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  1. Genres
  2. ›Literary Fiction

Best Literary Fiction Books

Character-driven literary works

1,050 summaries

Showing 1–24 of 1,050

  1. The Old Man and the Sea

    Ernest Hemingway

    ★ 3.8 (831k) average on Goodreads

    A Cuban fisherman's long struggle with a giant marlin becomes a story of endurance and dignity, now retold for young adults with illustrations, phonetic guides, and writing prompts in Traditional Chinese.

  2. One Hundred Years of Solitude

    Gabriel García Márquez

    ★ 4.1 (753k) average on GoodreadsFantasy

    Through the multi-generational story of the Buendía family, a mythical town deals with the repeating patterns of time, love, and solitude, as the extraordinary mixes with the ordinary.

  3. The Goldfinch

    Donna Tartt

    ★ 3.9 (720k) average on GoodreadsCreativity

    Haunted by a tragic explosion and clutching a stolen Dutch masterpiece, a young orphan navigates the opulent drawing rooms of New York and the gritty underbelly of the art world, desperately seeking connection and redemption amidst a life spiraling into crime and obsession.

  4. Little Fires Everywhere

    Celeste Ng

    ★ 4.1 (713k) average on Goodreads

    In Shaker Heights, an artist and her daughter move in, and their free-spirited lives clash with a rule-bound matriarch, revealing hidden conflicts beneath a perfect surface.

  5. Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine

    Gail Honeyman

    ★ 4.3 (708k) average on GoodreadsPsychology

    A lonely woman's structured life changes when an IT guy and an elderly man help her learn to open her heart.

  6. The Poisonwood Bible

    Barbara Kingsolver

    ★ 4.1 (659k) average on GoodreadsHistorical Fiction

    A zealous missionary's rigid faith clashes with the Belgian Congo's wilderness and people, unraveling his family through the eyes of his five unforgettable women.

  7. Middlesex

    Jeffrey Eugenides

    ★ 4.0 (581k) average on GoodreadsHistorical Fiction

    From a burning Greek village to Prohibition-era Detroit, a recessive gene unravels the Stephanides family's decades-long story, ending with Cal's discovery of self.

  8. Never Let Me Go

    Kazuo Ishiguro

    ★ 3.8 (471k) average on GoodreadsScience Fiction

    Three friends raised in a secluded boarding school uncover the truth about their existence and face their predetermined purpose as organ donors, finding bittersweet comfort in their memories and bond.

  9. East of Eden

    John Steinbeck

    ★ 4.4 (429k) average on GoodreadsHistorical Fiction

    In California's Salinas Valley, two families, the Trasks and the Hamiltons, re-enact the biblical story of Cain and Abel across generations, exploring identity, love, and its absence.

  10. Love in the Time of Cholera

    Gabriel García Márquez

    ★ 3.9 (412k) average on GoodreadsHistorical Fiction

    A lifelong romantic, devoted for half a century across countless lovers, finds his chance to rekindle love in his beloved's final years, proving true love always finds its way back.

  11. Normal People

    Sally Rooney

    ★ 3.9 (405k) average on GoodreadsRomance

    Two Irish teenagers from opposite social worlds navigate an on-again-off-again romance through college, drawn together by a strong connection despite their struggles with class and self-discovery.

  12. Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close

    Jonathan Safran Foer

    ★ 4.0 (380k) average on GoodreadsHistorical Fiction

    Nine-year-old Oskar Schell, carrying a tambourine and a boundless curiosity, sets out on a city-wide journey to decode a mysterious key, hoping it will answer the questions and ease the grief from his father's death on 9/11.

  13. Norwegian Wood

    Haruki Murakami

    ★ 4.0 (347k) average on GoodreadsRomance

    Haunted by a past love and adrift in 1960s Tokyo, Toru Watanabe deals with loss and the messy allure of a new future.

  14. The Unbearable Lightness of Being

    Milan Kundera

    ★ 4.1 (342k) average on GoodreadsPhilosophy

    After the Prague Spring, a surgeon, his lover, and their friends navigate love, betrayal, and existence, where every choice is final.

  15. Everything I Never Told You

    Celeste Ng

    ★ 3.9 (339k) average on GoodreadsHistorical Fiction

    In 1970s Ohio, the death of a Chinese American family's daughter shatters their world, exposing unspoken dreams, racial tensions, and the heavy weight of parental expectations.

  16. Cutting for Stone

    Abraham Verghese

    ★ 4.3 (337k) average on GoodreadsHistorical Fiction

    Orphaned twin brothers, born from a secret affair between a nun and a surgeon, deal with love, betrayal, and the medical world during a revolution in Ethiopia and in New York City.

  17. Beloved

    Toni Morrison

    ★ 3.9 (325k) average on GoodreadsHistorical Fiction

    In post-Civil War Ohio, an escaped mother faces the terrifying return of her murdered child, now a mysterious young woman demanding a reckoning for a past too horrific to forget.

  18. Station Eleven

    Emily St. John Mandel

    ★ 4.0 (322k) average on GoodreadsFantasy

    After a devastating flu, a nomadic acting and music group called the Traveling Symphony travels the Great Lakes region, risking danger to keep art and humanity alive. Their lives connect with a dead Hollywood star and the dangerous prophet who emerges after him.

  19. White Oleander

    Janet Fitch

    ★ 4.0 (322k) average on GoodreadsYoung Adult

    Adrift in the treacherous currents of the Los Angeles foster care system, a young girl navigates a series of surrogate mothers and their harsh realities, forging her own identity in the shadow of her incarcerated, poet mother's powerful, destructive love.

  20. She's Come Undone

    Wally Lamb

    ★ 3.9 (316k) average on Goodreads

    From a childhood marked by trauma, a morbidly obese and sharp-tongued Dolores Price journeys to reclaim her life and find redemption before she completely unravels.

  21. Kafka on the Shore

    Haruki Murakami

    ★ 4.1 (306k) average on GoodreadsFantasy

    In a world where cats talk, fish fall from the sky, and old prophecies connect, a teenage runaway and an elderly man with a secret past go on a strange journey to escape fate and find out why their lives are linked.

  22. And the Mountains Echoed

    Khaled Hosseini

    ★ 4.0 (302k) average on GoodreadsHistorical Fiction

    A story about a brother and sister separated in 1950s Afghanistan, whose bond spans generations and continents, showing the lasting effect of sacrifice and family.

  23. The Fountainhead

    Ayn Rand

    ★ 3.9 (297k) average on GoodreadsPolitics

    An architect battles society to build his vision of individualism, even as the woman he loves marries his rival.

  24. A Gentleman in Moscow

    Amor Towles

    ★ 4.3 (293k) average on GoodreadsHistorical Fiction

    Confined to a luxury hotel under Bolshevik house arrest, a count discovers purpose and emotional richness within his unexpected exile.

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