After

A Passage North

Anuk Arudpragasam2021

pace
prose
structure
bleakness

5 of 6 directions open — nothing slower

More like it

pace+1prose-1bleak0
Did You Ever Have a Family
Bill Clegg2015
After a house fire kills her entire family, a woman drives across the country to live in a motel. The story follows those left behind.
meditative → elegiac, still literary
pace+1·prose-1·bleak0
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Monkey grip
Helen Garner1977
A single mother in 1970s Melbourne navigates a series of communal living arrangements and a cycle of unrequited love.
Same meditative register, still literary
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The Stone Diaries
Carol Shields1993
A woman's life is chronicled from her birth in 1905 to her death. The narrative uses letters, recipes, and lists to document her domestic history.
Same meditative register, still literary
pace+1·prose0·bleak-1
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The Overstory
Richard Powers2018
Nine strangers are connected by their unique relationships with trees. The narrative spans decades as they converge to protect a forest.
meditative → elegiac, still literary
pace+1·prose0·bleak0

1 more ↓

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The Spinning Heart
Donal Ryan2001
Twenty-one different narrators describe the aftermath of the Irish financial crash in a small town. The story centers on a local construction boss.
meditative → elegiac, still literary
pace+1·prose0·bleak0

Denser prose

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A sport and a pastime
James Salter1967
An unnamed narrator observes the sexual affair between an American college dropout and a French girl in 1960s France.
meditative → dreamlike, still literary
pace+1·prose+1·bleak0
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Ulysses
James Joyce1914
Three characters wander through Dublin on a single day in 1904. Each chapter uses a different literary style to mimic thoughts and sensations.
meditative → playful
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3 more ↓

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As I Lay Dying
William Faulkner1915
The Bundren family travels by wagon to bury their matriarch. Fifteen different narrators describe the journey as the corpse decomposes.
meditative → sardonic, still road trip
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Umbrella
Will Self2013
A psychiatrist in 1971 treats a woman who has been catatonic for decades. The prose shifts between eras and consciousnesses without paragraph breaks.
meditative → clinical
pace0·prose+1·bleak0
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Don Quixote
Kathy Acker1986
A woman undergoes an abortion and adopts the persona of Don Quixote to pursue a quest in a fragmented, postmodern landscape.
meditative → sardonic
pace+1·prose+1·bleak+1

To recover

pace+2prose-2bleak-2
On Dublin Street
Samantha Young2012
An American woman in Scotland enters a sex-only arrangement with her roommate's brother to avoid emotional intimacy. It is a contemporary romance.
meditative → warm
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This Girl
Colleen Hoover2013
A husband retells the story of his early relationship to his wife. It uses dual timelines to revisit events from the first book in the series.
meditative → earnest
pace+1·prose-2·bleak-2

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The Score
Elle Kennedy2016
A college senior has a one-night stand with a hockey player to get over a breakup. They continue the arrangement as graduation approaches.
meditative → playful
pace+2·prose-2·bleak-2
pace+2prose-2bleak-2
Fifty Shades of Grey
E.L. James2000
A college student enters a sexual contract with a wealthy businessman. The story focuses on their power dynamics and BDSM encounters.
meditative → earnest
pace+2·prose-2·bleak-2
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The Duke and I
Julia Quinn2000
A duke and a debutante enter a fake courtship to avoid social pressure. They navigate Regency London's marriage market while hiding their deal.
meditative → playful
pace+2·prose-2·bleak-2

Faster

pace+3prose-2bleak-2
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Jesse Q. Sutanto2021
A photographer accidentally kills her blind date. Her mother and aunties help hide the body during a massive luxury wedding.
meditative → playful
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Child 44
Tom Rob Smith2008
A Soviet security officer investigates a serial killer in a state that officially claims murder does not exist.
meditative → tense
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3 more ↓

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Candide
Voltaire
A naive young man travels the world while his tutor insists that everything is for the best. He encounters a series of global catastrophes.
meditative → sardonic
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The Da Vinci Code
Dan Brown2003
A symbologist and a cryptologist flee the police while solving puzzles hidden in art. They search for a secret regarding the Holy Grail.
meditative → propulsive
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The Martian
Andy Weir2011
A man does arithmetic to stay alive on Mars. Problem, attempt, result, repeat.
meditative → wry
pace+3·prose-2·bleak-2

Heavier

pace+1prose0bleak+1
Bewilderment
Richard Powers2021
An astrobiologist uses experimental neurofeedback to treat his son's emotional outbursts while they mourn the boy's mother.
meditative → elegiac, still literary
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The Road
Cormac McCarthy2006
A father and son walk through a landscape of ash and scavengers toward the coast. They carry only what fits in a shopping cart.
meditative → bleak, still literary
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3 more ↓

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The Association of Small Bombs
Karan Mahajan2016
The narrative follows the victims, survivors, and perpetrators of a terrorist bombing in Delhi. It examines the long-term psychological fallout.
meditative → bleak, still literary
pace+1·prose0·bleak+1
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Because They Never Do
Patrick Erin Monaghan2002
meditative → tense, still literary
pace+2·prose0·bleak+1
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The Underground Railroad
Colson Whitehead2016
Two slaves escape a Georgia plantation via a literal underground train system while being pursued by a slave catcher.
meditative → bleak
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