Anya Taylor-Joy as Beth Harmon in the Netflix series, The Queen's Gambit. Here Beth is seen looking pensive at a chess board, in the midst of a room of onlookers.

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Reading lists

Books to read if you loved The Queen’s Gambit

Indie Bookshop Week: Penguin authors celebrate their favourites

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Features

Independent Bookshop Week: Penguin authors celebrate their favourites

Humanity before hatred: on the rise of unlikeable female protagonists 

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The overdue rise of the unlikeable female protagonist

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The enduring fascination with cults

Things Bright and Beautiful

'A claustrophobic compelling read that'll suck you into its heart of darkness' Independent 
 
Advent Island in the South Pacific, with its coconut palms and thick green jungle, should be Eden for missionary Max and his young wife Bea. But plagues of insects and rats, sweltering heat and local 'devil chasers' soon turn paradise into hell on earth. Just as Bea begins to adapt to island life, an unexpected guest arrives and Advent Island turns against its would-be saviors. Trapped in the jungle with her increasingly unhinged husband, Bea must fight tooth-and-nail for her freedom, and for her life. 
 
'Lyrical, suspenseful, darkly comic' Observer 
 
'Excellent, blackly funny. A novel whose growing environmental and psychological horrors you can feel crawling across your skin' Daily Mail 
 
'Phenomenally disturbing' Spectator 
 
'Oozing with vivid descriptions and a deeply claustrophobic atmosphere . . . quite unlike anything else you'll read this year' Heat

Dark, mysterious, beguiling, and beautifully written. It transported me to a different world

This book is so rich in detail, the rainforest so immersive, and the characters so wonderfully odd, that I was sucked into its dark beating heart and wasn't spat out until I'd turned the final page

What a hot and sticky, feverishly Lord Of The Flies-style debut! The whole novel excels in rich detail - I wouldn't be surprised if English teachers use it as a masterclass in descriptive prose

A claustrophobic compelling read that'll suck you into its heart of darkness

The book abounds with lurid descriptive passages revelling in tropical ickiness ... competent and assured

Phenomenally disturbing . . . With consummate imagination and technical flair, Salam contrives a crescendo of queasiness that reaches a 'tumult of madness' and manages to make Somerset Maugham's 'Rain' seem like a picnic

An excellent, blackly funny debut ... a novel whose growing environmental and psychological horrors you can feel crawling across your skin

A vivid account . . . The island setting and the rainforest are compellingly evoked, along with the claustrophobic backdrop of religious mania and a dysfunctional marriage - an impressive debut

Thrilling . . . oozing with vivid descriptions and a deeply claustrophobic atmosphere, this debut is quite unlike anything else you'll read this year

Delves in directions you won't see coming, swallowing you like the darkness of the jungle, with a captivating narrative brimming with wonder, trepidation and wit

Examining the true nature of religious missions and a marriage in crisis, this is a vividly drawn and powerful novel

A richly textured novel. Darkly humorous and atmospheric, this debut about fanaticism and marital crisis is one to watch out for

Anbara Salam is half-Palestinian and half-Scottish, and grew up in London. She has a PhD in Theology and is now living and working in Oxford. She spent six months living on a small South Pacific island, and her experiences there served as the inspiration for her first novel, Things Bright and Beautiful.

Advent Island in the South Pacific, with its coconut palms and thick green jungle, should be Eden for missionary Max and his young wife Bea. But plagues of insects and rats, sweltering heat and local 'devil chasers' soon turn paradise into hell on earth. Just as Bea begins to adapt to island life, an unexpected guest arrives and Advent Island turns against its would-be saviors. Trapped in the jungle with her increasingly unhinged husband, Bea must fight tooth-and-nail for her freedom, and for her life.

Anbara Salam

Reminiscent of the steamy passion found in The Talented Mr Ripley, this novel is a beguiling whirlwind of young love and obsession

An enthralling tale of race, secrets and the desire to belong

Lush and languid, this sultry coming-of-age tale captures a fractured friendship and the yearnings of girlhood

This raw and tender tale brims with vivid prose, whether the lush descriptions of the Italian countryside or Bridget's tortured intimate thoughts. A searingly honest coming of age story which steals your heart

Eleanor Catton's The Rehearsal meets Jeffrey Eugenides' The Virgin Suicides meets Patricia Highsmith's The Talented Mr Ripley, this unputdownable and lush novel had me entranced and totally absorbed in the woozy, covertly sensual world of a 1950s Italian convent. Anbara Salam has a gimlet-eyed, ferocious talent for capturing the obsessive urgency and convolutions of power and desire in adolescent experience

I was completely captivated. Thrillingly ambitious, moving, painful and insightful. Bridget broke my heart, she's an alarmingly relatable anti heroine, and I think this book has captured something unique about the experience of jealousy, betrayal and the muddied waters that lie between friendship and obsessive love. It reminded me of The Talented Mr Ripley, but told with acute sensitivity and emotional intelligence

The tender, exquisite prose brilliantly captures the feelings and fault lines in the girls' friendship. This is a discerning look at secret infatuation and racial prejudice

A moving tale about identity, love, and loss. Anbara Salam unspools a compelling narrative about a young woman struggling to find herself amid family secrets and her own hidden truths. It's the kind of emotionally rich story that stays with you

Anissa Gray, author of The Care and Feeding of Ravenously Hungry Girls

I was utterly captivated, from first page to last

Anton DiSclafani, New York Times bestselling author of The After Party

A raw coming of age story, with heartfelt themes of racial prejudice and forbidden love

Isabella is worldly, alluring and brazen. Everything that Bridget is not. So when they both receive an offer to study at a silent convent in Northern Italy, Bridget is thrilled. This is her ticket away from Connecticut and a chance to spend nine whole months with her glamorous and unpredictable best friend. But as the year rolls on in decadent isolation, Bridget grows increasingly fearful that she will lose Isabella's affections - and the more desperate she gets, the greater the lengths she will go to keep her. 
 
Belladonna is a hypnotizing, sun-drenched coming-of age story of friendship and obsession, desire and betrayal, and the lies we tell in order to belong.

Anbara Salam

Books by Anbara Salam

Articles featuring Anbara Salam

Books to read if you loved The Queen’s Gambit

Independent Bookshop Week: Penguin authors celebrate their favourites

The overdue rise of the unlikeable female protagonist

The enduring fascination with cults

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