Who, me? Join another challenge? Shocking! Actually, since four challenges end this month for me, I don’t feel the tiniest twinge of guilt for joining in J.T. Oldfield’s November Novella Challenge. Which, we’re allowed to start early (*cough*read-a-thon*cough*). In the challenge description, J.T. says novellas are 70-120 pages, but when I asked about a book that’s called a novella but is over the 120 limit, I got the go-ahead! (It’s actually quite difficult to find books that are 120 pages or less.) I’m officially signing up for Level III, which is to read 8 novellas in November, but the books I found are so enticing I might find myself at Level IV, the ‘read as many as you freakin’ can’ level. And because I’m me, I ended up making a ridiculously huge pool that I will now share with you annotated style!

Almost all of the books on this list are less than 200 pages, and most of them call themselves novellas (or are called so by others). Several of the novellas come in a collection of short stories; I’ve indicated when that happens. As long as the novella itself falls within the original challenge parameters, I’ve astericked it (because I like following rules, even when they’re flexible). I got a lot of ideas from the Novella Challenge Trish held last year. Also, all of the books on this list are available at my library, so that left out a lot of wonderful sounding small books! And, I don’t do challenge crossovers, so if I’m reading a novella for another challenge, you won’t see it here. Let’s get going!

• Angels & Insects: Two Novellas by A.S. Byatt : I’m listening to this one on CD right now, so I’m not sure if I’ll actually count it. But it’s two marvelous Victorian-style novellas-I’ve finished “Morpho Eugenia” and am in the middle of “The Conjugal Angel” (which features some Tennysons! and mediums!). Byatt’s one of my very favourite authors, so I love pretty much anything written by her, but I really think these will appeal to fans of Possession, since they have a similar style.
• Disquiet by Julia Leigh*: I got this one for the read-a-thon, but even if I don’t pick it up then I intend to read it! As I said in my read-a-thon list, this one is a Gothic story set in a French chateau.
• Hardboiled & Hard Luck by Banana Yoshimoto*: I read two of Yoshimoto’s novellas in January (contained in the book Kitchen) and loved them! This book features two more stories about contemporary Japanese youth.
• The Kingdom of This World by Alejo Carpentier: I’ve been wanting to read more by Latina/o authors lately, and this book by a Cuban set in post-independence Haiti sounds perfect.
• The Haunted Hotel by Wilkie Collins: I put this in my R.I.P. IV pool originally, but I don’t need more R.I.P. reads. I love Collins, and I wanted at least one classic author in this pool!
• From the Dust Returned by Ray Bradbury: another one I’ve transferred over from my R.I.P. pool! I’ve been wanting to read more Bradbury since reading Something Wicked This Way Comes a couple years ago.
• Peace, Locomotion by Jacqueline Woodson: this one’s only 130 pages, so very close to the 120 limit! Anyway, Woodson is one of my new favourite authors-this will be the third book of hers I’ve read this year. It’s told in letters from a 12-year-old boy to his younger sister; they’re both living in foster care but have been split up.
• The Girl With the Golden Shoes by Colin Channer: I typed ‘novella’ into my library’s catalogue and looked at the results; this one immediately jumped out at me because of the title! Then I saw it was described as a Caribbean fairy tale, and I was sold!
• Agamemnon’s Daughter: a Novella and Stories by Ismail Kadare*: another one with a great title! Kadare is an Albanian who won the Man Booker International Prize. Two of my four very favourite authors (and many of my other favourites) happen to be popular with the Booker committee, so I’m always curious about those prize winners. The title story is the novella; there are two other stories in the collection.
• Little Star of Bela Lua by Luana Monteiro*: I’m fascinated by Brazil, so I was excited to stumble across a female Brazilian author! Especially one who favours magical realism. The book includes a novella and three stories.
• Hunger by Lan Samantha Chang*: although I’ve been reading more POC fiction, I haven’t been too focused on Asian American authors. Chang is Chinese American, and this book (which includes one novella and five stories) focuses on recent immigrants.
