tenzin butsang

Last month, I returned my library’s 2006 copy of Marilynne Robinson’s Gilead in favour of a recently re-issued edition from Picador. Allured by its beautiful colours, textures, and hand lettering, I was delighted to learn that this cover (and others in the series) were the design work of the artist Na Kim. It is true to say that if I have come across an interesting, charming, or otherwise striking cover over the past few years, they are more often than not a Na Kim original. Whatever literary-visual kismet is at work here remains a mystery to me but long may it continue!

Other notable Na Kim designs: The Book of Goose and Wednesday’s Child by Yiyun Li, Heavy by Kiese Laymon, Flash Count Diary by Darcey Steinke, and Unfinished Business by Vivian Gornick.

Inspired by her work, I picked a few books from my shelves with covers that warrant similar appreciation.

Bold typography? Nostalgic portraiture? Compelling works of art? What more can one ask for?

Vintage Books’ visually cohesive paperback editions of the My Struggle books are a clean and simple treat, made all the more satisfying given how publishing houses seem to have struggled with this series in the past (see here, here, and here).

Of course, they can’t all be winners. Two particularly egregious exemplars of this:

The Perfect Nanny by Leïla Slimani (Penguin Books, shame!). Translated from French and originally titled Chanson Douce, the North American title and cover are both violations against this 2016 Prix Goncourt winner.

Any Sarah Waters book. On my next birthday, I intend to wish for some generous and talented art director at Virago Press, Hachette UK, or McClelland & Stewart to commit themselves to a cover-to-cover re-design of every novel Sarah Waters has ever written. While I don’t know how the publishing industry operates or who is responsible for the bevy of bad covers these literary works have had to endure, I know it must end.