More like Missing
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- Lost
Gregory Maguirestandalone novel2001
similar bygrief and lossliterary & generalreflectivecontemporary
Lost is a 2001 novel by American author Gregory Maguire. Unlike many of Maguire's other adult novels, Lost is set in the real world. The novel's concept is that the protagonist is a distant relative of the man who inspired Charles Dickens' character of Ebenezer Scrooge.
- The Cemetery of Untold Stories
Julia Alvarezstandalone novel2024
similar byliterary & generalreflectivecontemporary+1 more
The Cemetery of Untold Stories: A Novel (2024) is a work of magical realism and the seventh novel by Dominican-American writer Julia Alvarez. The book follows Alma, a prolific author who, after retiring from her teaching job and writing career, inherits a plot of land in the Dominican Republic where she decides to create a cemetery for her unfinished manuscripts and notes.
- A Visit from the Goon Squad
series2 books2010
similar byliterary & generalreflectivecontemporary+1 more
Jennifer Egan's A Visit from the Goon Squad follows a loosely connected group of characters orbiting the music industry across several decades, told through interlocking chapters that jump between narrators, timelines, and, in one chapter, a PowerPoint presentation. The Candy House returns to several of the same characters and their descendants a decade later, in a world reshaped by a technology that lets people access and share their memories. Egan links the two books through recurring characters more than a continuous plot.
- Sacrament
Clive Barkerstandalone novel1995
similar byliterary & generalreflectivecontemporary+1 more
Sacrament is a 1996 novel by British author Clive Barker. It follows a wildlife photographer who is obsessed with documenting species of animals that are faced with extinction. It is set in Yorkshire, England, San Francisco and Hudson Bay, Canada and explores how his obsession is connected to his upbringing in Yorkshire. The Author described it as "a story about how we become who we are and how we must deal with what we are by facing up to including the things that happened to us in childhood, good and bad. It's also about what's happening to our planet."
- Slaughterhouse-Five or the Children's Crusade: A Duty-Dance with Death
Kurt Vonnegut & Jr.standalone novel1969
similar byliterary & generalreflective+1 more
Vonnegut opens in his own voice, describing the twenty years it took him to face writing about surviving the firebombing of Dresden as a POW. He then hands the story to Billy Pilgrim, an awkward, fatalistic American chaplain's assistant swept into the Battle of the Bulge and captured by German forces alongside a soldier who dies blaming him for it. Imprisoned in a disused slaughterhouse in Dresden, Billy survives the firebombing that follows, and, we're told upfront, has also come 'unstuck in time,' living his life out of order, including a stretch on the alien world of Tralfamadore. Vonnegut's best-known novel folds war memoir into science fiction and black comedy.
- Before I Fall
series2 books2010
similar bygrief and lossliterary & generalreflectivecontemporary
Lauren Oliver's Before I Fall is a 2010 young-adult novel narrated by teenager Samantha Kingston, who is forced to relive the day of her death repeatedly over the course of a week. Attempting to understand why, Samantha tries different choices and actions each time through, some starkly out of character, as she reckons with her life and relationships. It was adapted into a 2017 film of the same name.
- I Am Homeless If This Is Not My Home
Lorrie Moorestandalone novel2023
similar bygrief and lossliterary & generalreflectivecontemporary
I Am Homeless if This Is Not My Home is a 2023 novel by American novelist Lorrie Moore. It was her fourth published novel, and was the winner of the 2023 National Book Critics Circle Award in Fiction.
- The Book of Form and Emptiness
Ruth Ozekistandalone novel2021
similar bygrief and lossliterary & generalreflectivecontemporary
The Book of Form and Emptiness is a novel by American author Ruth Ozeki, published in 2021 by Viking. Ozeki's fourth novel, the book won the 2022 Women's Prize for Fiction. The story follows a boy who hears voices from inanimate objects while the narrative explores themes of mental illness and bereavement.
