Books like The Years
12 books with a reading profile close to The Years by Annie Ernaux. Deep, inward-looking, contemplative and open-ended; a moderate read.
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1
Night Sky with Exit Wounds
by Ocean Vuong
Also deep and inward-looking · memoir, literary
Ocean Vuong’s debut poetry collection centers on the inheritance of the Vietnam War and its displacement of family lineages.
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2
The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts
Also deep and inward-looking · memoir, literary
Maxine Hong Kingston weaves together her upbringing in mid-century California with the ancestral folklore of her immigrant parents.
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3
The Drowned and the Saved
by Primo Levi
Also deep and inward-looking · history, memoir
Primo Levi uses his final work to analyze the complex social hierarchy and psychological erosion within the Nazi concentration camps.
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4
Bluets
Also deep and inward-looking · memoir, literary
Maggie Nelson constructs this book as a series of 240 numbered prose poems centered on her obsession with the color blue.
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5
In the Dream House
Also deep and inward-looking · memoir, literary
In this memoir, Carmen Maria Machado documents her experience in a psychologically and physically abusive same-sex relationship.
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6
The Things They Carried
by Tim O'Brien
Also deep and inward-looking · history, memoir
Tim O’Brien’s narrative follows the Alpha Company during the Vietnam War, beginning with a literal inventory of the equipment and personal mementos soldiers lug through the jungle.
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7
The Argonauts
Also deep and inward-looking · memoir, literary
The Argonauts documents the evolving relationship between Maggie Nelson and the artist Harry Dodge, focusing on their domestic life during Dodge’s gender transition and Nelson’s pregnancy.
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8
Are You My Mother?: A Comic Drama
Also deep and inward-looking · memoir, literary
Alison Bechdel follows her previous memoir about her father with this investigation into her relationship with her mother, Helen.
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9
The Diary of Frida Kahlo: An Intimate Self-Portrait
by Frida Kahlo
Also inward-looking and contemplative · memoir, literary
This volume reproduces the private journal kept by Frida Kahlo during the final decade of her life, from 1944 to 1954.
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10
The Maniac
Also deep and inward-looking · history, literary
The Maniac focuses on the intellectual evolution of John von Neumann, mapping his contributions to quantum mechanics, game theory, and the architecture of modern computing.
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11
The Ministry of Utmost Happiness
Also deep and contemplative · history, literary
The narrative centers on Anjum, a hijra who establishes a guesthouse called the Jannat Guest House within a Delhi cemetery, providing a sanctuary for society’s outcasts.
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12
On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous
by Ocean Vuong
Also deep and inward-looking · literary, experimental
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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