Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last four years, you’ll know that The White Lotus has become a TV phenomenon. Proclaimed ‘2021’s best, and most uncomfortable’ series by The Guardian, the critically acclaimed black comedy series has won 15 Emmys and two Golden Globes, cemented Jennifer Coolidge’s status as a screen icon, and made everyone think differently about staying in a nice hotel overseas.

Across two seasons – set in Hawaii and Sicily – Mike White’s razor-sharp satire skewered the toxic behaviour and shallow preoccupations of wealthy, spoilt, morally dubious Westerners with black humour and biting dialogue. In the process it has turned sun-soaked, five-star escapes into clammy visions of hell; bratty battlegrounds where power, privilege and dysfunction collide. And now it’s back. With season three set in Thailand, we can expect more lavish resorts, rich Americans (mostly) behaving badly, and, of course, a death or two.

Whether you love the show for its blistering social critique, murder-mystery intrigue, or uneasy blend of paradise and peril, these books tap into The White Lotus’s signature cocktail of decadence and disaster. Here are nine Booker-nominated novels to pick up next – just don’t expect a relaxing getaway.

Hotel du Lac by Anita Brookner

Edith Hope, a romance novelist, retreats to a luxurious Swiss hotel on the misty shores of Lake Geneva, hoping to regain her sense of self amid a personal crisis while penning her next book. But it’s not long before she instead becomes entangled with the hotel’s bougie and eccentric guests, including the charming – yet calculating – Mr Neville, who is determined to sweep her off her feet.

Filled with the rich and glamorous, the ageing and the obnoxious, Hotel du Lac is a sharp-eyed study of social hierarchies in a confined space. Like The White Lotus, it dissects the performative nature of wealth – the ways people reshape themselves to fit into elite circles, often at the cost of their own desires. Brookner’s work, which often focuses on lonely and alienated women, reveals a quiet desperation and shows how status offers little protection from regret and pain. It’s subtle, piercing, and laced with dry wit, and won the Booker Prize in 1984 for a good reason.

Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont by Elizabeth Taylor

An elderly widow moves into a London hotel to live out her final days and gets far more than she bargained for in this ruthlessly funny novel by Elizabeth Taylor. At the Claremont, Mrs Palfrey enters a world of gossip, petty rivalries, and unspoken hierarchy. The hotel, once a symbol of comfort and respectability, has become a waiting room for those nearing the end of their lives, each resident subtly competing to avoid the most dreaded fate of all – being forgotten. And when Mrs Palfrey strikes up an unlikely friendship with the young and penniless Ludo, tongues begin to wag.

Taylor’s dark humour is unflinching yet compassionate, and loaded with incisive social commentary. ‘Much of the reader’s joy lies in the exquisite subtlety in Taylor’s depiction of all the relationships, the sharp brevity of her wit, and the apparently effortless way the plot unfolds,’ wrote writer and editor Robert McCrum, declaring it one of the ‘100 Best Novels’ for the Guardian. ‘Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont is, for me, [Taylor’s] masterpiece,’ he said.

Swimming Home by Deborah Levy

A trip to the South of France takes a strange turn when a mysterious woman appears in the pool of a holiday villa, rented by two middle-class families. Kitty Finch – young, alluring, and not quite what she seems – walks naked out of the water and inserts herself into their lives, upsetting the already fragile balance of their relationships.

Deborah Levy’s 2012 longlisted-novel Swimming Home explores the tensions simmering beneath seemingly perfect holidays – think marital dissatisfaction, hidden desires, and the unpredictable nature of human behaviour. Levy shifts perspectives throughout, adding nuance to each character’s perception of events. She expertly crafts a dreamlike, ethereal quality, yet beneath its surface lurks a spiky edge. A compelling portrait of loneliness, and self-deception, the novel leaves readers questioning what is real and what is imagined.

Something Might Happen by Julie Myerson

A brutal murder in a seaside town sends shockwaves through the tight-knit community in this whodunnit with a difference by Julie Myerson, which earned a place on the Booker Prize longlist in 2003. Lennie’s death is unexpected, and there are no obvious suspects. But while Something Might Happen deals with the complexity and aftermath of her murder, it is less about solving the crime and more about the emotional ripples that gnaw at those left behind.

Myerson expertly crafts an eerie, atmospheric setting, much like the unsettling beauty at the heart of The White Lotus, where idyllic landscapes mask a darkness lurking elsewhere. Plus, you can expect a good dose of destructive sex – because what’s a thriller without some bad emotional decisions? Layered with psychological depth and slow-building unease, this novel is a perfect companion for those drawn to intricate character studies with a murderous edge.

