangirl more? HP or Outlander ?

Thank you so much for this wonderful list, Christine! Time travel is a subgenre that I absolutely adore. So many of my favorite movies and novels stream from this concept and I always have such fun reading about them! I’ll definitely have to add a few of these to my to-be-read list. What the Wind Knows sounds especially intriguing! <3

Me too–I just love time travel books. While I love love love The Time Traveler’s Wife , I think Recursion might be one of my new favorites. All of the YA ones are also really good. I hope you find a few new time travel reads and enjoy them. Please let me know what you end up reading.

@Christine, I have Time traveller’s wife and Recursion on the TBR shelf. I will move them both to my bedside table.

I hope you enjoy Recursion — I know you enjoy sci-fi, and that one fits the genre a bit more than many of the other time travel books on this list.

So many things to read!!! I love time travel books and fantasy. Outlander, The Time Traveler’s Wife, and even Vonnegut (haven’t read him for a long time — he’s a must-reread!). But so many I haven’t read. I think I’ll put Kindred next on my to-do time travel list. But I wonder if I’d actually time travel myself if I had the chance 🙂

Time travel books are one of my favorite genres because they not only allow readers to travel across time but also internationally–which is totally my jam. Vonnegut is an author that I read way more of in HS and college. Kindred is a great time travel book that addresses so many pertinent issues, even today. I hope you like it!

I love time travel stories! I think Back to the Future probably got me into it. I wish we could time travel! Time Traveler’s Wife is one of my favorite books ever. I wish I could read it for the first time again. It was epic! I got hooked on watching Outlander too. Going to watch the new season on Netflix soon! Your list is awesome. I have so many new books I need to read now. I will definitely be referring back. I’ve also read a cheesy, good romantic time traveler story called A Murder in Time. I read the 2nd book too and just now realized that the 3rd one is available!

Awesome list!

HAHA, I grew up with Back To The Future. I feel that! Complete 80s time travel classic.

Ohhhh, thanks for the new book suggestion! You are definitely my go-to for romance. I loved loved loved The Time Traveler’s Wife , and I so very much wanted a different outcome for the ending.

A Christmas Carol is such a classic!! I actually intended to reread it this year during the festive season, but I never got around to it. A Time Traveler’s Wife & A Wrinkle in Time are books I’ve been intending to read for agessss, this was a great reminder 🙂

I hope you get to read A Time Traveler’s Wife and A Wrinkle In Time . Both are great books! A Christmas Carol is definitely perfect around the holidays.

Oh, this is such a fun topic. I love your list. Another great one to try is Timeline by Michael Crichton.

I love talking about time travel books. Yessss!!! That’s a great recommendation; I’d been eyeing Timeline. Thanks!

Outlander, so good! I haven’t read a Wrinkle in Time but I watched the movie with Oprah and my queen Mindy Kaling but I hated it! I assume the book is a million times better though! Kindred sounds up my alley – I think I will check it out next. I absolutely love time travel stories! I wish it was a real thing because I would love to travel back in time!

I read a Wrinkle in Time as a kid first and then again as an adult. The author is a Smithie so I am also a little biased. Mindy Kaling is amazing, and I love Oprah so much . I had read somewhere that the book was actually denied something like 86 times (don’t quote me on that number but it was *very* high) before being published years and years later. I guess others hated it too.

I read Kindred back in college or one HS summer–it’s definitely a unique and important time travel book.

Thank you! I’d love to be Dr. Who–a girl can dream, right?!

I’m a sucker for time travel books! Especially if they involve romance. Time Traveler’s Wife and Outlander are two of my favorites. I also loved the movie and TV series. I did watch the TV show 1963 and now I’m pleasantly surprised to find it’s a book – I need to read!

Seriously though, I had no idea Outlander was a book series until I watched the show. Then I started to look into it and was shocked that the first book was published (I think) the year I was born. I started reading and was hooked the moment she goes back into time. I fell in love with the characters. If anything, I’ll read the new books just to see where the author has taken them. The first few books were my favorite.

I feel like I’ve read other time travel books but I can’t remember the titles right now.

Love this list. It will be a popular one.

Right?! I feel like we all have this guilty, amazing pleasure for time travel romance.

I really need to *try* to get more into these historical series: Outlander, Game of Thrones, or even Downton Abbey. For some reason, I am more of a comic girl, lol. Maybe Marvel or DC need to run them…

I’m sure I’ll have 100 more time travel fiction books to add to this list all year. I couldn’t think of them all either. There are SO MANY! I really need to add some indie time travel books, too.

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20 Must-Read Time Travel Books

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Dana lives in East Haven, CT. She works for that Ivy League institution down the street and tries to read as many books as possible in her free time. Audiobooks and print books get equal love. Also, she unapologetically judges books by their covers and makes way too many playlists (c'mon, books need a soundtrack too!). Follow her on Twitter @lucyhenley115 .

View All posts by Dana Lee

Hear me out, there’s a sub-genre of sci-fi that that has a touch of anything you could ever want: time travel books. The best time travel books come in all packages: adventure, historical fiction, romance, social commentary, mystery, humor, poetry. It really has it all. So, if you can still recite the opening credits of Quantum Leap from memory, this list is for you. Enjoy these must-read time travel books.

Here and Now and Then  by Mike Chen

Kin is a time-traveling agent from the year 2142 who gets stuck in 1990s San Francisco after a botched mission, and his rescue team shows up 18 years too late after he’s already built a life for himself. Here and Now and Then has all those warm and fuzzy sci-fi feels with just the right amount of Doctor Who level angst . Kin dealing with the circumstances of time travel and the consequences it brings about is super compelling and emotional and so, so worthy of a Murray Gold score.

The Future of Another Timeline  by Annalee Newitz

In the world of Another Timeline , time travel has been around since forever in the form of a geologic phenomena known as the “Machines.” Tess belongs to a group called the Daughters of Harriett, determined to make the future better for women by editing the timeline at key moments in history. They run up against the misogynistic group called the Comstockers working towards the opposite goal. There’s time travel, murder, punk rock concerts, nerd references, and an edit war. As Newitz recently said in an extra of their podcast, Our Opinions Are Correct , history is a  “synthesis of good fuckery” and I can’t think of a better phrase to describe this book than that.

An Ocean of Minutes  by Thea Lim

There is a deadly flu pandemic in America. Polly’s boyfriend Frank gets sick and she signs up for a one-way ticket to the future to work off the cost of Frank’s cure. They agree to meet up in the future, but Polly is rerouted to a later time where America is divided and she has no connections and no money. This is a really gorgeously written and heart-wrenching story about time travel, dystopian society, the brutality of survival in an unfamiliar world, and a character study of a normal person dealing with it all.

Kindred  by Octavia Butler

Dana is an African American woman celebrating her birthday in 1976 California when she is pulled through time to Antebellum Maryland. She saves a young white boy named Rufus from drowning and finds herself staring down the barrel of his father’s rifle. She is pulled back to her present just in time to save her life, appearing back in her living room soaked and muddy. She is repeatedly pulled back to the past encountering the same young man.  Over the course of these harrowing episodes, Dana realizes her connection to Rufus and the challenge she is faced with. This is a brilliant, thought-provoking, and intense book that is required reading for so many reasons least of which is time travel.

Alice Payne Arrives  by Kate Heartfield

Alice Payne Arrives is a quick romp through time with some truly amazing female characters. Alice Payne is a half-black queer woman in 1788 England living in her father’s deteriorating mansion. She’s also a notorious masked highway robber and her partner is an inventor. Prudence is a professional time traveler from the 22nd century working fruitlessly to try and change one small event in 1884. The two women cross paths and work together to put Prudence’s plan to end time travel in motion. This novella packs a lot of action and time travel goodness and there’s a sequel called Alice Payne Rides . It also contains one of the realest lines of any of the time travel books I’ve read: “2016’s completely fucked.”

How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe  by Charles Yu

Charles Yu is a time machine repairman searching for his missing father, “accompanied by TAMMY, an operating system with low self-esteem, and Ed, a nonexistent but ontologically valid dog.” He receives a book from his future self that could help him locate his father. The book is called How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe and he wrote it. Hi, this book is super cool, fun, clever, and weird in the best ways. It has the highest distinction I can give a sci-fi book and that is warm and fuzzy.

The Psychology of Time Travel  by Kate Mascarenhas

Four female scientists invent time travel in 1967. One of the scientists, Bee,  suffers a mental breakdown just before they’re about to go public with their findings. The other three exile Bee from the project to save face. Fifty years later time travel is a normal part of life and a huge business. It’s regulated by the Conclave, founded by three of the original scientists, which seeks to self govern all aspects of time travel. The Psychology of Time Travel  serves up time travel with a locked-door mystery and the payoff of alternating perspectives and timelines slowly coming together.

The River of No Return  by Bee Ridgeway

At the moment of his death on a Napoleonic battlefield, Lord Nicholas Falcott wakes up in the 21st century. He’s recruited by a time travel agency known as The Guild for training. Julia Percy lives in 1815 England and after the death of her grandfather seeks to find her place in a world where meddling with time is commonplace. There’s a whole lot going on here: romance, betrayal, double-agents, and drawing on emotion to facilitate time jumps, leading to my favorite line: “Though really they were probably both insane. Two grown men dressed up like Mr. Darcy, holding hands behind a tree, trying to pull themselves by the heart strings back to the long ago.”

This is How You Lose the Time War  by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone

Blue and Red are fighting on opposite sides of an endless time war. They begin to exchange letters on the battlefield, first as a boast, then as an exploration of friendship across enemy lines, and finally as a romance. I have previously described this as “poetic sci-fi realness.” I could be more professional and say that this is an epistolary work of rival agents forming a bond despite their opposition, but like I can’t okay. This book is so intricate and beautiful and the letters are not on paper, they could be in the dregs of a teacup or the rings of a tree, and I’m not crying you’re crying.

All Our Wrong Todays  by Elan Mastai

Tom is a misfit in a utopian world, and he goes back in time and accidentally screws up the future. This mishap leaves him stranded in our 2016, but what we think of as the real world is a dystopian wasteland to Tom. He eventually finds different versions of everything he knows and maybe even his soulmate. Tom has to decide whether to fix the timeline and bring back utopia or live in this new version of the world he’s created. Probably me as a time traveler, tbh.

