Books like The Wall
12 books with a reading profile close to The Wall by Marlen Haushofer. Deep, inward-looking, contemplative and thought-provoking; a moderate read.
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1
The Guest Cat
Also deep and inward-looking · philosophy, narrative
A married couple in a Tokyo suburb, both freelance writers with no children, live in a small rented cottage.
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2
The Memory Police
by Yōko Ogawa
Also deep and inward-looking · philosophy, narrative
On an unnamed island, objects disappear from public life and collective memory.
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3
The White Book
by Han Kang
Also deep and inward-looking · philosophy, narrative
The White Book is a collection of sixty-five short prose pieces centered on the color white.
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4
Flights
Also deep and contemplative · philosophy, narrative
Olga Tokarczuk’s work is a constellation of short stories, historical anecdotes, and anatomical observations centered on the physical reality of the human body in motion.
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5
Orbital
Also deep and contemplative · philosophy, narrative
Set over twenty-four hours aboard the International Space Station, the narrative follows six astronauts—Roman, Pietro, Shaun, Nell, Chie, and Anton—as they complete sixteen orbits around Earth.
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6
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle
Also deep and inward-looking · philosophy, narrative
Toru Okada is an unemployed man in suburban Tokyo whose mundane life fractures after his cat vanishes and his wife, Kumiko, leaves him without explanation.
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7
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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8
The Promise
by Damon Galgut
Also deep and inward-looking · narrative, literary
The narrative follows the Swart family, white farmers living near Pretoria, across four funerals spanning four decades of South African history.
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9
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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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 Book of Form and Emptiness
by Ruth Ozeki
Also deep and inward-looking · philosophy, narrative
Following the sudden death of his father, fourteen-year-old Benny Oh begins to hear the voices of inanimate objects.
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12
Women Talking
by Miriam Toews
Also deep and inward-looking · philosophy, narrative
Based on real events in the Manitoba Colony in Bolivia, this novel centers on eight Mennonite women meeting secretly in a hayloft.
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