Books like American Wife
12 books with a reading profile close to American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld. Inward-looking and thought-provoking; a moderate read.
-
1
Yellow Wife
Also inward-looking and thought-provoking · history, narrative
Born into a life of relative privilege on a Virginia plantation, Pheby Delores Brown is promised her freedom at age eighteen.
-
2
Girl at War
by Sara Nović
Also inward-looking and thought-provoking · history, narrative
Ten-year-old Ana Jurić lives a carefree life in Zagreb until the Yugoslav Civil War erupts in 1991.
-
3
The Mercies
Also inward-looking · history, narrative
In 1617, a sudden storm kills every man in the remote Norwegian fishing village of Vardø.
-
4
A Northern Light
Also thought-provoking · history, narrative
Set in 1906 in the Adirondack Mountains, the story follows Mattie Gokey, a farm girl torn between a university scholarship and her obligations to her widowed father and siblings.
-
5
The Bastard of Istanbul
by Elif Shafak
Also thought-provoking · history, narrative
Asya Kazancı is a nineteen-year-old Turkish girl in Istanbul, raised in a household of women, with no knowledge of who her father is.
-
6
The Mad Women's Ball
by Victoria Mas
Also thought-provoking · history, narrative
Set in 1885 at the Salpêtrière asylum in Paris, the narrative follows Eugénie Cléry, a young woman committed to the institution by her father after she reveals her ability to speak with spirits.
-
7
Betty
history, narrative
Set in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains during the mid-twentieth century, the narrative follows Betty Carpenter, one of eight siblings born to a white mother and a Cherokee father.
-
8
The Final Revival of Opal & Nev
Also thought-provoking · history, narrative
Set in the early 1970s New York rock scene, this oral history follows the rise and fracturing of an unlikely musical duo.
-
9
The Vanishing Half
by Brit Bennett
Also inward-looking · history, narrative
In the small town of Mallard, Louisiana, the light-skinned Vignes twins, Desiree and Stella, grow up in a community that prizes fair complexions.
-
10
The Storm We Made
by Vanessa Chan
Also thought-provoking · history, narrative
In 1930s British Malaya, Cecily Alcantara works as a low-level clerk while feeling the sting of colonial hierarchy.
-
11
The Cellist of Sarajevo
Also inward-looking and thought-provoking · history, narrative
Set in the besieged city of Sarajevo, the narrative follows three civilians navigating a landscape of sniper fire and shellings.
-
12
Dominicana
by Angie Cruz
history, narrative
Ana Cancion is fifteen when she marries Juan Ruiz, a man twice her age, in the Dominican Republic in 1965, so that her family can eventually emigrate.
Get picks matched to your own reading on papr.
Get papr