The Fire Opal Mechanism by Fran Wilde

The Fire Opal Mechanism  is technically a sequel to The Jewel and Her Lapidary , but it can definitely be read as a stand-alone. Ania is a librarian at the last university desperately trying to save as many books as she can. All the other universities have fallen to the Pressman, an extremist group bent on destroying all the world’s books and replacing them with a generic, self-updating compendium available to everyone regardless of economic class. Jorit, branded a thief, is on the run just trying to survive long enough to afford passage on a ship away from all these problems. They team up and inadvertently discover time travel, but will it help them fix the present? This is really beautifully written, especially the passages about books: “Touching a book, for Ania, was like touching a person’s fingertips across the years. She could feel a pulse, a passion for the knowledge the book contained.”

The Silver Wind  by Nina Allan

The Silver Wind  is a series of stories linked by the character Martin Newland. Each story is like an alternate universe brought about by time machines and time travel. As Allan describes on her website : “While the overarching theme of this book might properly be found in Martin’s struggle with infinity, its individual chapters deal with those small acts of creative defiance that determine our transcendence of ordinary mortality.” A thoroughly thought-provoking déjà vu experience.

What the Wind Knows by Amy Harmon

Anne Gallagher travels to Ireland to scatter the ashes of her beloved grandfather. She is pulled back in time to the Ireland of 1921 and is mistaken as the long-lost mother of a young boy. She assumes this identity and is drawn into the lives of those around her and the political unrest of the time. It’s a historical romance perfect for fans of Outlander.

The Shining Girls  by Lauren Beukes

What if time travel fell into the hands of a criminal?  The Shining Girls  is the story of serial killer named Harper Curtis who stumbles upon an abandoned house in Depression-era Chicago that allows him to travel in time. He chooses his victims and visits them at different times of their lives before returning for the kill. Kirby survives Harper’s attack and, along with a former homicide reporter, tries to unravel the mystery before anyone else dies. This book is wild, W-I-L-D. There’s a lot of violence, so it might not be for everyone, but it’s such an interesting take on the time travel story.

Version Control  by Dexter Palmer

Set in the near-future, Rebecca works in the customer support department of the dating site where she met her husband Phillip. He is a scientist building a causality violation device (definitely not a time machine!). But Rebecca can’t help but feel that there’s something wrong with the present. So, this is kind of about living with technology and kind of about relationships and overcoming tragedy and also time travel. Intelligent and poignant but make it sci-fi.

How to Invent Everything: A Survival Guide for the Stranded Time Traveler  by Ryan North

Starting out with an FAQ guide to your rented time machine, How to Invent Everything humorously goes through the history of well, everything. From how to determine what time period you have landed and are now stuck in to inventing language and electricity it’s a very Hitchhiker’s Guide -ish look at history presented as a guide for creating the things you’ll miss when you’re stranded in an earlier timeline than your own.

Time After Time  by Lisa Grunwald

It’s 1937 and Joe Reynolds is a hard-working railroad man at Grand Central Station. Nora Lansing is an aspiring artist and the last thing she remembers is her train crashing in 1925. They meet at the big clock and Joe walks Nora home, but she disappears in the street. She reappears one year later and meets Joe again. Realizing she’s jumping in time and trapped in Grand Central for mysterious reasons that might have something to do with Manhattanhenge, Nora and Joe try to unravel the mystery before she disappears again. For me this was a time travel books mashup of The Clock meets Kate & Leopold meets Gentleman in Moscow and I was very about it.

TimeKeeper  by Tara Sim

TimeKeeper takes place in an alternate Victorian world where time is controlled by clock towers. Danny is a young clock mechanic enamored with his new apprentice, who turns out to be the Enfield clock spirit, Colton. Bombings at other towers start to occur and broken clocks mean the towns they oversee will be frozen in time. The romance between Danny and Colton is very adorable and the race against literal time is an exciting backdrop. It’s the first in a trilogy.

Bones of the Earth by Michael Swanwick

If you’re a time travel fan then this sentence from the publisher’s summary is sure to get you excited, “World-renowned paleontologist Richard Leyster’s universe changed forever the day a stranger named Griffin walked into his office with a remarkable job offer…and an ice cooler containing the head of a freshly killed Stegosaurus.” Time travel allows a group of scientists to go back and study dinosaurs up close in their natural environment. If you are now humming the Jurassic Park theme, please know, So. Am. I.

Just One Damned Thing After Another (Chronicles of St. Mary’s) by Jodi Taylor

There is so much going on in this whirlwind adventure that if you blink you’ll miss a major plot point.  Just One Damned Thing After Another  is just the first book in a series of the adventures of St. Mary’s Institute of Historical Research as they rattle around through time trying to answer history’s unanswered questions. There are currently 11 books published and forthcoming and a ton of short stories that fill in the blanks between adventures. Taylor also has a spinoff time travel series, The Time Police, with the first book just out called Doing Time .  It follows three hapless new time police recruits as they try to keep the timeline straight.

Looking for more of the best time travel books? Check out these timey-wimey posts:

Time Travel Romances

7 of the Best Alternate Timeline Books

The Lack of Black Characters in Time Travel Romance

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The Best Books of 2023

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The Ten Best Books About Travel of 2023

Take a trip without leaving home with these adventurous reads from this year

Laura Kiniry

Laura Kiniry

Travel Correspondent

BookList-2023-Travel.jpg

It’s often said that travel is all about the journey, whether it’s planning a remote island holiday or setting out on the adventure of a lifetime across the Arctic Ocean. But it can be almost as thrilling to roam the world from the comfort of our homes. Just take our pick of 2023 travel books, which include everything from humor-fueled essay collections and thought-provoking narratives to tomes brimming with full-page colorful photographs and tips on finding the most welcoming LGBTQ+ spots around the globe. They all share the uncanny ability to transport readers through time and space without ever having to open the front door.

Whether it’s a deep delve into a Balkan landscape of healing plants and foraging, or a more than 2,000-mile road trip through America’s racial history, here are ten travel books that are more than worthy of this year’s holiday wish lists.

Driving the Green Book: A Road Trip Through the Living History of Black Resistance by Alvin Hall

From 1936 to 1967, the Green Book served as an annual travel guide for African Americans, helping them to identify welcoming hotels, restaurants, gas stations and other businesses across the United States during the Jim Crow era. Compiled by Black New York City postman Victor Hugo Green , this essential reference publication included places like Manhattan’s Hotel Theresa , once considered the “Waldorf of Harlem,” and the Moulin Rouge Hotel in Las Vegas, frequented by celebrities like Harry Belafonte and Ella Fitzgerald during its five-month stint in 1955.

Award-winning broadcaster Alvin Hall first learned about the Green Book in 2015, and he was immediately intrigued. Several years later, he and a friend, activist Janée Woods Weber , set out on a 2,000-plus-mile cross-country road trip from Detroit to New Orleans, visiting many of the establishments once featured in the guide’s pages. (Harlem’s Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture has a nearly complete collection of the Green Book , which Hall utilized.) Along the way, Hall also gathered memories from some of the guide’s last surviving users.

The result, Driving the Green Book: a Road Trip Through the Living History of Black Resistance , is a poignant 288-page journey along America’s open roads, delving into the country’s racial past, detailing the Green Book ’s life-saving history and bringing it all together in one remarkable read.

Preview thumbnail for 'Driving the Green Book: A Road Trip Through the Living History of Black Resistance

Driving the Green Book: A Road Trip Through the Living History of Black Resistance

Join award-winning broadcaster Alvin Hall on a journey through America’s haunted racial past, with the legendary Green Book as your guide.

The Last Ride of the Pony Express: My 2,000-Mile Horseback Journey Into the Old West by Will Grant

In 2019, American journalist Will Grant embarked on a five-month, 2,000 mile journey on horseback from Missouri to California. His goal: to follow the historic route of the Pony Express , a legendary frontier mail system operating between April 1860 and October 1861, which used a series of horse-mounted riders and relay stations to deliver mail from one end to the other in just ten days. Although the express service went bankrupt after only 18 months, it remains an iconic symbol of America’s Old West.

Grant chronicles his 142-day adventure in The Last Ride of the Pony Express , a first-person narrative describing his trip across the Great Plains of Nebraska and the sagebrush steppe of Wyoming in the company of his two horses, Badger and Chicken Fry. While Grant reflects on the West’s modernization over time, it’s his vivid descriptions of the communities and local residents—including ranchers, farmers and migrant sheep herders—along the way that make the book a real page-turner.

Preview thumbnail for 'The Last Ride of the Pony Express: My 2,000-mile Horseback Journey into the Old West

The Last Ride of the Pony Express: My 2,000-mile Horseback Journey into the Old West

The Last Ride of the Pony Express is a tale of adventure by a horseman who defies most modern conveniences, and is an unforgettable narrative that will forever change how you see the West, the Pony Express, and America as a whole.

Unforgettable Journeys Europe: Discover the Joys of Slow Travel

The latest in the Unforgettable Journeys series by DK Eyewitness, a publisher of nonfiction books known for its visual travel guides, Unforgettable Journeys Europe highlights the notion that travel really is all about the “getting there.” This inspirational tome details 150 of Europe’s best slow adventures, such as kayaking through Lithuania and crossing the Arctic Circle by train.

The bucket list is organized by modes of transportation, with sections titled “By Bike” and “By Rail,” for example. Illustrations, photos, maps and plenty of practical information (including start and end points for trails, difficulty ratings and website links) are then spread throughout the text, making the book as much colorful reference as it is inspiring read. In the “On Foot” chapter, there’s a description of Scotland’s Fife Pilgrim Way , a 56-mile trek along an ancient pilgrim route with cathedral and countryside views. Along with details on what to see during the multiday hike, the book features a selection of highlighted tips, like what to do (pick wild berries while passing through Clatto Reservoir ) and how to splurge (dinner and an overnight stay at the cozy, Michelin-starred Peat Inn ) en route.

Preview thumbnail for 'Unforgettable Journeys Europe: Discover the Joys of Slow Travel (Dk Eyewitness)

Unforgettable Journeys Europe: Discover the Joys of Slow Travel (Dk Eyewitness)

Inspirational travel book covering 150 of Europe's most incredible journeys, including routes on foot and by bike, road, rail and water.

Elixir: In the Valley at the End of Time by Kapka Kassabova

After a decade of living in the Scottish Highlands, native Bulgarian Kapka Kassabova returned to her roots in southwestern Bulgaria’s remote Mesta Valley, a rural region known for its array of wild crops and their vast medicinal properties. Over several seasons (Kassabova’s move occurred at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic), the poet and writer set out to study the deep relationship between the area’s people and plants, as well as with the land itself. Her resulting text—with chapters like “Pine Syrup,” “Honey Sellers” and “Shepherd’s Superfood”—is an autobiographical exploration of one of the globe’s lesser-known corners, one brimming with forages, healers and a wealth of folk traditions.

