Bellewether

The Summer Country

Lauren Willig2019

A woman inherits a Barbados plantation in 1854, uncovering secrets about her family's past during the 1816 slave uprising.

tender → elegiac, still historical fiction

pace0·prose0·bleak+1

The Sea

John Banville2005

A widower returns to a coastal resort to reflect on a childhood summer and his wife's death. The narrator's memory is fluid and dense.

tender → elegiac

pace-1·prose+2·bleak+1

Absalom, Absalom!

William Faulkner1936

The rise and fall of Thomas Sutpen is recounted through multiple, conflicting memories. The prose uses extremely long, complex sentences.

tender → elegiac, still historical fiction

pace-1·prose+2·bleak+2

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, still historical fiction

pace0·prose+2·bleak+1

Her Summer Lover

Marisa Carroll2010

A woman returns to the bayou for a funeral and reunites with her teenage first love. He is now a local police chief and a divorced father.

Same tender register

pace0·prose0·bleak-1

All Rhodes Lead Here

Mariana Zapata2021

A woman moves back to her Colorado hometown after a breakup and rents a garage apartment from a grumpy single father.

tender → warm

pace0·prose-1·bleak-1

Hannah's List

Debbie Macomber2010

A widower receives a letter from his late wife suggesting three women he should date. He begins to interact with each woman over the following year.

tender → warm

pace0·prose-1·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

pace+2·prose0·bleak0

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-1·bleak-1

The Martian

Andy Weir2011

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

tender → wry

pace+2·prose-1·bleak-1

The English Patient

Michael Ondaatje1992

Four people shelter in a ruined Italian villa at the end of WWII. They care for a burned, anonymous man who recounts his past in the desert.

pace-1·prose+1·bleak+1

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.

tender → playful

pace-1·prose+2·bleak0

Lila

Marilynne Robinson2014

A woman with a traumatic, nomadic past settles in a small Iowa town and marries a minister. She struggles to reconcile her history with his faith.

Same tender register, still historical fiction

pace-1·prose+1·bleak0

The Confessions of Nat Turner

William Styron1967

A fictionalized confession of the leader of an 1831 slave revolt while he awaits execution in a Virginia jail cell.

tender → bleak, still historical fiction

pace0·prose+1·bleak+2

The Known World

Edward P. Jones2003

A black man who was once a slave becomes a slave owner in antebellum Virginia. The story follows the fallout on the plantation after his death.

tender → meditative, still historical fiction

pace0·prose+1·bleak+2

A Long Long Way

Sebastian Barry2005

A young Irishman joins the British Army to fight in the trenches of World War I while his home country moves toward rebellion.

tender → elegiac, still historical fiction

pace0·prose+1·bleak+2