There is a certain kind of novel that sweeps you away on the sort of holiday that can be nothing short of magical.

These are the books that transport us somewhere beautiful: perhaps to another time, through the streets of a foreign city, into a little village we wish existed, or even to a slower, more peaceful version of life. They might have been written long ago, or they might follow modern travelers as they explore ancient monuments and discover unfamiliar cultures.

When a novel like this is written well, it carries you along with it. The setting becomes almost as important as the story itself. A house you’ve never visited can begin to feel like home. A village you’ve never seen can take on the familiarity of somewhere you’ve always known. For a few hours, reading becomes a kind of travel.

Those are the books I think of as literary holidays.

I’ve encountered several such novels over the years, and now that we’re entering September—our summer holidays winding to a close, our cardigans coming back out of the wardrobe—these are the sorts of books that can help us hold on to a little of that holiday magic.

Because those of us who love reading know the particular magic that occurs when a book truly transports us. We close the cover and may be surprised to find that we are exactly where we started, sitting in a comfortable chair or tucked beneath the covers in bed.

But for a little while, we’ve been somewhere else entirely.

Here are five books that have given me that feeling—five literary escapes for anyone who isn’t quite ready to come home from holiday.

1. The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim

In this life, different souls could hardly be more opposed to one another, whether in personality, temperament, or belief.

The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim has a simple premise on the surface, but beneath it lies something that many women will recognize at one point or another: the need to escape from a life that has become too difficult, too confusing, or too stifled by expectations imposed by other people.

In The Enchanted April, four very different women find themselves drawn together by the possibility of escape. They agree to rent a medieval castle in Italy, each expecting that she will largely keep to herself. They certainly have no intention of getting too involved in one another’s lives.

But some places have a way of overpowering even our strongest prejudices.

As the women settle into their beautiful Italian surroundings, the atmosphere of the castle and the warmth of spring begin to work their quiet magic. This peaceful, atmospheric novel gradually reveals the things its characters have in common, even when they initially have very little patience for one another.

By the end, these four women have discovered that sometimes we need to leave our ordinary lives behind before we can see them—and ourselves—with new eyes.

Read this if: you want an atmospheric, escapist novel about women, friendship, and the restorative magic of getting away from it all.

2. A Room with a View by E. M. Forster

There are few books that make travel feel quite as romantic as A Room with a View by E. M. Forster. Florence becomes more than a setting here; it feels like a doorway into a different way of living, one in which beauty, spontaneity, and the possibility of love might matter more than following the rules you’ve been given.

Lucy Honeychurch arrives in Italy constrained by the expectations of the people around her, but her travels begin to open up something in her that she hadn’t quite known was there. Away from the familiar routines and conventions of home, she begins to see that another kind of life might be possible.

I love the feeling of possibility in this novel—the sense that sometimes going somewhere unfamiliar can help you see your own life differently. It is a book about Italy and Florence, certainly, but it is also a romantic story about independence, self-discovery, and allowing yourself to want something more.

Read this if: you want Florence, romance, beautiful scenery, and the feeling that a trip might change your life.

3. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer & Annie Barrows

Before cell phones and Instagram existed to prove that a holiday had taken place, there were letters. I’ve always thought that letter novels were inherently romantic, even when the stories themselves weren’t necessarily romantic.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows is an epistolary novel told entirely through letters, beginning in the aftermath of World War II. It follows Juliet Ashton, a writer who has become famous for a humorous column that entertained readers during the war but who now dreams of writing something bigger and more substantial.

When Juliet learns of a book club that sprang to life during the German occupation of the island of Guernsey—a literary refuge that brought comfort to its members under extraordinarily difficult circumstances—she becomes fascinated by the people behind it. Before long, she finds herself traveling to Guernsey to learn more about their lives and their remarkable wartime book club.

What begins as a literary investigation becomes something much more personal. On Guernsey, Juliet discovers friendship, unexpected affection, and perhaps even the story she has been looking for all along.

There is something especially charming about a novel that brings you to an island through letters. You never quite stop feeling as though you’ve been invited into someone else’s correspondence, and Guernsey becomes a place you can almost imagine wandering through yourself.

Read this if: you want an atmospheric historical novel filled with books, letters, friendship, romance, and the irresistible feeling of discovering a place through the people who love it.

4. The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett

Not every literary holiday requires a train ticket or a passport. Sometimes all you need is a garden.

Frances Hodgson Burnett’s The Secret Garden has always felt to me like the sort of book that creates its own little world. Mary Lennox arrives at Misselthwaite Manor in Yorkshire after being sent away from India, lonely and thoroughly unaccustomed to the quiet of the English countryside. There, she begins to discover the secrets of the great house—including a locked garden that has been left untouched for years.

As Mary becomes increasingly fascinated by the garden and the people around her, the landscape begins to change, and so does she. There is something wonderfully restorative about watching a neglected place slowly come back to life alongside the children who care for it.

This is perhaps the most fanciful literary holiday on my list, but that is exactly why I love it. The Secret Garden makes the English countryside feel like somewhere you could disappear into for a while—a place of hidden paths, changing seasons, fresh air, and possibilities waiting behind a locked door.

Read this if: you want an enchanting classic about secret gardens, the English countryside, friendship, and the quiet magic of discovering a world of your own.

5. The Little Paris Bookshop by Nina George

The Little Paris Bookshop by Nina George is exactly the kind of novel that makes me want to disappear into a bookshop, buy a train ticket, and see what happens.

As I remember it, the story follows Jean Perdu, a bookseller with a remarkable instinct for knowing which books might help people through whatever they’re experiencing. He lives aboard a floating bookshop in Paris, and eventually sets off on a journey through France that gives him the chance to reckon with an old heartbreak and consider what might come next.

It has been years since I read this one, so some of the finer details have become pleasantly hazy in my memory—and that is part of why I’m looking forward to reading it again. What I seem to remember most is the feeling of it: Paris, books, waterways, food, and the possibility of beginning again.

In my memory, it feels like a literary holiday in the broadest sense. Not simply a story about falling in love, but a story about rediscovering the world after you’ve been closed off from it for too long.

I’m curious to see what remains when I meet this book again.

Read this if: you want France, books, travel, and a story about finding your way back to life.

Take Yourself on a Literary Holiday

A literary holiday doesn’t necessarily require summer weather, a suitcase, or even leaving the house. Sometimes all it takes is a novel that knows how to make another place feel real.

As September arrives and the days begin to grow a little shorter, I find myself wanting to hold on to that feeling of summer travel for just a little longer. These books offer their own kind of escape, taking us to Italy, Florence, Guernsey, France, and the English countryside without asking us to go any farther than our favorite chair.

There is something comforting about knowing that the holiday can continue in this way. We can close the book, return to our ordinary lives, and still carry a little of its world with us.

So if you’re looking for something to read as summer gives way to autumn, consider taking a literary holiday of your own. Choose a book that promises somewhere beautiful, settle in, and let it carry you away for a while.

After all, September may be the month when we come home, but there is no reason we have to come home all at once.

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A Little Cup of Tea

If you’ve enjoyed coming along on these literary holidays, and you’d like to help me keep making them, you can always buy me a coffee. It helps support the time I spend reading, writing, and making little corners of the internet for bookish people to settle into.

No pressure at all—your company here is already lovely. But if you’d like to leave a little something behind for the next cup of tea, I’ll be very grateful.