July’s bestseller list at Knyzhkovyi Lev refuses to fit into a single category.
A twentieth-century Greek classic took first place, followed by provocative autofiction, Margaret Atwood’s dystopia, Japanese modernism, a healing novel about cats, a book of murder puzzles, Ukrainian war writing and an English-language guide to Russian colonialism.
That variety is what makes the list interesting.
These are not ten books trying to offer the same reading experience. Some ask difficult questions about freedom, bodies, war or history. Others offer escape, play or comfort.
The July 2026 Top 10
- Three Summers — Margarita Liberaki
- Sex Is a Gift from God — Pani Lan
- The Handmaid’s Tale — Margaret Atwood
- The Woman in the Dunes — Kobo Abe
- We’ll Prescribe You a Cat — Syou Ishida
- Murdle: Volume 1 — G. T. Karber
- Train Dreams — Denis Johnson
- Hemingway Knows Nothing — Artur Dron
- Russian Colonialism 101 — Maksym Eristavi
- 1913: The Year Before the Storm — Florian Illies
The number-one book, Three Summers, is Margarita Liberaki’s coming-of-age novel about three sisters growing up near Athens before the Second World War. The Ukrainian edition was published in 2026 by Osnovy Publishing.
Japanese literature also had a strong month. Kobo Abe’s The Woman in the Dunes, first published in 1962, ranked fourth, while Syou Ishida’s warm, contemporary We’ll Prescribe You a Cat came fifth.
The list also shows that readers wanted books they could actively engage with. G. T. Karber’s Murdle contains 100 murder puzzles arranged across four levels of difficulty, turning reading into a detective game.
Ukrainian war writing remains prominent as well. Hemingway Knows Nothing by writer and serviceman Artur Dron is a collection of short prose about the lived experience of being a soldier in Russia’s war against Ukraine. Its first print run sold out rapidly after publication in 2025.
Meanwhile, Russian Colonialism 101 by Maksym Eristavi brought an English-language title into the top ten. The illustrated book examines recurring patterns in the history of Russian colonial expansion and was created in part to make that history accessible to an international audience.
The list ends with Florian Illies’s 1913, a cultural history of Europe immediately before the First World War, moving between writers, artists and thinkers who did not yet know how radically their world was about to change. The Ukrainian edition was released in 2026.
What does this tell us about July’s reader?
Perhaps not very much — and that is a good thing.
A bookstore is most interesting when readers refuse to behave like an algorithmic category.
A good reading month is not one in which everyone buys the same book. It is one in which the ten bestselling books can start ten completely different conversations.
