The Dream of Scipio

Gone with the Wind

Margaret Mitchell1936

The daughter of a plantation owner survives the American Civil War and Reconstruction. It follows her marriages and business ventures.

Same elegiac register, still historical fiction

pace0·prose0·bleak0

Niccolò Rising

Dorothy Dunnett1986

A dyer’s apprentice in 15th-century Bruges uses his intellect to navigate the world of international trade. He builds a mercantile empire.

elegiac → wry, still historical fiction

pace0·prose+1·bleak-1

Amberes

Roberto Bolaño2002

A fragmented series of fifty-six short sections follows a police officer, a redhead, and a hunchback through a series of loosely linked crimes.

elegiac → cold

pace0·prose+1·bleak0

The Doves Necklace

Raja Alem2014

A detective investigates an unidentified woman's body found in a Mecca alleyway. The city itself narrates parts of the story.

elegiac → dreamlike

pace0·prose+1·bleak0

The Kaiju Preservation Society

John Scalzi2022

A food delivery driver joins a secret organization that travels to an alternate Earth to care for massive, dinosaur-like creatures.

elegiac → playful

pace+2·prose-2·bleak-2

The Martian

Andy Weir2011

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

elegiac → wry

pace+2·prose-2·bleak-2

The Comfort Book

Matt Haig2021

A collection of short reflections, lists, and anecdotes intended to provide mental support. It is a non-linear book of philosophy and memoir.

elegiac → warm

pace0·prose-2·bleak-2

Ten Big Ones

Janet Evanovich2004

Stephanie Plum witnesses a gang hit and becomes a target herself. She balances the threat with her ongoing romantic indecision.

elegiac → playful, still mystery

pace+2·prose-2·bleak-2

Private Vegas

James Patterson2015

Jack Morgan investigates a man who trains women to become killers in Las Vegas. The story follows multiple perspectives in short chapters.

pace+2·prose-2·bleak-1

Pines

Blake Crouch2012

A Secret Service agent searches for missing colleagues in an Idaho town he cannot leave. The townspeople and physics itself seem to work against him.

elegiac → tense, still mystery

pace+2·prose-2·bleak0

A Month in the Country

J. L. Carr1980

A WWI veteran spends a summer in a quiet village restoring a medieval mural in a church. He reflects on his trauma while observing local life.

Same elegiac register, still historical fiction

pace-1·prose-1·bleak-1

The miracle at Speedy Motors

Alexander McCall Smith2008

Mma Ramotswe helps a woman find her long-lost family in Botswana. The story follows small domestic complications and slow-paced investigations.

elegiac → warm

pace-1·prose-1·bleak-2

Kolyma tales

Varlam SHALAMOV1980

Short stories documenting daily life and survival in a Soviet labor camp. The prose is detached and focuses on the physical reality of starvation.

elegiac → clinical, still historical fiction

pace-1·prose+1·bleak+1

Affinity

Sarah Waters1999

A grieving socialite visits a medium in a Victorian women's prison. Their relationship develops through diary entries and clandestine meetings.

elegiac → bleak, still historical fiction

pace0·prose0·bleak+1

Libra

Don DeLillo1988

A fictionalized biography of Lee Harvey Oswald. It follows his life and the CIA conspiracy that leads to the assassination of JFK.

elegiac → eerie, still historical fiction

pace+1·prose0·bleak+1

The Virgin Suicides

Jeffrey Eugenides

A group of neighborhood boys obsessively observes five sisters in 1970s Michigan. They document the girls' lives leading up to their suicides.

elegiac → tense, still mystery

pace+1·prose0·bleak+1