Literary theme analysis, by a book like {foo}
Books about Escape
Peter Pan
by J.M. Barrie
A whimsical tale of a boy who refuses to grow up, exploring the wonders of Neverland.
Peter Pan by J. M. Barrie Peter Pan, the mischievous boy who refuses to grow up, lands in the Darling's proper middle-class home to look for his shadow. He befriends Wendy, John and Michael and ... (Goodreads)
Rebecca
by Daphne du Maurier
A young woman's mysterious and suspenseful journey of self-discovery as she unravels the secrets of a previous inhabitant of her new home.
While working as the companion to a rich American woman on holiday in Monte Carlo, the unnamed narrator, a naïve young woman in her early 20s, becomes acquainted with a wealthy Englishman, George ... (Wikipedia)
Into the Wild
by Jon Krakauer
A young man's journey of self-discovery, traveling into the wilderness of Alaska.
Librarian's Note: An alternate cover edition can be found, here, In April, 1992, a young man from a well-to-do family hitchhiked to Alaska and walked alone into the wilderness north of Mt. McKinley. ... (Goodreads)
Dragonsong
by Anne McCaffrey
A young girl's quest to unlock the secrets of dragon music and save her world.
Taking place seven years after the events of, Dragonflight, , the book opens with Menolly , youngest daughter of Masterfisher Yanus, Sea Holder of Half-Circle Seahold, ,[e], in the fictional world of ... (Wikipedia)
The Night in Lisbon
by Erich Maria Remarque
Two refugees meet in Lisbon during WWII and share their stories of love, loss, and survival.
The story takes place in the opening months of World War II. Josef Schwarz is a refugee who offers his visa and tickets for America to another refugee desperate to leave Lisbon. He does this in ... (Wikipedia)
Fifty Shades Freed
by E.L. James
A woman's journey of self-discovery as she navigates a passionate, tumultuous relationship.
Anastasia 'Ana' Steele and Christian Grey return to Seattle after a long honeymoon. Christian is upset to find that Ana has kept her maiden name at work. After some resistance, Ana relents and ... (Wikipedia)
A Local Habitation
by Seanan McGuire
A private investigator is sent to a fairy kingdom to investigate a computer virus. But things are not as they seem.
October "Toby" Daye is a changeling, the daughter of Amandine of the fae and a mortal man. Like her mother, she is gifted in blood magic, able to read what has happened to a person through a mere ... (Goodreads)
The Baron in the Trees
by Italo Calvino
A young boy's journey of self-discovery as he lives among the trees, away from society.
A landmark new translation of a Calvino classic, a whimsical, spirited novel that imagines a life lived entirely on its own terms Cosimo di Rondó, a young Italian nobleman of the eighteenth century, ... (Barnes & Noble)
On the Island
by Tracey Garvis Graves
A story of survival, friendship, and love between two people stranded on a desert island.
When thirty-year-old English teacher Anna Emerson is offered a job tutoring T.J. Callahan at his family's summer rental in the Maldives, she accepts without hesitation; a working vacation on a ... (Goodreads)
The Girl with Seven Names: A North Korean Defector’s Story
by Hyeonseo Lee
A harrowing journey of escape from a repressive regime and the struggle to find a new life in freedom.
An extraordinary insight into life under one of the world’s most ruthless and secretive dictatorships – and the story of one woman’s terrifying struggle to avoid capture/repatriation and guide her ... (Goodreads)
Room
by Emma Donoghue
A young boy's struggle to survive and escape after being held captive in a small room.
Jack lives with his Ma in Room , a secured single-room outbuilding containing a small kitchen, a basic bathroom, a wardrobe, a bed, and a TV set. Because it is all he has ever known, Jack believes ... (Wikipedia)
1Q84
by Haruki Murakami
A surreal journey of two people entangled in a mysterious dual-world conspiracy.
The events of 1Q84 take place in Tokyo during a fictionalized year of 1984, with the first volume set between April and June, the second between July and September, and the third between October and ... (Wikipedia)
Not Without My Daughter
by Betty Mahmoody
A woman's dramatic fight for freedom from an oppressive husband in a foreign land.
It was August 3, 1984. Moody, Betty, and Mahtob had spent two days traveling from their home in Detroit to Moody's native country of Iran. In preparation for their arrival, Betty, at Moody's request, ... (Wikipedia)
Tarzan of the Apes
by Edgar Rice Burroughs
A wild adventure as a boy is raised by apes in the jungles of Africa.