• Tumble Home: a Novella and Short Stories by Amy Hempel*: Hempel was one of my favourite authors in high school, and I still remember some of her short stories perfectly, they’re so amazing. I can’t wait to read more of her! The title story is the novella.
• The Ladies From St. Petersburg: Three Novellas by Nina Berberova: St. Petersburg! A Russian female author! The Revolution!
• The Sorrows of Young Werther by Goethe: I’ve never read Goethe, but I’ve always meant to! This novella, which was a ‘cult classic’ back in its day, seems like the perfect introduction.
• Swimmer in the Secret Sea by William Kotzwinkle*: isn’t that another great title?! It seems like novellas have more evocative titles than novels. Anyway, this sounds like a hauntingly beautiful story, that looks at a couple in the wake of the death of their baby.
• There are No Ghosts in the Soviet Union: a Novella and Five Stories by Reginald Hill: if you know anything about me, you know I can’t pass up a book with ‘ghosts’ and a reference to Russia in the title! These are appartently a variety of detective stories, which I find extra-intriguing. (However, I can’t find the page count anywhere online, so I have no idea how long the novella is!)
• The Lost Garden by Helen Humphreys: I transferred this slim book over from the Canadian Challenge! Even though it’s published by Norton, it sounds like a total Persephone book, set on an estate in England full of Canadian soldiers and English girls planting victory gardens during WWII.
• Before We Were Free or A Cafecito Story by Julia Alvarez: the latter title sounds a touch more interesting (it’s about coffee farming and sustainability), but it’s in a bilingual edition and I can’t tell from the page count if it works for the challenge! If not, Before We Were Free, about a 12-year-old girl in the dictatorship of 60s Dominican Republic, sounds really good too.
• The Touchstone by Edith Wharton*: Wharton is another old favourite of mine who I can always trust to deliver a marvelous (though depressing) story! This is her first published novella, about a man who has to live with a guilty conscience.
• Detective Story by Imre Kertesz*: Kertesz won the Nobel prize, which I tend to be oblivious to, but I loved Kristin Lavransdatter by another European Nobel laureate! Kertesz is a Hungarian Jewish author who survived the Holocaust; while this book is set in Latin America and a murder mystery, it still speaks out against dictatorships.
• When the Emperor was Divine by Julie Otsuka: another Asian American for my list! When I as in elementary school, I read this really affecting book about Japanese internment camps (called The Moon Bridge), but I haven’t read anything about it since. This novella looks at the effect of the camps on several generations of one Japanese American family.
• Raise the Red Lantern by Su Tong*: I mentioned earlier this year that most of my contemporary Chinese fiction reading has been by male authors, and I’ve noticed quite a bit of misogyny that really frustrates me. But I figure I’ll give the guys one last shot, with this collection of three novellas (“Nineteen Thirty-Four Escapes”, “Opium Family”, and the title story).
• Aura by Carlos Fuentes*: it’s bilingual, which means I can read the English part and then amuse myself pretending to speak Spanish. Anyway, Fuentes is a Panama (? I have no idea what the adjective is) author, and this sounds like a gothic-y story: young man goes to mansion with old woman and her young niece with beautiful green eyes.
• Without Blood by Alessandro Baricco*: I LOVED Baricco’s earlier novella, Silk, so even though this one is about war, I’m willing to trust that he’ll make it beautiful.
• A Smile of Fortune by Joseph Conrad*: I read Conrad’s most famous novella, Heart of Darkness, for the first novella challenge and really enjoyed it. I thought it’d be neat if, for my second taste of him, I chose a more obscure one-it’s focused on a ship captain, which I like since I enjoy nautical books!
• In the Heart of the Country by J.M. Coetzee: I’ve been wanting to try out Coetzee forever, but he makes me nervous. Starting out with a shorter work makes me less so!
• The Fall of Rome by Martha Southgate: I studied Latin in high school, and went to a tiny residential liberal arts college, so I’m a sucker for boarding school stories, especially about classics teachers!

Do you like novellas? What’s your favourite?