Person
Every book Sarah Lyall recommended on podcasts
Key facts
- Sarah Lyall has recommended or discussed 46 books on podcasts, as of August 5, 2026.
- Sarah Lyall has talked about books on 1 podcast, as of August 5, 2026.
- Those books came up in 14 episodes, as of August 5, 2026.
- The 3 books Sarah Lyall has mentioned in the most episodes, as of August 5, 2026: Life After Life, Presumed Innocent and Rebecca.
- The latest episode with a book mention from Sarah Lyall aired on August 5, 2026.
Updated
Sarah Lyall’s most recommended books
- Life After Life by Kate Atkinson
- Presumed Innocent by Scott Turow
- Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
- The Secret History by Donna Tartt
- The Turn of the Screw by Henry James
- Behind the scenes at the museum by Kate Atkinson
- Case Histories by Kate Atkinson
- The Fraud by Zadie Smith
- A god in ruins by Kate Atkinson
- A dark-adapted eye by Barbara Vine
Sarah Lyall is a journalist and critic who regularly discusses notable books and thrillers on literature podcasts. On episodes of The Book Review, she has recommended a variety of suspenseful and character-driven works. She pointed listeners to Jack Finney's Time and Again as a fantastic time travel thriller that plays cleverly with reality in old New York. Lyall also praised Kate Atkinson, highlighting Life After Life as an all-time favorite novel and plugging Case Histories as a great read. In translation, she enthusiastically recommended Hervé Le Tellier's The Anomaly, a French literary thriller that won top literary honors. For psychological suspense, she lauded Barbara Vine's A Dark-Adapted Eye and Ruth Rendell's The House of Stairs as among the creepiest and best books she has ever read. Additionally, Lyall recommended Molly Roden Winter's memoir More: A Memoir of Open Marriage for its chapters on family dynamics, and she discussed Patrick Radden Keefe's Say Nothing as a compelling investigation into a historical Northern Ireland mystery.
Books recommended by Sarah Lyall
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Life After Life
Life After Life by Kate Atkinson is a celebrated novel that follows protagonist Ursula Todd as she repeatedly dies and is reborn across different eras of the twentieth century, most notably the Second World War.
Recommended“and she's written some beautiful novels, especially Life After Life, which is one of my favorite books of all time.”
Where to get it
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Presumed Innocent
Presumed Innocent by Scott Turow is a legal thriller centering on a prosecutor accused of murdering his colleague.
Recommended“Presumed Innocent by Scott Tero”
Where to get it
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Rebecca
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier is a classic psychological thriller that follows a young second wife haunted by the lingering memory and presence of her husband's deceased first wife at a remote estate.
Discussed“So other things were like Rebecca, amazing thriller, The Turn of the Screw, and you know, you read those not knowing what genre they are, but oh my god, there are thrillers.”
Where to get it
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The Secret History
The Secret History by Donna Tartt is a gripping psychological thriller following a tightly knit circle of eccentric classics students at an elite New England college whose intellectual arrogance leads to moral decay and murder.
Discussed“and it reminded me a lot of the secret history where if I'm also getting this right one of the characters comes in out of a crazy experience with someone else's blood in her hair and no one ever figures out whose blood it is”
Where to get it
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The Turn of the Screw
The Turn of the Screw by Henry James is a classic gothic novella that follows a governess who becomes convinced that the remote estate where she cares for two children is haunted by malevolent spirits.
Discussed“So other things were like Rebecca, amazing thriller, The Turn of the Screw, and you know, you read those not knowing what genre they are, but oh my god, there are thrillers.”
Where to get it
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Behind the scenes at the museum
Discussed“her debut novel behind the scenes at the Museum won the wit breeds book of the Year award in 1996”
Where to get it
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Case Histories
Case Histories by Kate Atkinson is a compelling contemporary detective novel featuring private investigator Jackson Brodie.
Discussed“and the same actually with the adaptation of the Kate Atkinson book that's on our list case uh histories which is such a fantastic book and Jason Issacs, who's a great actor, plays the main detective in that, who's wonderful, but it just couldn't do justice.”
Where to get it
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The Fraud
The Fraud by Zadie Smith is a rich historical novel set in Victorian London during the era of Charles Dickens, centering around the famous Tichborne claimant case and themes of complicity and imposture.
Discussed“we're here to talk about her sixth novel The fraud it's on the surface a historical novel set in the 19th century mostly in London”
Where to get it
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A god in ruins
A god in ruins by Kate Atkinson is a companion novel and sequel to Life After Life, following the life of Teddy Todd during and after the London World War II Blitz era.
Discussed“in the 2010s two of her other novels Life After Life and its sequel a God in Ruins won the Costa Award for best novel of the year in Britain”
Where to get it
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A dark-adapted eye
A dark-adapted eye is a psychological thriller novel written by Barbara Vine, who is the alter ego of British author Ruth Rendell.
Recommended“and then Barbara Vine who is the the alter ego of Ruth renle the British author who's done this incredible psychological thrillers uh a dark adapted eye House of stairs they're among the creepiest things I've ever read those are my probably absolute favorites”
Where to get it
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A Wrinkle in Time
Madeleine L'Engle's beloved children's science fantasy classic, A Wrinkle in Time, follows young Meg Murry as she journeys across space and time using a tesseract to rescue her scientist father from a malevolent cosmic entity.
Recommended“so I recently start I just finished actually yesterday listening to the audio book of A Wrinkle in Time you know one of my all-time favorite books”
Where to get it
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Enigma variations
Enigma Variations is a contemporary novel by André Aciman that explores complex themes of desire, memory, and lifelong emotional attachments across multiple stages of a protagonist's life.
