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After

The Magnolia Palace

Fiona Davis2022

6 of 6 directions open

More like it

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  • The Baker's Daughter

    Sarah McCoy2012

    A journalist in El Paso interviews a German baker about her life during WWII. The story moves between the 1940s and the present day.

    tense → earnest, still historical fiction

    pace0·prose0·bleak0

Denser prose

3 more ↓

  • 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.

    tense → sardonic, still historical fiction

    pace-1·prose+2·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.

    tense → playful

    pace-2·prose+2·bleak0

  • Briefing for a Descent into Hell

    Doris Lessing1971

    A man is found wandering London and placed in a psychiatric ward. The narrative shifts between the hospital and his internal cosmic hallucinations.

    tense → dreamlike

    pace-1·prose+2·bleak+1

To recover

tense → playful

3 more ↓

  • The Hating Game

    Sally Thorne2016

    Two executive assistants at a publishing house compete for a single promotion through a series of psychological games and mutual sabotage.

    pace0·prose-1·bleak-1

  • The Score

    Elle Kennedy2016

    A college senior has a one-night stand with a hockey player to get over a breakup. They continue the arrangement as graduation approaches.

    pace0·prose-1·bleak-1

  • The Spanish Love Deception

    Elena Armas2021

    A woman convinces a colleague she dislikes to fly to Spain and pose as her boyfriend for a wedding. They have four weeks to prepare the ruse.

    pace-1·prose-1·bleak-1

Faster

3 more ↓

  • Child 44

    Tom Rob Smith2008

    A Soviet security officer investigates a serial killer in a state that officially claims murder does not exist.

    Same tense register

    pace+1·prose0·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.

    tense → sardonic

    pace+1·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.

    tense → propulsive

    pace+1·prose-1·bleak-1

Slower

tense → elegiac, still historical fiction

3 more ↓

  • 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.

    tense → playful

    pace-2·prose+2·bleak0

  • 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.

    tense → clinical

    pace-2·prose+2·bleak+1

  • Translated Accounts

    James Kelman2001

    Anonymous witnesses describe life under a military regime. The prose uses broken, bureaucratic syntax to mimic a literal translation.

    tense → bleak

    pace-2·prose+2·bleak+2

Heavier

tense → bleak, still historical fiction

3 more ↓

  • 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.

    tense → meditative, still historical fiction

    pace-1·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.

    tense → elegiac, still historical fiction

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak+2

  • Brotherless Night

    V. V. Ganeshananthan2023

    A young woman in Sri Lanka tries to study medicine while her brothers join militant groups during the civil war. It covers a decade of conflict.

    tense → elegiac, still historical fiction

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak+2