Anything Is Possible

A Visit from the Goon Squad

Jennifer Egan2010

Interlocking stories follow a record executive, his assistant, and their circle across decades. One chapter is told entirely through PowerPoint.

tender → elegiac, still literary fiction

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Gravity's Rainbow

Thomas Pynchon1973

During the end of WWII, an American lieutenant's sexual encounters seem to predict where German V-2 rockets will fall. The narrative is fragmented.

tender → sardonic

pace0·prose+1·bleak+1

A Brief History of Seven Killings

Marlon James2014

A large cast of characters recounts the 1976 attempt on Bob Marley's life. The narrative spans decades and moves from Jamaica to New York.

tender → propulsive

pace+1·prose+1·bleak+2

Moby Dick

Herman Melville1851

A sailor joins a whaling voyage led by a captain seeking revenge on a specific whale. Large sections digress into the mechanics of 1850s whaling.

tender → meditative, still literary fiction

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Hot on her heels

Susan Mallery2009

A female deputy protects her friends from a man seeking revenge on their father. The two antagonists find themselves physically attracted.

pace+1·prose-2·bleak-1

Simply Irresistible

Rachel Gibson1998

A runaway bride escapes her wedding with a professional hockey player. They spend a night together that leads to a surprise pregnancy.

tender → playful

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The Best Man

Kristan Higgins2013

A woman returns to her family winery years after a public wedding disaster. She begins a relationship with the man who helped end her engagement.

pace+1·prose-2·bleak-1

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.

tender → 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.

tender → propulsive

pace+2·prose-2·bleak-1

The Martian

Andy Weir2011

A man does arithmetic to stay alive on Mars. Problem, attempt, result, repeat.

tender → wry

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Orbital

Samantha Harvey2024

Six astronauts orbit Earth over twenty-four hours. The narrative focuses on their routine tasks and observations of the planet below.

tender → meditative, still literary fiction

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The Waters of Kronos

Conrad Richter1960

An elderly man travels back in time to his childhood Pennsylvania town, which in his present day is submerged beneath a reservoir.

tender → elegiac, still literary fiction

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The story of a brief marriage

Anuk Arudpragasam2016

Two refugees enter an arranged marriage in a Sri Lankan camp during the final days of the civil war. It focuses on the physical details of survival.

tender → meditative, still literary fiction

pace-1·prose0·bleak+2

A Distant Shore

Caryl Phillips2003

A retired teacher and an African refugee form a quiet bond in a xenophobic English village. Their past traumas emerge through alternating stories.

tender → bleak, still literary fiction

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A Little Life

Hanya Yanagihara2015

Four friends in New York over thirty years. One of them is being destroyed, and the book does not look away.

tender → bleak, still literary fiction

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The Nickel Boys

Colson Whitehead2019

A studious black teenager in 1960s Florida is sent to a brutal reform school where physical abuse is systemic.

tender → elegiac, still literary fiction

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