Books like The Wren, the Wren
12 books with a reading profile close to The Wren, the Wren by Anne Enright. Deep, inward-looking, contemplative and thought-provoking; a moderate read.
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1
Swing Time
by Zadie Smith
Also deep and inward-looking · narrative, literary
Two brown girls in a London council estate meet at a dance class in the 1980s.
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2
The Gathering
by Anne Enright
Also deep and inward-looking · narrative, literary
Veronica Hegarty is a middle-aged Dublin mother of two who attends the wake of her brother Liam, who drowned himself in the sea at Brighton.
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3
Unaccustomed Earth
Also deep and inward-looking · 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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4
Idaho
Also deep and inward-looking · narrative, literary
On a hot August afternoon in North Idaho, Jenny Mitchell kills her younger daughter, May, with a hatchet while her husband, Wade, and older daughter, June, are nearby.
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5
BRAWLER
by Lauren Groff
Also deep and inward-looking · narrative, literary
This short story collection tracks people navigating the friction between their internal desires and the physical environments of modern Florida and historical Europe.
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6
Hell of a Book
by Jason Mott
Also deep and inward-looking · narrative, literary
A Black writer, whose name we never learn, is on a book tour for his novel, and the story follows him as he travels and tries to carry on while his mind seems to drift.
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7
Wolf in White Van
Also deep and inward-looking · 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.
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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.
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9
The Thing Around Your Neck
Also inward-looking and contemplative · narrative, literary
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s 2009 collection consists of twelve stories documenting the experiences of Nigerians navigating life in their home country and as immigrants in the United States.
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10
Whereabouts
Also inward-looking and contemplative · narrative, literary
An unnamed woman in her forties moves through the streets, piazzas, and shops of an Italian city.
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11
The Sentence
Also deep and inward-looking · narrative, literary
Tookie, an Ojibwe woman who survived an unusual incarceration, works at a small independent bookstore in Minneapolis.
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12
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.
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