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After

The Fortune Men

Nadifa Mohamed2021

5 of 6 directions open — nothing heavier

More like it

Same elegiac register, still historical fiction

1 more ↓

  • The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet

    David Mitchell2010

    A Dutch clerk arrives at a restricted Japanese trading outpost in 1799. He navigates corporate corruption and a forbidden romance.

    pace-1·prose0·bleak-1

Denser prose

3 more ↓

  • The Wake

    Paul Kingsnorth2014

    A landowner in 1066 leads a guerrilla resistance against Norman invaders. The story is written in a modified version of Old English.

    elegiac → bleak, still historical fiction

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak0

  • 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.

    elegiac → sardonic, still historical fiction

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak-1

  • The Mirror and the Light

    Hilary Mantel2020

    Thomas Cromwell navigates the final four years of his life in Henry VIII's court. He attempts to maintain power as his allies and influence erode.

    Same elegiac register, still historical fiction

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak-1

To recover

3 more ↓

  • The Last Question

    Isaac Asimov2007

    A short story told in seven vignettes spanning billions of years. Humanity asks a supercomputer if the heat death of the universe can be avoided.

    elegiac → meditative

    pace0·prose-2·bleak-3

  • The Jane Austen Society

    Natalie Jenner2020

    In post-WWII England, a group of villagers tries to save Jane Austen's former home. They bond over their shared grief and love for her novels.

    elegiac → warm, still historical fiction

    pace-1·prose-1·bleak-3

  • The Secret Life of Bees

    Sue Monk Kidd2000

    In 1964, a fourteen-year-old girl and her nanny flee to a South Carolina town where they are sheltered by three beekeeping sisters.

    elegiac → warm, still historical fiction

    pace-1·prose-1·bleak-3

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+1·prose-1·bleak-2

  • 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+1·prose-2·bleak-3

  • The Martian

    Andy Weir2011

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

    elegiac → wry

    pace+1·prose-2·bleak-3

Slower

Same elegiac register, still historical fiction

3 more ↓

  • 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-2·prose0·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.

    elegiac → playful

    pace-2·prose+1·bleak-2

  • 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-2·prose+1·bleak-1