Books like

Books like A Constellation of Vital Phenomena

12 books with a reading profile close to A Constellation of Vital Phenomena by Anthony Marra. Contemplative and thought-provoking; a moderate read.

1

Wandering Stars

by Tommy Orange

Also thought-provoking · history, narrative

Wandering Stars traces a lineage of a Cheyenne family from the 1864 Sand Creek Massacre and the forced assimilation at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School to the present day.
2

The Night Watch

by Sarah Waters

Also thought-provoking · history, narrative

Set in London during and immediately after the Second World War, the narrative moves backward in time from 1947 to 1941.
3

The Night Watchman

by Louise Erdrich

Also contemplative and thought-provoking · history, narrative

Thomas Wazhashk is the night watchman at a jewel-bearing plant in rural North Dakota in 1953, and also a Chippewa council member.
4

Of Women and Salt

by Gabriela Garcia

Also contemplative and thought-provoking · history, narrative

Spanning from nineteenth-century Cuban cigar factories to a modern-day detention center in Texas, the narrative follows five generations of women linked by blood and migration.
5

Brotherless Night

by V. V. Ganeshananthan

Also contemplative and thought-provoking · history, narrative

Set in Jaffna during the onset of the Sri Lankan Civil War, the narrative follows Sashi, a young woman whose ambitions to become a doctor are redirected by the escalating ethnic conflict.
6

How Much of These Hills Is Gold

by C Pam Zhang

Also thought-provoking · history, narrative

Set against the declining years of the American Gold Rush, the novel follows Lucy and Sam, two orphaned siblings of Chinese descent, as they carry their father’s decomposing body across a harsh western landscape.
7

There Are Rivers in the Sky

by Elif Shafak

Also contemplative and thought-provoking · history, narrative

The narrative follows a single drop of water across centuries, linking three distinct lives shaped by the Tigris and Thames rivers.
8

In the Time of the Butterflies

by Julia Alvarez

Also thought-provoking · history, narrative

In 1960, three of the four Mirabal sisters were beaten to death on a road in the Dominican Republic because they had opposed the dictator Rafael Trujillo.
9

When the Emperor Was Divine

by Julie Otsuka

Also contemplative and thought-provoking · history, narrative

The narrative follows an unnamed Japanese American family—a mother, daughter, and son—living in Berkeley, California, in 1942.
10

The Covenant of Water

by Abraham Verghese

Also thought-provoking · history, narrative

Spanning seven decades in Kerala, South India, the narrative follows three generations of a family afflicted by a peculiar medical condition known as the Condition.
11

All the Light We Cannot See

by Anthony Doerr

Also contemplative and thought-provoking · history, narrative

Marie-Laure LeBlanc, a blind girl living in Paris, flees to Saint-Malo with her father to escape the Nazi occupation, carrying a precious and potentially cursed diamond from the Museum of Natural History.
12

Matrix

by Lauren Groff

Also thought-provoking · history, narrative

Cast out from the royal court of Eleanor of Aquitaine, seventeen-year-old Marie of France arrives at a destitute English abbey to serve as its new prioress.

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