Books like

Books like The Kite Runner

12 books with a reading profile close to The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini. Inward-looking; a moderate read.

  1. 1 A Thousand Splendid Suns

    A Thousand Splendid Suns

    by Khaled Hosseini

    Also inward-looking · history, narrative

    Set against the backdrop of Afghanistan’s volatile history from the 1960s to the post-9/11 era, the narrative follows Mariam and Laila, two women from different generations and social classes forced into marriage with t…

  2. 2 The Vanishing Half

    The Vanishing Half

    by Brit Bennett

    Also inward-looking · 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.

  3. 3 The Cellist of Sarajevo

    The Cellist of Sarajevo

    by Steven Galloway

    Also inward-looking · history, narrative

    Set in the besieged city of Sarajevo, the narrative follows three civilians navigating a landscape of sniper fire and shellings.

  4. 4 Ve Dağlar Yankılandı

    Ve Dağlar Yankılandı

    by Khaled Hosseini

    Also inward-looking · history, narrative

    The narrative begins in 1952 Afghanistan when a father sells his young daughter, Pari, to a wealthy, childless couple in Kabul.

  5. 5 Five Little Indians

    Five Little Indians

    by Michelle Good

    Also inward-looking · history, narrative

    Five children, Kenny, Clara, Maisie, Lucy and Howie, are taken from their families as small children and sent to a residential school in British Columbia.

  6. 6 The Mercies

    The Mercies

    by Kiran Millwood Hargrave

    Also inward-looking · history, narrative

    In 1617, a sudden storm kills every man in the remote Norwegian fishing village of Vardø.

  7. 7 The Red Tent

    The Red Tent

    by Anita Diamant

    Also inward-looking · history, narrative

    Dinah, the only daughter of the biblical patriarch Jacob, narrates her life against the backdrop of ancient Mesopotamia and Canaan.

  8. 8 Memphis

    Memphis

    by Tara M. Stringfellow

    Also inward-looking · history, narrative

    Spanning three generations of a Black family in Memphis, Tennessee, this novel centers on the women of one family, who must handle poverty, domestic violence and racism while keeping alive a sense of faith and creativit…

  9. 9 Yellow Wife

    Yellow Wife

    by Sadeqa Johnson

    Also inward-looking · history, narrative

    Born into a life of relative privilege on a Virginia plantation, Pheby Delores Brown is promised her freedom at age eighteen.

  10. 10 American Wife

    American Wife

    by Curtis Sittenfeld

    Also inward-looking · 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.

  11. 11 Girl at War

    Girl at War

    by Sara Nović

    Also inward-looking · history, narrative

    Ten-year-old Ana Jurić lives a carefree life in Zagreb until the Yugoslav Civil War erupts in 1991.

  12. 12 The Mad Women's Ball

    The Mad Women's Ball

    by Victoria Mas

    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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