Books like

Books like The Children Act

12 books with a reading profile close to The Children Act by Ian McEwan. Deep, inward-looking and thought-provoking; a moderate read.

1

Women Talking

by Miriam Toews

Also deep and inward-looking · philosophy, narrative

Based on real events in the Manitoba Colony in Bolivia, this novel centers on eight Mennonite women meeting secretly in a hayloft.
2

The Dharma Bums

by Jack Kerouac

Also inward-looking · philosophy, narrative

Ray Smith, a fictionalized version of Kerouac, navigates the contrast between urban jazz parties and the solitude of the Sierra Nevada mountains.
3

Three Daughters of Eve

by Elif Shafak

Also thought-provoking · philosophy, narrative

Peri is an Istanbul housewife in her thirties, married with a child, who is at a dinner party when a mugger takes her bag and she chases him.
4

The Book of Form and Emptiness

by Ruth Ozeki

Also deep and inward-looking · philosophy, narrative

Following the sudden death of his father, fourteen-year-old Benny Oh begins to hear the voices of inanimate objects.
5

The Elegance of the Hedgehog

by Muriel Barbery

Also deep and inward-looking · philosophy, narrative

Set in a luxury Parisian apartment building, the story follows Renée Michel, a fifty-four-year-old concierge who hides her deep knowledge of Kant, Tolstoy, and art behind a facade of working-class dullness.
6

The Solitaire Mystery

by Jostein Gaarder

Also deep · philosophy, narrative

Hans Thomas travels with his father from Norway to Greece to find his long-lost mother.
7

Daytripper

by Fábio Moon

Also inward-looking and thought-provoking · philosophy, narrative

Brás de Oliva Domingos writes obituaries for a Brazilian newspaper while living in the shadow of his famous novelist father.
8

Snow

by Orhan Pamuk

Also deep and thought-provoking · philosophy, narrative

Ka, an exiled poet, returns to Turkey to investigate a series of suicides among young women in the border city of Kars.
9

Desert Solitaire

by Edward Abbey

Also deep · philosophy, narrative

Edward Abbey recounts his seasons as a seasonal ranger at Arches National Monument in the late 1950s.
10

The Zahir

by Paulo Coelho

Also inward-looking · philosophy, narrative

Esther, a war correspondent, is married to a celebrated novelist, the narrator, who is living comfortably in Paris.
11

The Memory Police

by Yōko Ogawa

Also deep and inward-looking · philosophy, narrative

On an unnamed island, objects disappear from public life and collective memory.
12

Pilgrim at Tinker Creek

by Annie Dillard

Also deep · philosophy, narrative

Annie Dillard uses her home in Virginia’s Roanoke Valley as an observatory to document the biological mechanics of the natural world.

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