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After

Canada

Richard Ford2012

6 of 6 directions open

More like it

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  • Fasting, Feasting

    Anita Desai1999

    The novel contrasts the life of Uma in India with her brother Arun in Massachusetts. Both struggle under the expectations of their parents.

    Same meditative register, still literary fiction

    pace0·prose0·bleak0

Denser prose

3 more ↓

  • Brother. do. you. love. me

    Manni Coe2022

    A man moves to a cottage to care for his brother who has Down syndrome. They navigate daily life and reconnect through art and nature.

    meditative → tender, still literary fiction

    pace0·prose+1·bleak-1

  • Moby Dick

    Herman Melville1851

    A sailor joins a whaling voyage led by a captain seeking revenge on a specific whale. Large sections digress into the mechanics of 1850s whaling.

    Same meditative register, still literary fiction

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak0

  • 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.

    meditative → sardonic

    pace0·prose+1·bleak0

To recover

meditative → playful

3 more ↓

  • It Starts with Us

    Colleen Hoover2022

    A single mother navigates a new relationship with her first love while managing a jealous ex-husband. The story alternates perspectives.

    meditative → earnest

    pace+1·prose-2·bleak-2

  • Assistant to the Villain

    Hannah Nicole Maehrer2023

    A woman takes a job as an administrative assistant to a local villain to support her family. She manages his office while ignoring his evil deeds.

    pace+1·prose-2·bleak-2

  • The Marriage Bargain

    Jennifer Probst2012

    A bookstore owner enters a one-year contract marriage with a billionaire to save her family's land. They must follow a set of rules to stay platonic.

    pace+1·prose-2·bleak-2

Faster

3 more ↓

  • 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.

    meditative → 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.

    meditative → propulsive

    pace+2·prose-2·bleak-2

  • The Martian

    Andy Weir2011

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

    meditative → wry

    pace+2·prose-2·bleak-2

Slower

3 more ↓

  • On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous

    Ocean Vuong2019

    A son writes a letter to his illiterate mother, recounting his family's history in Vietnam and his own experiences growing up in America.

    meditative → elegiac, still coming of age

    pace-1·prose0·bleak0

  • Blackouts

    Justin Torres2023

    A young man cares for a dying elder in a medical facility. They use a 1930s study on homosexuality to reconstruct their personal histories.

    meditative → elegiac, still literary fiction

    pace-1·prose0·bleak0

  • The English Patient

    Michael Ondaatje1992

    Four people shelter in a ruined Italian villa at the end of WWII. They care for a burned, anonymous man who recounts his past in the desert.

    meditative → elegiac, still literary fiction

    pace-1·prose0·bleak0

Heavier

meditative → bleak, still literary fiction

3 more ↓

  • The story of a brief marriage

    Anuk Arudpragasam2016

    Two refugees enter an arranged marriage in a Sri Lankan camp during the final days of the civil war. It focuses on the physical details of survival.

    Same meditative register, still literary fiction

    pace-1·prose0·bleak+1

  • A Distant Shore

    Caryl Phillips2003

    A retired teacher and an African refugee form a quiet bond in a xenophobic English village. Their past traumas emerge through alternating stories.

    pace0·prose0·bleak+1

  • A Little Life

    Hanya Yanagihara2015

    Four friends in New York over thirty years. One of them is being destroyed, and the book does not look away.

    pace0·prose0·bleak+1