The syllabus of the course is based on the students' selection of 5 books from the following list:

Ian McEwan: Black Dogs (1992), Amsterdam (1998), Saturday (2005), On Chesil Beach (2007), Solar (2010)

Jeanette Winterson: Written on the Body (1992), Art and Lies (1994)

Martin Amis: Time’s Arrow (1991), House of Meetings (2007)

Peter Ackroyd: The House of Doctor Dee (1993), Dan Leno and the Limehouse Golem (1994), The Casebook of Victor Frankenstein (2008)

Kazuo Ishiguro: When We Were Orphans (2000), Never Let Me Go (2005)

Graham Swift: Last Orders (1996), The Light of Day (2003), Tomorrow (2007)

Julian Barnes: England, England (1998), Arthur & George (2005), The Sense of an Ending (2011)

Hanif Kureishi: The Buddha of Suburbia (1990), Something to Tell You (2008)

Zadie Smith: White Teeth (2000), On Beauty (2005)

Angela Carter: Wise Children (1991)

Monica Ali: Brick Lane (2003)

Jim Crace: Arcadia (1992), Being Dead (1999), The Pesthouse (2007)

Will Self: How the Dead Live (2000), Dorian (2002)

John Banville: The Sea (2005)

Adam Thirlwell: Politics (2003)

Alan Hollinghurst: The Line of Beauty (2004)

Simon Mawer: The Glass Room (2009)

David Lodge: Deaf Sentence (2008)