John and Alice (Rutherford) Clayton, Viscount and Lady Greystoke from England , are marooned in the western coastal jungles of equatorial Africa in 1888. Some time later, their son John Clayton II , ... (Wikipedia)
The Beach
by Alex Garland
A young backpacker discovers a hidden beach paradise in Thailand, but the utopia is not as perfect as it seems.
In a cheap hotel on Khao San Road in Bangkok , Richard, a young British backpacker, meets a mentally disturbed Scot going by the alias of Daffy Duck , who gives him a hand-drawn map with directions ... (Wikipedia)
Beyond the Highland Mist
by Karen Marie Moning
A mysterious Scottish Highlander, a brave woman on a quest for her true identity, and a love so powerful it knows no bounds.
He would sell his warrior soul to possess her... An alluring laird... He was known throughout the kingdom as Hawk, legendary predator of the battlefield and the boudoir. No woman could refuse his ... (Goodreads)
Gulliver's Travels: Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World.
by Jonathan Swift
A fanciful journey to lands of tiny people, giant people, talking horses, and other strange creatures.
The travel begins with a short preamble in which Lemuel Gulliver gives a brief outline of his life and history before his voyages. During his first voyage, Gulliver is washed ashore after a shipwreck ... (Wikipedia)
The Long Walk: The True Story of a Trek to Freedom
by Slavomir Rawicz
An incredible journey of survival, a man's trek of over 4000 miles to freedom.
The harrowing true tale of seven escaped Soviet prisoners who desperately marched out of Siberia through China, the Gobi Desert, Tibet, and over the Himalayas to British India. ... (Goodreads)
Journey by Moonlight
by Antal Szerb
A man's journey through Italy becomes a journey of self-discovery, as he confronts his past and questions his present.
A major classic of 1930s literature, Antal Szerb's Journey by Moonlight (Utas és Holdvilág) is the fantastically moving and darkly funny story of a bourgeois businessman torn between duty and desire. ... (Goodreads)
The Pillowman
by Martin McDonagh
A darkly comic tale of a writer accused of murder, testing the limits of storytelling.
Ariel and Tupolski interrogate Katurian in a police room, adopting a good cop/bad cop routine with Ariel happily playing the bad cop. At first Katurian does not know why he is being questioned, and ... (Wikipedia)
Escape from Camp 14: One Man's Remarkable Odyssey from North Korea to Freedom in the West
by Blaine Harden
True story of a man who escaped from a North Korean prison camp and his journey to freedom.
A, New York Times, bestseller, the shocking story of one of the few people born in a North Korean political prison to have escaped and survived. North Korea is isolated and hungry, bankrupt and ... (Goodreads)
Papillon
by Henri Charrière
An account of an unjustly convicted man's escape from a notorious French penal colony.
Henri Charrière, called "Papillon," for the butterfly tattoo on his chest, was convicted in Paris in 1931 of a murder he did not commit. Sentenced to life imprisonment in the penal colony of French ... (Goodreads)
The Walking Dead: Compendium One
by Robert Kirkman
Survivors of a zombie apocalypse battle hordes of the undead while struggling to retain their humanity.
Introducing the first eight volumes of the fan-favorite, New York Times Best Seller series collected into one massive paperback collection. In a world ruled by the dead, we are forced to finally ... (Goodreads)
The Woman in the Dunes
by Kōbō Abe
A man finds himself stuck in a remote village, struggling to escape a mysterious sand pit.
In 1955, , Jumpei Niki, , a schoolteacher from Tokyo, visits a fishing village to collect insects. After missing the last bus, he is led by the villagers, in an act of apparent hospitality, to a ... (Wikipedia)
Captain Blood
by Rafael Sabatini
An adventurous tale of a surgeon wrongfully convicted of treason, and his daring escape to the Caribbean.
Short Description: Peter Blood, an Irish physician and soldier in England in the 1680's, is wrongly convicted of treason and sentenced to indentured slavery in the Caribbean. He escapes and becomes ... (Goodreads)
Futuristic Violence and Fancy Suits
by David Wong
An outlandish adventure of a young woman struggling to survive in a madcap world dominated by the wealthy and powerful.
