The short answer
The best short novels you can finish in a weekend are Claire Keegan’s Small Things Like These (128 pages), Denis Johnson’s Train Dreams (116 pages) and John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men (about 107 pages). Every pick below runs under 200 pages in at least one common edition, so you can read each one in a sitting or two.
- Best modern pick: Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan (2021)
- Best classic: Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck (1937)
- Best to read before the movie: Train Dreams by Denis Johnson (Netflix film, 2025)
- Best sci-fi novella: All Systems Red by Martha Wells (2018 Hugo winner)
116
Pages in Train Dreams
128
Pages in Small Things Like These
136
Pages in Orbital (UK), 2024 Booker winner
17,500–40,000
Words in a novella (SFWA and Hugo rule)
In this article
Short novels are the easiest way to finish a real book this weekend. A short novel, often called a novella, is a complete story that sits between a short story and a full-length novel, so it gives you a whole arc without a month-long commitment. As a result, short novels suit busy readers, nervous beginners, book clubs and anyone stuck in a reading slump.
For this guide, we picked 12 books and checked each page count against the publisher, a library catalog or a major reference. Page counts change from one printing to the next, so treat every number as a close estimate for the edition we name. In addition, we mixed prize winners from the last 15 years with short classic novels that still turn up on school lists and “best of” rankings.
What Are Short Novels and Novellas?
Short novels are full stories that usually run about 100 to 200 printed pages. Most of them technically count as novellas. Merriam-Webster defines a novella as a work of fiction “intermediate in length and complexity” between a short story and a novel.
Word counts give a firmer line. For example, the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association (SFWA) and the Hugo Awards both define a novella as 17,500 to 40,000 words. Meanwhile, books such as The Great Gatsby run a little longer, yet most readers still shelve them with short novels because they finish in under 200 pages.
Is a novella the same as a short novel?
In everyday use, yes. Publishers and booksellers use the two terms almost interchangeably. However, award committees care about word counts, so a book can be a “short novel” on a store shelf and still fall outside a prize’s novella category.
Quick Picks: Best Books Under 200 Pages
Here is the whole list at a glance. First, scan the page counts; then jump to the card for anything that catches your eye.
| Book | Author | First published | Approx. pages (edition) | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Small Things Like These | Claire Keegan | 2021 | 128 (Grove) | A one-evening read |
| Train Dreams | Denis Johnson | 2011 (book) | 116 (FSG) | Reading before the movie |
| Orbital | Samantha Harvey | 2023 | 136 (UK) / 224 (US Grove) | Literary prize fans |
| Convenience Store Woman | Sayaka Murata | 2016 (Japan) | 163 (Grove hardcover) | Dark comedy |
| All Systems Red | Martha Wells | 2017 | About 160 (Tor.com) | Best short novels sci fi |
| The Sense of an Ending | Julian Barnes | 2011 | 163 (Knopf/Vintage) | Book clubs |
| Of Mice and Men | John Steinbeck | 1937 | About 107 (Penguin) | Short novels for beginners |
| The Old Man and the Sea | Ernest Hemingway | 1952 | 127 (Scribner) | A Pulitzer winner in one sitting |
| The Great Gatsby | F. Scott Fitzgerald | 1925 | 180 (Scribner) | Best short novels of all time |
| Animal Farm | George Orwell | 1945 | 140 (Signet Classics) | Readers who like satire |
| The Stranger | Albert Camus | 1942 | 123–144 (Vintage) | Big ideas, small package |
| We Have Always Lived in the Castle | Shirley Jackson | 1962 | 146 (Penguin) | A spooky weekend |
Best Modern Short Novels to Read Now
The best modern short novels have won the Booker Prize, the Hugo and Japan’s top literary award, and two of them became major films. So if you want something current, start here.
1. Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan — Best overall
Set in a small Irish town in the weeks before Christmas 1985, this book follows Bill Furlong, a coal merchant who finds something at the local convent that he cannot ignore. Keegan, an Irish author known for very compact fiction, packs a whole moral crisis into a few days. Consequently, it is the easiest book on this list to finish in one evening and the hardest to forget. Find it on Amazon.
- Length: 128 pages (Grove Atlantic hardcover, 2021)
- Honors: Shortlisted for the 2022 Booker Prize; won the Orwell Prize for Political Fiction; an Oprah’s Book Club pick
- On screen: The Cillian Murphy film opened the 2024 Berlin International Film Festival, where Emily Watson won a Silver Bear
2. Train Dreams by Denis Johnson — Best to read before the movie
Johnson’s novella traces the whole life of Robert Grainier, a laborer in the early 20th-century American West, in just 116 pages. It first ran in The Paris Review in 2002, and Farrar, Straus and Giroux then published it as a book in 2011. Notably, it was a finalist for the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, a year when the board gave no fiction award. Find it on Amazon.
