A holiday isn't a holiday without a great book to entertain you in your sun lounger. So here are some of the very best female-penned novels of the year. Dive in.

20. Outline by Rachel Cusk 

19. Crooked Heart by Lissa Evans 

18. I Am China by Xiaolu Guo 

17. Dear Thief by Samantha Harvey 

16. Elizabeth is Missing by Emma Healey 

15. Aren't We Sisters? By Patricia Ferguson 

14. Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel 

13. The Offering by Grace McCleen 

12. The Country of Ice Cream Star by Sandra Newman

11. The Girl Who Was Saturday Night by Heather O'Neill 

10. The Bees by Laline Paull 

9. The Table of Less Valued Knights by Marie Phillips

8. The Walk Home by Rachel Seiffert 

7. A God in Every Stone by Kamila Shamsie 

6. How to be Both by Ali Smith 

5. The Shore by Sara Taylor

4. A Spool of Blue Thread by Anne Tyler 

3. The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters

2. After Before by Jemma Wayne 

1. The Life of a Banana by PP Wong