Books like

Books like The Color Purple

12 books with a reading profile close to The Color Purple by Alice Walker. Deep, inward-looking, contemplative and thought-provoking; a moderate read.

1

To Live

by Yu Hua

Also deep and inward-looking · narrative, literary

Fugui, the narrator, is a spoiled son from a rich family in a Chinese village who loses his family's land by gambling.
2

Crossing to Safety

by Wallace Stegner

Also inward-looking and contemplative · narrative, literary

Wallace Stegner’s final novel tracks the lifelong bond between two couples, Larry and Sally McKelvey and Charity and Sid Lang, beginning in 1937 Madison, Wisconsin.
3

Out Stealing Horses

by Per Petterson

Also deep and inward-looking · narrative, literary

Trond Sander, a sixty-seven-year-old man, has moved to a remote cabin in eastern Norway to live alone with his dog.
4

The Namesake

by Jhumpa Lahiri

Also inward-looking and contemplative · narrative, literary

The narrative follows the Ganguli family, beginning with Ashoke and Ashima’s arranged marriage and subsequent relocation from Calcutta to Cambridge, Massachusetts.
5

Silas Marner

by George Eliot, John O'Connor

Also inward-looking and contemplative · narrative, literary

Silas Marner is a reclusive weaver living in the village of Raveloe after being falsely accused of theft by his religious community in Lantern Yard.
6

Breath, Eyes, Memory

by Edwidge Danticat

Also inward-looking and contemplative · narrative, literary

Sophie Caco is raised by her aunt Atie in a Haitian village until, at twelve, she is sent to New York to join the mother she barely knows.
7

Stone Butch Blues

by Leslie Feinberg

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

Jess Goldberg grows up in the 1940s and 1950s in Buffalo, New York, a working-class child who does not fit gender expectations.
8

Their Eyes Were Watching God

by Zora Neale Hurston

Also deep and inward-looking · narrative, literary

Janie Crawford returns to Eatonville, Florida, and recounts her life to her friend Pheoby Watson.
9

Ethan Frome

by Edith Wharton

Also inward-looking and contemplative · narrative, literary

Set in the frozen landscape of Starkfield, Massachusetts, the story follows Ethan Frome, a farmer trapped in a hollow marriage to his sickly, suspicious wife, Zeena.
10

Black Swan Green

by David Mitchell

Also deep and inward-looking · narrative, literary

Thirteen-year-old Jason Taylor navigates thirteen months of adolescence in a claustrophobic Worcestershire village during 1982.
11

Winesburg, Ohio

by Sherwood Anderson

Also deep and inward-looking · narrative, literary

Set in a small Midwestern town at the turn of the century, this collection of interconnected stories centers on George Willard, a young reporter for the local newspaper.
12

Martin Eden

by Jack London

Also deep and inward-looking · narrative, literary

Martin Eden, a coarse and uneducated sailor, decides to overhaul his entire identity after meeting Ruth Morse, a woman from a refined bourgeois family.

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