“ Elixir is the vibrant, beautiful story of a singular, remarkable place,” writes Foreword book reviewer Catherine Thureson. “It issues a call to reclaim the physical, emotional and spiritual connection between humanity and the natural world.”

Preview thumbnail for 'Elixir: In the Valley at the End of Time

Elixir: In the Valley at the End of Time

In Elixir , in a wild river valley and amid the three mountains that define it, Kapka Kassabova seeks out the deep connection between people, plants, and place.

The Life Cycle by Kate Rawles

British writer and cyclist Kate Rawles has a penchant for raising awareness about environmental challenges through her own adventures—and inspiring action in the process. In 2006, Rawles cycled 4,553 miles from Texas to Alaska , interviewing Americans about climate change along the way. Her latest endeavor—an 8,288-mile, 13-month journey across the length of the Andes Mountains on a self-built bamboo bicycle she nicknamed “Woody”—is the basis for her new book, The Life Cycle .

During this largely solo endeavor in 2017 and 2018, the author crossed some of the planet’s most diverse ecosystems, including South America’s Atacama Desert and the Bolivian salt flats. Simultaneously, she found herself witnessing the devastating effects of extreme biodiversity loss caused by industries such as logging and gold mining, and met with activists and communities working to regenerate these habitats—sharing their concerns and insight throughout the narrative.

Preview thumbnail for 'The Life Cycle: 8,000 Miles in the Andes by Bamboo Bike

The Life Cycle: 8,000 Miles in the Andes by Bamboo Bike

Pedalling hard for thirteen months, eco adventurer Kate Rawles cycled the length of the Andes on an eccentric bicycle she built herself. The Life Cycle charts her mission to find out why biodiversity is so important, what's happening to it, and what can be done to protect it.

Unravelling the Silk Road by Chris Aslan

An extremely well-researched story of three ancient trade routes that helped define a continent, Chris Aslan’s Unravelling the Silk Road “merges trauma with textiles to track the past and present experiences of the people of Central Asia,” writes author Clare Hunter . He explores the roles played by wool, a textile used by the region’s nomads for both yurts and clothing; silk, a commodity that was once more valuable than gold; and cotton, the cause of Russian and then Soviet colonization, since it provided cheap material for the global superpower.

Turkish-born Aslan interweaves his own personal experiences (the author once picked cotton with locals and worked with nomadic yak herders in Central Asia’s Pamir Mountains) with the history of each route and its impact on the lives of local residents ​​ —as well as the region itself. Aslan also examines how political and cultural changes are affecting new trade routes and the people who depend on them.

Preview thumbnail for 'Unravelling the Silk Road: Travels and Textiles in Central Asia

Unravelling the Silk Road: Travels and Textiles in Central Asia

Veteran traveler and textile expert Chris Aslan explores the Silk, Wool and Cotton Roads of Central Asia.

The Half Known Life: In Search of Paradise​​ by Pico Iyer

British-born essayist and acclaimed writer Pico Iyer is no stranger to travel journalism. The author—whose childhood was divided among English, Indian and U.S. cultures—is known for works like 1989’s Video Night in Kathmandu , a stark look at modern Asia, and The Global Soul , a 2001 collection of essays on finding home in a world of international airports and shopping malls. For more than 40 years, Iyer has traveled the globe, reflecting on the planet and our role within it.

“After years of travel, I’d begun to wonder what kind of paradise can ever be found in a world of unceasing conflict,” writes Iyer in his latest book, The Half Known Life: In Search of Paradise , “and whether the very search for it might not simply aggravate our differences.” The result is a retrospective look at his own travels and encounters—from North Korea’s capital city of Pyongyang to Jerusalem’s Ethiopian chapels—through the idea of “paradise,” what it means and whether it exists.

Preview thumbnail for 'The Half Known Life: In Search of Paradise

The Half Known Life: In Search of Paradise

Traveling from Iran to North Korea, from the Dalai Lama’s Himalayas to the ghostly temples of Japan, Pico Iyer brings together a lifetime of explorations to upend our ideas of utopia and ask how we might find peace in the midst of difficulty and suffering.

The Pride Atlas: 500 Iconic Destinations for Queer Travelers by Maartje Hensen

Big, bold and colorful, The Pride Atlas is a valuable resource for LGBTQ+ folks and their allies, as well as a perfect coffee table topper. Compiled by queer author and photographer Maartje Hensen , its 400 pages are brimming with eye-catching photos and practical information, such as websites like Meetup and Couchsurfing that are useful for connecting with similarly minded locals and travelers, and resources regarding laws and cultural attitudes worldwide.

At the heart of the book are 500 destinations from around the globe, each one of them highlighting a way of engaging with LGBTQ+ culture. You’ll find drag shows, Pride parades, campsites, microbrew pubs and other places, from San Francisco’s Transgender District to Haircuts for Anyone , an inclusive and affirmative hair salon in Montreal that charges by sliding scale.

“Hopefully,” writes Hensen, “ The Pride Atlas expands your horizons and inspires you to go out into the world, to (un)learn from others … because, like gender, the world doesn’t fit into binary.” Indeed.

Preview thumbnail for 'The Pride Atlas: 500 Iconic Destinations for Queer Travelers

The Pride Atlas: 500 Iconic Destinations for Queer Travelers

Combining immersive photography with expertly researched travel writing, this is the ultimate guidebook for LGBTQ+ travelers—whether you're planning your next getaway, daydreaming from the comfort of your armchair, or seeking to learn about queer culture in other parts of the world.

Airplane Mode: An Irreverent History of Travel by Shahnaz Habib

An enlightening and entertaining debut essay collection by a U.S.-based Indian Muslim author, Airplane Mode brings a unique and under-represented perspective to the world of travel. Shahnaz Habib approaches such topics as the origins of passports, colonial modes of thinking about travel—like safaris and pilgrimages—and terms like “pseudiscovery,” which she uses to describe an explorer’s claim of discovering something that’s existed for thousands of years, with both wit and curiosity, incorporating her own personal narratives to boot.

Perhaps Annabel Abbs, author of Windswept: Walking the Paths of Trailblazing Women , says it best in her praise for Airplane Mode, which has been long-listed for the Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence . She calls it “a fascinating, wide-ranging and insightful travelogue that poses some of the biggest questions of all: Who gets to travel, and what is it that makes us so keen to travel in the first place?”

Preview thumbnail for 'Airplane Mode: An Irreverent History of Travel

Airplane Mode: An Irreverent History of Travel

This witty personal and cultural history of travel from the perspective of a Third World-raised woman of color, Airplane Mode , asks: what does it mean to be a joyous traveler when we live in the ruins of colonialism, capitalism and climate change?

Oh My Mother!: A Memoir in Nine Adventures by Connie Wang

The closest Chinese expression to “Oh, my god” is wode ma ya , which literally translates to “Oh, my mother.” It’s a declaration of astonishment, as well as the title for journalist Connie Wang ’s humorous and heartfelt book, Oh My Mother!: A Memoir in Nine Adventures . Wang details the complicated relationship between herself and her stubborn and “wildly opinionated” mother, Qing Li, across nine essays, taking readers from time-share properties in Cancun and Aruba to a Magic Mike strip show in Las Vegas. “This is our memoir—a long personal essay, if you will—and it was forged through shared fact-checking,” Wang writes in the book. “Qing was the first person to read each chapter as it was written, and she is this book’s first editor.” According to Kirkus Reviews , the author “drives to the heart of how a daughter comes to know her mother as someone with a life beyond motherhood.”

Preview thumbnail for 'Oh My Mother!: A Memoir in Nine Adventures

Oh My Mother!: A Memoir in Nine Adventures

A dazzling mother-daughter adventure around the world in pursuit of self-discovery, a family reckoning, and Asian American defiance

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Laura Kiniry

Laura Kiniry | READ MORE

Laura Kiniry is a San Francisco-based freelance writer specializing in food, drink, and travel. She contributes to a variety of outlets including American Way , O-The Oprah Magazine , BBC.com , and numerous AAA pubs.

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travel based novels

Time-Slips and Body Hopping: Eight Great Novels of Time Travel

James goodhand recommends kate atkinson, toshikazu kawaguchi, georgi gospodinov, and more.

What is it about time travel stories? Perhaps our fascination with them comes from exploring that mysterious place where science meets human experience. Or maybe they allow us to fantasize about seizing control of that one thing that rules our lives, that sets our decisions in stone, that gives us everything only to take it away again—the passage of time. Whatever the reason, our obsession with such tales is going nowhere.

In my forthcoming novel The Day Tripper , I ask: What if you woke up each morning in a different, random day of your life? This is the situation twenty-year-old Alex Dean finds himself in after a perfect evening in 1995 ends in disaster. Doomed to never knowing where—or rather when— each new dawn will take him, he must navigate his way through the years and piece together what happened after that fateful night. He’ll find that his decisions can have untold impact, even in a life lived out of order.

It’s a different spin on the time travel story, inspired in no small way by my favorite novels of the genre. The following are, to my mind, eight of the best:

Kate Atkinson, Life After Life

Life After Life by Kate Atkinson

Ursula Todd is born in 1910 and dies within minutes. Chapter two and her life begins once again. This time she survives till the age of four when she’s swept away on a family holiday. We follow Ursula’s progress across the twentieth century, as inevitably disasters befall her, be it Spanish flu or German bombers or a slippery roof at home. Each time her life begins again, she has an inkling of what’s gone before, and a sense that this is happening to her for a reason (which it is, but I won’t spoil it here).

It’s a book that is most remarkable as a study in how different our lives can turn out but for a few twists of fate. As with many of the best speculative novels, Life After Life takes a big concept, and uses it as a lens to focus in on the vagaries of the human condition.

travel based novels

The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton

An Agatha Christie style murder mystery with a body-hopping, time-looping sleuth, this novel is a work of genre-crossing genius. Set in a stately home in the 1920s, the story sees the titular character shot at midnight during her own birthday party. Our reluctant detective Aiden Bishop wakes each morning in the body of a different party guest, each new perspective lending him another chance to stop the murder before it happens. A quite stunning concept, but Turton’s brilliance doesn’t end there. Since this novel first published in 2018, the golden age murder mystery had enjoyed a resurgence. But there’s no misplaced nostalgia on show here. Instead the author has a clear-eyed view of this era’s flaws; with wit redolent of Roald Dahl, he pokes fun at his characters’ greed and fecklessness and misuse of their privilege.

