30 Novels Worth Buying For the Cover Alone

by Beth Carswell

Let's hear it for the book designers. For every Milan Kundera, Jeffrey Eugenides and Aldous Huxley, there is a Roberto de Vicq de Cumptich, a Leah Carlson-Stanisic and a Gregg Kulick – all designers of memorable cover art. They give a visual perspective to somebody else's written art, find balance in colour and shape, simplicity and uniqueness. A book must stand out on the bookshop bookshelf yet cover designers rarely receive the recognition that authors do. In appreciation of these unsung artists, here are 30 of my favourite fiction covers – all worth buying for the cover alone.

Skim
Mariko Tamaki and Jillian Tamaki

Cover Design:
Jillian Tamaki

Brave New World
Aldous Huxley

Cover Design:
Gregg Kulick

A Clockwork Orange
Anthony Burgess

Cover Design:
David Pelham

Vacation
Deb Olin Unferth

Cover Design: Katherine Guillen

South of the Border, West of the Sun
Haruki Murakami

Cover Design:
John Gall

Sharp Teeth
Toby Barlow

Cover Design: Christine Van Bree

The Noodle Maker
Ma Jian

Cover Design: Charlotte Strick

Everyone's Pretty
Lydia Millet

Cover Design:
David Janik

The Unbearable Lightness of Being
Milan Kundera

Cover Design: Roberto de Vicq de Cumptich

Fruit
Brian Francis

Cover Design:
Tania Craan

The Separation
Christopher Priest

Cover Design:
Sidonie Beresford-Brown

The Chess Machine
Robert Lohr

Cover Design: Jonathan Gray/gray318

The Last Jew
Yoram Kaniuk

Cover Design: scribbleandtweak

The Monsters of Templeton
Lauren Groff

Cover Design:
Guenet Abraham

Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service, Vol. 1
Elji Otsuka and Housui Yamazaki

Cover Design:
Heidi Fainza

The River Wife
Jonis Agee

Cover Design:
Lynn Buckley

My Mistress' Sparrow is Dead
Jeffrey Eugenides

Cover Design:
Robin Bilardello

Beowulf
Seamus Heaney

Cover Design:
Seth Rubin, Cynthia Krupat

Strawberry Fields
Marina Lewycka

Cover Design: Stephanie Huntwork

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo
Stieg Larsson

Cover Design: Peter Mendelsund

Memorial
Bruce Wagner


Cover Design:
Jennifer Lew

The Poisonwood Bible
Barbara Kingsolver

Cover Design:
Milan Bozic

The Archivist
Martha Cooley


Cover Design:
Amy Goldfarb

Tree of Smoke
Denis Johnson


Cover Design:
Susan Mitchell

Arkansas
John Brandon


Cover Design:
Keith Shore

The Yiddish Policemen's Union
Michael Chabon

Cover Design:
Will Staehle

Parasites Like Us
Adam Johnson


Cover Design:
Paul Buckley

Hypohypothesis
Heather Folsom


Cover Design:
A. Shapiro, Nina Krebs

Rant
Chuck Palahniuk


Cover Design:
Michael Collica

The Boys in the Trees
Mary Swan

Cover Design:
Victoria Hartman