Books like

Books like The Nickel Boys

12 books with a reading profile close to The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead. Contemplative and thought-provoking; a moderate read.

1

Americanah

by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Also thought-provoking · history, narrative

Ifemelu and Obinze are young lovers in military-ruled Nigeria who depart the country for different hemispheres.
2

Pachinko

by Min Jin Lee

Also contemplative and thought-provoking · history, narrative

Sunja, the daughter of a crippled fisherman in colonial Korea, becomes pregnant by a married yakuza member.
3

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.
4

There Are Rivers in the Sky

by Elif Shafak

Also contemplative and thought-provoking · history, narrative

The narrative follows a single drop of water across centuries, linking three distinct lives shaped by the Tigris and Thames rivers.
5

In the Time of the Butterflies

by Julia Alvarez

Also thought-provoking · history, narrative

In 1960, three of the four Mirabal sisters were beaten to death on a road in the Dominican Republic because they had opposed the dictator Rafael Trujillo.
6

Matterhorn

by Karl Marlantes

Also thought-provoking · history, narrative

Karl Marlantes’ novel follows Second Lieutenant Mellas and Bravo Company during the Vietnam War in 1969.
7

Noticia de un secuestro

by Gabriel García Márquez

history, narrative

Gabriel García Márquez reconstructs the 1990 abductions of ten prominent Colombian citizens by the Extraditables, a group led by Pablo Escobar to pressure the government into banning extradition to the United States.
8

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.
9

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.
10

All the Light We Cannot See

by Anthony Doerr

Also contemplative and thought-provoking · history, narrative

Marie-Laure LeBlanc, a blind girl living in Paris, flees to Saint-Malo with her father to escape the Nazi occupation, carrying a precious and potentially cursed diamond from the Museum of Natural History.
11

The Cellist of Sarajevo

by Steven Galloway

Also thought-provoking · history, narrative

Set in the besieged city of Sarajevo, the narrative follows three civilians navigating a landscape of sniper fire and shellings.
12

Five Little Indians

by Michelle Good

Also thought-provoking · 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.

Get picks matched to your own reading on papr.

Get papr

Your library, beautifully understood.