- Length: 116 pages (FSG, 2011)
- On screen: Clint Bentley’s 2025 film stars Joel Edgerton and streams on Netflix; Netflix Tudum explains how the filmmakers adapted the book
- Why read it first: The book keeps an ambiguity that critics say the film softens
3. Orbital by Samantha Harvey — Best literary prize winner
Six astronauts and cosmonauts circle Earth on the International Space Station over a single day, and Harvey turns their routines into a meditation on the planet below. It won the 2024 Booker Prize, Britain’s leading award for fiction in English. According to the Booker Prize Foundation, its 136-page UK edition makes it the second-shortest winner ever, after Penelope Fitzgerald’s Offshore (1979). Find it on Amazon.
- Length: 136 pages (UK); 224 pages in the US Grove edition
- Honors: 2024 Booker Prize and the Hawthornden Prize
4. Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata — Best dark comedy
Keiko Furukura has worked at the same Tokyo convenience store for 18 years, and her family wants her to want more. The novel won Japan’s Akutagawa Prize in 2016 and has sold more than 1.5 million copies in Japan. Ginny Tapley Takemori’s English translation arrived in 2018, and it reads fast because Keiko’s deadpan voice is so funny. Find it on Amazon.
- Length: 163 pages (Grove hardcover, 2018); the paperback runs about 172
- Best for: Readers who want something quirky, not heavy
5. All Systems Red by Martha Wells — Best short sci-fi
A security android that calls itself Murderbot has hacked its own controls, and it would rather watch TV serials than protect its human clients. Then a survey mission goes wrong, and it has to care anyway. This first book in The Murderbot Diaries won the Nebula, Hugo and Locus awards for best novella. Plus, Apple TV+ turned the series into Murderbot, starring Alexander Skarsgård, in May 2025. Find it on Amazon.
- Length: About 144–160 pages (Tor.com, 2017)
- Best for: Sci-fi fans, and anyone who likes a funny narrator
6. The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes — Best for book clubs
A retired man named Tony Webster receives an unexpected bequest, and it forces him to revisit a friendship from his school days. Barnes, a British novelist, won the 2011 Booker Prize for this book. Because its final pages reframe everything before them, it sparks better arguments than almost any other short novel. Find it on Amazon.
- Length: 163 pages (Knopf hardcover and Vintage paperback)
- Best for: Short novels for book clubs
Which Short Classic Novels Are Worth a Weekend?
The short classic novels most worth your weekend are Of Mice and Men, The Old Man and the Sea and The Great Gatsby. In fact, several books in this section are among the most taught novels in American schools, so a quick reread as an adult can feel like a brand-new book.
7. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck — Best for beginners
George and Lennie, two migrant ranch workers in Depression-era California, dream of owning a small farm. Steinbeck tells their story in about 30,000 words, so the plain prose and tight plot make it ideal if you are new to classics. However, expect strong language and a devastating ending; the American Library Association has listed it among the most challenged books of the 2000s and 2010s. Find it on Amazon.
- Length: About 107 pages (Penguin paperback); other Penguin editions run 128–132
- Best for: Short novels for beginners
8. The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway — Best Pulitzer winner
An aging Cuban fisherman, Santiago, hooks a giant marlin far out in the Gulf Stream and refuses to let go. Life magazine first printed the full novella in September 1952, and it then won the 1953 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. Later, the Nobel committee cited it when it gave Hemingway the 1954 Nobel Prize in Literature. Find it on Amazon.
- Length: 127 pages (Scribner paperback)
- Best for: A single long afternoon
9. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald — Best of all time
Narrator Nick Carraway watches his mysterious neighbor Jay Gatsby chase a lost love across one Long Island summer. Scribner published it on April 10, 1925, and it entered the US public domain on January 1, 2021. Even so, the Scribner paperback is still the edition most American readers know. Find it on Amazon.
- Length: 180 pages (Scribner trade paperback)
- Best for: Readers who skipped it in high school
10. Animal Farm by George Orwell — Best satire
The animals of Manor Farm overthrow their human owner, and then the pigs slowly take his place. Orwell wrote it as a satire of the Russian Revolution and the Stalin era, and Secker & Warburg first published it in London in August 1945. Additionally, Time named it one of the 100 best English-language novels from 1923 to 2005. Find it on Amazon.
