Books like

Books like The Post-Birthday World

12 books with a reading profile close to The Post-Birthday World by Lionel Shriver. Inward-looking and thought-provoking; a moderate read.

  1. 1 Trespasses

    Trespasses

    by Louise Kennedy

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

    Set in 1970s Belfast during the Troubles, the narrative follows Cushla Lavery, a Catholic primary school teacher who divides her time between her classroom and her family’s pub.

  2. 2 The Paying Guests

    The Paying Guests

    by Sarah Waters

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

    Set in 1922 South London, the narrative centers on Frances Wray and her widowed mother, who are forced by financial ruin following the Great War to take in lodgers.

  3. 3 You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty

    You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty

    by Akwaeke Emezi

    Also inward-looking · romance, narrative

    Five years after the car accident that killed her husband, Feyi Adekola is finally re-entering the dating scene in Brooklyn.

  4. 4 Open Water

    Open Water

    by Caleb Azumah Nelson

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

    Set in South East London, the story follows an unnamed Black photographer and an unnamed Black dancer who meet at a pub and fall in love.

  5. 5 Exciting Times

    Exciting Times

    by Naoise Dolan

    Also inward-looking · romance, narrative

    Ava is a twenty-two-year-old Irish expatriate teaching English to wealthy children in Hong Kong.

  6. 6 Evenings and Weekends

    Evenings and Weekends

    by Oisín McKenna

    Also inward-looking · romance, narrative

    Set during a sweltering weekend in London, the narrative follows a group of interconnected friends navigating the precariousness of the modern city.

  7. 7 Travesuras de la niña mala

    Travesuras de la niña mala

    by Mario Vargas Llosa

    Also inward-looking · romance, narrative

    Ricardo, a Peruvian translator who lives in Paris, first falls for Lily, a Chilean girl in Lima in the 1950s.

  8. 8 The Paper Palace

    The Paper Palace

    by Miranda Cowley Heller

    Also inward-looking · romance, narrative

    Elle Bishop, a middle-aged woman, spends twenty-four hours at her family’s summer camp in Cape Cod, known as The Paper Palace.

  9. 9 In Memoriam

    In Memoriam

    by Alice Winn

    Also inward-looking · romance, narrative

    In 1914, Gaunt and Ellwood are students at Preshute College, an elite English boarding school where they hide their romantic feelings for one another behind a shared obsession with epic poetry.

  10. 10 The Miseducation of Cameron Post

    The Miseducation of Cameron Post

    by Emily M. Danforth

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

    After her parents die in a car accident, Cameron Post moves to rural Montana to live with her conservative aunt and grandmother.

  11. 11 Young Mungo

    Young Mungo

    by Douglas Stuart

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

    Set in the housing schemes of 1990s Glasgow, the story follows Mungo Hamilton, a Protestant teenager defined by his gentleness.

  12. 12 Like Water for Chocolate

    Like Water for Chocolate

    by Laura Esquivel

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

    Set against the backdrop of the Mexican Revolution, the narrative follows Tita de la Garza, the youngest daughter in a household governed by a strict family tradition that forbids her from marrying.

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