A clever, fun, and complex book. Just don’t try and work out who the murderer is, it’ll drive you nuts!

travel based novels

The Upper World by Femi Fadugba

Set in Peckham, South London, this young-adult novel expertly blends urban realism with some serious science. When sixteen-year-old Esso has a run-in with a Range Rover on his way to school, he experiences a horrifying vision of a shooting that coming evening. In a separate timeline, a much older Esso (now a doctor, and now blind) is mentoring Rhia, a girl whose mother was tragically killed many years earlier. The two stories intersect with a thrilling sense of time running out.

A physicist by profession, this novel was born of Fadugba’s desire to bring Einstein’s theories to life, something he achieves in a way that never feels dumbed down. Along with  the tight plot, the reader gets to enjoy discussions about, for example, the idea that the faster we move through 3D space, the slower we move through time—conversations conducted in an authentic South London vernacular reminiscent of Top Boy . It’s deeply clever, enthralling stuff.

Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut

Slaughterhouse 5 by Kurt Vonnegut

As well as imparting a thousand nuggets of wisdom that are still being shared daily on social media, Kurt Vonnegut also wrote some books. None embody his trademark wit and inventiveness better than his 1969 novel, Slaughterhouse 5 . The main character Billy Pilgrim becomes unstuck in time. An American soldier, he finds himself on a whistle-stop tour of the twentieth century’s conflicts. To my knowledge, it’s the first example of block universe theory being used as a literary device. Informed by the author’s own spell in a German prisoner of war camp, this is a vehemently anti-war novel. In fact, it originally published with the subtitle “The Children’s Crusade, A Duty-dance with Death,” a none-too-subtle dig at war’s expectation that the young sacrifice themselves for the interests of their elders.

Funny, profound and edgy, I adore this book. And if the quality of a novel can be judged from how often it’s banned in schools, Slaughterhouse 5 is among the all time greats.

travel based novels

Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi

This quirky novel tells the story of a Japanese basement café, in which patrons are able to travel through time. They have to sit in one particular seat though, and nothing they do will change the present, and they must wait for the ghost who usually occupies the seat to go to the toilet. Oh, and they can only time travel for however long it takes for their coffee to go cold. The story may be obsessed with its own rules, but the author pays no such heed to the accepted rules of novel writing. The book takes the form of four short stories of time travel, interspersed by the goings-on amongst the café staff which gives it a cozy, soap-opera feel.

It’s a quick and touching read. However, should you have a thirst for more, there have since been three sequels with another due later this year.

travel based novels

The Summer of Impossible Things by Rowan Coleman

In this fine example of the timeslip novel, British sisters Luna and Pia travel to their mother’s childhood home in Brooklyn to settle her affairs after her death. It soon becomes clear that something terrible happened to their mother here. Luna finds herself slipping between the present day and summer 1977 where she becomes friends with her young mother. She is soon on a mission to reverse her Mum’s awful fate, even though it risks her own very existence in the future.

It may touch on some dark themes, but the love story that smolders throughout against the backdrop of New York’s Saturday Night Fever era makes this a fabulously evocative, uplifting read.

travel based novels

The Time Traveller’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

“Why is love intensified by absence?” So asks our female protagonist Clare Abshire, barely three paragraphs in. It’s a sentence that neatly encapsulates the soul of this modern classic. Because this is not a story about time-travel so much as one about love. Sure, Clare’s husband Henry is prone to disappearing without warning, doomed to land somewhere else in time, naked and penniless. But this affliction allows Niffenegger to construct a love story that we can all relate to: the longing, that unsettling feeling that we aren’t on the same page as our beloved, the sense of being brought together by some fate or higher power.

It’s difficult to say anything about this absolute blockbuster that’s not already been said. Except perhaps to pass on my recent discovery that there’s a sequel on the way. It’s called The Other Husband , and I can’t wait!

time shelter

Time Shelter by Georgi Gospodinov

Ok, so I’m taking a liberty here with the definition of time travel, because this 2023 International Booker winner has no sci-fi element to it. This is the story of a Bulgarian therapist who founds a clinic for Alzheimer’s sufferers consisting of rooms that are perfect recreations of bygone eras, taking the patients back to the surroundings of their youth. It proves so popular that soon perfectly healthy people are checking themselves in for a dose of nostalgia. Before long, all of Europe is going crazy for the past with each country holding a referendum on which decade they want to return to.

It’s time travel meets political satire, though in this era of Brexit and of calls to make our countries Great Again, it’s hardly a whimsical read.

__________________________________

travel based novels

The Day Tripper by James Goodhand is available from MIRA Books, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.

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Books and Bao

13 Best Time Travel Books Ever (Modern and Classic)

By: Author Jess Esa and Willow Heath

Posted on Last updated: 26th June 2023

Time travel is an element of storytelling that offers potentially limitless possibilities, allowing writers to explore politics, romance, warfare, discovery, and more in ways we might never expect.

Since 1895, with the publication of H.G. Wells’ The Time Machine (below), time travel stories in modern fiction have inspired and captivated readers around the world.

It isn’t only the genre of science fiction that utilises time travel, however. Many of the best time travel books are love stories, crime thrillers, and even fantasy novels.

time travel books

Essential Time Travel Books

Because of the breadth of scope and possibility that time travel can offer, what you’ll find here is a spectrum of genres and styles from writers of all different walks of life.

Some of these time travel books are deeply allegorical and political, using time travel to make strong and noble points about modern society.

Others use time travel as a savvy storytelling technique to present readers with fantastic romance and thriller narratives.

There’s something for everyone here in this selection of the best time travel books ever written.

This Is How You Lose the Time Way by Amal El-Mohtar & Max Gladstone

travel based novels

This is How You Lose the Time War is a stunning piece of time travel science fiction, co-written by two celebrated sci-fi authors.

Here’s one of the most unique time travel romance books you’ll ever read. Our protagonists, known only as Red and Blue, are deadly agents who operate for rival factions which are fighting for control of multiple timelines.

While wandering the remains of a mecha battlefield, Red finds a letter left for her by Blue.

The letter taunts and teases Red, but also hints that Blue is becoming disenchanted by this ceaseless and seemingly endless, ultimately pointless war between their factions.

From this point on, we shift narratives between both characters’ perspectives, and those perspectives are separated by letters they leave for each other to find.

As they move through various strands of time that shift back and forth through possible pasts and futures, each finds a letter left by the other, and these letters steadily take on a different, more poetic and romantic tone.

From flirtatious taunts to passionate declarations of love, the letters steadily spell out the intense addiction that these two opposing women have developed for one another.

This is one of those time travel books with larger-than-life concepts that involve time manipulation and riding the threads of time, taking us from Plato’s Greece to mech wars on distant planets.

This is a wildly exciting time travel romance novel that shows us how, no matter the scale of the world, no matter the advancements in technology, love can still win in the end.

Buy a copy of This is How You Lose the Time War here!

Before The Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi

Translated from the Japanese by Geoffrey Trousselot

before the coffee gets cold

In a Tokyo café that has stood since the Edo period sits is a chair at the furthest point from the door. Local legend says this chair can transport you back through time, provided you follow a specific set of rules.

The legend is true, as Fumiko soon discovers when her boyfriend abruptly leaves her for a job in the US and she’s willing to do anything to go back in time and stop him.

Before the Coffee Gets Cold opens with Fumiko meeting with her boyfriend for what he calls a ‘serious conversation’. She hopes for a proposal, but he hits her with a break-up instead.

Goro moves to the US and a week goes by for the pining, mourning Fumiko, who continues to visit the café.

When Fumiko recalls the local urban myth surrounding the time-travelling chair, she asks the café’s staff if there’s any truth to it.

There is, but if the rules aren’t adhered to, there are dire consequences.

First, you cannot leave the chair. Second, whatever you say or do will not alter the present.

Finally, there is a time limit: the journey through time begins when the coffee is poured, and you must finish it before the coffee gets cold.

If you don’t, you take the place of the woman who is almost always sat in that chair; a woman who turns out to be a ghost. She leaves the chair to visit the toilet once a day, and that’s when you can sit and travel back.

Try to move her by force and she will curse you, as Fumiko finds out. This woman was the last person who let the coffee go cold, and now remains there always as a ghost.

Before the Coffee Gets Cold isn’t only one of the most unique and compelling time travel books of recent years, but is also one of the most celebrated Japanese novels of our time.

Buy a copy of Before the Coffee Gets Cold here!

Outlander by Diana Gabaldon

outlander diana gabaldon

Outlander is an enormous success story; a series of time travel books that have an ongoing history of more than thirty years. Add to this the huge popularity of the Outlander TV series.

The first novel in the series introduces us to protagonist Claire Randall, a British Army nurse who served during World War II.

Having been reunited with her husband after the end of the war, the two take a second honeymoon to Inverness, Scotland.

While gathering plants, Claire is drawn to, and touches, a standing stone (solitary monoliths known as a menhir, which date back to Bronze Age Scotland).

Upon touching the stone, Claire passes out and wakes up centuries into the past, in the year 1743.

This is a world she doesn’t know, one torn apart by politics, warfare, and bloodshed. There, she will be tempted by love as she falls for a man who is everything her 20th century husband is not.

Outlander has become one of the great and iconic time travel romance books of our time, and the series’ popularity only continues to grow.

Buy a copy of Outlander here!

The Time Machine by H.G. Wells

the time machine hg wells

This is where modern time travel stories began, with H.G. Wells’ sci-fi masterpiece, The Time Machine , which has been adapted to film twice.

As a side note, the original 1960 film starring Rod Taylor remains a fantastic piece of sci-fi cinema; a must-watch classic.

Wells’ original novel was published in 1895 and set the stage for all the best time travel books that would follow.

The premise is simple: an inventor builds himself a time machine, and that machine carries him forward in time.

But while most time travel books focus on a future that remains relatable, understandable, and potentially possible, The Time Machine goes far beyond any of that.

Our scientist arrives in the year 802701 CE, an eerie future in which human evolution split into two very different groups.

The first group are the naive, child-like Eloi, who live in blissful peace and harmony, with all their needs provided to them.

The other group live underground, and they are the cannibalistic Morlocks, who feed on the Eloi.

As a socialist, Wells was critical of many aspects of European society during his time, and his novels were allegorical of the things he disagreed with.

This can be seen in The War of the Worlds , an anti-colonialism story. And it can also be seen here, with The Time Machine being a critique of class disparity and social inequality.

The Time Machine remains one of the most valuable time travel books ever written, by the godfather of modern science fiction .

Buy a copy of The Time Machine here!

