Books like

Books like Yellow Wife

12 books with a reading profile close to Yellow Wife by Sadeqa Johnson. Inward-looking and thought-provoking; a moderate read.

  1. 1 The Mercies

    The Mercies

    by Kiran Millwood Hargrave

    Also inward-looking · history, narrative

    In 1617, a sudden storm kills every man in the remote Norwegian fishing village of Vardø.

  2. 2 A Northern Light

    A Northern Light

    by Jennifer Donnelly

    Also thought-provoking · history, narrative

    Set in 1906 in the Adirondack Mountains, the story follows Mattie Gokey, a farm girl torn between a university scholarship and her obligations to her widowed father and siblings.

  3. 3 The Mad Women's Ball

    The Mad Women's Ball

    by Victoria Mas

    Also thought-provoking · history, narrative

    Set in 1885 at the Salpêtrière asylum in Paris, the narrative follows Eugénie Cléry, a young woman committed to the institution by her father after she reveals her ability to speak with spirits.

  4. 4 American Wife

    American Wife

    by Curtis Sittenfeld

    Also inward-looking and thought-provoking · history, narrative

    Alice Blackwell, a quiet, bookish girl from Wisconsin, becomes a librarian and a teacher, and later marries Charlie Blackwell, a wealthy Republican who becomes President of the United States.

  5. 5 Girl at War

    Girl at War

    by Sara Nović

    Also inward-looking and thought-provoking · history, narrative

    Ten-year-old Ana Jurić lives a carefree life in Zagreb until the Yugoslav Civil War erupts in 1991.

  6. 6 The German Girl

    The German Girl

    by Armando Lucas Correa

    history, narrative

    In 1939 Berlin, twelve-year-old Hannah Rosenthal and her family board the SS St.

  7. 7 The Cellist of Sarajevo

    The Cellist of Sarajevo

    by Steven Galloway

    Also inward-looking and thought-provoking · history, narrative

    Set in the besieged city of Sarajevo, the narrative follows three civilians navigating a landscape of sniper fire and shellings.

  8. 8 Dominicana

    Dominicana

    by Angie Cruz

    history, narrative

    Ana Cancion is fifteen when she marries Juan Ruiz, a man twice her age, in the Dominican Republic in 1965, so that her family can eventually emigrate.

  9. 9 Five Little Indians

    Five Little Indians

    by Michelle Good

    Also inward-looking and thought-provoking · history, narrative

    Five children, Kenny, Clara, Maisie, Lucy and Howie, are taken from their families as small children and sent to a residential school in British Columbia.

  10. 10 The Bastard of Istanbul

    The Bastard of Istanbul

    by Elif Shafak

    Also thought-provoking · history, narrative

    Asya Kazancı is a nineteen-year-old Turkish girl in Istanbul, raised in a household of women, with no knowledge of who her father is.

  11. 11 The Vanishing Half

    The Vanishing Half

    by Brit Bennett

    Also inward-looking · history, narrative

    In the small town of Mallard, Louisiana, the light-skinned Vignes twins, Desiree and Stella, grow up in a community that prizes fair complexions.

  12. 12 The Storm We Made

    The Storm We Made

    by Vanessa Chan

    Also thought-provoking · history, narrative

    In 1930s British Malaya, Cecily Alcantara works as a low-level clerk while feeling the sting of colonial hierarchy.

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