The Morning Star: A Novel
by Karl Ove Knausgård
A novel by an extraordinary storyteller about what lies beyond human perception. I expect moments of reflection and to enjoy the work of a master.
Magnus Tyreman
Senior Partner, McKinsey
Other 2021 reading lists you might want to explore
McKinsey Global Publishing’s top 25 picks
Summer books of 2021: Business (Financial Times)
Summer is coming. Bring a book. (New York Times)
Barack Obama: My summer 2021 lists (Medium)
The Harvard Business School faculty summer reader 2021 (Harvard Business School)
The books of summer (Wall Street Journal)
Summer reading: The 50 hottest new books everyone should read (Guardian)
Summer reading: 10 of the best art books of the past year (Christie’s)
5 ideas for summer reading (Bill Gates)
Summer reads 2021: What are Princeton professors reading—and listening to—this summer? (Princeton University)
What politicos are reading this summer (Politico)
Summer reading book list (reading adventures for babies, kids, and teens) (New York Public Library)
McKinsey on Books
Explore this month’s best-selling business books prepared exclusively for McKinsey Publishing by Circana and a collection of books by McKinsey authors on the management issues that matter, from leadership and talent to digital transformation, corporate finance, and more.
Author Talks
Dive into insightful conversations with authors on crucial management topics including leading through a crisis, unleashing innovation, coping with organizational culture shifts, and more.
10 songs (and 30 reads) to kick off your summer break
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Looking for ways to make your escape this summer without disconnecting from the issues that matter? We’ve got you covered. Put on your nifty noise-cancelling headphones and unwind with this music playlist, curated by the editors of McKinsey Global Publishing.
Acknowledgments
It takes a village to curate amazing lists from this rather busy group of leaders from all over the world. We would like to thank Kris Coratti, Chantal De Soto, Rimjhim Dey, Melanie Newman, Joellen Perry, and Jayne Rosefield for their help.
Within McKinsey Global Publishing, Eleni Kostopoulos led the effort to make this year’s list come alive, with collaboration and support from Mike Borruso, Nancy Cohn, Victor Cuevas, Torea Frey, Mary Halpin, Drew Holzfeind, Kathleen O'Leary, LaShon Malone, Philip Mathew, Janet Michaud, Kanika Punwani, Sarah Thuerk, Duane Tomaszewski, Petra Vincent, and Nathan Wilson.
And thank you to our contributors and their organizations for providing McKinsey Global Publishing with their photographs and permission to use them.