11/22/63 by Stephen King

11 22 63 stephen king

Stephen King is best known for his twisted horror novels — many of which have been adapted to film and TV — as well as his surreal fantasy epic , The Dark Tower .

But King has also penned a few excellent thrillers , and this is one of his very best. Beyond that, it’s also one of the coolest time travel books of this century.

In 11/22/63 , an English teacher named Jake is shown a wormhole that leads to the late 1950s.

A friend convinces him to use his time in the past to attempt the noble task of stopping the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

Jake and the reader soon learn that the past may be changed for the better but the future may not react so positively. 

Another great aspect to this time travel book is the relationship between Jake and his love interest, Sadie.

Both bring incredible warmth to a novel which, rather than just being a tense thriller, becomes one of the most surprising time travel romance books to boot.

Buy a copy of 11/22/63 here!

The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton

the seven deaths of evelyn hardcastle

The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle is a puzzle box of a mystery novel that employs time travel and time loop rules to deliver one of the smartest, most captivating mystery plots you’ll ever read.

We begin halfway through a word that has just left the mouth of our nameless, amnesia-stricken protagonist. It is as though he has just woken up inside his own body.

He is in a forest, shouting a name he doesn’t know, and he is alone. That’s all we know, and it’s all he knows, too.

He walks, and eventually arrives at a manor house. The people there tell him he is their friend, that he is a doctor, and that he’s there for a party, just like they are.

The next morning, he wakes up as a different person in the house, and it is then that he learns that he will continue to jump from body to body for eight days, tasked with solving and preventing the death of the titular Evelyn Hardcastle.

The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle is a dizzying mystery novel, masterfully crafted and thrilling at every turn. Of all the time travel books you’ll ever read, none handle the mechanics of time like this one does.

Buy a copy of The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle here!

Kindred by Octavia E. Butler

kindred octavia butler

A generation-defining science fiction novel and one of the best pieces of American fiction ever written, Kindred is a true masterpiece amongst time travel books, and science fiction in general.

When the novel begins, Dana and Kevin are unpacking after moving to a new house in California, when she finds herself teleported back 150 years to a plantation in 1815 Maryland and the sight of a drowning red-headed boy.

Dana saves the boy from drowning and immediately finds herself facing down the barrel of a white man’s gun, before being yanked back through time to her present in the 1970s.

As it transpires, the drowning boy is Rufus, an ancestor of Dana’s who will father a child with one of his family’s slaves, and Dana is now caught in a loop: any time Rufus’ life is threatened, she is pulled in time back to save him.

Similarly, if she is put in harm’s way while in the past, she is sent back to 1976. On her third journey back to 1815, her husband is dragged back with her by accident, raising the stakes even higher.

Being a Black woman married to a white man, Dana is assumed a slave, and Kevin her owner. Kindred is a sci-fi time travel novel about cruelty and compassion, about the importance of education and empathy.

A true masterpiece amongst time travel books by one of the USA’s most important literary voices, Octavia Butler’s Kindred is one of the most important American novels you’ll ever read; a masterpiece of time travel sci-fi.

Buy a copy of Kindred here!

Night Watch by Terry Pratchett

night watch terry pratchett

Terry Pratchett was a genius author, of that there is no debate . His Discworld series of fantasy books provided an enormous, expansive, satirical world of possibilities and endless narrative potential.

As we journey across the Discworld, we follow a handful of different protagonists, including Death himself. One of the most beloved protagonists is Sam Vimes, captain of the Ankh Morpork city watch.

In Night Watch , while Sam Vimes’ wife is in labour and he is in heroic pursuit of a known criminal, the city watch captain is hit by lightning and sent backwards in time.

Vimes is quickly arrested by a younger, less experienced version of himself, and in the cell beside his is the very criminal he was chasing across the rooftops in his own present day.

Night Watch is another fantastic Discworld novel, presenting an entirely new side to a fan-favourite protagonist, and is one of the most creative and hilarious time travel books you’ll ever read.

Buy a copy of Night Watch here!

Sea of Tranquility by Emily St John Mandel

sea of tranqulity mandel

With Sea of Tranquility , beloved contemporary author Emily St. John Mandel has written a phenomenal piece of time travel science fiction which surpasses even Station Eleven , her most successful novel.

Cleverly tied to her literary thriller The Glass Hotel with recurring events and characters from that novel, this is a book that unfurls gradually and strangely, creating a kind of symmetry with itself by the final page.

We begin in 1912, with an English nobleman exiled to the rural wilds of western Canada by his family. Then we move to the modern day, with characters from The Glass Hotel revealing what almost seems like a glitch in the world.

Next is the life of an author who grew up on a moon colony and is now doing a global book tour in 2203, just as a pandemic is about to sweep the planet.

Finally, at the book’s halfway point, we meet our true protagonist: a man named Gaspery, whose sister works for a time travel agency.

From here, we begin to move backwards through the time periods and lives we’ve already seen, as the truth gradually gets revealed and explored.

All of these lives become stitched together as this time travel novel progresses, in ways that will blow your mind over and over again. The plotting of this novel is beaten only by its incredibly revelations.

Sea of Tranquility is a true masterpiece of plotting and tone, moving with speed and grace. One of the best time travel books you’ll ever read.

Buy a copy of Sea of Tranquility here!

Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut

slaughterhouse five

No other author has ever written, or even thought, like Kurt Vonnegut did. He was a masterful satirist who used science fiction to explore the deep, dark political themes of the 20th century.

Written during the Vietnam War, and displaying aggressively blatant anti-war themes and messaging, Slaughterhouse-Five remains Vonnegut’s most celebrated novel, and for very good reasons.

Based in part on Vonnegut’s own life as a serviceman during World War II, Slaughterhouse-Five follows the life of a man named Billy Pilgrim.

Pilgrim was an American PoW who experienced and survived the firebombing of Dresden, and who later was abducted by aliens and taken to a planet called Tralfamadore.

We spend some of the novel living through Billy’s experiences through World War II, then his life back home post-war, and finally his abduction by aliens and the time-twisting that follows.

It’s a strange time travel sci-fi novel that throws out surreal and dreamlike concepts about seeing in four dimensions, travelling through memories, and being held in an alien zoo.

Considered a work of postmodernism, Slaughterhouse-Five is an expressly anti-war book that explores this perspective through surreal science fiction and satire.

Blending war fiction , satire, science fiction, and time travel, Slaughterhouse Five does a lot of different things, and it does them all splendidly.

Buy a copy of Slaughterhouse Five here!

Hyperion by Dan Simmons

hyperion dan simmons

Dan Simmons excels at writing within and beyond the bounds of various different genres, from thrillers to historical fiction, to this: a time travel sci-fi novel based on The Canterbury Tales .

Set in a far-future in which a spacefaring human empire exists known as the Hegemony of Man, Hyperion follows a group of pilgrims who have arrived on the planet of Hyperion.

Hyperion is home to strange Time Tombs which move backwards in time, and are guarded by a strange native creature called the Shrike.

Modelled after Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales , Dan Simmons’ Hyperion is a time travel book that presents us with each pilgrim’s backstory, and what led them to the titular planet of Hyperion.

A wonderful exercise in world-building and sci-fi storytelling, Hyperion is a a trippy and strange novel, and one of the coolest, most experimental time travel books you’ll ever read.

Buy a copy of Hyperion here!

The Time Traveller’s Wife by Audrey Niffinger

The Time Traveller's Wife by Audrey Niffinger

This 2003 novel has become an absolute classic amongst time travel romance books, and time travel books in general, propelled into the public consciousness by its film and TV adaptations.

Our dual protagonists are husband-and-wife pair Henry and Clare. Henry suffers from a strange disorder which the novel calls “Chrono-Impairment”. This disorder causes Henry to become frequently unshackled from time.

From a very young age, Henry has been periodically shot backwards in time. Each episode is entirely unpredictable, as is where he will go and how long he will be trapped there for.

Clare and Henry’s meetings have happened out of order, with Henry first laying eyes on her at the library where he works when they are both in their twenties. This, however, was not the first time Clare met Henry.

After they meet in the present, Henry begins to travel back into Clare’s past. Eventually, he provides her a with list that will tell her when in her life he will appear. He also reveals to young Clare that they will eventually be married.

Inspired by the author’s own romantic disappointments, The Time Traveler’s Wife has become one of the best-known, best-selling time travel books of all time.

Buy a copy of The Time Traveler’s Wife here!

Wrong Place Wrong Time by Gillian McAllister

Wrong Place Wrong Time by Gillian McAllister

Our protagonist, Jen, is waiting for her teenage son Todd to come home. He’s late; it’s after midnight, and when he eventually appears outside, Jen watches her son kill someone with her own eyes.

The police arrive, Todd is in possession of the knife, has the victim’s blood on his clothes, and his own mother saw it happen. What doubt could there be that Todd did what he did, even if we don’t know why?

But this isn’t where it ends. In fact, from this moment, Jen goes to sleep and wakes up a day earlier.

Every single night she goes to sleep and wakes up a day earlier, rather than later, as time steadily reverses day by day and she is given a chance to follow this thread back to its beginning, and its revelation.

A dizzying thriller that plays with the tropes of time travel in fun new ways. Mixing time travel and thrillers is nothing new, but the way that McAllister does it is fresh and addictive.

The time travel gimmick is one that’s arguably best utilised by thrillers and mystery novels, and this is a glowing example. One of the most addictive time travel books of recent years.

Buy a copy of Wrong Place Wrong Time here!

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Nonfiction Books » Travel

The best travel writing of 2024, recommended by shafik meghji.

A Stranger in Your Own City: Travels in the Middle East's Long War by Ghaith Abdul-Ahad

WINNER Edward Stanford Travel Book of the Year

A Stranger in Your Own City: Travels in the Middle East's Long War by Ghaith Abdul-Ahad

Every spring, the judges of the Edward Stanford Travel Writing Awards draw up a shortlist for the title of the 'travel book of the year.' The 2024 shortlist highlights six fascinating recent travelogues that wrestle with political and environmental issues, and explore the contrast between the outsider and the insider gaze.

