The ultimate summer reading list for students who dream of going abroad
There's a particular kind of summer reading that isn't really about escapism. It's about expansion; books that quietly rearrange the furniture in your head, that make you think differently about who you are and what you want, without feeling like homework.
If you're thinking about studying abroad, this list is for you. Not because these books will teach you how to fill out a UCAS form or pick a university. But because the students who go abroad and genuinely thrive tend to have done a certain kind of inner work before they leave, and books are one of the best ways to do that without realising you're doing it.
Every book on this list made someone at Lumen say "yes, this one." Pick two or three that call to you, and let the rest wait.
1. Educated by Tara Westover
What it's about: Tara Westover grew up in rural Idaho with no formal education, no birth certificate, and parents who believed the government was the enemy. She taught herself enough to get into Brigham Young University, then Cambridge, then Harvard. This is that story.
Why it belongs here: Because it's the most visceral account we've ever read of what it actually feels like to arrive somewhere you were never supposed to be, and to decide, against every force pulling you back, that you belong there anyway. It will make you feel things about education, ambition, and the courage it takes to want something different from what you were given.
The feeling it gives you: Where I come from doesn't decide where I'm going.
2. The Year of Living Danishly by Helen Russell
What it's about: British journalist Helen Russell moves to rural Denmark with her husband when he gets a job at LEGO, knowing nobody and nothing about Danish culture. She spends a year trying to understand why Danes are consistently ranked the happiest people in the world, and what the rest of us might be doing wrong.
Why it belongs here: Because if you're considering studying in Denmark (or just curious about what life in Northern Europe actually looks like) this is the most readable, honest, and genuinely funny account of it. It's also a book about adjusting to a place that doesn't work the way you expect, which is a universal experience for anyone who moves abroad.
The feeling it gives you: Maybe the way I grew up isn't the only way.
3. Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
What it's about: Ifemelu leaves Nigeria for the United States to study, and the novel follows her and her first love Obinze, who tries his luck in England, across continents and years, tracking the small and large ways leaving home changes who you are.
Why it belongs here: Because it's the most honest novel we know about what it actually means to be foreign somewhere — the way you notice things locals don't, the way your identity shifts depending on where you are, the way home becomes complicated once you've left it. Adichie writes with warmth, intelligence, and a sharp eye for the exact things nobody prepares you for.
The feeling it gives you: Going somewhere new will change me. That's the point.
4. The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
What it's about: A young Andalusian shepherd boy dreams of finding treasure at the Egyptian pyramids and sets off across the world to find it. Short, simple, and one of the bestselling books of all time for a reason.
Why it belongs here: Because it's the kind of book you read in a single afternoon and think about for years. It's fundamentally about the courage to follow something; a feeling, a direction, a pull toward something you can't fully explain. If you've ever felt a quiet certainty that you need to go somewhere, do something, become someone different, this book will feel like it was written for you.
The feeling it gives you: When you want something, the universe conspires to help you achieve it.
5. How to Be a Good Creature by Sy Montgomery
What it's about: Naturalist Sy Montgomery reflects on her life through thirteen animals who shaped who she is - octopuses, emus, tarantulas, a snow leopard - and what each one taught her about being alive. Shorter than the others, and completely unlike anything else on this list.
Why it belongs here: Because it's about curiosity as a way of life. The students who write the most compelling applications are almost always deeply curious about something; a subject, a question, a species, a phenomenon. This book is a love letter to that kind of curiosity, and it's almost impossible to read without wanting to go deeper into whatever it is you genuinely care about.
The feeling it gives you: My curiosity is enough. It's more than enough.
6. Suitcase City: Sterling Watson (or) Exit West by Mohsin Hamid
(Two options here, pick whichever calls to you more.)
Exit West is a short, quietly devastating novel about two people who fall in love in a country on the edge of war and find themselves crossing borders through mysterious doors that appear without warning into a world where movement and belonging are reimagined entirely. It's about migration, identity, love, and what home means when home no longer exists.
Why it belongs here: Because it asks questions about borders and belonging that are worth sitting with before you become someone who has chosen to live somewhere else. Not heavy-handed or political, just deeply, beautifully human.
The feeling it gives you: Home is something you carry, not just something you leave.
7. Maybe You Should Talk to Someone by Lori Gottlieb
What it's about: A therapist starts seeing her own therapist after her life falls apart, and the book weaves between her sessions as a patient and her sessions with four of her own clients. Funny, honest, and surprisingly unputdownable for a book ostensibly about therapy.
Why it belongs here: Because this is a generation dealing with more anxiety, more uncertainty, and more pressure than any before it — and this book treats that reality with exactly the seriousness and warmth it deserves. If you've ever felt like you were carrying more than you could hold alone, this book will feel like a relief. And it will make you think about what it means to actually know yourself.
The feeling it gives you: Being honest about how I feel is not weakness. It's the whole thing.
8. The Midnight Library by Matt Haig
What it's about: Nora Seed finds herself in a library between life and death, with access to infinite books, each one showing a different version of her life based on choices she didn't make. What would her life have looked like if she'd said yes? If she'd gone?
Why it belongs here: Because it's a book about regret, possibility, and the paralysis that comes from having too many options, which is something every student facing a university decision knows intimately. It's also about the surprising value of the life you're actually living, even when it doesn't look like the one you planned. Warm, readable, and quietly profound.
The feeling it gives you: The life I'm building now matters. So does the choice I make next.
9. Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami
What it's about: A young Japanese man navigates grief, love, and early adulthood during his university years in 1960s Tokyo. Quiet, melancholic, and achingly beautiful.
Why it belongs here: Because nobody writes about being young and uncertain quite like Murakami, and nobody captures the particular loneliness of early university life, being surrounded by people and still feeling completely alone, with more honesty or more grace. If you're anxious about going abroad and not knowing anyone, this book will make you feel less alone in that feeling while also making you want to go anyway.
The feeling it gives you: Being lost is part of how you find yourself.
10. I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
What it's about: Seventeen-year-old Cassandra Mortmain writes in her journal from the crumbling castle her eccentric family inhabits in rural England, dreaming about the world beyond it, falling in love for the first time, and trying to understand what she wants her life to be.
Why it belongs here: Because it's one of the most perfectly rendered accounts of being seventeen and wanting more - more life, more experience, more self - ever put to paper. Cassandra's voice is so vivid and so real that reading this feels like a conversation rather than a novel. And the desire to leave, to go somewhere bigger, to find out what you're made of that runs through every page.
The feeling it gives you: I am going to figure out who I am. I just need somewhere to start.
A note before you start
You don't have to read all ten. In fact, please don't turn this into a task list, that's the opposite of what summer reading should be.
Pick the two or three descriptions that made something stir. Read them slowly, read them on trains, read them in the sun. Let them sit with you. Notice what they make you think about.
And if you want to talk about what comes next - where to apply, what to study, how to figure out if this whole studying-abroad thing is actually right for you - we're here for that conversation.