The Talented Mr. Ripley
Patricia Highsmith's 1955 masterpiece builds tension page by page, as Thomas Ripley turns from a minor-league thief in New York into a full-scale sociopath in Italy, a man who realizes that he is able to kill without consequence. And her depiction of languid life on the Italian coast will have you booking a flight to Rome this summer. Too bad the euro is so high.
Night Train to Turkistan: Modern Adventures Among China's Ancient Silk Road
This non-fiction travelogue by Stuart Stevens, who ought to be a CIA officer (if he isn't one already) recounts an epic 1987 journey in Western China, an effort to recreate a 1935 run from Beijing to India. Stymied at every turn by Chinese bureaucrats, Stevens ultimately failed in his quest—but he's left us a hilarious tale that makes clear just how far China has come in the decades since.
The Quiet American
I've already mentioned it. But just in case you haven't read it—do. This 1955 book transcended the espionage genre to become one of the great novels of the 20th century. And Greene predicted the American failure in Vietnam more than a decade before it happened.
The Last Thing He Wanted
Joan Didion turns her gimlet gaze from California to Central America in this 1996 tale of a lost Washington Post reporter who drifts into an arms deal that her father helped set up. This small, sad, and elegantly written novel showcases Didion at her best.
For Whom the Bell Tolls
Yes, Papa Hemingway can be overwrought, but this 1940 epic of an American demolitions expert fighting with Communists in the Spanish Civil War stands the test of time. Like the war itself, the novel slides slowly but inexorably into tragedy. And if that last scene doesn't choke you up a little, go back to your manufacturer and demand a software upgrade.