- Length: 140 pages (Signet Classics paperback)
- Best for: Teens and adults who like a story with a sting
11. The Stranger by Albert Camus — Best for big ideas
Meursault, a French clerk in Algiers, shows no grief at his mother’s funeral and then commits a senseless crime. Gallimard published the French original in 1942, and Le Monde later ranked it first on its list of the 100 Books of the 20th Century. For US readers, we suggest Matthew Ward’s 1988 translation, which uses American English. Find it on Amazon.
- Length: 123 pages in the 1989 Vintage International printing; current listings show 144
- Best for: Readers curious about existentialism
12. We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson — Best spooky read
Eighteen-year-old Merricat Blackwood lives with her sister and uncle in a village that hates them, years after the rest of the family died by poison. Viking published this book in 1962, and it was Jackson’s final novel. Since it is creepy without gore, it makes a perfect October weekend read. Find it on Amazon.
- Length: 146 pages (Penguin Classics, 2006); deluxe editions run longer
- Best for: Gothic and horror fans
More Short Books to Read in One Sitting
If you finish the list and still want more short books to read, these three are just as quick. Better still, each one fits into a single long evening.
| Book | Author | Approx. pages | Why read it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Foster | Claire Keegan | 128 (Grove hardcover, 2022) | A girl spends a summer with relatives on an Irish farm; one of the best short books under 100 pages of actual story text |
| The Metamorphosis | Franz Kafka | 126 (Norton, Susan Bernofsky translation) | A salesman wakes up as a giant insect; first published in German in 1915 |
| Giovanni’s Room | James Baldwin | 169 (Vintage International) | An American in 1950s Paris falls for a bartender named Giovanni; first published in 1956 |
Keegan’s US publisher lists Foster at 128 pages, although library catalogs count about 95 numbered pages of text. Either way, it is one of the shortest books here.
How Do You Pick the Right Book for Your Weekend?
Pick by mood first and length second. All 12 picks are short, so the real question is whether you want comfort, tension, ideas or escape this weekend.
Short novels for beginners and reluctant readers
Start with Of Mice and Men, Small Things Like These or Animal Farm. All three use plain language, move quickly and end with a punch. After that, try Convenience Store Woman if you want something lighter.
What are the best short books to read on a plane?
Choose a story with momentum, such as All Systems Red or The Old Man and the Sea. Both hold attention through noise and interruptions. For more travel ideas, see our guide to books to read while traveling.
Which books spark the best book club talk?
The Sense of an Ending and The Stranger both leave room for disagreement, so they work well for groups. Likewise, Small Things Like These pairs nicely with a movie night, since the Cillian Murphy film covers the same story.
Pro tip. Check your public library app before you buy. Most of the classics here are common library titles, and borrowing a few short novels lets you test authors before you commit. If you want to build a habit, our guide on how to read more books has practical tricks, and our list of self-help books covers nonfiction picks.
Watch out. Page counts depend on the edition. Large-print, annotated and “deluxe” editions can add 50 pages or more, so check the listing if you want the shortest version.
Our verdict
If you read only one of these short novels this weekend, make it Small Things Like These. It is short, current and quietly powerful. Then, for a classic, pick Of Mice and Men; for something new and strange, try Convenience Store Woman or All Systems Red. Overall, every book here proves that a great story does not need 400 pages.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the best short novels of all time?
Widely praised short novels include The Great Gatsby, Of Mice and Men, The Old Man and the Sea, Animal Farm and The Stranger. Each runs under about 180 pages in a common US edition. For modern picks, Small Things Like These and Train Dreams have earned major prize nominations, and Orbital won the 2024 Booker Prize.
How many pages is a short novel?
Most short novels run roughly 100 to 200 printed pages. There is no strict page rule, because type size and trim change the count. However, the SFWA and the Hugo Awards define a novella by word count instead: 17,500 to 40,000 words. Books just over that line are often still sold as short novels.
What is the difference between a novella and a novel?
A novella is shorter and usually simpler than a novel. Merriam-Webster describes it as fiction between a short story and a novel in length and complexity. Genre awards set the novella range at 17,500 to 40,000 words, so anything longer generally counts as a full novel.
What are good short novels for beginners?
Good first picks are Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan and Animal Farm by George Orwell. All three use clear, direct prose, move quickly and run well under 200 pages. After those, Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata is a fun, lighter next step.
What are the best short books to read in one sitting?
Train Dreams at 116 pages, Small Things Like These at 128 pages and The Old Man and the Sea at 127 pages are ideal for one sitting. Each tells a complete story without subplots, so you can finish in a single long afternoon or evening without losing the thread.
Are there good short sci-fi novels?
Yes. All Systems Red by Martha Wells is the standout. The first Murderbot Diaries book runs about 160 pages and won the Hugo, Nebula and Locus awards for best novella. Apple TV+ adapted the series as Murderbot in 2025, so it is an easy entry point into modern science fiction.
