Books like

Books like Whereabouts

12 books with a reading profile close to Whereabouts by Jhumpa Lahiri. Inward-looking, contemplative, open-ended and thought-provoking; a moderate read.

1

The Thing Around Your Neck

by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

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.
2

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.
3

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.
4

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.
5

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.
6

BRAWLER

by Lauren Groff

Also inward-looking and open-ended · 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.
7

Idaho

by Emily Ruskovich

Also inward-looking and contemplative · 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.
8

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.
9

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.
10

Nocturnes: Five Stories of Music and Nightfall

by Kazuo Ishiguro

Also inward-looking and open-ended · narrative, literary

Ishiguro's collection of five linked stories is set around musicians, with nightfall as a recurring backdrop.
11

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.
12

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.

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