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Recommendations based on Incendiaryby Chris Cleave
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Little Bee
by Chris Cleave
A Nigerian refugee's quest for survival and a British woman's search for redemption.
Using alternating first-person perspectives , the novel tells the stories of Little Bee, a Nigerian refugee, and Sarah O'Rourke (née Summers), a magazine editor from Surrey . After spending two years ... (Wikipedia)
The Thirteenth Tale
by Diane Setterfield
A mysterious storyteller reveals a dark family secret, transforming the lives of those around her.
Vida Winter, a famous novelist in England, has evaded journalists' questions about her past, refusing to answer their inquiries and spinning elaborate tales that they later discover to be false. Her ... (Wikipedia)
One Day
by David Nicholls
A story of friendship and love, exploring the complexities of life and relationships.
Dexter and Emma spend the night together following their graduation from the University of Edinburgh , in 1988. They talk about how they will be once they are 40. While they do not become ... (Wikipedia)
The Child in Time
by Ian McEwan
A father's struggle to come to terms with the sudden disappearance of his daughter.
Stephen Lewis is, by his own admission, an accidental author of children's books. One Saturday, on a routine visit to the supermarket, during a momentary distraction, he loses his only daughter, ... (Wikipedia)
Close Your Eyes, Hold Hands
by Chris Bohjalian
After a nuclear disaster, a teenage girl navigates a dangerous world alone, haunted by her past and struggling to survive.
A heartbreaking, wildly inventive, and moving novel narrated by a teenage runaway, from the best-selling author of Midwives and The Sandcastle Girls. Close Your Eyes, Hold Hands is the story of Emily ... (Goodreads)
The Ice Cream Girls
by Dorothy Koomson
Two women, bound by a dark secret from their past, are forced to confront their past and the truth about what really happened.
As teenagers Poppy Carlisle and Serena Gorringe were the only witnesses to a tragic event. Amid heated public debate, the two seemingly glamorous teens were dubbed ‘The Ice Cream Girls’ by the press ... (Goodreads)
Bel Canto
by Ann Patchett
A story of redemption and transformation amidst a hostage crisis.
Set in an unspecified South American country, , the story begins at a birthday party thrown at the country's vice presidential home in honor of Katsumi Hosokawa, the visiting chairman of a large ... (Wikipedia)
Gold
by Chris Cleave
Two elite cyclists and best friends compete for Olympic gold while dealing with personal struggles and a shared secret.
Gold follows two friends and professional cycling rivals, Kate Meadows and Zoe Castle, through their lives until the London Olympics. Meeting at the age of nineteen at a cycling challenge, Kate ... (Wikipedia)
Cat's Eye
by Margaret Atwood
A woman reflects on her childhood and her complex relationships with her peers.
After being lured back to her childhood home of Toronto for a retrospective show of her art, Elaine reminisces about her childhood. At the age of eight she becomes friends with Carol and Grace, and, ... (Wikipedia)
Daughter of Fortune
by Isabel Allende
A young woman's epic journey to find her lost love, and rediscover her roots.
In Chile during the 1840s, young Chilean Eliza Sommers is raised and educated by English Anglican siblings Rose, Jeremy, and John Sommers. The Victorian-Spinster Rose, strict Jeremy, and sailor John ... (Wikipedia)
Pigs in Heaven
by Barbara Kingsolver
A young girl and her adoptive mother fight for their family's rights and the power of love.
Mother and adopted daughter, Taylor and Turtle Greer, are back in this spellbinding sequel about family, heartbreak and love. Six-year-old Turtle Greer witnesses a freak accident at the Hoover Dam ... (Goodreads)
Americanah
by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
An exploration of race, identity, and belonging as two Nigerian immigrants experience life in America and beyond.
Ifemelu and Obinze are young and in love when they depart military-ruled Nigeria for the West. Beautiful, self-assured Ifemelu heads for America, where despite her academic success, she is forced to ... (Goodreads)
A Prayer for Owen Meany
by John Irving
A boy's search for faith, set against a backdrop of unlikely events.
The story is narrated by John Wheelwright, a former citizen of New Hampshire who has become a voluntary expatriate from the United States, having settled in Toronto , Ontario , Canada and taken on ... (Wikipedia)
The Art of Racing in the Rain
by Garth Stein
An uplifting story of a race car driver and the bond between humans and animals.
Enzo knows he is different from other dogs: a philosopher with a nearly human soul (and an obsession with opposable thumbs), he has educated himself by watching television extensively, and by ... (Goodreads)
The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet
by David Mitchell
An epic tale of love and adventure set in an 18th century Japanese trading port.
The novel begins in the summer of 1799 at the Dutch East India Company trading post Dejima in the harbor of Nagasaki . It tells the story of a Dutch trader's love for a Japanese midwife who is ... (Wikipedia)
The God of Small Things
by Arundhati Roy
A moving story of two siblings growing up in India, exploring love, politics, and class.
