Books like

Books like Bastard Out of Carolina

12 books with a reading profile close to Bastard Out of Carolina by Dorothy Allison. Deep, inward-looking and thought-provoking; a moderate read.

1

Home

by Toni Morrison

Also deep and inward-looking · narrative, classic literature

Frank Money, a Black Korean War veteran, wakes up in a psychiatric ward in Seattle in the 1950s, haunted by what he saw in battle.
2

A Thousand Acres

by Jane Smiley

Also deep and inward-looking · narrative, classic literature

In 1979, aging Iowa farmer Larry Cook decides to divide his namesake farm among his three daughters: Ginny, Rose, and Tyra.
3

Martin Eden

by Jack London

Also deep and inward-looking · narrative, classic literature

Martin Eden, a coarse and uneducated sailor, decides to overhaul his entire identity after meeting Ruth Morse, a woman from a refined bourgeois family.
4

Black Swan Green

by David Mitchell

Also deep and inward-looking · narrative, classic literature

Thirteen-year-old Jason Taylor navigates thirteen months of adolescence in a claustrophobic Worcestershire village during 1982.
5

Silas Marner

by George Eliot, John O'Connor

Also inward-looking and thought-provoking · narrative, classic literature

Silas Marner is a reclusive weaver living in the village of Raveloe after being falsely accused of theft by his religious community in Lantern Yard.
6

Their Eyes Were Watching God

by Zora Neale Hurston

Also deep and inward-looking · narrative, classic literature

Janie Crawford returns to Eatonville, Florida, and recounts her life to her friend Pheoby Watson.
7

Winesburg, Ohio

by Sherwood Anderson

Also deep and inward-looking · narrative, classic literature

Set in a small Midwestern town at the turn of the century, this collection of interconnected stories centers on George Willard, a young reporter for the local newspaper.
8

A Prayer for Owen Meany

by John Irving

Also deep and inward-looking · narrative, classic literature

John Wheelwright narrates the life of his best friend, Owen Meany, a boy with a high-pitched voice who accidentally kills John’s mother with a foul ball during a Little League game in 1953.
9

A Streetcar Named Desire

by Tennessee Williams

Also deep and inward-looking · narrative, classic literature

Blanche DuBois, a displaced schoolteacher with a fragile mental state, arrives at the cramped New Orleans apartment of her sister, Stella, and brother-in-law, Stanley Kowalski.
10

Tess of the D’Urbervilles

by Thomas Hardy, Margaret R. Higonnet

Also deep and inward-looking · narrative, classic literature

Tess Durbeyfield, a young woman living in the rural English countryside, discovers her family descends from the aristocratic d’Urberville line.
11

Breath, Eyes, Memory

by Edwidge Danticat

Also inward-looking and thought-provoking · narrative, classic literature

Sophie Caco is raised by her aunt Atie in a Haitian village until, at twelve, she is sent to New York to join the mother she barely knows.
12

James

by Percival Everett

Also deep and inward-looking · narrative, classic literature

Percival Everett’s novel reimagines Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn from the perspective of the enslaved Jim.

Get picks matched to your own reading on papr.

Get papr

Your library, beautifully understood.