Books like

Books like Chronicle of a Blood Merchant

12 books with a reading profile close to Chronicle of a Blood Merchant by Yu Hua. Inward-looking, contemplative and thought-provoking; a moderate read.

1

The Color Purple

by Alice Walker

Also inward-looking and contemplative · narrative, classic literature

Set in the rural American South during the early twentieth century, this epistolary novel follows Celie, a young Black woman who begins writing letters to God after suffering years of physical and sexual abuse from her…
2

My Ántonia

by Willa Cather

Also contemplative and thought-provoking · narrative, classic literature

Jim Burden moves to the Nebraska frontier to live with his grandparents, where he befriends Ántonia Shimerda, the eldest daughter of Bohemian immigrants.
3

Ethan Frome

by Edith Wharton

Also inward-looking and contemplative · narrative, classic literature

Set in the frozen landscape of Starkfield, Massachusetts, the story follows Ethan Frome, a farmer trapped in a hollow marriage to his sickly, suspicious wife, Zeena.
4

Bless Me, Ultima

by Rudolfo Anaya

Also contemplative and thought-provoking · narrative, classic literature

Six-year-old Antonio Márez grows up in a New Mexico village in the 1940s, in a household divided between his father's wandering family and his mother's farming one.
5

The Enchanted April

by Elizabeth von Arnim

Also contemplative and thought-provoking · narrative, classic literature

Living in the persistent grey of 1920s London, Lotty Wilkins and Rose Arbuthnot answer a classified advertisement for a month-long rental at an Italian castle.
6

Adam Bede

by George Eliot, Robert Lewis Weed

Also contemplative and thought-provoking · narrative, classic literature

Set in the rural community of Hayslope at the end of the eighteenth century, the narrative follows the upright carpenter Adam Bede and his unrequited love for the beautiful but shallow Hetty Sorrel.
7

Shirley

by Charlotte Brontë

Also contemplative and thought-provoking · narrative, classic literature

Set in Yorkshire during the Napoleonic Wars, the narrative centers on the industrial unrest caused by the Orders in Council and the introduction of textile machinery.
8

Silver Sparrow

by Tayari Jones

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

Dana Yarboro knows her father, James Witherspoon, has another family.
9

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

by Betty Smith

Also inward-looking and contemplative · narrative, classic literature

Francie Nolan grows up in the Williamsburg slums of Brooklyn during the first two decades of the twentieth century.
10

Silas Marner

by George Eliot, John O'Connor

Also inward-looking and contemplative · 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.
11

Crossing to Safety

by Wallace Stegner

Also inward-looking and contemplative · narrative, classic literature

Wallace Stegner’s final novel tracks the lifelong bond between two couples, Larry and Sally McKelvey and Charity and Sid Lang, beginning in 1937 Madison, Wisconsin.
12

A Christmas Carol and Other Christmas Writings

by Charles Dickens

Also contemplative and thought-provoking · narrative, classic literature

This collection centers on Ebenezer Scrooge, a parsimonious financier in Victorian London who views charity as a waste of resources.

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