Novellas: “all killer, no filler”
~Joe Hill
Hard to believe it’s nearly that time again. For the SEVENTH year in a row, Cathy of 746 Books and I are co-hosting Novellas in November as a month-long blogging and social media challenge celebrating the art of the short book (we include nonfiction, too). A novella technically contains 20,000 to 40,000 words, but to keep things simple we define it as any work under 200 pages.
This year’s buddy read is a 2024 novella translated from the Japanese last year:
Sympathy Tower Tokyo by Rie Qudan [translated by Jesse Kirkwood] is the author’s fourth novel and won the Akutagawa Prize. An architect named Sara Machina is assigned to design a city skyscraper meant to house criminals in comfort. While trying to navigate a middle way between compassion and recrimination – complicated by her own past victimhood – she converses with an AI chatbot. This engaging exploration of language, creativity and conformity comes with high praise from writers ranging from Helen Phillips to Bryan Washington. (134 pages)
Please join us in reading this any time between now and the end of November!
You might like to start off the month with a My Year in Novellas retrospective looking at any novellas you have read since last year’s NovNov and finish with a New to My TBR list based on what short books others have tempted you with.
It’s always a busy month in the blogging world with Nonfiction November, German Literature Month, Margaret Atwood Reading Month and SciFi Month. Why not search your shelves and/or local library for novellas that could count towards multiple challenges?
From 19 October a link-up post will be pinned at the top of my site so you can add your planning posts and book lists. Keep in touch via Bluesky (@bookishbeck.bsky.social / @cathybrown746.bsky.social) and Instagram (@bookishbeck / @cathy_746books) and feel free to use the terrific feature images Cathy has made plus our new hashtag, #NovNov26.
Bookish Beck = Rebecca Foster. American transplant to England. Freelance proofreader and book reviewer.
Looking forward to it!
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Always a pleasure!
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Yes, I’m in, I have a good pile of novellas to work with…
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Hurrah! It seems I only recommend the reading of short forms 😉
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Very glad this is happening, and I have lots of choices! Although I tend to think of novellas a around 100 or so pages, if we’re going up to 200 that widens my options even more!
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It’s so hard to say — it really depends on the type size, margins, etc. I personally shoot for under 150 pages. If you have a bunch to choose from that are only 100 or so, that’s great! You could probably manage some one-sitting reads (vanishingly rare for me).
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looking forward to it!
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It would be great to have you join us!
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Thanks for hosting this event again this year. Count me in, I’ll even read non-fiction novellas to combine NovNov and Non Fiction November. 🙂
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Brilliant! I’ll do the same 🙂
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Looking forward to it, and Sympathy Tower Tokyo is on my TBR, so we’ll definitely join you in that as well. Thanks for hosting
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Glad to hear it! I look forward to seeing what you choose to read next month.
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Always look forward to this. To me, the art of the novella is embodied in the writing of Carys Davies. Before anything else, I would like to share with you what she has been doing since the publication of Clear. In July 2024, Carys lost her husband Michael to cancer aged 65. Michael had been a history teacher and left teaching to found an organisation called Parallel Histories which enables young people to look at history in the round and to ask questions of it. Quietly in the background, Carys had been supporting Michael´s work – those moves to the US, to Lancaster and then to Edinburgh now make sense. After his death, she became a Trustee of Parallel Histories and has been editing their book which is due out very soon. This tells you more about their work Team – Parallel Histories Parallel Histories. It will be of great interest to see what Carys does next.
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Carys Davies is certainly an accomplished novella (and short story) writer, much like Claire Keegan. Clear was one of my top reads of 2024. Do you know her personally?
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I wish! It took me a while to put Carys and Michael Davies together as a couple, having followed their work separately
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Thanks! Yes I am in for this! I have two books ready to read!
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Hurrah!
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I think I have a few I could read for this challenge!
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Great!
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I read Sympathy Tower Tokyo in January – really looking forward to hearing what the rest of you think about it too.
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I’ll look back at your review after I’ve read it 🙂
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Looking forward to it. I loved Sympathy Tower Tokyo – one of my books of the year for sure.
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Thanks for putting it on our radar.
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I’m in and the library has Sympathy Tower so I’ve already downloaded the Kindle!
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Terrific!
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[…] Preparing my reading lists for Novellas in November (hosted by Beck and Cathy), and for German Literature Month (hosted by Caroline and Tony, and remembering […]
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I have a big stack of novellas ready to go!
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Yay!
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[…] running from 1st to 30th November. Take a gander at Announcing Novellas in November 2026! or Get Ready for Novellas in November! (#NovNov26) to find everything you need to know about this year’s chosen buddy read: Sympathy Tower Tokyo by […]
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I’m joining in this year alongside NonfictionNovember.
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Fantastic!
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I hope it goes really well! I’ll be joining in by pairing it with Nonfiction November as usual, reading short nonfiction from my TBR (and normal-length nonfiction from my NetGalley shelf).
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I have a good number of NF options, including on my e-readers.
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My favorite challenge of the year. Just requested the buddy read book from the library.
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