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Recommendations based on The Essex Serpentby Sarah Perry
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Melmoth
by Sarah Perry
A haunting tale of a woman cursed to wander the earth, seeking out those who have committed unforgivable sins.
“Masterful…scary and smart, working as a horror story but also a philosophical inquiry into the nature of will and love. Perry did as much in her richly praised novel The Essex Serpent, but this is a ... (Barnes & Noble)
The Miniaturist
by Jessie Burton
Set in 17th century Amsterdam, a woman is given a mysterious gift of a dollhouse replica of her home.
Set in seventeenth century Amsterdam–a city ruled by glittering wealth and oppressive religion--a masterful debut steeped in atmosphere and shimmering with mystery, in the tradition of Emma Donoghue, ... (Goodreads)
Wolf Hall
by Hilary Mantel
A historical fiction about the rise of Thomas Cromwell in the court of Henry VIII.
England in the 1520s is a heartbeat from disaster. If the king dies without a male heir, the country could be destroyed by civil war. Henry VIII wants to annul his marriage of twenty years and marry ... (Goodreads)
Slow Horses
by Mick Herron
A group of disgraced MI5 spies are tasked with solving a murder case, uncovering secrets in the process.
The first book in CWA Gold Dagger Award-winning British espionage series starring a team of MI5 agents united by one common bond: They've screwed up royally and will do anything to redeem themselves. ... (Goodreads)
Life After Life
by Kate Atkinson
A woman lives multiple lives, reflecting on choices and consequences and the power of love.
The novel has an unusual structure, repeatedly looping back in time to describe alternative possible lives for its central character, Ursula Todd, who is born on 11 February 1910 to an ... (Wikipedia)
The Bone Clocks
by David Mitchell
A time-spanning saga of a war between two powerful supernatural forces.
Following a scalding row with her mother, fifteen-year-old Holly Sykes slams the door on her old life. But Holly is no typical teenage runaway: a sensitive child once contacted by voices she knew ... (Goodreads)
The Power
by Naomi Alderman
A world where women have the power to control electricity, and use it to fight against gender-based oppression.
In a matriarchal society, a gushing male writer writes to an influential author about his fictional account of how the matriarchy came to be. Five thousand years earlier (in our current time), men ... (Wikipedia)
A God in Ruins
by Kate Atkinson
An exploration of the life of a World War II pilot and the effects of trauma on his family.
The novel is about the life of Teddy Todd (younger brother of Ursula Todd, the protagonist of the companion work,, Life After Life, ). Events in his life are not revealed in chronological order. The ... (Wikipedia)
His Bloody Project: Documents Relating to the Case of Roderick Macrae
by Graeme Macrae Burnet
Historical fiction on a haunting trial of a young man accused of a triple murder.
Man Booker Prize Finalist., LA Times, Book Prize Finalist., New York Times, Editor’s Choice. American Booksellers Association National Indie Bestseller! Named on “Best Book” lists by, Newsweek,, ... (Barnes & Noble)
The Warden
by Anthony Trollope
A moral story of a struggling clergyman and the corruption of church institutions.
The Warden centers on Mr. Harding, a clergyman of great personal integrity who is nevertheless in possession of an income from a charity far in excess of the sum devoted to the purposes of the ... (Goodreads)
Transcription
by Kate Atkinson
A young woman is recruited into MI5 during WWII and becomes entangled in a web of espionage and deceit. Decades later, her past comes back to haunt her.
In 1940, eighteen-year old Juliet Armstrong is reluctantly recruited into the world of espionage. Sent to an obscure department of MI5 tasked with monitoring the comings and goings of British Fascist ... (Goodreads)
The Heart's Invisible Furies
by John Boyne
A man's life journey spanning seven decades and three continents, searching for love and acceptance.
Cyril Avery is not a real Avery or at least that’s what his adoptive parents tell him. And he never will be. But if he isn’t a real Avery, then who is he? Born out of wedlock to a teenage girl cast ... (Goodreads)
The Underground Railroad
by Colson Whitehead
An escaped slave's daring escape to freedom, fighting against the brutality of slavery.
The story is told in the third person, focusing mainly on Cora. Scattered single chapters also focus on Cora's mother Mabel, the slavecatcher Ridgeway, a reluctant slave sympathizer named Ethel, and ... (Wikipedia)
A Little Life
by Hanya Yanagihara
A powerful tale of four friends navigating life's hardships and the devastating effects of trauma.
The novel follows the lives of four friends in New York City from college through to middle-age. It focuses particularly on Jude, a lawyer with a mysterious past, ambiguous ethnicity, and unexplained ... (Wikipedia)
The Silent Companions
by Laura Purcell
A newlywed woman is sent to live in a creepy mansion with her husband's family and discovers a collection of eerie wooden figures that seem to have a life of their own.