Interview by Cal Flyn , Deputy Editor

A Stranger in Your Own City: Travels in the Middle East's Long War by Ghaith Abdul-Ahad

The Britannias: An Archipelago’s Tale by Alice Albinia

The Best Travel Writing of 2024 - The Gathering Place: A Winter Pilgrimage Through Changing Times by Mary Colwell

The Gathering Place: A Winter Pilgrimage Through Changing Times by Mary Colwell

The Best Travel Writing of 2024 - The Granite Kingdom: A Cornish Journey

The Granite Kingdom: A Cornish Journey

The Best Travel Writing of 2024 - Wounded Tigris: A River Journey Through the Cradle of Civilisation by Leon McCarron

Wounded Tigris: A River Journey Through the Cradle of Civilisation by Leon McCarron

The Best Travel Writing of 2024 - High Caucasus: A Mountain Quest in Russia’s Haunted Hinterland by Tom Parfitt

High Caucasus: A Mountain Quest in Russia’s Haunted Hinterland by Tom Parfitt

The Best Travel Writing of 2024 - A Stranger in Your Own City: Travels in the Middle East's Long War by Ghaith Abdul-Ahad

1 A Stranger in Your Own City: Travels in the Middle East's Long War by Ghaith Abdul-Ahad

2 the britannias: an archipelago’s tale by alice albinia, 3 the gathering place: a winter pilgrimage through changing times by mary colwell, 4 the granite kingdom: a cornish journey, 5 wounded tigris: a river journey through the cradle of civilisation by leon mccarron, 6 high caucasus: a mountain quest in russia’s haunted hinterland by tom parfitt.

A s a judge for the 2024 Edward Stanford Travel Writing Awards you’re in an excellent position to advise us on whether it has been a good year for travel books.

Yes, I think it has been a very good year for travel writing, as illustrated by the books on the shortlist. One of the great pleasures of being on the judging panel is that you get to read so widely. The finalists cover an incredibly diverse range of topics, places, perspectives and voices, which is wonderful. Their books took me along the Tigris and the Camino de Santiago, across the Caucasus and the British Isles, and under the skin of places as disparate as Cornwall and Iraq. And, like all the best travel books , they shifted my view of the world in different ways.

What does it mean to an author, to be shortlisted for an award like this?

Obviously, it’s very gratifying. While awards aren’t everything, of course, it was a real joy for me last year to be shortlisted. My book, Crossed Off the Map , came from a tiny independent publisher, Latin America Bureau, so it was a big achievement from that point of view, too.

And on a personal level, I’ve been going to Stanfords bookshop all my life. Before I became a travel writer, my backpacking trips around India, Southeast Asia and South America started by looking through the guidebooks, travel literature and maps in Stanfords. When my first book came out, it was such a joy to see it on the shelves there.

“Travel writing is that it is a capacious genre. There are lots of different elements you can bring in”

Well, let’s have a look at them. We can start with A Stranger in Your Own City: Travels in the Middle East’s Long War by Ghaith Abdul-Ahad. He’s an award-winning Iraqi reporter; that makes for an unusual spin on ‘travel writing.’

Ghaith Abdul-Ahad reported extensively for The Guardian and The Washington Post after the US invasion of Iraq and I remember reading his dispatches at the time and in the years since. Published on the 20th anniversary of the invasion, his book combines journalism, memoir and travel writing to tell the stories of the people caught up in the maelstrom as, to quote the author, ‘their world fragmented.’

One of the things about this book that really stood out to me was how it gives, vitally, an Iraqi-centred account. I felt that I was getting a 360º perspective of the situation, rather than stereotypes. It’s a powerful book.

Travel writing tends to be written from an outsider’s gaze, but as this book’s title suggests, his home place has changed so much it now feels foreign.

I think it reflects his sense of seeing his country change so dramatically over such a short period of time to the extent that he can feel lost in places that were once familiar. In many ways, he was perfectly placed to navigate what is obviously an incredibly difficult and dangerous situation, somethinng that he has experienced first hand.

Our next book brings us a little closer to home—well, perhaps not for all of our readers. This is Alice Albinia’s The Britannias: An Archipelago’s Tale, which focuses on Britain’s islands.

The Britannias journeys from Neolithic ruins in Orkney, across the Isle of Wight, Iona, the Channel Islands and even Bermuda to present-day Thanet and Westminster, exploring the topography, stories, legends, ancient sites and forgotten characters of the British Isles. One of the things that stood out is that Alice Albinia goes beyond the well-worn, male-focused view of the past and highlights female histories that have been overlooked or shut down.

I’d enjoyed her previous book, Empires of the Indus , so was particularly keen to read this one. From a writer’s point of view, she does an incredible amount of research and uses a huge array of sources: myths, poetry, Roman literature, newspapers, plus first-hand interviews and her own travels.

Right. And it too gestures towards this idea that travel might be within a nation one knows well.

Shall we look at Mary Colwell’s new book The Gathering Place: A Winter Pilgrimage Through Changing Times next? Why did it make the 2024 shortlist of the best travel books?

Several of the books on the shortlist are centred around walks or hikes, including The Gathering Place , which traces Mary Colwell’s 500-mile solo pilgrimage along the Camino de Santiago. The author notes that this pilgrimage in particular, and pilgrimages in general, have always drawn people during times of strife and upheaval. Fittingly, she walked the Camino during the autumn/winter of 2020, still at the height of the pandemic.

I’ve read travel books written about the same period that either ignore or underplay the pandemic. In The Gathering Place , it’s present throughout and Colwell does a great job of finding parallels with plagues and epidemics from the past. This adds a rich texture to her journey, as she delves into the history, stories and characters associated with the Camino. She also blends in diary entries from her previous travels, while painting perceptive portraits of her fellow pilgrims.

She has a poetic touch and her enthusiasm for the subject really shines through.

I’ve noticed a trend in hiking memoirs in recent years. But I suppose journeys on foot have always served as a useful narrative thread for travel writing.

Let’s move on to The Granite Kingdom: A Cornish Journey by Tim Hannigan. Another British travel narrative.

Yes, and another walk. In this book, author Tim Hannigan hikes across Cornwall—where he was born and brought up—while examining its history, landscape and people. I really enjoyed his exploration of Cornish identity and, by extension, English and British identities, too. Another stand-out element is that he subverts cliches and tropes, which is always important for travel writers to do. There’s a particularly enlightening section on the subject of ‘Cornish wreckers’, for example.

Right. I’ve been interested in that subject since I read Bella Bathurst’s The Wreckers a few years back.

Hannigan is an experienced travel writer, and I really enjoyed how he turned the traveller’s gaze on his own homeland. His book feels like a very modern, self-aware piece of travel literature.

Perhaps we could look at Wounded Tigris next? Why did this travel book by Leon McCarron make the 2024 shortlist?

It was fascinating to read this book alongside A Stranger in Your Own City— they make excellent companion pieces. Wounded Tigris is a river journey along the length of the Tigris, from its source in the Turkish mountains, across northern Syria and through Iraq.

The author, Leon McCarron, is a writer and filmmaker who was based in Iraq at the time of the research. In many ways, it’s a classic-style travelogue: it has a well-paced narrative and McCarron is an empathetic writer who paints vivid and sympathetic potraits of the people he meets, as well as the river’s historical, cultural, political and economic significance. He also emphasised the immense environmental challenges it faces—it’s good to see a piece of travel writing fully engaging with the climate emergency. This is another book that will stay with you.

One theme that seems to be arising from this list is that travel writing seems to be increasingly politically engaged. Is that something you would agree with? 

Yes. I think the idea of the travel writer as some kind of impartial ‘observer’ who is completely objectively about the places he or she sees is thankfully being consigned to the past. Travel writers are on the frontlines of many of the touchstone issues of the 21st century. I’ve certainly found that in my own experience of writing about Latin America. In terms of the climate crisis, you have to wilfully ignore it for it not to be foregrounded in your work.

In Wounded Tigris , it’s very much at the forefront and McCarron clearly outlines the human impact. He shows that this is not something to think about in the future: this is happening to people now, and has been happening to them for many years.

Perhaps that might lead us nicely into a discussion of Tom Parfitt’s High Caucasus: A Mountain Quest in Russia’s Haunted Hinterland.

So this is another hike, and I think the longest one on the shortlist—a dramatic 1000-mile hike through the mountainous north Caucasus, passing through seven Russian republics from the Black Sea to the Caspian. One of the key elements of this book is that Tom Parfitt, a longtime newspaper correspondent in Moscow, deftly weaves in his own experiences, including the trauma of covering the 2004 Beslan school siege in which more than 300 hostages died.

On the hike he also explores the region’s landscapes, peoples, cultures and extremely turbulent history. It was a journey he did some years ago, but the book feels very topical as there are obviously some striking parallels with the current situation in Ukraine.

As an author, he also has a crisp, engaging writing style, which I really enjoyed.

I find my appetite for and understanding of books is always amplified by my presence in the place where they are set.

Whenever I travel for work or pleasure, I always like to read local literature and travel writing about that place. It gives a different insight into the culture and history of the places you are experiencing.

I was lucky enough to read High Caucasus while I was travelling through the Georgian side of the Caucasus and I had a much richer experience as a result.

Right, it helps me understand what I’m looking at or experiencing. Perhaps I could close our conversation by asking whether, having read so many travel books recently, you are feeling optimistic about the state of travel writing in 2024?

Absolutely. The ‘death’ of travel writing has become its own trope, wheeled out every few years. But it’s one of the oldest forms of writing and there is always going to be a need for it. The books on this shortlist, and many other that have been released in recent years, show that travel writing is in a good state of health. And there are plenty of books coming out soon that I’m excited about too.

In recent years, we have started to see a diversification of travel writing. There are more authors from a broader range of backgrounds, and they are helping to reinvigorate the genre by bringing fresh perspectives and covering places, cultures and histories that have been overlooked or even actively suppressed.

One thing I love about travel writing is that it is a capacious genre. There are lots of different elements you can bring into it, whatever topic you want to cover or style you want to use. This year’s shortlists—not just for the Edward Stanford Travel Book of the Year, but also the Viking Award for Fiction with a Sense of Place and the Children’s Travel Book of the Year—really illustrate that. So, yes, I’ve very positive about the future of travel writing.

March 20, 2024

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Shafik Meghji

Shafik Meghji

Shafik  Meghji is an award-winning travel writer, journalist, and author of  Crossed Off the Map: Travels in Bolivia , which was shortlisted for the Edward Stanford Travel Book of the Year 2023. Based in London, he has co-authored more than 45 guidebooks and writes for BBC Travel, National Geographic Traveller and Wanderlust , among others.

We ask experts to recommend the five best books in their subject and explain their selection in an interview.

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Travel Advisers: When to Let a Professional Plan Your Trip

An illustration of a person sitting on a folded-out map with books, papers and coffee laid out around the area. That person is inside the head of a beige-colored person wearing a teal telephone headset, and drawings of the Eiffel Tower, a compass, a signpost, a jet plane, mountains and other travel imagery are all around the head.

