Booth

The Mirror and the Light

Hilary Mantel2020

Thomas Cromwell navigates the final four years of his life in Henry VIII's court. He attempts to maintain power as his allies and influence erode.

pace0·prose+1·bleak0

Absalom, Absalom!

William Faulkner1936

The rise and fall of Thomas Sutpen is recounted through multiple, conflicting memories. The prose uses extremely long, complex sentences.

Same elegiac register, still historical fiction

pace-1·prose+1·bleak+1

Gravity's Rainbow

Thomas Pynchon1973

During the end of WWII, an American lieutenant's sexual encounters seem to predict where German V-2 rockets will fall. The narrative is fragmented.

elegiac → sardonic, still historical fiction

pace0·prose+1·bleak0

Ulysses

James Joyce1914

Three characters wander through Dublin on a single day in 1904. Each chapter uses a different literary style to mimic thoughts and sensations.

elegiac → playful

pace-1·prose+1·bleak-1

The Marriage Mistake

Jennifer Probst2012

After a one-night stand is discovered by family, a businessman and his friend's sister enter a forced marriage to satisfy Italian tradition.

elegiac → playful

pace+1·prose-2·bleak-2

All Lined Up

Cora Carmack2014

The daughter of a college football coach starts a secret relationship with the team's new star player.

elegiac → earnest

pace+1·prose-2·bleak-2

The Heartbreaker

Carly Phillips

A small-town journalist protects a senator's daughter during a political scandal. He seeks a career-making story while keeping her safe.

elegiac → playful

pace+1·prose-2·bleak-2

Candide

Voltaire

A naive young man travels the world while his tutor insists that everything is for the best. He encounters a series of global catastrophes.

elegiac → sardonic

pace+2·prose-1·bleak-1

The Da Vinci Code

Dan Brown2003

A symbologist and a cryptologist flee the police while solving puzzles hidden in art. They search for a secret regarding the Holy Grail.

elegiac → propulsive

pace+2·prose-2·bleak-2

The Martian

Andy Weir2011

A man does arithmetic to stay alive on Mars. Problem, attempt, result, repeat.

elegiac → wry

pace+2·prose-2·bleak-2

Ulysses

James Joyce1914

Three characters wander through Dublin on a single day in 1904. Each chapter uses a different literary style to mimic thoughts and sensations.

elegiac → playful

pace-1·prose+1·bleak-1

Umbrella

Will Self2013

A psychiatrist in 1971 treats a woman who has been catatonic for decades. The prose shifts between eras and consciousnesses without paragraph breaks.

elegiac → clinical

pace-1·prose+1·bleak0

Translated Accounts

James Kelman2001

Anonymous witnesses describe life under a military regime. The prose uses broken, bureaucratic syntax to mimic a literal translation.

elegiac → bleak

pace-1·prose+1·bleak+1

The Confessions of Nat Turner

William Styron1967

A fictionalized confession of the leader of an 1831 slave revolt while he awaits execution in a Virginia jail cell.

elegiac → bleak, still historical fiction

pace0·prose0·bleak+1

The Known World

Edward P. Jones2003

A black man who was once a slave becomes a slave owner in antebellum Virginia. The story follows the fallout on the plantation after his death.

elegiac → meditative, still historical fiction

pace0·prose0·bleak+1

A Long Long Way

Sebastian Barry2005

A young Irishman joins the British Army to fight in the trenches of World War I while his home country moves toward rebellion.

Same elegiac register, still historical fiction

pace0·prose0·bleak+1