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André Aciman2019

6 of 6 directions open

More like it

Same elegiac register, still literary fiction

1 more ↓

  • The Folding Star

    Alan Hollinghurst1994

    An English tutor in a Flemish city becomes obsessed with his teenage student. He pursues other men while fixating on the boy.

    pace0·prose0·bleak+1

Denser prose

3 more ↓

  • To the Lighthouse

    Virginia Woolf1927

    A family and their guests visit a house in the Hebrides. The narrative follows their internal thoughts over two days separated by ten years.

    Same elegiac register, still literary fiction

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak+1

  • 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.

    elegiac → clinical

    pace-1·prose+1·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.

    Same elegiac register, still literary fiction

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak+1

To recover

elegiac → playful

3 more ↓

  • Rock Me

    Cherrie Lynn2010

    Candace visits her cousin's ex-boyfriend for a tattoo and begins a sexual relationship with him. The story focuses on their physical chemistry.

    elegiac → tender

    pace+1·prose-2·bleak-1

  • The One Night Stand Before Christmas

    Jana Aston

    A woman has a one-night stand with a man she later discovers is her new boss during the holiday season.

    pace+1·prose-2·bleak-1

  • Here Be Sexist Vampires

    Suzanne Wright2013

    A female vampire enters a male-dominated pack and challenges their hierarchy while being pursued by their leader.

    elegiac → sardonic

    pace+1·prose-2·bleak-1

Faster

3 more ↓

  • 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.

    elegiac → sardonic

    pace+2·prose-1·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.

    elegiac → propulsive

    pace+2·prose-2·bleak-1

  • The Martian

    Andy Weir2011

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

    elegiac → wry

    pace+2·prose-2·bleak-1

Slower

3 more ↓

  • Orbital

    Samantha Harvey2024

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

    elegiac → meditative, still literary fiction

    pace-1·prose0·bleak0

  • 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.

    Same elegiac register, still literary fiction

    pace-1·prose0·bleak0

  • 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.

    elegiac → meditative, still literary fiction

    pace-1·prose0·bleak+2

Heavier

3 more ↓

  • 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.

    elegiac → bleak, still literary fiction

    pace0·prose0·bleak+2

  • 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.

    elegiac → bleak, still literary fiction

    pace0·prose0·bleak+2

  • The Nickel Boys

    Colson Whitehead2019

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

    Same elegiac register, still literary fiction

    pace+1·prose0·bleak+2