Books like

Books like The Thing Around Your Neck

12 books with a reading profile close to The Thing Around Your Neck by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Inward-looking, contemplative and thought-provoking; a moderate read.

1

Nocturns

by Kazuo Ishiguro, Albert Torrescasana Flotats

Also inward-looking and contemplative · narrative, literary

Nocturns is a collection of five interconnected short stories centered on musicians and the professional anxieties of the creative life.
2

Dream Count

by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Also inward-looking and contemplative · narrative, literary

The novel centers on Chiamaka, a Nigerian travel writer living in America during the pandemic, as she examines the intersections of her past romances and her current desires.
3

The little disturbances of man

by Grace Paley

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

Set in the cramped apartments and bustling streets of mid-century New York City, these short stories focus on the domestic lives of Jewish women navigating family friction and romantic disappointment.
4

Whereabouts

by Jhumpa Lahiri

Also inward-looking and contemplative · narrative, literary

An unnamed woman in her forties moves through the streets, piazzas, and shops of an Italian city.
5

Behind the Scenes at the Museum

by Kate Atkinson

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

Ruby Lennox begins her story at the moment of her conception in 1951 in York, and narrates her family's history through her own eyes.
6

Dancing girls and other stories

by Margaret Atwood

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

This debut short fiction collection tracks the displacement of Canadian urbanites and expatriates navigating the social shifts of the 1970s.
7

Another Brooklyn

by Jacqueline Woodson

Also inward-looking and contemplative · narrative, literary

In the 1970s, August moves from Tennessee to Bushwick, Brooklyn, after the death of her mother.
8

Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant

by Anne Tyler

Also inward-looking and contemplative · narrative, literary

Pearl Tull is abandoned by her husband Beck and raises three children, Cody, Ezra and Jenny, in Baltimore on her own, with a mix of strictness and bitterness.
9

Wolf in White Van

by John Darnielle

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

Sean Phillips is a man living with a severe facial disfigurement after a gunshot injury in his teens, and he spends his days alone in Southern California.
10

The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven

by Sherman Alexie

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

Sherman Alexie's linked stories follow Native American characters on and around the Spokane Indian Reservation in Washington State.
11

God Help the Child

by Toni Morrison

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

Lula Ann Bridewell, who calls herself Bride, is a young woman with very dark skin, born to light-skinned parents who rejected her as a baby.
12

Unaccustomed Earth

by Jhumpa Lahiri

Also inward-looking and contemplative · narrative, literary

In this collection of short stories, Jhumpa Lahiri focuses on the private lives of Bengali immigrant families living in New England suburbs and London.

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