What Dua Lipa reads: 6 book recommendations from Margaret Atwood to Mark Ronson

The Trees is a novel set in Money, Mississippi, exploring a series of mysterious deaths that intersect with the historical legacy of racial violence in the United States. The story follows two Black detectives investigating cases that echo the brutal 1955 lynching of Emmett Till, weaving contemporary narrative with historical resonance. Everett’s approach combines elements of noir, allegory and social critique; bodies that vanish and reappear become a structural and symbolic motif. The novel interrogates how unresolved history inhabits present spaces, and how communities grapple with the weight of collective memory. It blends crime, allegory and cultural history in a way that prizes structural ingenuity and thematic coherence. This title offers insight into what Dua Lipa reads, revealing an interest in narratives that grapple with history, justice and societal memory.

In Small Boat, Delecroix reconstructs one of the most tragic migrant disasters in recent European history—an inflatable dinghy crossing the English Channel that capsized, killing most aboard. The novel is structured in three parts: an imagined interview with a coast guard operator, a harrowing depiction of the sinking and a post‑event meditation on responsibility and detachment. The narrator’s voice shifts between clinical description and fragmented reflection, probing how systems, individuals and societies respond (or fail to respond) to human suffering. Its spare, philosophical prose makes the book an ethical inquiry into complicity and apathy against the backdrop of a real‑world event.

Mark Ronson’s memoir recounts his early years DJing in New York City during the 1990s club scene that shaped his musical sensibilities before he became a major producer. The book traces his evolution from a teenage music obsessive to an immersed participant in downtown nightlife—crate‑digging, practising mixtapes and learning the craft from the ground up. Organised around venues, characters and key formative moments, the memoir captures both the energy of a moment in music culture and the personal drive behind Ronson’s creative trajectory. It is grounded in detailed anecdotes and vivid recollections rather than nostalgic myth‑making. 

Book of Lives: A Memoir of Sorts is Margaret Atwood’s first sustained memoir project, tracing her personal and creative life from childhood in northern Quebec through decades of writing and engagement with culture and politics. Rather than a strict autobiography, the book connects key life events with the genesis of her major works and recurring themes—freedom, narrative form, resilience and artistic purpose. Atwood reflects on her relationships, travels and the conditions that shaped her imagination, offering insights into both her inner life and wider cultural contexts. It is as much about the interplay between lived experience and literary output as it is about chronology itself.

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David Szalay’s Flesh is a contemporary novel that follows the life of István, a Hungarian man whose trajectory moves from poverty through a series of intense personal encounters to a transient position within Europe’s upper echelons. Szalay’s narrative is marked by lean prose and an unflinching look at the protagonist’s impulses, relationships and social mobility. The story tracks how István’s character interacts with class, belonging and identity, often without overt commentary, leaving readers to parse the implications of his choices. The novel, which won the 2025 Booker Prize, is defined by its structural restraint and focus on interiority framed against broader social currents. 

Each of these titles shows that Dua Lipa’s reading is less a fixed canon than a constellation of works attentive to narrative voice, ethical nuance and stylistic craft. Spanning memoir, fiction and philosophical inquiry, the books converge on moments of cultural significance and human experience, offering readers varied entry points into contemporary literary conversation. If similar subjects interest you, a collection based on what Dua Lipa reads is a solid start. 

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