Picking up a book that resembles a doorstopper might feel like a big investment of your time – but the payoff is often worth it. Spending 500-plus pages in the same universe, fully immersed in a different place, time, or world, can be an incredibly rewarding experience.
With plenty of bulky books in every genre to meet your mood or taste, we've pulled together a handy list of novels, organised by page count – from 500-page long reads to epic, 1000-plus-page tomes. May they inspire your next immersive read.
Like any good travel story, The Lincoln Highway chronicles the highs and lows, and twists and turns, of life on the road. It follows two brothers who travel the breadth of 1950s America in search of a better life, but their fateful journey takes them away from the sunny fortunes of California and reroutes them to bustling New York City. It is an extraordinary tale full of unforgettable characters and scenery that leaps off the page.
While their parents occupy themselves with glitzy parties, the Seagrave children roam the beautiful grounds, elegant libraries, and dusty attics of their family’s manor house. When a whale washes up on the Dorset beach surrounding their estate, twelve-year-old Cristabel vows to live her life the way she wants, but as the children grow up, the looming war jolts the lives of each sibling onto very different tracks. A heart-wrenching and immersive tale, The Whalebone Theatre explores the narratives that shape our lives and the human desire to be free.
Once Upon a River 544 pages Once Upon a River is about the power of storytelling infused with folklore traditions.
Man Booker Prize-winning author Marlon James’ Dark Star Trilogy draws on African history and mythology. In Black Leopard Red Wolf , the first fantasy epic of the three, our hero is Tracker, a hunter known throughout the 13 kingdoms for his keen sense of smell. Hired to find a lost child, Tracker travels through mist-covered swamps, enchanted jungles, and twisting rivers, encountering all sorts of magical and mysterious beings along the way. The best part: once you have read your way through its 640 pages, the second book in the series will be waiting for you to savour.
Great Circle is the story of two women. In 1950, female aviator Marian Graves embarks on her life’s dream: to fly around the globe. But after a crash landing, she writes one last entry in her logbook. Half a century later, troubled Hollywood starlet Hadley Baxter is irresistibly drawn to pay Marian in a film, a role that will lead her to the deepest mysteries in the vanished pilot’s life. Told across centuries and perspectives, Maggie Shipstead's Booker Prize-shortlisted epic is a captivating epic about the very nature of human endeavour.
The Absolute Book (2022) 640 pages His Dark Materials Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell , Elizabeth Knox explores the lives of two sisters and a mysterious book that may unlock the secrets behind the tragic death of one of the girls. Exploring libraries and with dark forces at play, The Absolute Book is an engrossing, fantastical read for any and all thrill seekers.
Rachel’s Holiday (2005) 640 pages
Kate Atkinson’s prize-winning bestseller is a fascinatingly constructed novel that puts her main character Ursula Todd in an endless time-loop. Doomed to live her life multiple times, she comes to realise that she can influence the events of the Second World War and save her beloved brother, Teddy. A worthy pursuit played across 624 pages, Atkinson carried the story on in a further 576-page sequel A God in Ruins
London Belongs to Me London Belongs to Me is a pre-war soap opera following a cast of colourful characters around a London unrecognisable today.
Armadale The Woman in White (coincidentally, another 736 pager), Armadale was regarded by author T.S. Eliot as "the best of [his] romances" and includes Lydia Gwilt, a character considered as one of the most astonishing wicked female villains in literature. Drawing on scandalous newspaper headlines, Collins creates a story of confused identities, inherited curses, romantic rivalries, espionage, and murder – making for an action-packed 752 pages.
The Heart's Invisible Furies 736 pages
Death and Mr Pickwick 816 pages Bleak House Dombey and Son Death and Mr Pickwick is based on the real events of how the monthly periodical, The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club , was created by the artist Robert Seymore, with accompanying words by a young journalist who went by the pen name Boz (Dickens himself). As their popularity reaches dizzying heights, celebrations soon turn to tragedy, highlighting the darker side of Dickens' treatment of others.
Outlander 880 pages Outlander , you'll make a dent in the final total with 880 pages chronicling the adventures of Claire Randall, who falls back in time after stumbling through a stone circle during her honeymoon in Scotland. Her desperation to return to her husband and life in 1946 wanes when she meets the dashing Scots warrior, Jamie Fraser.
Parade's End Parade’s End explores the destruction and regeneration during the First World War through a variety of characters on very different life journeys. Aristocrat Christopher Tietjens' world is flipped by psychological damage inflicted by battle and the breakdown of his marriage to the beautiful but cruel socialite Sylvia. But alongside the death and destruction of war, there is hope and the beginning of a new age, manifested by suffragette Valentine Wannop – who captures Christopher’s heart.
John Galsworthy’s sweeping saga chronicles the fortunes and downfalls of the wealthy Forsyte family as they navigate the dramatic social changes starting from the strait-laced Victorian era to the Roaring 20s. As each generation marries, starts a family, and grows old, readers really feel like part of the family.
City on Fire 944 pages City on Fire chronicles the lives of nine strangers from various walks of life who, at the stroke of midnight, become entwined in a tragic shooting in central park. As the investigation progresses, it is up to the police to unravel the threads of their lives to discover how they are all connected.
The Terror
Les Misérables 1,232 pages
Adapted into one of the most successful musicals of all time, Les Misérables’ running time in London’s West End is an impressive 2 hours 50 minutes. But for a more immersive experience, why not try the original novel – a full 1,232 pages of injustice, heroism, and love in 19th-century France.
Atlas Shrugged 1,184 pages Atlas Shrugged envisions a world where any man of talent or creativity has mysteriously disappeared. While John Galt has an ambitious plan to stop the motor industry, businesswoman Dagny Taggart is struggling to get the transcontinental railway up and running. For Dagny, John Galt is the enemy; but as she will learn, nothing in this situation is quite as it seems.
Ulysses Ulysses follows characters Stephen Dedalus, Leopold Bloom and his wife Molly across a day in their lives in 1904 Dublin. Dedalus and Bloom, who are are unaware of each other, are trying to find a missing loved one: the former, his long-lost father, and Bloom, despite being childless, for a son. If you are feeling slightly intimidated by the book's length, try our handy guide which will see you through to the end.
