The house behind the cedars

A God in Ruins

Kate Atkinson2015

A former RAF pilot lives through the decades following WWII. The narrative jumps between his combat years and his elderly present.

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Sometimes a Great Notion

Ken Kesey1964

A family of independent loggers in Oregon refuses to join a local strike. The perspective shifts rapidly between characters, often mid-paragraph.

Same elegiac register

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In Green's Jungles

Gene Wolfe2000

A narrator travels to different worlds while his physical form and memories shift. He recounts past voyages to prove his identity to his companions.

Same elegiac register

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VAS

Steve Tomasula2002

A man considers a vasectomy while the book uses diagrams and varied typography to explore the history of eugenics and biotechnology.

elegiac → clinical

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Going Cowboy Crazy

Katie Lane2011

A woman travels to a small Texas town to find her secret twin sister and is mistaken for her by the local residents and her sister's ex-flame.

elegiac → playful

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Marrying Mr. Wrong

Claire Kingsley

Two rivals wake up married in Las Vegas and decide to stay together to help their respective careers.

elegiac → playful

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Hot Number

Carly Phillips

A sports publicist undergoes a physical makeover to shed her tomboy image. She attempts to catch the attention of a professional ballplayer.

elegiac → playful

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All Systems Red

Martha Wells2017

A self-aware security android hacks its own governor module to watch soap operas while protecting a team of scientists on a distant planet.

elegiac → wry

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Skin Game

Jim Butcher2014

Wizard Harry Dresden joins a team of villains to rob a vault in the Underworld. It is a fast-paced heist set in a modern fantasy Chicago.

elegiac → propulsive

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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

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Absalom, Absalom!

William Faulkner1936

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

Same elegiac register, still historical fiction

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Invisible Cities

Italo Calvino1972

Marco Polo describes fifty-five imaginary cities to Kublai Khan. The book is a series of short, prose-poem meditations on urban existence.

elegiac → meditative

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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

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A Fine Balance

Rohinton Mistry1995

Four people from different castes share a small apartment during the 1975 Indian Emergency. Their lives are upended by state-sanctioned violence.

elegiac → bleak, still historical fiction

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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.

elegiac → bleak, still historical fiction

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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.

elegiac → meditative, still historical fiction

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