Recommended“so I'm actually going back to a book I read last year for the first time and loved and its Enigma Variations which is the newest novel by Andre aiman who's the author of call me by your name”
Where to get it
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Going Zero
Going Zero by Anthony McCarten is a gripping techno-thriller that follows participants in a high-stakes competition to evade a revolutionary mass-surveillance system.
Recommended“so a recent book I would recommend is a delightful book called going Zero by Anthony mcarton”
Where to get it
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Little Face
Little Face is a psychological suspense novel by Sophie Hannah that explores the harrowing aftermath of a mother's claim that her infant child has been replaced by a stranger.
Recommended“it's I think her first one from 2006 kind of cruel was really good lasting damage”
Where to get it
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More: A Memoir of Open Marriage
More: A Memoir of Open Marriage by Molly Roden Winter is a personal memoir detailing the author's experiences navigating an open marriage during middle age.
Recommended“right you go away and and there is a really interesting for people who and everyone should read this book but interesting chapters about your mother and your father and their marriage”
Where to get it
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Say Nothing
Say Nothing by Patrick Radden Keefe is a true story of murder and memory in Northern Ireland that investigates political violence, justice, and the heavy personal cost of what individuals kill and die for.
Recommended“well I'm going to start with someone I'm only slightly acquainted with who's Patrick Ren Keefe who if you've all read his amazing piece in the New Yorker a couple years ago about the IRA and a unsolved mystery from Northern Ireland at the time of the troubles and he's produced a book called say nothing”
Where to get it
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The Anomaly
The Anomaly by Hervé Le Tellier is an inventive, high-concept literary thriller in translation that examines the chaotic societal and philosophical fallout after a commercial flight duplicates itself mid-air.
Recommended“So I'm going to go with with a thriller in translation, The Anomaly by the French writer Elve Lutellier, which I reviewed a few years ago when it came out because I loved it so much and it won the Pri Gonko the uh France's top literary prize...”
Where to get it
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The friend
Why people recommend it: The Friend by Sigrid Nunez is an acclaimed, award-winning novel that explores profound themes including suicide, grief, and the deep bond between a grieving writer and a very lovable Great Dane.
Recommended“well I just got back from vacation as many people did so I was reading books that other people had brought and I someone had brought the Friend by sigid nunz which came out a few months ago”
Where to get it
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The House of Stairs
The House of Stairs by Ruth Rendell, writing under her pseudonym Barbara Vine, is a dark and complex psychological thriller centered on secrets, past traumas, and a sprawling London home shared by eccentric lodgers.
Recommended“and then Barbara Vine who is the the alter ego of Ruth renle the British author who's done this incredible psychological thrillers uh a dark adapted eye House of stairs they're among the creepiest things I've ever read those are my probably absolute favorites”
Where to get it
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Time and Again
Time and Again by Jack Finney is a classic time travel novel that immerses an advertising illustrator in a secret government project to transport him back to the late nineteenth century in New York City.
Recommended“I love a time travel thriller because how it plays with reality and what you can change and and so I would always point people back to The Great Time and Again by Jack Finney, which has the benefit also of being set in old New York.”
Where to get it
The other 26 books Sarah Lyall recommended or discussed, ranked
- What Lies in the Woods by Kate Alice Marshall
- When in French by Lauren Collins
- A Pocketful of Happiness by Richard E. Grant
- Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
- Autumn by Ali Smith
- Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
- Brooklyn by Colm Tóibín
- Death at the Sign of the Rook by Kate Atkinson
- Kind of cruel by Sophie Hannah
- Lasting Damage by Sophie Hannah
- Lost and Wanted by Nell Freudenberger
- Murder On The Orient Express by Agatha Christie
- My Murder by Katie Williams
- My sister, the serial killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite
- Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn
- Started Early, Took My Dog by Kate Atkinson
- The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
- The Firm by John Grisham
- The Hunter by Tana French
- The Killings at Kingfisher Hill by Sophie Hannah
- The monogram murders by Sophie Hannah
- The Pelican Brief by John Grisham
- The Quiet Tenant by Clemence Michallon
- The Red Lotus by Christopher A. Bohjalian
- The Turn of the Key by Ruth Ware
- Views of Learning in the Lives of Middle Age Female Graduates of a Non-traditional Degree Program by Katherine J. Olski
Appearances
Other mentions (15: passing, ad reads, own books)
“So, you know, the firm I think at the time it probably was the firm went back to a time to kill then it had to the client and then I picked up several other oh pelican brief.”
“So, you know, the firm I think at the time it probably was the firm went back to a time to kill then it had to the client and then I picked up several other oh pelican brief.”
“because I know from my own reading I think I have never yet C over the death of ginger in Black Beauty”
“he teaches literature among other things at Columbia University and he's here to talk about his new book Long Island”
“and she's out of college now and she asked me to read to her from Charlotte's Web”
“and I remember the war between the Tates or the other side of midnight”
“and I remember the war between the Tates or the other side of midnight”
“I'm Sarah Lyle from The New York Times and I'm joined by the British actor Richard E Grant the author of a new Memoir a pocket full of happiness”
“books that might be similar that that people might have read would be the Martian”
“she wrote the little friend”
“and she wrote The Goldfinch”
“it's better than Gone Girl”
“it sounded a little bit like The Lovely Bones remember that book”
“Sarah I read n freudenberger lost and wanted”
“who's the author of call me by your name this one has a lot of the same themes as call me by your name”