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  1. Genres
  2. ›Literary Fiction

Best Literary Fiction Books

Character-driven literary works

1,050 summaries

Showing 193–216 of 1,050

  1. A Piece of the World

    Christina Baker Kline

    ★ 3.9 (56k) average on GoodreadsHistorical Fiction

    Crippled by illness yet fiercely bound to her ancestral Maine farm, Christina Olson becomes the unlikely muse for Andrew Wyeth, immortalizing her struggle and spirit in one of America's most iconic paintings.

  2. The Satanic Verses

    Salman Rushdie

    ★ 3.7 (56k) average on GoodreadsFantasy

    After surviving a plane explosion, an Indian movie star and a voice actor are caught in a surreal battle of identity, good, and evil, forcing them to question faith and reality.

  3. Light in August

    William Faulkner

    ★ 3.9 (56k) average on Goodreads

    In the hot American South, a pregnant woman looks for her lover, while a mysterious drifter's past reveals the deep prejudices and violence of a small Mississippi town.

  4. Sweetbitter

    Stephanie Danler

    ★ 3.3 (55k) average on Goodreads

    In a celebrated Manhattan restaurant, a young woman's new appetites for pleasure, knowledge, and belonging pull her into a glittering, gritty coming-of-age story of champagne, cocaine, and a dark love triangle.

  5. The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet

    David Mitchell

    ★ 4.0 (55k) average on GoodreadsHistorical Fiction

    In 1799, a Dutch clerk's quest for fortune on Japan's isolated Dejima island leads to forbidden love, political intrigue, and broken promises.

  6. March

    Geraldine Brooks

    ★ 3.8 (55k) average on GoodreadsHistorical Fiction

    During the Civil War, abolitionist chaplain March faces the realities of battle and human nature, which break his faith and force him to remake himself before returning to his family, who know nothing of his ordeal.

  7. The Mayor of Casterbridge

    Thomas Hardy

    ★ 3.8 (54k) average on GoodreadsHistorical Fiction

    A man's drunken choice to auction his wife and child at a country fair echoes for two decades, forcing him to face a past he tried to bury as the Mayor of Casterbridge.

  8. The Heart Goes Last

    Margaret Atwood

    ★ 3.4 (54k) average on GoodreadsScience Fiction

    In a future where economic collapse forces couples into a social experiment, a wife's affair with the man inhabiting their home during alternating prison terms uncovers a twisted scheme that threatens her husband's life.

  9. Angle of Repose

    Wallace Stegner

    ★ 4.2 (54k) average on GoodreadsHistorical Fiction

    A wheelchair-bound historian unearths the rugged, pioneering spirit and complex marital secrets of his grandparents' Western frontier life, inadvertently revealing the unvarnished truths of his own.

  10. This Tender Land

    William Kent Krueger

    ★ 4.4 (53k) average on GoodreadsHistorical Fiction

    Four orphans flee a brutal Indian training school in 1932, canoeing down the Mississippi and finding an unexpected family among strangers during the Great Depression.

  11. The Dog Stars

    Peter Heller

    ★ 3.9 (53k) average on GoodreadsScience Fiction

    After a plague, a pilot and his dog live on a desolate airfield until a faint radio signal leads them on a dangerous journey, chasing a glimmer of hope.

  12. The End of the Affair

    Graham Greene

    ★ 3.9 (52k) average on GoodreadsSpirituality

    During the London Blitz, a jilted lover's obsession with his former mistress reveals a spiritual mystery beyond their earthly relationship.

  13. Go Tell it on the Mountain

    James Baldwin

    ★ 4.0 (51k) average on GoodreadsHistorical Fiction

    In 1930s Harlem, young Johnny Grimes struggles with his abusive stepfather's fiery damnation and the weight of a destiny he wants to escape.

  14. Slade House

    David Mitchell

    ★ 3.8 (51k) average on GoodreadsThriller

    Every nine years, a hidden manor lures lonely souls into its reality-warping embrace, trapping them in a cycle of spiritual consumption by its immortal, parasitic residents.

  15. A Lesson Before Dying

    Ernest J. Gaines

    ★ 4.0 (51k) average on GoodreadsHistorical Fiction

    In 1940s Louisiana, a black teacher, jaded by racial injustice, must help a young man wrongly sentenced to death find his dignity before his execution, ultimately finding his own purpose.

  16. American Wife

    Curtis Sittenfeld

    ★ 3.7 (51k) average on GoodreadsPolitics

    Alice Blackwell goes from a quiet librarian in Wisconsin to First Lady to a charismatic, conservative president, navigating the contradictions of love and complicity as she faces the gap between her private conscience and public role.

  17. The Quiet American

    Graham Greene

    ★ 4.0 (50k) average on GoodreadsHistorical Fiction

    In the final days of French rule in Vietnam, a British journalist, an American aid worker, and a Vietnamese woman find themselves in a dangerous love triangle that reflects the political and moral problems of 1950s Saigon.

  18. Gap Creek

    Robert Morgan

    ★ 3.7 (50k) average on GoodreadsHistorical Fiction

    In the late 19th-century Appalachian mountains, a young bride fights natural disasters, treachery, and a new marriage, hoping love can keep her from falling into madness.

  19. Of Human Bondage

    W. Somerset Maugham

    ★ 4.1 (50k) average on GoodreadsRomance

    Crippled by a club foot and a yearning for belonging, Philip Carey embarks on a soul-crushing odyssey through art, intellect, and a destructive obsession with a vulgar waitress, only to discover redemption in the bitter crucible of self-knowledge.

  20. Even Cowgirls Get the Blues

    Tom Robbins

    ★ 3.8 (49k) average on Goodreads

    Sissy Hankshaw, with thumbs as unusual as her desire to travel, hitchhikes across America, a free spirit looking for identity, love, and the real story behind the 'cowgirl' image.

  21. We Are Water

    Wally Lamb

    ★ 3.8 (49k) average on Goodreads

    In a New England town grappling with changing social mores, an artist's decision to marry her female lover after decades of marriage unleashes a torrent of long-buried family secrets and forces her children and ex-husband to confront their own fractured lives.

  22. Autumn

    Ali Smith

    ★ 3.7 (49k) average on GoodreadsCreativity

    As Britain struggles with its identity, an unlikely bond between a centenarian and a young art lecturer grows, connecting memory, history, and human connection through the changing seasons.

  23. The Little Friend

    Donna Tartt

    ★ 3.5 (49k) average on GoodreadsMystery

    In a sweltering Mississippi town, a determined girl, haunted by her brother's unsolved murder years earlier, investigates her community and family history, using her intelligence and desire for revenge.

  24. Still Life with Bread Crumbs

    Anna Quindlen

    ★ 3.6 (48k) average on GoodreadsRelationships

    A photographer, facing a career slump and moving to the country, finds new love and inspiration with a roofer.

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