LitQueuelitqueue

After

The Gathering

Anne Enright2007

5 of 6 directions open — nothing heavier

More like it

1 more ↓

  • The Woman Upstairs

    Claire Messud2013

    A schoolteacher becomes obsessed with the family of one of her students. She documents her growing resentment and their eventual betrayal.

    elegiac → sardonic, still psychological fiction

    pace0·prose0·bleak-1

Denser prose

3 more ↓

  • Tinkers

    Paul Harding2009

    An elderly clock repairman lies dying while his thoughts drift through his father's life as a peddler. The prose focuses on nature and mechanics.

    elegiac → meditative, still psychological fiction

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak-2

  • Milkman

    Anna Burns2018

    An unnamed 18-year-old girl is stalked by an older paramilitary figure in 1970s Northern Ireland. The prose uses long, circuitous sentences.

    elegiac → tense, still psychological fiction

    pace0·prose+1·bleak-1

  • The Conservationist

    Nadine Gordimer1974

    A wealthy white industrialist buys a farm outside Johannesburg. He struggles to maintain control over the land and the people on it.

    elegiac → cold, still psychological fiction

    pace0·prose+1·bleak-1

To recover

3 more ↓

  • The Duke and I

    Julia Quinn2000

    A duke and a debutante enter a fake courtship to avoid social pressure. They navigate Regency London's marriage market while hiding their deal.

    elegiac → playful

    pace+1·prose-2·bleak-3

  • 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.

    elegiac → warm

    pace+1·prose-2·bleak-3

  • Everything Beautiful in Its Time

    Jenna Bush Hager2020

    The author reflects on the lives and deaths of her grandparents, including a former President and First Lady. It is a series of personal essays.

    elegiac → 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.

    elegiac → sardonic

    pace+2·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.

    elegiac → propulsive

    pace+2·prose-2·bleak-3

  • The Martian

    Andy Weir2011

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

    elegiac → wry

    pace+2·prose-2·bleak-3

Slower

3 more ↓

  • The Wilderness

    Samantha Harvey2009

    An architect with Alzheimer's attempts to reconstruct his life story. The narrative fragments as his memory and sense of time dissolve.

    Same elegiac register, still psychological fiction

    pace-1·prose0·bleak-1

  • The Next Big Thing

    Anita Brookner2002

    A seventy-three-year-old man in London contemplates his few remaining options for the future. He considers travel, marriage, and his isolation.

    elegiac → meditative, still psychological fiction

    pace-1·prose0·bleak-1

  • Study for Obedience

    Sarah Bernstein2023

    A woman moves to a remote northern country to care for her brother. The local community grows hostile as she observes them.

    elegiac → cold, still psychological fiction

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak-1