Books like

Books like Brida

12 books with a reading profile close to Brida by Paulo Coelho. Inward-looking; an easy read.

1

The Witch of Portobello

by Paulo Coelho

Also inward-looking · philosophy, narrative

Athena is a woman born in Romania to a Roma mother, adopted as a baby by a Lebanese couple, and raised partly in Beirut and later in London.
2

Swimming in the Dark

by Tomasz Jedrowski

Also inward-looking · romance, narrative

Set in early 1980s Poland during the decline of the communist regime, the story follows Ludwik Glowacki, a university student who falls in love with the charismatic Janusz at an agricultural summer camp.
3

Sunburn

by Chloe Michelle Howarth

Also inward-looking · romance, narrative

Set in the early 1990s in the rural Irish village of Crosshaven, this novel follows Lucy, a teenager navigating the oppressive social expectations of a small Catholic community.
4

The Zahir

by Paulo Coelho

Also inward-looking · philosophy, narrative

Esther, a war correspondent, is married to a celebrated novelist, the narrator, who is living comfortably in Paris.
5

The Echo of Old Books

by Barbara Davis

romance, narrative

Rare book dealer Ashlyn Greer possesses a psychometric gift that allows her to feel the emotional echoes of previous owners through their physical copies.
6

Big Swiss

by Jen Beagin

Also inward-looking · romance, narrative

Greta lives in a drafty, unheated farmhouse in Hudson, New York, where she works as a transcriptionist for a sex therapist.
7

Orange: The Complete Collection, Volume 1

by Ichigo Takano

Also inward-looking · romance, narrative

Sixteen-year-old Naho Takamiya receives a letter sent from her own future self, dated ten years ahead.
8

Evenings and Weekends

by Oisín McKenna

Also inward-looking · romance, narrative

Set during a sweltering weekend in London, the narrative follows a group of interconnected friends navigating the precariousness of the modern city.
9

All the Ugly and Wonderful Things

by Bryn Greenwood

Also inward-looking · romance, narrative

Wavy Quinn is the daughter of a meth dealer growing up in a chaotic, neglectful household in rural Kansas.
10

The Forty Rules of Love

by Elif Shafak

Also inward-looking · romance, philosophy

Ella, a lonely housewife, finds herself drawn into the story of Rumi and Shams, two spiritual souls whose meeting profoundly transformed their lives and the world around them.
11

My Policeman

by Bethan Roberts

Also inward-looking · romance, narrative

Brighton in the 1950s: Tom, a young policeman, courts and marries Marion, a schoolteacher, while also carrying on a secret relationship with Patrick, a museum curator, at a time when homosexuality is a crime.
12

The Paper Palace

by Miranda Cowley Heller

Also inward-looking · romance, narrative

Elle Bishop, a middle-aged woman, spends twenty-four hours at her family’s summer camp in Cape Cod, known as The Paper Palace.

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