Great Circle

The Paris Library

Janet Skeslien Charles2021

A librarian in Nazi-occupied Paris joins the Resistance, while a 1980s teenager in Montana uncovers her neighbor's past.

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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.

earnest → sardonic, still historical fiction

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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.

earnest → playful

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Briefing for a Descent into Hell

Doris Lessing1971

A man is found wandering London and placed in a psychiatric ward. The narrative shifts between the hospital and his internal cosmic hallucinations.

earnest → dreamlike

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Split Infinity

Piers Anthony1980

A man travels between a high-tech world of games and a parallel world of magic. He must master both systems to avoid being assassinated.

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Girl, Wash Your Face

Rachel Hollis2018

The author lists twenty common lies she once believed about herself and provides personal anecdotes and advice to dismantle them.

Same earnest register

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Unfinished

Priyanka Chopra Jonas2021

The actress details her childhood in India, her time in American schools, and her transition from pageantry to a global film career.

Same earnest register

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Child 44

Tom Rob Smith2008

A Soviet security officer investigates a serial killer in a state that officially claims murder does not exist.

earnest → tense

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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.

earnest → sardonic

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The Jester

James Patterson2003

A man returns from the Crusades to find his village destroyed and his wife abducted. He assumes a new identity to hunt the killers.

earnest → propulsive, still adventure

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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.

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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.

earnest → meditative, still adventure

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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.

earnest → playful

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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.

earnest → meditative, still historical fiction

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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.

earnest → elegiac, still historical fiction

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Brotherless Night

V. V. Ganeshananthan2023

A young woman in Sri Lanka tries to study medicine while her brothers join militant groups during the civil war. It covers a decade of conflict.

earnest → elegiac, still historical fiction

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