A “friend” has had trouble reading recently. TikTok has made his brain into mush, attention span is negative 1 second. Looking for short, proven, reliable unputdownables

Friend is myself. Trying to find the kind of captivating book you could gift to almost anyone. Fiction. Not too thicc. Preferably with a certain level of poetic sensibility. Anyhow, there’s several books I have given to almost illiterate peoples, which they have enjoyed and finished. My favorites in this “genre’ would be The perfume by Suskind, Silk by Baricco, when we cease to understand the world by Labatut, submission by Houellebecq, the moon is a harsh mistress by Heinlein.
Book seller mentioned the unbearable lightness, 84 charing cross road. Which.. I think don’t really fit into this made up category, but might. I understand I might have just described bestsellers.
Any suggestions, thoughts?
xx