Recommendations based on Perfectby Rachel Joyce

* statistically, based on millions of data-points provided by fellow humans

  1. 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)

  2. Elizabeth Is Missing

    by Emma Healey
    An elderly woman's struggle with dementia, as she desperately searches for her missing friend.

    Maud, a grandmother in her 80s living with Alzheimer's disease , relies on sticky notes to get through the day as her memory slowly deteriorates. One day her best friend, another elderly woman named ... (Wikipedia)

  3. The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy

    by Rachel Joyce
    A story of friendship, love and courage told through the last letter of a dying woman.

    When Queenie Hennessy discovers that Harold Fry is walking the length of England to save her, and all she has to do is wait, she is shocked. Her note had explained she was dying. How can she wait? A ... (Goodreads)

  4. Dominion

    by C.J. Sansom
    Historical mystery set in 15th century England, exploring themes of power, loyalty and redemption.

    1952. Twelve years have passed since Churchill lost to the appeasers, and Britain surrendered to Nazi Germany after Dunkirk. As the long German war against Russia rages on in the east, the British ... (Goodreads)

  5. Before I Go to Sleep

    by S.J. Watson
    A woman suffering from memory loss wakes up each day without the knowledge of her past.

    The novel is a psychological thriller about a woman suffering from anterograde amnesia . , She wakes up every day with no knowledge of who she is and the novel follows her as she tries to reconstruct ... (Wikipedia)

  6. 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)

  7. Gormenghast

    by Mervyn Peake
    A darkly humorous fantasy epic of a crumbling castle and its eccentric inhabitants.

    Titus Groan is seven years old. Lord and heir to the crumbling castle Gormenghast. A gothic labyrinth of roofs and turrets, cloisters and corridors, stairwells and dungeons, it is also the cobwebbed ... (Goodreads)

  8. Afterwards

    by Rosamund Lupton
    A mother investigates her daughter's death from beyond the grave, uncovering secrets and protecting her family.

    There is a fire and they are in there. They are in there... Black smoke stains a summer blue sky. A school is on fire. And one mother, Grace, sees the smoke and rush. She knows her teenage daughter ... (Goodreads)

  9. And the Mountains Echoed

    by Khaled Hosseini
    Interconnected stories of family and love, tracing the consequences of decisions made throughout life.

    The novel opens in the year 1952. Saboor, an impoverished farmer from the fictional village of Shadbagh, decides to sell his three-year-old daughter Pari to a wealthy, childless couple in Kabul. ... (Wikipedia)

  10. The Casual Vacancy

    by J.K. Rowling
    A small town is split by a heated local election, sparking social tensions and hidden secrets.

    A BIG NOVEL ABOUT A SMALL TOWN ... When Barry Fairbrother dies in his early forties, the town of Pagford is left in shock. Pagford is, seemingly, an English idyll, with a cobbled market square and an ... (Goodreads)

  11. A Town Like Alice

    by Nevil Shute
    A young woman's courageous journey from a Japanese war camp to a new life in Australia.

    The story falls broadly into three parts. In post-World War II London, Jean Paget, a secretary in a leather goods factory, is informed by solicitor Noel Strachan that she has inherited a considerable ... (Wikipedia)

  12. 419

    by Will Ferguson
    A Nigerian email scam spirals into a global web of deceit, revealing the dark side of the internet and human nature.

    A startlingly original tale of heartbreak and suspense A car tumbles down a snowy ravine. Accident or suicide? On the other side of the world, a young woman walks out of a sandstorm in sub-Saharan ... (Goodreads)

  13. The Monogram Murders

    by Sophie Hannah
    Hercule Poirot is back to solve a new mystery involving three murders and a cryptic note. A classic whodunit with a modern twist.

    Poirot is taking a holiday from private-detective work, though in fact he has only travelled to the guest house nearest his London flat; he can even see the flat from the house's parlour window. One ... (Wikipedia)

  14. Pay It Forward

    by Catherine Ryan Hyde
    A young boy's inspiring acts of kindness to others, sparking a movement of generosity and compassion.

    When twelve-year-old Trevor McKinney begins seventh grade in Atascadero , California, his social studies teacher gives the class an assignment to devise and put into action a plan that will change ... (Wikipedia)

  15. Winter in Madrid

    by C.J. Sansom
    A spy thriller set during the Spanish Civil War, uncovering hidden truths and secrets.

    After his recovery, Dunkirk veteran Harry Brett is recruited by the British Secret Service to make contact with Sandy Forsyth, a shady Madrid -based British businessman and a former school friend. ... (Wikipedia)

  16. The Secret History

    by Donna Tartt
    A small group of misfit college students uncover a sinister secret and their lives become entangled with dangerous consequences.

