3.89 avg rating — 30,646 ratings

"Some of the books on this list I found to be very intense, even "scary". But for me The Sheltering Sky scared me to my core. There are no fantastical beasts lurking in the shadows or crazed killers just around that dark corner. Such things (or rather the idea of them) can be entertainingly scary indeed, but Bowles' The Sheltering Sky touched a place in me that resonated in a most uncomfortable way. The story is simple enough, three American travelers adrift in northern Africa shortly after WWII, exploring what for them may be called, romantically, a "new window into the soul". The thing that made this story truly frightening was that which was unspoken, the empty spaces, or space, that may be likely to exist in each of us. An empty space that, once touched upon, can allow one (for instance) to look upon the death of your most cherished loved one in utter indifference, and not knowing why. It's tantamount to a nightmare that one can possibly not quite wake from once experienced. My description is clearly not doing this masterwork justice, it truly must be read to be experienced. I've never read a book that had so much to say by not saying it. It's terrifyingly beautiful and unforgetable if grasped. I was lucky enough to be scared to death by what it "helped" me see. "