A Winner of the 2016 Alex Awards Nightmarish villains with superhuman enhancements. An all-seeing social network that tracks your every move. Mysterious, smooth-talking power players who lurk behind ... (Barnes & Noble)
Under the Tuscan Sun
by Frances Mayes
A woman's journey of self-discovery and renewal through a move to Tuscany.
The story details the trials that Frances and her husband Ed had to go through to renovate their Tuscan property, an abandoned villa ( Bramasole ) in rural Cortona in Tuscany . As university ... (Wikipedia)
We Die Alone: A WWII Epic of Escape and Endurance
by David Howarth
A gripping true story of a Norwegian resistance fighter's escape from the Nazis and his incredible journey to freedom.
If this story of espionage and survival were a novel, readers might dismiss the Shackleton-like exploits of its hero as too fantastic to be taken seriously. But respected historian David A. Howarth ... (Goodreads)
Follow the River
by James Alexander Thom
A woman's epic journey of survival and courage, escaping captivity in the American wilderness.
Mary Ingles was twenty-three, married, and pregnant, when Shawnee Indians invaded her peaceful Virginia settlement, killed the men and women, then took her captive. For months, she lived with them, ... (Goodreads)
The Magic Toyshop
by Angela Carter
A young girl's fantastical journey of self-discovery, learning to navigate the complexities of a strange new world.
The novel starts with Melanie stealing her mother's wedding dress and venturing out in the night into her family's property. However, on her way home, she realises she forgot the door key and is ... (Wikipedia)
Born to Run
by Bruce Springsteen
Autobiographical journey of Bruce Springsteen's life and career as a musician.
“Writing about yourself is a funny business…But in a project like this, the writer has made one promise, to show the reader his mind. In these pages, I’ve tried to do this.” —Bruce Springsteen, from ... (Goodreads)
The Thing on the Doorstep and Other Weird Stories
by H.P. Lovecraft
A collection of eerie and unsettling tales that explore the limits of human knowledge and sanity.
A definitive edition of stories by the master of supernatural fiction Howard Phillips Lovecraft's unique contribution to American literature was a melding of traditional supernaturalism (derived ... (Goodreads)
The Beach House
by James Patterson
A family's summer holiday turns into a life-or-death struggle when their beach house is targeted by a ruthless criminal.
Jack Mullen is a driven student of the law. His brother Peter is a servant of the rich, parking the cars of the Hamptons' elite –- and perhaps satisfying their more intimate needs as well. Then ... (Goodreads)
Joy in the Morning
by P.G. Wodehouse
A lighthearted romantic comedy following the misadventures of an English couple.
The novel opens with a brief flashforward of Bertie and Jeeves driving home, with Bertie remarking that there is an expression, something about Joy, that describes what he has just been through. ... (Wikipedia)
Hawksong
by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes
A young shapeshifter princess marries the enemy prince to end a long-standing war, but danger and betrayal lurk in the court.
The book centers on two different kinds of shapeshifters: the avians and the serpiente. The avians have birds for second forms and their royal line consists of golden hawks. Their leader is the Tuuli ... (Wikipedia)
The City of Ember
by Jeanne DuPrau
A city on the brink of destruction, two young people race against time to unlock its secrets.
As the book starts off, a coalition of architects, scientists, and doctors known as "The Builders" have built Ember, an isolated, underground city with enough supplies for its inhabitants to survive ... (Wikipedia)
The Mysterious Island
by Jules Verne
A group of castaways survive and escape their strange island through ingenuity and exploration.
During the American Civil War , five Northern prisoners of war escape during the Siege of Richmond, Virginia , by hijacking a hydrogen-filled observation balloon. The escapees are Cyrus Smith , a ... (Wikipedia)
Concrete Island
by J.G. Ballard
A man crashes his car on a deserted highway island and struggles to survive in a harsh, concrete landscape.
On a day in April, just after three o'clock in the afternoon, Robert Maitland's car crashes over the concrete parapet of a high-speed highway onto the island below, where he is injured and, finally, ... (Goodreads)
No Exit
by Taylor Adams
A young woman's fight for survival against a mysterious captor.
“What a box of tricks! This full-throttle thriller, dark and driving, rivals Agatha Christie for sheer ingenuity and James Patterson for flat-out speed. Swift, sharp, and relentless.” — A. J. Finn, ... (Barnes & Noble)
The Great Escape
by Paul Brickhill
True story of Allied prisoners of war who escaped from a German camp during World War II.