By Julie Weed

Decades ago, your vacation most likely began with a visit to a travel agent, who relied on a combination of expertise and connections to find the best deals on plane tickets, hotels, tours and more. Since then, the internet has turned most of us into our own travel agents, and artificial intelligence software is making research and self-booking even easier. But for some trips, that special insider knowledge can still make a big difference.

So when should you hire a professional, and how does it all work? Here are some tips.

Why should I consider a travel adviser?

It’s easy for a traveler to do the research for a standard trip, said Chris Anderson, a professor at the Cornell University School of Hotel Administration, “so they should look for a specialist for the type of tour they are looking for, say a bike trip in Ireland, who can really add value.”

The insider knowledge offered by a travel adviser can add the most value to trips that have multicity itineraries, involve a wide age range of travelers , are very significant (like an anniversary vacation) or are to destinations you are unfamiliar with, said Gary R. Johnson, who has run the travel agency Woodside Travel in Seattle for nearly 30 years. An adviser could help you decide, for instance, in which order to visit European cities based on local events and transportation options.

What can an adviser give me that a booking site can’t?

Travel advisers can help you research the best destinations, lodging, or activities for your particular group and travel goals, offering up specific advice that might be hard or time-consuming to find yourself. Those specializing in cruises might know which cabin to choose if you are prone to seasickness, while a safari planner could help you decide which park would be best for bird-watching or seeing specific animals, like rhinos.

Travel advisers typically have relationships with tour companies, hotels and cruise lines, sometimes through networks. Those connections can allow advisers to offer extra perks such as late checkout, free breakfast, airport transfers, a welcome basket or a credit to spend on a cruise ship.

“A good travel agent will be a better steward of your travel budget than you are,” said Guy Rubin, managing director of Imperial Tours , which arranges travel in China.

When bad weather or other circumstances disrupt your itinerary, travel advisers often have direct lines of communication with providers and can do the work of rebooking and changing plans, saving you time and stress.

OK, let’s say I need help. How do I find an adviser?

Networks like the American Society of Travel Advisors and Travel Leaders have websites that can help you start your search for a travel adviser by answering a few questions about your desired trip. Once you have a handful to choose from, get on the phone with them to talk about what they might do for you, how they charge and the level of service you can expect. Special trips can cost thousands of dollars, so it’s worth investing time up front, Mr. Rubin said.

Make sure to read over the travel agent’s reviews and any user-generated social content that mentions them, Dr. Anderson said. “If there is no external validation, that’s a red flag.”

How do advisers get paid, and how much will it cost me?

Advisers receive commission from suppliers, typically 10 to 15 percent of the price, when selling cruises, lodging and tours. They also sometimes charge travelers a planning fee, from a few hundred dollars, which may be credited to the final bill if the booking is completed, all the way up to tens of thousands of dollars annually for a luxury concierge travel planner they can call on all year. Mr. Johnson said that he charges a planning fee the first time he works with customers. If they return for other trips, he waives the fee.

Advisers may be tempted to sell you something that will earn them a higher commission, Dr. Anderson said. But, he points out, the same is true for the large online services, which promote hotels that pay them larger commissions. Travelers can ask advisers about specific commissions they receive or how they are affiliated with the products they are recommending, he said.

Sometimes a local tour company will package transportation, lodging and experiences for an adviser, who tacks on a percentage before passing it along to a client. But a bill that is not itemized can make it harder to make trade-offs — between a more expensive hotel and a special experience, for example. If pricing transparency is important to you, discuss it with the adviser up front.

How are A.I. and other technologies affecting travel advisers?

While new technologies are allowing do-it-yourselfers to create their own itineraries online based on individual preferences, and to type questions directly into travel websites, advisers are also taking advantage of those technologies to improve their services. Joan Roca, chief executive of the upscale travel planning company Essentialist said his team “uses technology to enhance the human touch,” employing artificial intelligence to choose options from a database of travel offerings selected by a human team. If a couple wants to take an after-dinner stroll, for example, Essentialist’s app will offer up ideas of where to go, based on what part of the city the travelers are in and conversations they’ve had with their travel adviser.

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Considering a trip, or just some armchair traveling here are some ideas..

Italy :  Spend 36 hours in Florence , seeking out its lesser-known pockets.

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'3 Body Problem' presents a fascinating take on an alien invasion story

Eric Deggans

Eric Deggans

Based on the sci-fi book series Remembrance of Earth's Past , the Netflix series 3 Body Problem imagines Earth's first extensive contact with extraterrestrial intelligent life.

MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:

An interpretation of a celebrated Chinese science-fiction novel, "Remembrance Of Earth's Past," debuts tomorrow on Netflix. The series is called "3 Body Problem." NPR TV critic Eric Deggans gives us his impressions of this new take on an alien invasion story.

ERIC DEGGANS, BYLINE: "3 Body Problem" actually starts with two problems - first, a string of unexplained suicides by scientists where they write numbers on the wall in their own blood. These deaths are investigated by two men, one of whom is played by Marvel movie alum Benedict Wong.

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "3 BODY PROBLEM")

BENEDICT WONG: (As Da Shi) Another countdown.

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #1: (As character) One of the betting sites had him pegged as a favorite for the next Nobel Prize in physics.

WONG: (As Da Shi) You can bet on that?

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #1: (As character) You can bet on anything, boss.

DEGGANS: That corpse was actually missing his eyes.

The other problem is that science seems to have stopped working, as researchers report results from experiments in supercolliders that make no sense. Jovan Adepo plays a scientist puzzling over what's happened with a colleague.

JOVAN ADEPO: (As Saul Durand) You told us it doesn't matter how beautiful your theory is - if it doesn't agree with experiment, it's wrong.

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #2: (As character) I think that was Feynman, but yeah.

ADEPO: (As Saul Durand) According to the experiments, all of our theories are wrong. All of the physics of the past 60 years is wrong. Science is broken.

DEGGANS: If you're sensing that "3 Body Problem" takes its time in building a narrative, then you've discovered a third problem. It takes a while to gather steam. You're three episodes in before the narrative really gets arresting, and there's a bit of filler in the early episodes. This may not be a surprise, given two of the Netflix series' three creators are David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, former showrunners of HBO's "Game Of Thrones," a program which could have its own problems with narrative flow. Still, once "3 Body Problem" gets going, it reveals a unique kind of invasion attacking the world's scientists, who start seeing a bizarre countdown appear in their vision no one else can perceive. Eiza Gonzalez is one of those scientists who thinks she's going crazy until she gets a visit from a very mysterious woman.

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #3: (As character) The Lord has a better way.

EIZA GONZALEZ: (As Auggie Salazar) Listen, you seem like a very nice person. I'm just not interested, OK?

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #3: (As character) How far as it got - the countdown? How much time do you have left? It's easy to make it stop. You put an end to your work. You shut down the lab. Simple.

DEGGANS: Simple? Well, I'm not so sure about that. This show is based on a 2008 novel by Chinese engineer and science fiction writer Liu Cixin, which became a book series that won praise from big names like Barack Obama. It popularized Chinese science-fiction internationally, and it makes compelling observations about the nature of society and technological progress, some of which find their way into the TV show. It kind of makes sense that Netflix, which has found success funneling audiences to TV shows from South Korea, Latin America and all over the world, would crack this sprawling narrative. The story reaches back to a young Chinese scientist watching an angry mob during China's Cultural Revolution.

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #4: (As character, non-English language spoken).

DEGGANS: They beat her father to death, who's also a scientist, for refusing to recant the Big Bang theory of the universe's beginnings.

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #4: (As character, shouting) Ah.

DEGGANS: "3 Body Problem" shows that scientist, fueled by hate and loss, making a decision which puts the entire planet at risk. The TV show amps up the thriller elements from the books to pose a compelling challenge - how to fight an alien enemy targeting the world's scientific progress. The story arcs across many genres, combining an ambitious narrative with ideas rooted in actual science and eye-popping visual effects to create a truly impressive tale. Just remember to be patient early on as it sets the stage. I'm Eric Deggans.

(SOUNDBITE OF RAMIN DJAWADI'S "MAIN TITLE (FROM THE NETFLIX SERIES "3 BODY PROBLEM")"

Copyright © 2024 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

travel based novels

10 Great TV Series Based on Graphic Novels

T he term "graphic novel" refers to, in simplistic terms, a book in comic format. In a more technical sense, graphic novels differ from comic books because graphic novels are typically longer and more mature, and most importantly, they tell one story with a definitive ending. On the other hand, comic books are short and are issued over and over again, telling several smaller stories within a larger arc. Comic books are also meant to go on for years or even decades.

Iconic shows like Daredevil , The Flash , and Loki are based on Marvel or DC superhero comics that have been coming out for years with no signs of stopping anytime soon. Whereas other shows have been based on graphic novels. Whether they were initially released as comics or not, they eventually became compiled into full-length graphic novels , which, as per the definition, came to a definitive end.

'Kingdom' (2019-2021)

Based on: 'the kingdom of the gods' (2014-2020).

Kingdom is a South Korean Netflix series that is currently in limbo . It was received well, but no new seasons have been announced. The series is based on a webcomic by Youn In-wan that was later compiled into a graphic novel. The story takes place in Joseon, a country that encompassed the Korean peninsula. When the King mysteriously goes missing, his son, Prince Lee Chang ( Ju Jihoon ) is determined to find out why.

He eventually uncovers a conspiracy involving his stepmother's family, the Haewon Cho clan, and their attempts to seize the throne by keeping the King alive. They accomplish this by using a resurrection plant to turn him into a zombie. Their lapse in judgment leads to a zombie plague being unleashed across Joseon. With an army of the dead, a lovable cast of characters , a fantasy setting, and political intrigue, it is a great show for Game of Thrones fans.

Release Date 2019-01-25

Cast Kim Hye-jun, Kim Sungkyu, Ju Ji-Hoon, Bae Doona

Main Genre Horror

Rating TV-MA

Watch on Netflix

'Essex County' (2023)

Based on: 'essex county' (2008-2011).

Essex County is a Canadian TV series based on a three-volume collection of graphic novels by Jeff LeMire . Taking place in Essex County near Windsor, Ontario, the story follows Lester ( Finlay Wojtak-Hissong ), a young boy who has been sent to live with his uncle Kenny ( Brian J. Smith ) after his mother tragically dies of cancer. He is a lonely boy, preferring to spend most of his time pretending to be a superhero. He eventually comes into contact with a former hockey player named Jimmy ( Kevin Durand ), his estranged father.

