Books like Second Place
12 books with a reading profile close to Second Place by Rachel Cusk. Deep, inward-looking and thought-provoking; a moderate read.
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1
Boy, Snow, Bird
Also deep and inward-looking · narrative, literary
In 1953, Boy Novak flees her abusive father in New York City and settles in Flax Hill, Massachusetts.
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2
The Topeka School
by Ben Lerner
Also deep and inward-looking · narrative, literary
Adam Gordon, a poet who first appeared in Ben Lerner's Leaving the Atocha Station, is now married to a psychologist, Jane, and the father of two daughters.
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3
Rejection
Also deep and inward-looking · narrative, literary
Tony Tulathimutte’s story collection centers on the psychological mechanics of social and sexual exclusion in the internet age.
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4
The Nix
by Nathan Hill
Also deep and inward-looking · narrative, literary
Samuel Andresen-Anderson, a disappointed English professor who is addicted to an online video game, sees his mother Faye on the news after decades of absence: she has been arrested for throwing gravel at a right-wing pr…
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5
Asymmetry
Also deep and thought-provoking · narrative, literary
Lisa Halliday's debut novel is in two parts that seem unrelated.
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6
Death Valley
Also inward-looking and thought-provoking · narrative, literary
An unnamed narrator flees a Los Angeles hotel and her dying father’s bedside to seek isolation in the high desert.
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7
A Visit from the Goon Squad
Also deep and thought-provoking · narrative, literary
The narrative centers on Bennie Salazar, a middle-aged record executive, and his assistant Sasha, tracing their lives across several decades.
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8
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
by Junot Díaz
Also deep and inward-looking · narrative, literary
Oscar de León is an overweight Dominican nerd living in New Jersey who obsesses over science fiction, fantasy novels, and falling in love.
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9
Everything is Illuminated
Also inward-looking and thought-provoking · narrative, literary
A young American named Jonathan Safran Foer travels to post-Soviet Ukraine to locate Augustine, a woman who saved his grandfather from the Nazis.
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10
There There
by Tommy Orange
Also deep and thought-provoking · narrative, literary
Tommy Orange follows twelve characters from Native communities as they converge at the Big Oakland Powwow in California.
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11
Intimacies
Also deep and inward-looking · narrative, literary
An unnamed female interpreter moves from New York to The Hague to work at the International Criminal Court.
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12
Bridge of Clay
by Markus Zusak
Also deep and inward-looking · narrative, literary
Matthew Dunbar, the eldest of five brothers, tells how the boys were raised alone in a Sydney house after their mother's death and their father's disappearance.
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