Portrait of Nick Cave
Singer-songwriter and author

Nick Cave

Nick Cave is the singer-songwriter behind Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds and the author of novels including And the Ass Saw the Angel. Through his newsletter The Red Hand Files he answers fan questions, and in Issue 101 he wrote out fifty books he loves. Picks below come from those letters.

18
Recommendations
2020
Most recent list
Literary Fiction
Most-recommended
MusicianAuthorLiterary Fiction
On the record

All Nick Cave book recommendations.

The Anatomy of Melancholy cover01
Non-Fiction

The Anatomy of Melancholy

by Robert Burton1624

“The best I can do is throw together a rather formless and incoherent grab bag of titles that come to mind at this moment that, for one reason or another, I have loved over the years.”source

Pale Fire cover02
Literary Fiction

Pale Fire

by Vladimir Nabokov1945

“The best I can do is throw together a rather formless and incoherent grab bag of titles that come to mind at this moment that, for one reason or another, I have loved over the years.”source

Things Fall Apart cover03
Literary Fiction

Things Fall Apart

by Chinua Achebe2017

“The best I can do is throw together a rather formless and incoherent grab bag of titles that come to mind at this moment that, for one reason or another, I have loved over the years.”source

The Killer Inside Me cover04
Crime

The Killer Inside Me

by Jim Thompson1952

“The best I can do is throw together a rather formless and incoherent grab bag of titles that come to mind at this moment that, for one reason or another, I have loved over the years.”source

The Good Lord Bird cover05
Historical Fiction

The Good Lord Bird

by James McBride2013

“The best I can do is throw together a rather formless and incoherent grab bag of titles that come to mind at this moment that, for one reason or another, I have loved over the years.”source

Man's Search for Meaning cover06
Non-Fiction

Man's Search for Meaning

by Viktor Frankl1946

“The best I can do is throw together a rather formless and incoherent grab bag of titles that come to mind at this moment that, for one reason or another, I have loved over the years.”source

Consolations cover07
Non-Fiction

Consolations

by David Whyte2015

“The best I can do is throw together a rather formless and incoherent grab bag of titles that come to mind at this moment that, for one reason or another, I have loved over the years.”source

The Informers cover08
Literary Fiction

The Informers

by Bret Easton Ellis1994

“The best I can do is throw together a rather formless and incoherent grab bag of titles that come to mind at this moment that, for one reason or another, I have loved over the years.”source

Moby Dick cover09
Literary Fiction

Moby Dick

by 1851

“Most of them I read when I was quite young, and each of them introduced me to worlds that were strange and fascinating and new.”source

Blood Meridian cover10
Literary Fiction

Blood Meridian

by Cormac McCarthy1985

“Most of them I read when I was quite young, and each of them introduced me to worlds that were strange and fascinating and new.”source

Crime and Punishment cover11
Literary Fiction

Crime and Punishment

by Fyodor Dostoevsky1866

“This is in no way definitive and by no means reflects the best books I have read, nor are these necessarily the greatest books by the particular author I have chosen, but here are a dozen books of fiction that I love.”source

Lolita cover12
Literary Fiction

Lolita

by Vladimir Nabokov1777

“Between the ages of seventeen and twenty-four our brains are super-receptive, and that it is the period when we form acutely close attachments to things, songs, books, films, paintings etc.”source

Tess of the d'Urbervilles cover13
Literary Fiction

Tess of the d'Urbervilles

by Thomas Hardy1971

“Here are a dozen books of fiction that I love. Most of them I read when I was quite young, and each of them introduced me to worlds that were strange and fascinating and new.”source

The Adventures of Pinocchio cover14
Literary Fiction

The Adventures of Pinocchio

by Carlo Collodi1921

“Here are a dozen books of fiction that I love. Most of them I read when I was quite young, and each of them introduced me to worlds that were strange and fascinating and new.”source

The Count of Monte Cristo cover15
Historical Fiction

The Count of Monte Cristo

by Alexandre Dumas1844

“Here are a dozen books of fiction that I love. Most of them I read when I was quite young, and each of them introduced me to worlds that were strange and fascinating and new.”source

Ariel cover16
Literary Fiction

Ariel

by Sylvia Plath1965

“I have a few poets that, purely on a personal level, always delight and are a simple pleasure to read. There are enough surprises within their writing to keep the mind light and alive.”source

High Windows cover17
Literary Fiction

High Windows

by Philip Larkin1974

“I try to read, at the very least, a half-hour of poetry a day, before I begin to do my own writing. It jimmies open the imagination, making the mind more receptive to metaphor and abstraction.”source

Here I Am cover18
Literary Fiction

Here I Am

by Jonathan Safran Foer2016

“It is a dangerous business recommending a book, especially to a book club, especially a long book, but I flew through Here I Am and halfway through I was in tears and again a bit further on, more tears.”source

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