Books like When We Were Orphans
12 books with a reading profile close to When We Were Orphans by Kazuo Ishiguro. Deep, inward-looking, contemplative, open-ended and thought-provoking; a moderate read.
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1
Broken Harbor
Also inward-looking and open-ended · narrative, mystery
Detective Mick "Scorcher" Kennedy arrives at Brianstown, a half-finished "ghost estate" stalled by the Irish financial collapse.
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2
In the Woods
by Tana French
Also inward-looking and open-ended · narrative, mystery
Dublin detective Rob Ryan investigates the murder of a twelve-year-old girl found at an archaeological site in the woods of Knocknaree.
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3
The Secret History
by Donna Tartt
Also deep and inward-looking · narrative, mystery
Under the influence of a charismatic classics professor, Richard Papen joins an elite circle of five students at Hampden College dedicated to Greek antiquity.
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4
Elizabeth Is Missing
by Emma Healey
Also inward-looking and thought-provoking · narrative, mystery
Maud Horsham is an eighty-year-old woman living with worsening dementia.
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5
Everything I never told you
by Celeste Ng
Also inward-looking and thought-provoking · narrative, mystery
The story begins in 1970s Ohio with the discovery of Lydia Lee’s body in a local lake.
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6
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
by Mark Haddon
Also inward-looking and contemplative · narrative, mystery
Fifteen-year-old Christopher Boone discovers his neighbor’s poodle, Wellington, killed with a garden fork.
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7
Alias Grace
Also deep and inward-looking · mystery, psychology
In 1843, sixteen-year-old servant Grace Marks is convicted of the murders of her employer, Thomas Kinnear, and his housekeeper, Nancy Montgomery.
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8
Quan érem orfes
by Kazuo Ishiguro, Xavier Pàmies Giménez
Also inward-looking and contemplative · narrative, psychology
In the English translation by Xavier Pàmies Giménez, Christopher Banks is a celebrated London detective during the 1930s who remains fixated on the disappearance of his parents in Shanghai decades earlier.
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9
Nothing Can Hurt You
Also inward-looking · narrative, mystery
In 1997, college student Sara Morgan is murdered by her boyfriend, Blake Campbell, who escapes a prison sentence through a successful temporary insanity plea.
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10
Hot Milk
by Deborah Levy
Also deep and inward-looking · narrative, psychology
Sofia Papastergiadis, a frustrated doctoral student, travels with her mother, Rose, to a private medical clinic in Almería, Spain.
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11
Life Before Man
Also deep and inward-looking · narrative, psychology
Set in Toronto during the late 1970s, the narrative centers on a stagnant love triangle between Elizabeth, her husband Nate, and his lover Lesje.
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12
Fates and Furies
by Lauren Groff
Also deep and inward-looking · narrative, psychology
The novel documents the twenty-four-year marriage of Lotto and Mathilde Satterwhite, beginning with their impulsive college graduation wedding and following their ascent into the New York elite.
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