10 best e-books to download during lockdown

Reading is one of life’s pleasures – and never more so than now.

From thrillers to romantic fiction, books make us laugh, make us cry and make us think, so it’s not surprising that many of us are reading far more than usual at the moment.

Sales of fiction books rose by a third last month as people prepared for lockdown, while Waterstones saw its online sales rise by 400 per cent.

At a time like this, when essential deliveries are being prioritised, e-books are coming into their own. They are often cheaper than hardbacks, easy to download and available to read within a few seconds.

Here we’ve selected some of the best fiction e-books published in recent months, from a novel about the complexities of new motherhood to the tale of a detective ordered to investigate a horrifying series of murders on Holy Island, off the Northumberland coast.

Our e-book choices are judged above all on their readability and their power to transport us to a totally different world, whether it’s 1930s Kentucky, the streets of Rome or a rural school in Somerset.

You can trust our independent reviews. We may earn commission from some of the retailers, but we never allow this to influence selections, which are formed from real-world testing and expert advice. This revenue helps us to fund journalism across The Independent.