Books like The Bastard of Istanbul
12 books with a reading profile close to The Bastard of Istanbul by Elif Shafak. Thought-provoking; a moderate read.
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1
American Wife
Also thought-provoking · history, narrative
Alice Blackwell, a quiet, bookish girl from Wisconsin, becomes a librarian and a teacher, and later marries Charlie Blackwell, a wealthy Republican who becomes President of the United States.
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2
Girl at War
by Sara Nović
Also thought-provoking · history, narrative
Ten-year-old Ana Jurić lives a carefree life in Zagreb until the Yugoslav Civil War erupts in 1991.
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3
Betty
history, narrative
Set in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains during the mid-twentieth century, the narrative follows Betty Carpenter, one of eight siblings born to a white mother and a Cherokee father.
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4
The Final Revival of Opal & Nev
Also thought-provoking · history, narrative
Set in the early 1970s New York rock scene, this oral history follows the rise and fracturing of an unlikely musical duo.
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5
A Northern Light
Also thought-provoking · history, narrative
Set in 1906 in the Adirondack Mountains, the story follows Mattie Gokey, a farm girl torn between a university scholarship and her obligations to her widowed father and siblings.
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6
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.
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7
The Mad Women's Ball
by Victoria Mas
Also thought-provoking · history, narrative
Set in 1885 at the Salpêtrière asylum in Paris, the narrative follows Eugénie Cléry, a young woman committed to the institution by her father after she reveals her ability to speak with spirits.
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8
Yellow Wife
Also thought-provoking · history, narrative
Born into a life of relative privilege on a Virginia plantation, Pheby Delores Brown is promised her freedom at age eighteen.
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9
The Mercies
history, narrative
In 1617, a sudden storm kills every man in the remote Norwegian fishing village of Vardø.
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10
The Vanishing Half
by Brit Bennett
history, narrative
In the small town of Mallard, Louisiana, the light-skinned Vignes twins, Desiree and Stella, grow up in a community that prizes fair complexions.
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11
Girl in Hyacinth Blue
history, narrative
The narrative follows a single, fictional Vermeer painting backwards through time, beginning with its mid-century concealment by a man whose father looted it from a Jewish family during the Holocaust.
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12
The Buddha in the Attic
by Julie Otsuka
Also thought-provoking · history, narrative
Julie Otsuka tells the collective history of "picture brides" who traveled from Japan to San Francisco in the early 1900s.
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