    Under the influence of their charismatic classics professor, a group of clever, eccentric misfits at an elite New England college discover a way of thinking and living that is a world away from the ... (Goodreads)

  17. How I Live Now

    by Meg Rosoff
    A girl's war-torn journey of survival, courage, and love.

    Fifteen-year-old Elizabeth (who goes by the name of Daisy) is sent from the US to stay with her aunt Penn and her children, Daisy's cousins, on a remote farm in the United Kingdom during the outbreak ... (Wikipedia)

  18. Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet

    by Jamie Ford
    A touching story of the intersection of love, family, and culture during World War II.

    Henry Lee, the son of Chinese parents in Seattle , Washington, is the only Asian child at his elementary school. His father makes him wear an "I Am Chinese" button so he will not be mistaken for a ... (Wikipedia)

  19. Love Anthony

    by Lisa Genova
    A woman's journey of grief and hope, as she discovers the power of unconditional love.

    From bestselling author and neuroscientist Lisa Genova—whose novel Still Alice is now an Academy Award-winning film starring Julianne Moore—comes a novel about autism, friendship, and unconditional ... (Barnes & Noble)

  20. Half of a Yellow Sun

    by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
    Story of two sisters navigating a civil war in Nigeria, and the effects of colonialism.

    The novel takes place in Nigeria prior to and during the Nigerian Civil War (1967–70). The effect of the war is shown through the relationships of five people's lives including the twin daughters of ... (Wikipedia)

  21. The Sculptress

    by Minette Walters
    An investigative journalist unravels a mystery of a vigilante killer in search of justice.

    In prison, they call her the Sculptress for the strange figurines she carves - symbols of the day she hacked her mother and sister to pieces and reassembled them in a blood-drenched jigsaw. Sullen ... (Goodreads)

  22. The Tenderness of Wolves

    by Stef Penney
    In 1867 Canada, a woman sets out to find her missing son and becomes embroiled in a murder investigation.

    Structurally, The Tenderness of Wolves is divided into four parts: “Disappearance”, “The Fields of Heaven”, “The Winter Partners”, and “The Sickness of Long Thinking”. The novel opens with the ... (Wikipedia)

  23. The Shipping News

    by Annie Proulx
    A man's attempt to rebuild his life in a small Newfoundland town, discovering compassion and joy.

    The story centers around Quoyle, a newspaper reporter from upstate New York , whose father had emigrated from Newfoundland . Shortly after his parents' joint suicide, Quoyle's unfaithful and abusive ... (Wikipedia)

  24. As Chimney Sweepers Come to Dust

    by Alan Bradley
    An orphaned girl's adventure of solving a decades-old murder at the mysterious Miss Bodycote's Female Academy.

    NEW YORK TIMES, BESTSELLER,Flavia de Luce—“part Harriet the Spy, part Violet Baudelaire from Lemony Snicket’s, A Series of Unfortunate Events,” (,The New York Times Book Review,)—takes her remarkable ... (Goodreads)

  25. The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry

    by Gabrielle Zevin
    Life of an isolated bookseller is transformed when an unexpected visitor brings unexpected joy.

    “Marvelously optimistic about the future of books and bookstores and the people who love both.”—, The Washington Post, A. J. Fikry’s life is not at all what he expected it to be. He lives alone, his ... (Barnes & Noble)

  26. The One-in-a-Million Boy

    by Monica Wood
    A boy's legacy of kindness, and the healing power of community, remembered by the people he touched.

    The story of, your life never starts at the beginning. Don't they teach you anything at school?, So says 104-year-old Ona to the 11-year-old boy who's been sent to help her out every Saturday ... (Barnes & Noble)

  27. Orphan Train

    by Christina Baker Kline
    A story of two women's intertwined lives, spanning generations and crossing continents.

    The #1 New York Times Bestseller “A lovely novel about the search for family that also happens to illuminate a fascinating and forgotten chapter of America’s history. Beautiful.”—Ann Packer Moving ... (Barnes & Noble)

  28. A Fine Balance

    by Rohinton Mistry
    A gripping story of four unlikely lives intertwined in the tumult of India's caste system.

    The book exposes the changes in Indian society from independence in 1947 to the Emergency called by Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi . Mistry was generally critical of Indira Gandhi in the book. ... (Wikipedia)

  29. 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)

  30. The Shock of the Fall

    by Nathan Filer
    A young man's struggle with mental illness and his journey to find understanding and acceptance.

    What begins as the story of a lost boy turns into a story of a brave man yearning to understand what happened that night, in the years since, and to his very person. While on vacation with their ... (Goodreads)