# What are great short novels you can read in a weekend? Canonical: https://zestasy.com/wiki/short-novels-for-a-weekend/ Section: Zestasy Wiki > Books & ideas · Updated: 2026-10-13 · Publisher: Zestasy *Zestasy Wiki: our reference answers. Checked for facts and sources; less curated than the magazine.* Our weekend shortlist: Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck (1937), Chess Story by Stefan Zweig (1942), A Month in the Country by J. L. Carr (1980), Silk by Alessandro Baricco (1996) and Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan (2021). Each can be read in a sitting or two, each is complete and satisfying, and together they cover tragedy, suspense, a quiet English summer, a love story and a moral dilemma at Christmas. A short novel is one of the great pleasures in reading: a whole world, start to finish, in the time it takes to watch a couple of films. You close it on Sunday evening with the feeling of having been somewhere. Here are five we would happily hand to anyone, in order of publication. ## Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck (1937) Two migrant ranch workers, George and Lennie, move from job to job in Depression-era California, sharing a dream of one day owning a small farm of their own. George does the thinking; Lennie mostly dreams of looking after the rabbits. You will guess early that the dream is fragile. **Why it's worth the afternoon:** Steinbeck built it in [three acts of two chapters each](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Of_Mice_and_Men), designed to work as both a novella and a play script, so it moves like theatre. At around 30,000 words, it is a genuine one-sitting read, and it stays with you far longer than that. ## Chess Story, Stefan Zweig (1942) Also published in English as The Royal Game. On a passenger liner sailing from New York to Buenos Aires, a reigning chess champion, Mirko Czentovic, is challenged by passengers, and a quiet stranger, Dr B., turns out to play extraordinarily well. How he learned is the heart of the book: held in isolation in a hotel room by the Gestapo, with nothing to occupy his mind but a book of past masters' games. **Why it's worth the afternoon:** It is a tense, compact psychological story, written in 1941 and published the following year, and it works even if you do not play chess. Zweig makes the game feel like a matter of life and sanity. ## A Month in the Country, J. L. Carr (1980) Summer 1920, North Yorkshire. Tom Birkin, back from the First World War and from a failed marriage, is hired to uncover a medieval painting hidden under whitewash on a village church wall. Another veteran is camped nearby, searching for a lost grave. **Why it's worth the afternoon:** It is a quiet, glowing book about one summer, about work done slowly and well, and about happiness that is noticed only once it is passing. It won the Guardian Fiction Prize in 1980 and runs to just over a hundred pages. ## Silk, Alessandro Baricco (1996) A French silkworm-egg merchant in the 19th century travels to a Japan almost closed to foreigners, again and again, and becomes fixed on a young woman with whom he shares no language. Told in short chapters and very few words. **Why it's worth the afternoon:** It is the purest one-evening novel we know. It reads like a fable and lands like a song. More on our page about [Silk](https://zestasy.com/wiki/baricco-silk/). ## Small Things Like These, Claire Keegan (2021) New Ross, Ireland, December 1985. Bill Furlong, a coal and fuel merchant and father of five daughters, comes face to face with what is happening behind the walls of the local convent in the run-up to Christmas. The book is about what a decent, ordinary man does next. **Why it's worth the afternoon:** It is short enough that reviewers said it takes about an hour, yet it carries real moral weight. It was shortlisted for the Booker Prize, won the Orwell Prize for Political Fiction in 2022, and was filmed in 2024 with Cillian Murphy. Note that it deals with the abuse of young women in a Magdalene laundry, so it is a serious read for all its brevity. ## How to plan a short-novel weekend Pick two: one lighter, one heavier. Read the first on Saturday morning, go out, cook something good, and read the second on Sunday. Avoid stacking two tragedies back to back. If you are wondering what counts as a novella versus a short novel, see [what is a novella](https://zestasy.com/wiki/what-is-a-novella/). ## FAQ ### Are short novels less serious than long ones? Not at all. Several on this list carry as much weight as books five times their length. Short is a form, not a lack of ambition. ### Which is the best one to start with? For pure pleasure, Silk. For a story that grips from the first page, Chess Story. For a quiet book that grows on you, A Month in the Country. ### Are these suitable for a book club? Very. Short books mean everyone actually finishes, and these all leave plenty to talk about. Small Things Like These and Of Mice and Men in particular spark long discussions. ### Are there films of these books? Several. Small Things Like These was adapted in 2024, A Month in the Country in 1987 with Colin Firth and Kenneth Branagh, and Silk in 2007. Read the book first; it will take you less time than the film. ## Sources - [Wikipedia: Of Mice and Men](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Of_Mice_and_Men) - [Wikipedia: The Royal Game (Chess Story)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Royal_Game) - [Wikipedia: A Month in the Country (novel)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Month_in_the_Country_(novel)) - [Wikipedia: Silk (novel)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silk_(novel)) - [Wikipedia: Small Things Like These](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Small_Things_Like_These) ## Related - [What is Alessandro Baricco's Silk about?](https://zestasy.com/wiki/baricco-silk/) - [What is a novella, and how is it different from a novel?](https://zestasy.com/wiki/what-is-a-novella/) - [Is The Little Prince really a children's book?](https://zestasy.com/wiki/the-little-prince/) - [How do you get out of a reading slump?](https://zestasy.com/wiki/reading-slump/) - [How many books should you pack for a holiday?](https://zestasy.com/wiki/books-for-a-holiday/) - [All Books & ideas answers in the Wiki](https://zestasy.com/wiki/#books)