The year is 1969. In the state of Kerala, on the southernmost tip of India, a skyblue Plymouth with chrome tailfins is stranded on the highway amid a Marxist workers' demonstration. Inside the car ... (Goodreads)
The Sun Also Rises
by Ernest Hemingway
A group of expatriates in 1920s Europe, struggling to come to terms with the aftermath of WWI.
On the surface, the novel is a love story between the protagonist Jake Barnes—a man whose war wound has made him unable to have sex—and the promiscuous divorcée usually identified as Lady Brett ... (Wikipedia)
Moon Tiger
by Penelope Lively
A woman's life story unravels as she reflects on her past while coping with a terminal illness.
Claudia Hampton, a 76-year-old English woman and a professional historian, is terminally ill and is spending her last remaining moments in and out of consciousness thinking of writing a history of ... (Wikipedia)
My Friend Leonard
by James Frey
A man's reflection on his life, and the lessons he has learned from his friend Leonard.
The New York Times bestselling follow-up to the #1 New York Times bestseller A Million Little Pieces -the heartrending story of a friendship between a newly-sober James and the charismatic, ... (Goodreads)
Gap Creek
by Robert Morgan
A rural family's struggles with poverty and hardships of life in the Appalachians.
Gap Creek's main character is a young girl, Julie, who does everything she possibly can to help her family and her new husband, Hank. Julie works hard to help her family when they need it, some even ... (Wikipedia)
Little Children
by Tom Perrotta
A suburban couple's struggle with the everyday dramas of marriage and parenting.
Sarah, who once considered herself a radical feminist , wonders how she allowed herself to be reduced to a common housewife , constantly at the playground with three other neighborhood Stepford ... (Wikipedia)
Rubyfruit Jungle
by Rita Mae Brown
A coming-of-age story of a young girl's journey of self-acceptance and finding her place in the world.
The novel focuses on Molly Bolt, the adopted daughter of a poor family, who possesses remarkable beauty and who is aware of her lesbianism from early childhood. Her relationship with her mother is ... (Wikipedia)
Still Missing
by Chevy Stevens
A woman's struggle to free herself from captivity, and reclaim her life.
On the day she was abducted, Annie O’Sullivan, a 32-year-old realtor, had three goals - sell a house, forget about a recent argument with her mother, and be on time for dinner with her ever-patient ... (Goodreads)
The Kalahari Typing School for Men
by Alexander McCall Smith
Mma Ramotswe's detective agency faces new challenges as she takes on a case of a missing person and navigates the complexities of love.
Mma Ramotswe talks with her fiance Mr JLB. Matekoni about the future of her assistant, Mma Makutsi, who seems to have difficulty finding suitable men. Later the two women discuss the same topic. At ... (Wikipedia)
Maya's Notebook
by Isabel Allende
A teenage girl's journey towards self-acceptance, healing and freedom.
Isabel Allende’s latest novel, set in the present day (a new departure for the author), tells the story of a 19-year-old American girl who finds refuge on a remote island off the coast of Chile after ... (Goodreads)
Behind Her Eyes
by Sarah Pinborough
Psychological suspense novel following a woman's tangled web of secrets, lies and relationships.
Why is everyone talking about the ending of Sarah Pinborough's, Behind Her Eyes?, Louise is a single mom, a secretary, stuck in a modern-day rut. On a rare night out, she meets a man in a bar and ... (Goodreads)
Everyone Brave Is Forgiven
by Chris Cleave
Set in London during WWII, a love story unfolds amidst the chaos of war and the challenges of societal norms.
A spellbinding novel about three unforgettable individuals thrown together by war, love, and their search for belonging in the ever-changing landscape of WWII London. It’s 1939 and Mary, a young ... (Goodreads)
The Secret Scripture
by Sebastian Barry
A woman's life story, told through her own words, as she reflects on her life journeys.
The main character is an old woman, Roseanne McNulty, who now resides in the Roscommon Regional Mental Hospital. Having been a patient for some fifty years or more, Roseanne decides to write an ... (Wikipedia)
Cutting for Stone
by Abraham Verghese
A sweeping journey of two twin brothers and their search for identity, belonging and family.
The story is told by the protagonist, Marion Stone. He and his conjoined twin Shiva are born at Mission Hospital (called "Missing" in accordance with the local pronunciation), Addis Ababa , in ... (Wikipedia)
East of Eden
by John Steinbeck
Exploration of the timeless struggle between good and evil, set against a backdrop of a family saga.
In his journal, Nobel Prize winner John Steinbeck called East of Eden “the first book,” and indeed it has the primordial power and simplicity of myth. Set in the rich farmland of California’s Salinas ... (Goodreads)
