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Kamila Shamsie2017

5 of 6 directions open — nothing heavier

More like it

Same tense register, still literary fiction

1 more ↓

  • Bring Up the Bodies

    Hilary Mantel2012

    Thomas Cromwell orchestrates the downfall of Anne Boleyn to secure a new wife for Henry VIII. It covers the political maneuvering of 1535.

    pace0·prose0·bleak-1

Denser prose

3 more ↓

  • Translated Accounts

    James Kelman2001

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

    tense → bleak, still political fiction

    pace-2·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.

    tense → sardonic

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak-1

  • A Brief History of Seven Killings

    Marlon James2014

    A large cast of characters recounts the 1976 attempt on Bob Marley's life. The narrative spans decades and moves from Jamaica to New York.

    tense → propulsive

    pace0·prose+1·bleak0

To recover

tense → playful

3 more ↓

  • Alec

    L.A. Casey

    A young woman navigates a relationship with her brother's best friend in Dublin. It follows their transition from childhood friction to romance.

    pace0·prose-2·bleak-3

  • Brutal Prince

    Sophie Lark2020

    The heirs of two rival Chicago mafia families are forced into an arranged marriage to prevent a gang war.

    tense → sardonic

    pace0·prose-2·bleak-3

  • A Ryan Christmas

    Sadie Kincaid2022

    A woman navigates a holiday with her four Irish mafia husbands. The story focuses on domestic dynamics and a threat from the past.

    tense → warm

    pace0·prose-2·bleak-3

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.

    tense → sardonic

    pace+1·prose-1·bleak-2

  • 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.

    tense → propulsive

    pace+1·prose-2·bleak-3

  • The Martian

    Andy Weir2011

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

    tense → wry

    pace+1·prose-2·bleak-3

Slower

3 more ↓

  • 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.

    tense → elegiac, still literary fiction

    pace-2·prose0·bleak-1

  • 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.

    tense → elegiac, still literary fiction

    pace-2·prose0·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.

    tense → meditative, still literary fiction

    pace-2·prose+1·bleak-1