7 must-read books to read before you turn 30

Good books broaden our horizons, enrich our vocabulary and, of course, make us wiser. Together with the largest book service LitRes, we have prepared a selection of fascinating works of fiction that will definitely influence your outlook, teach you to understand people better and navigate in difficult life situations.

Head of the press service of LitRes Group of Companies

Tells about important books that can change your life.

“Wuthering Heights”, Emily Bronte.

It was this English writer was destined at the end of the XIX century to turn the idea of romantic prose. In the “golden collection” of world literature, the novel entered the “golden collection” of world literature thanks to the impeccably constructed plot, in which one narrator replaces another, charming details of rural life and the reinterpretation of gloomy gothic symbolism.

Perhaps the main ingredient in the book’s success, though, is the story of Heathcliff and Cathy’s tumultuous, passionate and tragic love affair, which resonated in the hearts of millions of readers.

“A Little Life”, Hanya Yanagihara

American writer has created a universal genre of the novel, which critics call and university chronicles, and ancient Greek tragedy, and a terrible tale, and educational book, modeled on the thick novels of the XIX century. Each reader will discover this text from his or her own unique perspective.

The precise naturalistic style of writing enhances the impression of both scenes of cruelty and descriptions of love and friendship. Well, the main idea of this work, which almost won the Booker, is formulated as follows: every life is worthy of becoming a book.

Generations replace generations, sinners take the place of saints, saints replace ordinary people, and revolutionaries and adventurers follow them – everything is possible in this family. Miracles are so everyday that one doesn’t even pay attention to them. However, all (even the most incredible!) events again and again become a kind of “magic mirror” through which the reader is the true history of Latin America.

“The Alchemist”, Paulo Coelho

The work “The Alchemist” enters the Guinness Book of Records as the world’s best-selling novel by a Brazilian author. This story about a simple shepherd named Santiago teaches that everything is possible if you are faithful to your dreams and follow your destiny.

On this path you have to prepare for dangers and remain attentive to the signs from above. And “if you really want something badly, the whole universe will contribute to the fulfillment of your desire.”

“Dr. Zhivago,” Boris Pasternak.

This is the main novel of Boris Pasternak, for which he won the Nobel Prize. In the text, the author describes the life of the Russian intelligentsia against the backdrop of the dramatic period from the turn of the century to the Great Patriotic War. Readers see the key historical events of this time through the perception of Dr. Poet Yuri Andreevich Zhivago.

In thoughts, poems and dialogues he reflects on life and death, problems of Russian mentality, issues of Christianity and Jewry. The book was negatively perceived by the official literary milieu of the time and was banned from publication because of the author’s ambiguous position on the October Revolution of 1917.

The Lambert relationship will seem familiar to many: they love and hate, spoil and save each other’s lives – and no one, including themselves, can prevent them from getting together at the Christmas table if their mother wants them to. The backdrop for this timeless collision is 1990s America, an era characterized by outward prosperity and deeply hidden anxiety due to a vague premonition of tragic change.

“The Norwegian Forest,” Haruki Murakami

It was this novel that brought world fame to the most European writer of the Land of the Rising Sun. The action is set in Tokyo in the 1960s, when Japanese students, along with their colleagues from around the world, protested against the established order. The protagonist and narrator, Tooru Watanabe, recalls his youth and the trials of his youth.

In college, he was acquainted with two very different girls – the beautiful but psychologically traumatized Naoko and the emotional, lively Midori. However, Murakami does not limit himself to a purely historical and eventual context, he is also occupied with philosophical reflections on the losses that each person bears in his or her life.