Books like The Promise
12 books with a reading profile close to The Promise by Damon Galgut. Deep, inward-looking, contemplative, open-ended and thought-provoking; a moderate read.
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1
10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World
by Elif Shafak
Also deep and inward-looking · narrative, literary
Tequila Leila, a sex worker in Istanbul, has been murdered and dumped in a trash bin.
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2
Jesus’ Son
Also deep and inward-looking · narrative, literary
Eleven linked stories follow a drifting narrator through the drug-addled margins of the American Midwest and Pacific Northwest in the 1970s.
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3
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
by Junot Díaz
Also deep and inward-looking · narrative, literary
Oscar de León is an overweight Dominican nerd living in New Jersey who obsesses over science fiction, fantasy novels, and falling in love.
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4
The Nix
by Nathan Hill
Also deep and inward-looking · narrative, literary
Samuel Andresen-Anderson, a disappointed English professor who is addicted to an online video game, sees his mother Faye on the news after decades of absence: she has been arrested for throwing gravel at a right-wing pr…
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5
The Emperor of Gladness
by Ocean Vuong
Also deep and inward-looking · narrative, literary
In this debut for young readers, the narrative combines structured verse and prose to follow a young protagonist navigating the quiet landscapes of suburban New England.
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6
No One Is Talking About This
Also deep and inward-looking · narrative, literary
The first half of the narrative follows a woman who has achieved minor celebrity status within a digital landscape called the portal.
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7
Everything is Illuminated
Also inward-looking and contemplative · narrative, literary
A young American named Jonathan Safran Foer travels to post-Soviet Ukraine to locate Augustine, a woman who saved his grandfather from the Nazis.
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8
There There
by Tommy Orange
Also deep and thought-provoking · narrative, literary
Tommy Orange follows twelve characters from Native communities as they converge at the Big Oakland Powwow in California.
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9
A Visit from the Goon Squad
Also deep and thought-provoking · narrative, literary
The narrative centers on Bennie Salazar, a middle-aged record executive, and his assistant Sasha, tracing their lives across several decades.
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10
On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous
by Ocean Vuong
Also deep and inward-looking · narrative, literary
Structured as a letter from a son to his illiterate mother, the story follows Little Dog, a Vietnamese American man coming of age in Hartford, Connecticut.
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11
The Topeka School
by Ben Lerner
Also deep and inward-looking · narrative, literary
Adam Gordon, a poet who first appeared in Ben Lerner's Leaving the Atocha Station, is now married to a psychologist, Jane, and the father of two daughters.
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12
Bridge of Clay
by Markus Zusak
Also deep and inward-looking · narrative, literary
Matthew Dunbar, the eldest of five brothers, tells how the boys were raised alone in a Sydney house after their mother's death and their father's disappearance.
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