When newly widowed Elsie is sent to see out her pregnancy at her late husband's crumbling country estate, The Bridge, what greets her is far from the life of wealth and privilege she was expecting . ... (Goodreads)
Commonwealth
by Ann Patchett
Intertwining story of two families across multiple generations, and how their lives become intertwined.
It started at Franny Keating’s christening party. Bert Cousins wasn’t even invited, but looking for an excuse to get out of the house, away from his three noisy children and pregnant wife for a few ... (Wikipedia)
The Crow Road
by Iain Banks
A young man's journey of self-discovery and family secrets, set in Scotland.
This Bildungsroman is set in the fictional Argyll town of Gallanach (by its description, reminiscent of Oban but on the north east shore of Loch Crinan ), the real village of Lochgair , and in ... (Wikipedia)
A Spool of Blue Thread
by Anne Tyler
A family's history is revealed through the stories of four generations of its members.
A freshly observed, joyful and wrenching, funny and true new novel from Anne Tyler "It was a beautiful, breezy, yellow-and-green afternoon." This is how Abby Whitshank always begins the story of how ... (Goodreads)
The Gustav Sonata
by Rose Tremain
A tale of two friends in Switzerland, spanning over 70 years, exploring the complexities of friendship, love, and betrayal.
Winner of the 2016 National Jewish Book Award for Fiction, , A poignant tale about the enduring friendship between two men under the shadow of the Second World War., Gustav Perle grows up in a small ... (Barnes & Noble)
Exit West
by Mohsin Hamid
Reflection on displacement and immigration as two refugees traverse the world in search of a new life.
Nadia and Saeed meet when they are working students in an unnamed city. Saeed is more conservative and still lives at home, as custom generally requires, but the more independent Nadia has chosen to ... (Wikipedia)
Milkman
by Anna Burns
A young woman navigates the dangerous political and social landscape of Northern Ireland during the Troubles.
In this unnamed city, to be interesting is dangerous. Middle sister, our protagonist, is busy attempting to keep her mother from discovering her maybe-boyfriend and to keep everyone in the dark about ... (Goodreads)
Autumn
by Ali Smith
A novel about the friendship between an elderly man and a young woman, exploring themes of memory, time, and the changing of seasons.
Daniel Gluck, a 101-year-old former songwriter, lies asleep and dreaming in his care home. He is regularly visited by 32-year-old Elisabeth Demand, who had been his next door neighbour as a young ... (Wikipedia)
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)
The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry
by Rachel Joyce
An elderly man's unexpected quest of faith, discovering the power of hope and love.
Harold Fry, 65, has cut the lawn outside his home at Kingsbridge on the south coast of Devon when he receives a letter. A colleague of twenty years ago, Queenie Hennessy, has cancer and is in a ... (Wikipedia)
A Constellation of Vital Phenomena
by Anthony Marra
An exploration of the aftermath of a civil war, and the power of human connection.
A brilliant debut novel that brings to life an abandoned hospital where a tough-minded doctor decides to harbor a hunted young girl, with powerful consequences. In the final days of December 2004, in ... (Goodreads)
The House of Silk
by Anthony Horowitz
A thrilling detective story set in Victorian England, unravelling a devious criminal plot.
The House of Silk begins with a brief, personal recounting of events by Watson, much like that in, A Study in Scarlet, by the original author, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The reader is informed of the ... (Wikipedia)
Station Eleven
by Emily St. John Mandel
Post-apocalyptic exploration of a world drastically changed after a pandemic.
An audacious, darkly glittering novel set in the eerie days of civilization’s collapse,, Station Eleven, tells the spellbinding story of a Hollywood star, his would-be savior, and a nomadic group of ... (Barnes & Noble)
The Loney
by Andrew Michael Hurley
A haunting tale of a pilgrimage to a desolate stretch of the English coastline, where dark secrets and supernatural forces lurk.
"If it had another name, I never knew, but the locals called it the Loney - that strange nowhere between the Wyre and the Lune where Hanny and I went every Easter time with Mummer, Farther, Mr and ... (Goodreads)
The Nix
by Nathan Hill
A middle-aged man's quest to discover the truth about his mother and his own identity.
The Nix is an American epic novel in 10 parts that follows community college professor of English, Samuel Andresen-Anderson who is struggling to find meaning in his life in the years following his ... (Wikipedia)
Tombland
by C.J. Sansom
In 1549, lawyer Matthew Shardlake investigates a murder in Norfolk during the Kett Rebellion. A tale of political intrigue and social unrest.
Spring, 1549. Two years after the death of Henry VIII, England is sliding into chaos…, The king, Edward VI, is eleven years old. His uncle Edward Seymour, Duke of Somerset, rules as Protector. ... (Goodreads)
