LitQueuelitqueue

After

How Beautiful We Were

Imbolo Mbue2020

6 of 6 directions open

More like it

1 more ↓

  • Be Near Me

    Andrew O'Hagan2006

    An Oxford-educated priest moves to a working-class Scottish parish. His attempts to connect with local youths lead to a public scandal.

    Same elegiac register, still literary fiction

    pace0·prose0·bleak0

Denser prose

3 more ↓

  • 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.

    elegiac → propulsive

    pace+1·prose+1·bleak+1

  • 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, still political fiction

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak+1

  • To the Lighthouse

    Virginia Woolf1927

    A family and their guests visit a house in the Hebrides. The narrative follows their internal thoughts over two days separated by ten years.

    Same elegiac register, still literary fiction

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak0

To recover

3 more ↓

  • The Sentinel

    Lee Child2020

    A drifter helps an IT manager targeted by criminals after a cyberattack. He uses physical force to protect the man and uncover a conspiracy.

    elegiac → propulsive

    pace+1·prose-2·bleak-2

  • To Sir Phillip, With Love

    Julia Quinn2003

    Eloise Bridgerton travels to meet a widowed baronet she has only known through letters. They consider a marriage of convenience.

    elegiac → warm

    pace+1·prose-2·bleak-2

  • All Rhodes Lead Here

    Mariana Zapata2021

    A woman moves back to her Colorado hometown after a breakup and rents a garage apartment from a grumpy single father.

    elegiac → warm

    pace0·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.

    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

Slower

3 more ↓

  • Orbital

    Samantha Harvey2024

    Six astronauts orbit Earth over twenty-four hours. The narrative focuses on their routine tasks and observations of the planet below.

    elegiac → meditative, still literary fiction

    pace-1·prose0·bleak-1

  • 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.

    Same elegiac register, still literary fiction

    pace-1·prose0·bleak0

  • The Waters of Kronos

    Conrad Richter1960

    An elderly man travels back in time to his childhood Pennsylvania town, which in his present day is submerged beneath a reservoir.

    Same elegiac register, still literary fiction

    pace-1·prose0·bleak-1

Heavier

elegiac → tense, still literary fiction

3 more ↓

  • A Bend in the River

    V. S. Naipaul1979

    An Indian shopkeeper moves to a newly independent African nation. He observes the town's slow descent into chaos under a cult-of-personality leader.

    elegiac → cold, still political fiction

    pace0·prose0·bleak+1

  • Girls Burn Brighter

    Shobha Rao2018

    Two girls in India are separated by a brutal act of violence. They endure trafficking and labor across continents to find each other.

    elegiac → bleak, still literary fiction

    pace+1·prose0·bleak+1

  • 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.

    elegiac → meditative, still literary fiction

    pace-1·prose0·bleak+1