Five engaging novels that will make you a more interesting conversationalist

At the Telegraph, Radhika Sanghani recommended five books "guaranteed to stimulate your evening drinks – but not bore you on the beach," including:

The Girl Who Saved The King of Sweden by Jonas Jonasson

I absolutely loved this book. It’s the epic tale of a young South African woman called Nombeko. At the start of the book, she’s 14-years-old and working in the sewers. By the end? She’s owned diamonds, hung out with political officials, learnt Chinese and taken charge of a missile.

The novel is hilarious, sad and very, very clever. It’s guaranteed to make you think about current affairs (South Africa’s nuclear missiles, in particular). But it’s also about those vast themes of the human condition: honesty, luck, hard-work and an acceptance that life will always be unpredictable. The only problem with this book? It's such addictive reading that you might not want to talk to anyone – you’ll just want to keep on turning the pages.

Read about the other books on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue