More like The Names
anchored on:literary & generaleuropelate 20th centuryidentitybooks and readingmurder investigation+4 more
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- The Magus
John Fowlesstandalone novel1965
similar byliterary & generaleuropeidentitychallengingmysteriousmediterranean
The Magus (1965) is a postmodern novel by British author John Fowles, telling the story of Nicholas Urfe, a young British graduate who is teaching English on a small Greek island. Urfe becomes embroiled in the psychological illusions of a master trickster, which become increasingly dark and serious. Considered an example of metafiction, it was the first novel written by Fowles but his third book to be published. A revised edition was published in 1977.
- Freddie Montgomery
series1 book1989
similar byliterary & generaleuropeidentitymurder investigationreflectivemystery & detective
- Galatea 2.2
Richard Powersstandalone novel1995
similar bylate 20th centuryliterary & generalidentityreflective+2 more
Galatea 2.2 is a 1995 pseudo-autobiographical novel by American writer Richard Powers and a contemporary reworking of the Pygmalion myth. The book's narrator shares the same name as Powers, with the book referencing events and books in the author's life while mentioning other events that may or may not be based upon Powers' life.
- The Edible Woman
Margaret Atwoodstandalone novel1969
similar bylate 20th centuryliterary & generalidentityreflective
The Edible Woman is the first published novel by Canadian writer Margaret Atwood, published in 1969. It is the story of a young woman, Marian, whose sane, structured, consumer-oriented world starts to slip out of focus. Following her engagement, Marian feels her body and her self are becoming separated. Marian begins endowing food with human qualities that cause her to identify with it, and finds herself unable to eat, repelled by metaphorical cannibalism. In a foreword written in 1979 for the Virago edition of the novel, Atwood described it as a protofeminist rather than feminist work.
- The Day of Creation
J. G. Ballardstandalone novel1987
similar bylate 20th centuryliterary & generalchallengingreflective
Dr. John Mallory has spent six purposeless months running a WHO clinic in a corner of Central Africa gutted by guerrilla war, with almost no patients to treat, when he throws himself into a project: bringing water to the parched land, with dreams of blooming the Sahara. When his drilling improbably succeeds and unleashes a river, Mallory's fixation curdles into obsession -- he begins to identify with the river as an extension of himself, and assembles an expedition, including a girl he takes for a water spirit and a half-blind documentary filmmaker, to follow it upstream toward its source. A visionary novel by J. G. Ballard.
- Climbers
M. John Harrisonstandalone novel1989
similar bylate 20th centuryliterary & generalidentitychallengingreflective
Climbers is a literary novel by the British author M. John Harrison. First published in 1989 and apparently set several years earlier, the book had been out of print for several years but was reissued in paperback by Phoenix in 2004. It has attracted considerable critical acclaim and won the Boardman Tasker Prize for Mountain Literature in 1989. It was not, however, universally popular with the British climbing public, and received at least one negative review in the popular magazine Climber.
- Concrete Island
J. G. Ballardstandalone novel1974
similar byliterary & generalidentitychallengingreflectiveeurope
Architect Robert Maitland crashes his car onto a stretch of wasteland trapped between three converging motorways -- visible from thousands of cars, reachable by none of them. Injured and unable to climb back to the road, Maitland adapts to life on what he starts calling the Island, scavenging food thrown from car windows, and discovers he isn't alone: a runaway sex worker hiding in a bunker, and a brain-damaged former circus acrobat, both long past expecting rescue. What begins as a survival story turns into a question of whether Maitland even wants to leave. A J. G. Ballard novel of urban isolation, grouped with Crash and High-Rise.
- Phases of Gravity
Dan Simmonsstandalone novel1989
similar bylate 20th centuryliterary & generalidentityreflective
Follows Richard Baedecker, an Apollo astronaut who walked on the moon, through his midlife crisis. He meanders through India, Glen Oak Illinois, the mountains of Colorado, and the coastline of Oregon, checking up on his son and his former Apollo crewmates.
- American Psycho
Bret Easton Ellisstandalone novel1991
similar bylate 20th centuryliterary & generalchallengingmurder investigation+1 more
American Psycho is a horror novel by American writer Bret Easton Ellis, published in 1991. The story is told in the first-person by Patrick Bateman, a wealthy, narcissistic, and vain Manhattan investment banker who lives a double life as a serial killer. Alison Kelly of The Observer notes that while "Some countries [deem it] so potentially controversial that it only to be sold as shrink-wrapped", "critics rave about it" and "academics revel in its transgressive and postmodern qualities".
- Alias Grace
Margaret Atwoodstandalone novel1996
similar byliterary & generalidentitymurder investigationmysteriousreflective
Alias Grace is a historical fiction novel by Canadian writer Margaret Atwood. First published in 1996 by McClelland & Stewart, it won the Giller Prize and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize.
- Nights at the Circus
Angela Carterstandalone novel1984
similar bylate 20th centuryliterary & generalidentityeurope
Nights at the Circus is a novel by British writer Angela Carter, first published in 1984 and the winner of the 1984 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction. The novel focuses on the life and exploits of Sophie Fevvers, a woman who is – or so she would have people believe – a Cockney virgin, hatched from an egg laid by unknown parents and ready to develop fully fledged wings. At the time of the story, she has become a celebrated aerialiste. She captivates the young journalist Jack Walser, who runs away with the circus and falls into a world that his journalistic exploits had not prepared him to encounter.
- A Landing on the Sun
Michael Fraynstandalone novel1991
similar bylate 20th centuryliterary & generalidentitymysteriousreflective
A Landing On The Sun is a 1991 novel by Michael Frayn, and was the Sunday Express Book of the Year. It was adapted into a 1994 BBC TV fim with a screenplay written by the author.
- The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
Junot Díazstandalone novel2007
similar bylate 20th centuryliterary & generalidentitychallenging
Dark fantasy novel. A young man who dreams of being “the Dominican J.R.R. Tolkien” is doomed by a family curse, traced across generations.
- Running Dog
Don DeLillostandalone novel1978
similar bylate 20th centuryliterary & generalmurder investigationthriller & suspense+2 more
Running Dog is a 1978 novel by Don DeLillo. The book concerns Moll Robbins, a reporter for the eponymous magazine – a fictional underground, once-radical magazine which satirizes Rolling Stone – whose investigation into the suspicious activities of a member of the U.S. Senate uncover the possible existence of a pornographic film of Adolf Hitler, purportedly filmed in his bunker in the climactic days of Berlin's fall. As Robbins digs deeper into the film's existence and whereabouts, more and more individuals become obsessed with finding it, including underground art collectors and the Mafia, leading to a surreal and violent series of events.
- Infinite Jest
David Foster Wallacestandalone novel1996
similar bylate 20th centuryliterary & generalidentitychallenging+1 more
Infinite Jest is a 1996 novel by American writer David Foster Wallace. Often considered Wallace’s magnum opus, the book has been categorized as an encyclopedic novel due to its unconventional narrative structure and hundreds of extensive endnotes, some with footnotes of their own.
- Travels in the Scriptorium
Paul Austerstandalone novel2007
similar byliterary & generalidentitybooks and readingchallengingmysterious
Travels in the Scriptorium is a novel by Paul Auster first published in 2006.
- Brazzaville Beach
William Boydstandalone novel1990
similar bylate 20th centuryliterary & generalidentityreflective
Brazzaville Beach is a novel by William Boyd, for which he was awarded the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for 1990, and the McVitie's Prize for Scottish Writer of the Year. The book tells the story of a woman, Hope Clearwater, researching chimpanzees, and the circumstances that brought her to Africa. It is Boyd's first novel with a female protagonist and the first to be written, at least in part, from a first person female perspective. Boyd said that rather than try to consider how a woman, as opposed to a man, would respond to certain situations he focused on developing and understanding Hope's character and personality.
- Darkness Visible
William Goldingstandalone novel1979
similar bylate 20th centuryliterary & generalidentitychallenging
Darkness Visible is a 1979 novel by British author William Golding. The book won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize. The title comes from Paradise Lost, from the line, "No light, but rather darkness visible". It marked Golding's re-emergence as a novelist, eight years after the publication of the collection The Scorpion God.
- Pale Fire
Vladimir Nabokovstandalone novel1962
similar byliterary & generalidentitybooks and readingchallengingmysterious
Novel, written in the form of an epic poem by a fictional author, and scholarly commentary by a fictional biographer.
- Mother Night
Kurt Vonnegut & Jr.standalone novel1962
similar byliterary & generalidentityreflectiveeurope
Howard W. Campbell Jr., an American playwright who grew up in Germany, writes his memoirs from an Israeli prison cell awaiting trial for war crimes. As the Nazis rose to power, Campbell stayed on, married a German actress, and was recruited by an American agent to serve as a double agent, broadcasting Nazi propaganda over the radio while secretly passing coded intelligence to the Allies. The catch, as Campbell tells it, is that he became one of the war's most effective propagandists in the process, whatever his loyalties. Kurt Vonnegut's darkest novel asks what a person becomes when the mask he wears for a cause is indistinguishable from his face.
- The Tragedy of Arthur
Arthur Phillipsstandalone novel2011
similar byliterary & generalidentitybooks and readingmysteriousreflective
The Tragedy of Arthur is a 2011 novel by the American author Arthur Phillips. The narrative concerns the publication of a recently discovered Arthurian play attributed to William Shakespeare, which the main narrator, "Arthur Phillips", believes to be a forgery produced by his father. It was published by Random House.
- Black Swan Green
David Mitchellstandalone novel2006
similar bylate 20th centuryliterary & generalidentityreflective
Black Swan Green is a semi-autobiographical novel written by David Mitchell, published in April 2006 in the U.S. and May 2006 in the UK. The bildungsroman's thirteen chapters each represent one month—from January 1982 through January 1983—in the life of 13-year-old Worcestershire boy Jason Taylor. The novel is written from the perspective of Taylor and employs many teen colloquialisms and popular-culture references from early-1980s England.
- The Colorado Kid
Stephen Kingstandalone novel2005
similar byidentitymurder investigationmysteriousreflectivemystery & detective
The Colorado Kid is a mystery novel by American writer Stephen King, published by the Hard Case Crime imprint in 2005. The book was initially issued in one paperback-only edition by the specialty crime and mystery publishing house. King's next novel for Hard Case Crime was Joyland, which was published in June 2013. Hard Case Crime reissued The Colorado Kid in an illustrated paperback edition in May 2019.
- The Research Magnificent
H. G. Wellsstandalone novel1915
similar byliterary & generaleuropeidentityreflective+1 more
The Research Magnificent is a 1915 novel by H. G. Wells.