- Oh Pure and Radiant Heart
Lydia Milletstandalone novel2005
similar byliterary & generalreflectivecontemporary+1 more
Oh Pure and Radiant Heart imagines a world in which the three geniuses who were key to the invention of the atom bomb--physicists J. Robert Oppenheimer, Enrico Fermi and Leo Szilard--are displaced to contemporary America at the moment history's first mushroom cloud rises over the New Mexico desert in July 1945. When the scientists appear in Santa Fe in 2003, Ann, a reference librarian, and her doting husband Ben take them in, and with the long-dead physicists for houseguests are swept up in a quixotic and calamitous quest.
- The Dead Fathers Club
Matt Haigstandalone novel2006
similar bygrief and lossliterary & generalreflectivecontemporary
The Dead Fathers Club is a 2006 novel by Matt Haig. The book was published in the United Kingdom by Jonathan Cape and in the United States by Viking Press. The story is a retelling of William Shakespeare's Hamlet, and thus an example of intertextuality.
- The Sentence
Louise Erdrichstandalone novel2021
similar bygrief and lossliterary & generalreflectivecontemporary
The Sentence is a 2021 novel by American author Louise Erdrich. The novel was shortlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction and longlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction.
- A Million Heavens
John Brandonstandalone novel2012
similar bygrief and lossliterary & generalreflectivecontemporary
A Million Heavens is a 2012 novel by John Brandon. The book was first published on 3 July 2012 by McSweeney's and is Brandon's third novel, following his 2010 book Citrus County.
- Kit's Wilderness
David Almondstandalone novel1999
similar bygrief and lossliterary & generalreflectivecontemporary
Kit's Wilderness is a children's novel by David Almond, published by Hodder Children's Books in 1999. It is set in a fictional English town in the northeast of the country and is based on the former coal-mining towns the author knew as a child growing up in Tyne and Wear. It was silver runner-up for the Smarties Prize in the 9-11 ages category, highly commended for the Carnegie Medal, and shortlisted for the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize.
- The Falling Woman
Pat Murphystandalone novel1986
similar bygrief and lossreflectiveliterary & generalcontemporary
The Falling Woman is a 1986 contemporary psychological fantasy novel by Pat Murphy. The book won the Nebula Award for Best Novel in 1987.
- Empire of the Sun
series2 books1984
completed
similar byreflectiveeast asia+2 more
J. G. Ballard's Empire of the Sun draws on his own childhood to follow Jim, a British boy separated from his parents in Japanese-occupied Shanghai during World War II and interned in a civilian camp for the rest of the war. Ballard revisited the same period and a version of the same character years later in The Kindness of Women, a more explicitly fictionalized continuation into Jim's adult life. Empire of the Sun is the more directly autobiographical and better-known of the two.
- The Tiger's Wife
Téa Obrehtstandalone novel2010
similar bygrief and lossliterary & generalreflectivecontemporary
Remembering childhood stories her grandfather once told her, young physician Natalia becomes convinced that he spent his last days searching for "the deathless man," a vagabond who claimed to be immortal. As Natalia struggles to understand why her grandfather, a deeply rational man, would go on such a farfetched journey, she stumbles across a clue that leads her to the extraordinary story of the tiger's wife.
- The Overstory
Richard Powersstandalone novel2018
similar byliterary & generalreflectivecontemporary+1 more
The Overstory is a novel by American author Richard Powers, published in 2018 by W. W. Norton & Company. The book follows nine Americans whose unique life experiences with trees bring them together to address the destruction of forests. It features an innovative and non-linear narrative structure and explores themes of environmental activism and humanity's relationship with the natural world.
- The Road to Ever After
Moira Youngstandalone novel2016
similar bygrief and lossliterary & generalreflectivecontemporary
Ordered to leave his hometown, young Davy, an orphaned artist, escorts elderly Miss Flint to her childhood home, where she plans to die.
- The Ice Queen
Alice Hoffmanstandalone novel2005
similar bygrief and lossliterary & generalreflectivecontemporary
The Ice Queen is a 2005 novel by Alice Hoffman, published by Little, Brown.Wishes... burn your tongue the moment they're spoken, and you can never take them back.
