Books like Death: The High Cost of Living
12 books with a reading profile close to Death: The High Cost of Living by Neil Gaiman. Inward-looking and contemplative; an easy read.
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1
When Women Were Dragons
narrative, literary
During the 1955 Mass Dragoning, hundreds of thousands of American women spontaneously transformed into dragons and took to the skies, leaving behind families and lives of forced domesticity.
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2
The Snow Child
by Eowyn Ivey
Also contemplative · narrative, literary
In 1920s Alaska, homesteaders Jack and Mabel struggle with the isolation of the frontier and the grief of their childless marriage.
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3
The Ocean at the End of the Lane
by Neil Gaiman
Also inward-looking and contemplative · narrative, literary
When a middle-aged man returns to his childhood home for a funeral, he wanders to the neighboring farmhouse where he met Lettie Hempstock decades earlier.
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4
The Deep
narrative, literary
Inspired by a song by the group clipping., this novella follows the wajinru, water-breathing descendants of pregnant African women thrown overboard during the Atlantic slave trade.
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5
Once Upon a River
narrative, literary
On a winter night at the Swan Inn along the Thames, a wounded stranger staggers through the door carrying the lifeless body of a small girl.
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6
The Water Dancer
narrative, literary
Hiram Walker is born into bondage on a Virginia plantation, the son of an enslaved woman and the white man who owns them both.
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7
The Magician's Elephant
Also contemplative · narrative, literary
In the cold city of Baltese, young Peter Augustus Duchene lives under the strict guardianship of an old soldier who claims Peter’s sister died at birth.
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8
The Spear Cuts Through Water
narrative, literary
In the Strangled Empire, three oppressive princes rule through terror and magical birthrights under their father, the Old Emperor.
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9
Swamplandia!
narrative, literary
Set in the sinking geography of the Florida Everglades, this novel follows the Bigtree family, a clan of alligator wrestlers struggling to maintain their failing theme park.
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10
Who Fears Death
narrative, literary
In a post-apocalyptic Sudan, the light-skinned Nuru people systematically oppress the dark-skinned Okeke.
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11
The Teller of Small Fortunes
by Julie Leong
narrative, literary
Tao is a young woman who works as a fortune-teller, reading small fortunes at markets, and who has left her past behind.
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12
Smoke and Mirrors: Short Fiction and Illusions
by Neil Gaiman
narrative, literary
In this collection, Neil Gaiman assembles dozens of stories and poems that distort familiar reality.
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