The six-episode series was quietly released on CBC Gem in 2022, 10 years after the company acquired the rights to the franchise. While it wasn't widely viewed by many, it was praised for its quality. It is a harrowing drama series about family, loss, and the Canadian identity. Author Jeff LeMire based the graphic novel on his own experience growing up in the area, and even co-wrote the show himself.

essex county

Release Date 2023-03-19

Creator Jeff Lemire

Cast Brian Smith, Ryan Bruce, Finlay Wojtak-Hissong, Kevin Durand, Rossif Sutherland, Stephen McHattie, Molly Parker

Main Genre Drama

Watch on CBC Gem

'The Walking Dead' (2010-2022)

Based on: 'the walking dead' (2003-2019).

Perhaps the most famous series based on a graphic novel, The Walking Dead is a post-apocalyptic action-horror series about zombies. With a huge cast of characters and several seasons, it wouldn't be wrong to call it one of the most famous shows of all time. The show is based on a series of comic books by Robert Kirkman , which can also be found in compiled graphic novels. There are a whopping 32 volumes in this graphic novel series, which can be further divided into 193 individual issues.

Not only are there several seasons, but there are also multiple video games based on the series. It has become the signature zombie series out there, and it even has a few spin-off shows to keep this status cemented in television history .

The Walking Dead

Release Date 2010-10-31

Cast Khary Payton, Seth Gilliam, Lauren Cohan, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Christian Serratos, Melissa Suzanne McBride, Norman Reedus

'Scott Pilgrim Takes Off' (2023-)

Based on: 'scott pilgrim' (2004-2010).

Scott Pilgrim has not only been adapted into a recent Netflix series , but it was also released on the silver screens as a stand-alone movie in 2010 titled Scott Pilgrim vs. the World . While the movie is live-action, the animated series maintains the exact artstyle of the original graphic novels by Bryan Lee O'Malley .

The series centres on Scott Pilgrim ( Michael Cera ), a young musician from Toronto who develops a crush on a girl called Ramona Flowers. Unfortunately, in order to win her heart, he must battle seven of her evil exes. The series is by far one of the wildest, most ridiculous things ever created. It plays out like a video game, and has loads of comedic moments mixed in, naturally. While it lacks the traditional maturity of graphic novels, that doesn't make it any less entertaining, and its adaptations reflect that. What's cool is that they even got the original cast of the movie to reprise their roles in the show.

Scott Pilgrim Takes Off

Release Date 2023-11-17

Cast Brandon Routh, Kieran Culkin, Alison Pill, Aubrey Plaza, Jason Schwartzman, Ellen Wong, Michael Cera, Brie Larson, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Mae Whitman, Chris Evans

Main Genre Action-Adventure

Rating TV-14

'The End of the F***ing World' (2017-2019)

Based on: 'the end of the f***ing world' (2011-2013).

The End of the F***ing World is a British dark dramedy series originally penned by Charles Forsman . It revolves around two teenagers: James ( Alex Lawther ) and Alyssa ( Jessica Barden ), two angsty rebels who hate everyone and everything around them. James deems himself to be a psychopath as he enjoys seeing other living creatures in pain. He wants to try his hand at killing a human, so he decides to kill Alyssa.

However, Alyssa decides that she and James should run away together, and through a series of misadventures and changes of heart, James and Alyssa begin to fall in love. Aside from having some hysterically funny moments, it also takes a good look at the inner machinations of the mind of a rebellious and deeply troubled teenager, as well as what compels them to commit such acts of violence.

The End of the F***ing World

Release Date 2017-10-24

Cast Christine Bottomley, Alex Lawther, Steve Oram, Jessica Barden

Main Genre Comedy

'Raising Dion' (2019-2022)

Based on: 'raising dion' (2015).

There are dozens and dozens of superhero shows out on streaming services . Sometimes this can become tiresome, as a lot of them don't always bring anything new to the table . Enter Raising Dion , which tells a young superhero's story from the perspective of his exhausted mother . In this show, superfans get to see just what it's like to be a parent to a boy who is destined to save the world.

Based on the original stand-alone graphic novel by Denis Liu , the show dives deep into familial relationships and accepting your children for who they are , no matter what. The cast does a stunning job, and the visuals are pretty impressive, too.'

Raising Dion

Release Date 2019-10-04

Creator Carol Barbee

Cast Ja'Siah Young, Ali Ahn, Griffin Robert Faulkner, Sammi Haney, Alisha Wainwright, Jazmyn Simon, Jason Ritter

Main Genre Superhero

Rating TV-G

'Watchmen' (2019)

Based on: 'watchmen' (1986-1987).

Watchmen is another show that was first released as a live-action movie. This film came out back in 2009, and was directed by Zack Snyder , who had previously directed 300 (2007), which was also based on a graphic novel. The original comic series-turned-graphic novel is one of the earliest examples of graphic novels, coming out in the mid-1980s.

The story was written by Alan Moore and dotes out heavy social criticisms, especially concerning topics that were hot-button issues in the 80s. In the universe of the series, the US government uses superheroes as a sort of spy unit, which makes them highly unpopular with the Joe and Jane Average. This is because the only true superhero on the team, Dr. Manhattan ( Darrell Snedeger ), gives the US an edge over the Soviet Union, causing tensions to rise. Fearful for the future, the US bans the superheroes, while simultaneously using them to enforce this ban .

Release Date 2019-00-00

Creator Damon Lindelof

Cast Jeremy Irons, Jean Smart, Regina King, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Tom Mison

Watch on Max

'The Boys' (2019-)

Based on: 'the boys' (2006-2012).

The Boys is essentially an anti-superhero comic book series that was later compiled into graphic novels. The author, Garth Ennis , began writing the series due to his hatred of superheroes and how often they appear in comics. As such, the "heroes" actually in the series are the furthest thing from the word as possible. Most of them are murderous narcissists that hold no regard for any human life apart from their own.

The Amazon series has been a smash hit with viewers , as it boasts not only great action and dramatic storylines, but also plenty of dark comedy and abrasive humour. And let's not forget the legendary insulting powers of Queen Maeve ( Dominique McElligott ). All in all, if you're a superhero fan, heck, even if you hate superheroes, it is a must-watch.

Release Date 2019-07-26

Creator Eric Kripke

Cast Karl Urban, Erin Moriarty, Colby Minifie, Antony Starr, Aya Cash, Laz Alonso, Chace Crawford, Dominique McElligott

Watch on Amazon

'Locke & Key' (2020-2022)

Based on: 'locke & key' (2008-2013).

Locke & Key is a low fantasy-drama series that was initially written by Joe Hill , the son of the legendary horror writer Stephen King . It features many fantastical creatures, and even alternate dimensions , making it a great watch if you're into HBO 's His Dark Materials . The story centres on a door to an alternate dimension that is locked behind a door, which can only be opened with a series of magical keys.

While the series was well-received , it managed to be pretty underrated, as viewership wasn't as high as other Netflix series. However, it is worth a watch if you're in for a bingeable low fantasy series.

Locke & Key

Release Date 2020-02-07

Cast Emilia Jones, Jackson Robert Scott, Darby Stanchfield, Connor Jessup

'The Umbrella Academy' (2019-2024)

Based on: 'the umbrella academy' (2007-2019).

The Umbrella Academy has been a real success since its premiere on Netflix . Sadly, it has been announced that it is coming to an end in 2024 . Once again, this is a story that takes a look at superheroes, but not in the way that you'd typically expect. Created by Gerard Way , the series centers on a set of unrelated individuals who are unexpectedly and simultaneously born as superheroes to mothers who showed no signs of pregnancy. One of these individuals gathers a few of them and creates the titular Umbrella Academy, which is a small, albeit dysfunctional family of superpowered individuals.

Like many graphic novels, it began as a limited comic book series that was eventually compiled into larger volumes . A bizarre, yet unique premise, memorable characters, and a killer soundtrack , this is a show that will be remembered for generations to come.

The Umbrella Academy

Release Date 2019-02-15

Creator Steve Blackman, Jeremy Slater

Cast Elliot Page, Yusuf Gatewood, Tom Hopper, Robert Sheehan, Marin Ireland

Watch on Netflix KEEP READING: 10 Graphic Novels that Deserve a TV Series of Their Own

10 Great TV Series Based on Graphic Novels

travel based novels

Energy & Environmental Science

Performance assessment of photoelectrochemical co 2 reduction photocathodes with patterned electrocatalysts: a multi-physical model-based approach †.

ORCID logo

* Corresponding authors

a Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Intelligent Robotics and Flexible Manufacturing Systems, Department of Mechanical and Energy Engineering, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen 518055, China E-mail: [email protected]

b SUSTech Energy Institute for Carbon Neutrality, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen 518055, China

c Liquid Sunlight Alliance, Department of Applied Physics and Material Science, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California 91125, USA

Photoelectrochemical (PEC) carbon dioxide reduction (CO 2 R) devices stand as a promising route for converting intermittent solar energy into storable fuels. The performance of the PEC CO 2 R device requires simultaneous minimization of optical obstruction by the catalyst and maximization of the junction barrier height to facilitate charge separation. A photocathode coated with patterned electrocatalysts is a promising solution due to its flexibility in tuning optics and interfacial charge separation by size and coverage. This study reports typical p-Si photocathodes coated with patterned Ag electrocatalysts for efficient CO 2 R under various catalyst sizes and coverage designs. Notably, we investigated the effects of patterned electrocatalysts on optical absorption due to obstruction and interfacial barrier height rectification due to the pinch-off effect. A coupled multi-physical model-based framework was developed to quantitatively analyze the trade-offs among optical propagation, charge transport, mass transfer, and electrochemical reactions in a PEC CO 2 R photocathode. We found that an optimal catalyst coverage of 0.4 can reconcile the interplay between optical reduction and the catalyst's available surface area, leading to an achievable solar-to-carbon monoxide conversion efficiency ( η CO ) of up to 9.6%, and decreasing the boundary layer thickness of the electrolyte to 25 μm can achieve a η CO of 11.2%. This modeling framework offers valuable insights into the intricate interplay between optics, charge transport, and electrochemical behavior and provides a potent tool for guiding the engineering of high-performance CO 2 R photocathodes featuring patterned electrocatalysts.

Graphical abstract: Performance assessment of photoelectrochemical CO2 reduction photocathodes with patterned electrocatalysts: a multi-physical model-based approach

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travel based novels

Performance assessment of photoelectrochemical CO 2 reduction photocathodes with patterned electrocatalysts: a multi-physical model-based approach

Y. Chen, C. Xiang and M. Lin, Energy Environ. Sci. , 2024, Advance Article , DOI: 10.1039/D4EE00575A

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