The Night Tiger

Number9dream

David Mitchell2001

A young man searches for his father in Tokyo. The narrative shifts between his reality, daydreams, and video-game-inspired fantasies.

pace+1·prose0·bleak0

The Famished Road

Ben Okri1991

An abiku, or spirit child, narrates his life in a Nigerian ghetto. He fluctuates between the world of the living and the world of spirits.

Same dreamlike register, still magical realism

pace0·prose+1·bleak+1

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.

dreamlike → sardonic

pace0·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.

dreamlike → propulsive

pace+1·prose+1·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.

dreamlike → warm

pace+1·prose-2·bleak-1

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.

dreamlike → warm

pace0·prose-2·bleak-1

Hannah's List

Debbie Macomber2010

A widower receives a letter from his late wife suggesting three women he should date. He begins to interact with each woman over the following year.

dreamlike → warm

pace0·prose-2·bleak-1

Child 44

Tom Rob Smith2008

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

dreamlike → tense

pace+2·prose-1·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.

dreamlike → sardonic

pace+2·prose-1·bleak0

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.

dreamlike → propulsive

pace+2·prose-2·bleak-1

Umbrella

Will Self2013

A psychiatrist in 1971 treats a woman who has been catatonic for decades. The prose shifts between eras and consciousnesses without paragraph breaks.

dreamlike → clinical

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.

dreamlike → bleak

pace-1·prose+1·bleak+2

Invisible Cities

Italo Calvino1972

Marco Polo describes fifty-five imaginary cities to Kublai Khan. The book is a series of short, prose-poem meditations on urban existence.

dreamlike → meditative, still magical realism

pace-1·prose+1·bleak0

The Summer that Melted Everything

Tiffany McDaniel2016

A boy claiming to be the devil arrives in a small Ohio town during a 1984 heatwave. His presence triggers a series of local tragedies.

dreamlike → elegiac, still magical realism

pace0·prose0·bleak+2

The Road

Cormac McCarthy2006

A father and son walk through a landscape of ash and scavengers toward the coast. They carry only what fits in a shopping cart.

dreamlike → bleak

pace0·prose+1·bleak+2

Oryx and Crake

Margaret Atwood2003

A man survives a genetic apocalypse in a world of engineered creatures. He remembers his past with a scientist and the woman they both loved.

dreamlike → sardonic

pace+1·prose0·bleak+2