The Alice Network

The Baker's Daughter

Sarah McCoy2012

A journalist in El Paso interviews a German baker about her life during WWII. The story moves between the 1940s and the present day.

propulsive → earnest, still historical fiction

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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.

propulsive → sardonic, still historical fiction

pace-1·prose+2·bleak+1

Don Quixote

Kathy Acker1986

A woman undergoes an abortion and adopts the persona of Don Quixote to pursue a quest in a fragmented, postmodern landscape.

propulsive → sardonic

pace-1·prose+2·bleak+2

Translated Accounts

James Kelman2001

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

propulsive → bleak

pace-2·prose+2·bleak+2

Better Off Dead

Lee Child2021

Jack Reacher investigates a staged car crash in Arizona and infiltrates a dangerous local crew to find a missing woman.

Same propulsive register

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On Dublin Street

Samantha Young2012

An American woman in Scotland enters a sex-only arrangement with her roommate's brother to avoid emotional intimacy. It is a contemporary romance.

propulsive → warm

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Night Pleasures

Sherrilyn Kenyon2002

An immortal warrior and a skeptical accountant are handcuffed together while being hunted by supernatural predators.

propulsive → playful

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Code of conduct

Brad Thor2015

Operative Scot Harvath investigates a video that reveals a global conspiracy within a health organization. He travels internationally to stop it.

Same propulsive register, still spy thriller

pace+1·prose-1·bleak0

Child 44

Tom Rob Smith2008

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

propulsive → tense

pace+1·prose0·bleak+1

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.

propulsive → sardonic

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.

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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.

propulsive → playful

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Lila

Marilynne Robinson2014

A woman with a traumatic, nomadic past settles in a small Iowa town and marries a minister. She struggles to reconcile her history with his faith.

propulsive → tender, still historical fiction

pace-2·prose+1·bleak0

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.

propulsive → meditative, still historical fiction

pace-1·prose+1·bleak+2

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.

propulsive → elegiac, still historical fiction

pace-1·prose+1·bleak+2

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.

propulsive → elegiac, still historical fiction

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