Skios by Michael Frayn

On a Greek island, a case of mistaken identity spirals into chaos in Michael Frayn’s Skios, which hit the longlist for the Booker Prize in 2012. Here, two British travellers arrive at the airport, where a mix-up with their suitcases sets off a chain reaction of farcical confusion. A world-famous authority on the scientific organisation of science is due to give a prestigious lecture – except he’s not who anyone expects, much to the bewilderment of the foundation hosting him.

Skios is a laugh-out-loud comedy of errors where everyone is pretending to be someone they’re not. Like the guests of the White Lotus hotels, the book’s characters hide behind carefully curated personas, only for reality to unravel them. The book’s absurd misunderstandings and escalating anxieties capture the same brand of holiday mishap that defines the TV show, so if you love the mix of satire and high-stakes social awkwardness in Mike White’s drama, this is an ideal read – holiday or not. 

The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Shehan Karunatilaka

Season three of The White Lotus is set in Thailand and draws heavily from the region’s heritage. This time, the series follows wealthy Westerners as they seek enlightenment – or at least, an Instagram-worthy version of it. Speaking to The Irish News, showrunner Mike White said this season deals with ‘more religion and spirituality and God’ with everything ‘a little bit more existential and tragic’. 

For another blackly comic take on death and spirituality, turn to The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Shehan Karunatilika, which won the Booker Prize in 2022 – a book the judges described as ‘life after death in Sri Lanka: an afterlife noir, with nods to Dante and Buddha’. It follows a dead war photographer piecing together the mystery of his own murder. Drawing on Buddhist concepts of karma, rebirth, and the cycle of suffering, the novel explores what it means to seek redemption and whether the past can ever truly be left behind. Karunatilaka’s blend of dark humour and murderous mayhem offers an intriguing parallel to season three.

Hotel World by Ali Smith

Five strangers, linked by a single location. Much like The White Lotus, Ali Smith’s Hotel World opens with a shocking death – chambermaid Sara plunges down a dumbwaiter shaft – an event that casts a shadow over the entire novel. But Hotel World is not a conventional mystery; instead, Smith explores the aftermath of her death, both for those left behind and for Sara herself, who lingers in a ghostly limbo.

Shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 2001, this is a bold, experimental novel that shifts between perspectives, unpacking grief, class, and the invisible lives of those who work behind the scenes in luxury spaces. Smith confronts mortality while capturing the fleeting nature of human connection between the five characters, by pivoting perspectives in clever sectioning. Similarly to the show, she reminds us that, for every guest luxuriating in a five-star stay, there’s a worker just trying to get by. 

Lost Children Archive by Valeria Luiselli

Nothing says ‘holiday’ like unwinding with a good novel – are we right, book lovers? For a taste of season two, take a recommendation from Harper Spiller (played by Aubrey Plaza), who is clocked reading Lost Children Archive by Valeria Luiselli (longlisted for the Booker Prize in 2019) at breakfast one day. 

The book is structured as a travelogue, in which a family take off on a road trip from New York City to the Mexican border – a last-ditch effort to salvage a fraying marriage. (Sidenote – it’s not without irony that Harper and her husband’s relationship is just as fragile as the one in the novel she holds). Meanwhile, thousands of children make their own perilous journey toward the U.S. border, but not all of them will make it. Luiselli intertwines these two narratives – one a vacation, the other a desperate migration, creating a powerful meditation on privilege, questioning who gets to move freely in the world. Sound familiar? 

The Story of the Lost Child by Elena Ferrante, translated by Ann Goldstein

In another Booker-adjacent moment from The White Lotus, during season one Rachel (played by Alexandra Daddario) is spotted reading My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante, part of the author’s Neopolitan Quartet. So, it’s only fitting to recommend the final novel in this series, The Story of the Lost Child, which was shortlisted for the International Booker in 2016, and brings the epic saga of female friendship to a powerful conclusion.

Set against the seductive backdrop yet treacherous backdrop of Naples, Ferrante’s series is an unflinching portrait of two women whose lives remain inextricably linked despite years of competition, betrayal, and shifting fortunes. Echoing the show, Ferrante’s novels explore the rights afforded to some and denied to others. With its sun-drenched but volatile Italian setting, The Story of the Lost Child offers a gripping counterpart to the fickle relationships lurking beneath The White Lotus’s glamorous facade.