Books like

Books like Saving Francesca

12 books with a reading profile close to Saving Francesca by Melina Marchetta. Inward-looking and clear-cut; an easy read.

1

The Authenticity Project

by Clare Pooley

Also inward-looking and clear-cut · narrative, literary

Julian Jessop is an elderly artist and widower in London, who is so lonely that he writes the truth about his life in a green notebook and leaves it in his local cafe.
2

The Reading List

by Sara Nisha Adams

Also inward-looking and clear-cut · narrative, literary

Set in Wembley, London, the story follows Mukesh, a lonely widower struggling to connect with his bookworm granddaughter, and Aleisha, a distressed teenager working a summer job at the local library.
3

Far from the Tree

by Robin Benway

Also inward-looking and clear-cut · narrative, literary

Grace, an only child who recently placed her own baby for adoption, discovers she is a middle child.
4

Pictures of Hollis Woods

by Patricia Reilly Giff

Also inward-looking and clear-cut · narrative, literary

Hollis Woods is a twelve-year-old girl who has been moved from one foster home to another and has run away from many.
5

Kira-Kira

by Cynthia Kadohata

Also inward-looking and clear-cut · narrative, literary

Katie Takeshima is a Japanese-American girl who grows up in Georgia in the 1950s, and her older sister Lynn teaches her the word "kira-kira," meaning glittering, as a way of seeing the world.
6

What You Are Looking for Is in the Library

by Michiko Aoyama

Also inward-looking · narrative, literary

The narrative centers on five Tokyo residents at different life crossroads, including a restless retail clerk and a retired salaryman.
7

The One-in-a-Million Boy

by Monica Wood

Also inward-looking and clear-cut · narrative, literary

Ona Vitkus is a 104-year-old woman who agrees to let eleven-year-old Quentin, a Boy Scout looking for a service project, visit her on Saturdays to help with chores and chat.
8

Orbiting Jupiter

by Gary D. Schmidt

Also inward-looking · narrative, literary

Twelve-year-old Joseph is sent to live with a foster family after his parents are unable to care for him due to his mother's mental illness.
9

Rules

by Cynthia Lord

Also inward-looking and clear-cut · narrative, literary

Twelve-year-old Catherine struggles to balance her own identity with the demands of her family life in Maine.
10

Secret Daughter

by Shilpi Somaya Gowda

Also inward-looking · narrative, literary

In a village in India, a young mother named Kavita gives birth to a girl and, knowing that her husband will not accept a daughter, secretly gives the baby away to an orphanage in Mumbai.
11

Eliza and Her Monsters

by Francesca Zappia

Also inward-looking · narrative, literary

Eliza Mirk is a shy high school senior who secretly creates Monstrous Sea, a global webcomic phenomenon.
12

A Mango-Shaped Space

by Wendy Mass

Also inward-looking and clear-cut · narrative, literary

Mia Winchell has synesthesia: she sees sounds as colours and letters carry colours too.

Get picks matched to your own reading on papr.

Get papr

Your library, beautifully understood.