Esquire Picks: What We're Reading This April

Look, none of us got into this job for the stability. We got into it because we're the kind of people who read on the metro, argue about books at lunch, and then discuss how we are all eventually doomed anyway.

April’s been a lot – lot of orange haired men talking, lots of greens and reds in the stock market, and a world that continues to be chaotic in seriously unoriginal ways. We've been busy — the magazine doesn't make itself — but we've also been reading. Books, as always, are where we go to make sense of it, or to escape it entirely.

Here's what's on our bedside tables right now.

"The Ten-Year Affair" by Erin Somers

“Books on infidelity rarely get enough attention. Not because they aren’t exquisitely written but maybe because our society refuses to ‘legitimise’ an affair? No matter which side of the argument you’re on, you’ll certainly find enough & more to think about in this book. What makes this Erin Somers’ book stand out from the rest isn’t the plot per se – what's unique about an extramarital affair, anyway? – but the writing that’s both sardonic and ingenious. And it’s witty, extremely so. You won’t be putting it down till the very end!” — Saurav Bhanot, Digital Editor

"The Vegetarian" by Han Kang

I finally picked up Han Kang's The Vegetarian — only couple of years late, I know. I'm only halfway through and already it's gotten under my skin. It's a deeply unsettling book, and I mean that as the highest compliment. Kang writes about the body, about refusal, about what happens when a woman simply decides to stop — and somehow makes it feel both deeply strange and completely inevitable. I don't want to say too much because I'm not done yet, but I already know this is going to stay with me for a while. — Abhya Adlakha, Digital Writer

"The Dog Meows, The Cat Barks" by Eka Kurniawan (translated by Annie Tucker)

“A wickedly funny and intense novella about teen rebellion in a small Javanese town  against religious conformity and his pensive father.” — Rudra Mulmule, Digital Writer

"Rental Person Who Does Nothing: A Memoir" by Shoji Morimoto

“We are still in the early bits of 2026 but the world around us seems to be burning down to the ground. In such circumstances, one would like to do ‘nothing’. Just disconnect and do nothing. It’s an art, it really is, that very few can master. One of them is Shoji Morimoto, who began working as a rental person who does nothing.”

About the book: Born in 1983, Shoji Morimoto began working as a rental person who does nothing in 2018. Since then, he has been hired thousands of times. In this memoir, Morimoto recalls the many instances where people have hired him to do nothing. A worker who lost his job hires Morimoto to sit with him while the latter eats a hamburger. Once, a client asked him to watch her search for a husband on matchmaking sites. There’s a sense of banal truth and a tinge of sadness about how mixed and tough contemporary living can be. Morimoto, while not being the only one offering this kind of service, finds an engaging way of making the reader think about life and all the frills that come with.

As Morimoto explains elegantly the reason for his service: I felt comfortable in a community that existed just for the moment, with simple, temporary relationships uncomplicated by past or future.” — Nitin Sreedhar, Features Editor

"Departure(s)" by Julian Barnes

“I've held Barnes unshakeably perched in my personal canon of contemporary English-language greats alongside Ishiguro and McEwan. When Departure(s), his enchanting—if slightly indulgent and uneven—work of memoir-meets-fiction came around, there was no question of not being among the first to read it. The British novelist excels at writing languidly and trenchantly about memory, and this book—his last—about two lovers finding each other twice in their lives, is a uniquely Barnesian delight.” — Prannay Pathak, Head, Copy

"Yellowface" by RF Kuang

“I’ve been meaning to read this book for a while, mainly because I loved Babel. The measure of a good book, in my opinion, is simple: it should engage you and make you want to keep reading. Yellowface definitely achieves that. Even though you end up disliking almost every character, you can’t put it down, even (and perhaps, especially) during its most anxiety-inducing moments.” – Mayukh Majumdar, Deputy Editor

"Cleopatra and Frankenstein" by Coco Mellors

"I deliberately walked into this without even a blurb to lead me on, and what a ride this is! Mellors writes about a doomed marriage between Cleo and Frank, two people who are as different from each other as they can get. Their relationship is like a burning train headed for collision, but it's not much better for the side characters either. Everyone in this book is messed up. There are some really questionable power dynamics, and everything just keeps getting worse. It's like watching the first season of Euphoria for the first time. The writing style just makes it impossible to take your eyes away from the wreck." — Aditi Tarafdar, Esquire Editorial Intern