Books like

Books like In the Time of the Butterflies

12 books with a reading profile close to In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez. Thought-provoking; a moderate read.

1

The Covenant of Water

by Abraham Verghese

Also thought-provoking · history, narrative

Spanning seven decades in Kerala, South India, the narrative follows three generations of a family afflicted by a peculiar medical condition known as the Condition.
2

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.
3

There Are Rivers in the Sky

by Elif Shafak

Also thought-provoking · history, narrative

The narrative follows a single drop of water across centuries, linking three distinct lives shaped by the Tigris and Thames rivers.
4

All the Light We Cannot See

by Anthony Doerr

Also thought-provoking · history, narrative

Marie-Laure LeBlanc, a blind girl living in Paris, flees to Saint-Malo with her father to escape the Nazi occupation, carrying a precious and potentially cursed diamond from the Museum of Natural History.
5

Americanah

by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Also thought-provoking · history, narrative

Ifemelu and Obinze are young lovers in military-ruled Nigeria who depart the country for different hemispheres.
6

Wandering Stars

by Tommy Orange

Also thought-provoking · history, narrative

Wandering Stars traces a lineage of a Cheyenne family from the 1864 Sand Creek Massacre and the forced assimilation at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School to the present day.
7

The Night Watch

by Sarah Waters

Also thought-provoking · history, narrative

Set in London during and immediately after the Second World War, the narrative moves backward in time from 1947 to 1941.
8

Cutting for Stone

by Abraham Verghese

Also thought-provoking · history, narrative

The story follows twin brothers Marion and Shiva Stone, born from a clandestine union between an Indian nun and a British surgeon in an Addis Ababa mission hospital.
9

How Much of These Hills Is Gold

by C Pam Zhang

Also thought-provoking · history, narrative

Set against the declining years of the American Gold Rush, the novel follows Lucy and Sam, two orphaned siblings of Chinese descent, as they carry their father’s decomposing body across a harsh western landscape.
10

Memphis

by Tara M. Stringfellow

history, narrative

Spanning three generations of a Black family in Memphis, Tennessee, this novel centers on the women of one family, who must handle poverty, domestic violence and racism while keeping alive a sense of faith and creativit…
11

Noticia de un secuestro

by Gabriel García Márquez

history, narrative

Gabriel García Márquez reconstructs the 1990 abductions of ten prominent Colombian citizens by the Extraditables, a group led by Pablo Escobar to pressure the government into banning extradition to the United States.
12

Matterhorn

by Karl Marlantes

Also thought-provoking · history, narrative

Karl Marlantes’ novel follows Second Lieutenant Mellas and Bravo Company during the Vietnam War in 1969.

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