They were American and British air force officers in a German prison camp. With only their bare hands and the crudest of homemade tools, they sank shafts, forged passports, faked weapons, and ... (Goodreads)
Inside Out
by Maria V. Snyder
Trella, a rebel in a dystopian society, uncovers secrets about her world and fights for change.
Keep Your Head Down.,Don't Get Noticed.,Or Else. I'm Trella. I'm a scrub. A nobody. One of thousands who work the lower levels, keeping Inside clean for the Uppers. I've got one friend, do my job and ... (Barnes & Noble)
Dark Side of the Moon
by Sherrilyn Kenyon
A paranormal thriller exploring the secrets of a supernatural world.
Susan Michaels was once the hottest reporter on the Beltway Beat until a major scandal ruined her life and left her writing stories about alien babies and Elvis sightings. Life as she once knew it is ... (Barnes & Noble)
Lockdown
by Alexander Gordon Smith
A group of teens are trapped in a high-security prison during a pandemic outbreak. They must fight to survive and escape.
Furnace Penitentiary: the world’s most secure prison for young offenders, buried a mile beneath the earth’s surface. Convicted of a murder he didn’t commit, sentenced to life without parole, “new ... (Goodreads)
Runner
by Patrick Lee
Sam Dryden, a retired special forces operative, helps a young girl on the run from unknown pursuers. A thrilling and action-packed adventure.
Sam Dryden, retired special forces, lives a quiet life in a small town on the coast of Southern California. While out on a run in the middle of the night, a young girl runs into him on the seaside ... (Barnes & Noble)
Predator's Gold
by Philip Reeve
An adventure story in a post-apocalyptic steampunk world, featuring daring escapes and thrilling battles.
In this breathtaking sequel to his award-winning Mortal Engines, Reeve plunges readers into a ruthless and terrifyingly believable world where cities eat each other, betrayal is as common as ice, and ... (Goodreads)
Cosmétique de l'ennemi
by Amélie Nothomb
"Without wanting to, I have committed the perfect crime: nobody saw me coming, except for the victim. The proof, I am still free." The whole story takes place at an airport. Jérôme Angust, a man on a ... (Wikipedia)
Ice
by Anna Kavan
A surreal and haunting tale of addiction, obsession, and a woman's search for escape in a frozen, apocalyptic world.
In this haunting and surreal novel, the narrator and a man known as the warden search for an elusive girl in a frozen, seemingly post-nuclear, apocalyptic landscape. The country has been invaded and ... (Goodreads)
The One Man
by Andrew Gross
A WWII spy mission to uncover secrets of the Nazis' nuclear program.
1944. Physics professor Alfred Mendl is separated from his family and sent to the men’s camp, where all of his belongings are tossed on a roaring fire. His books, his papers, his life’s work. The ... (Goodreads)
Trois fois dès l'aube (Du monde entier)
by Alessandro Baricco
Si incontreranno per tre volte, ma ogni volta sarà l’unica, e la prima, e l’ultima. “Nell’ultimo romanzo che ho scritto, Mr Gwyn , si accenna, a un certo punto, a un piccolo libro scritto da un ... (Goodreads)
Ladder of Years
by Anne Tyler
A woman's quest to find herself after leaving her family behind and embarking on a new life.
Married with three almost-grown children, Delia Grinstead has vanished without trace or reason. But for Delia, walking away from it all is an impulse that will lead her into a new, exciting, and ... (Goodreads)
Mrs. Caliban
by Rachel Ingalls
A housewife's mundane life is turned upside down when she falls in love with a sea monster. A surreal and poignant exploration of loneliness and connection.
In the quiet suburbs, while Dorothy is doing chores and waiting for her husband to come home from work, not in the least anticipating romance, she hears a strange radio announcement about a monster ... (Goodreads)
Fade
by Lisa McMann
A teenage boy discovers he has the ability to enter people's dreams and alter them, but his power comes with dangerous consequences.
SOME NIGHTMARES NEVER END. For Janie and Cabel, real life is getting tougher than the dreams. They're just trying to carve out a little (secret) time together, but no such luck. Disturbing things are ... (Goodreads)
Run
by Blake Crouch
A family on the run from a dangerous government agency that wants to use their secret abilities for their own purposes.
For fans of Stephen King, Dean Koontz, and Thomas Harris...picture this: a landscape of American genocide...5 D A Y S A G O...A rash of bizarre murders swept the country...Senseless. Brutal. ... (Barnes & Noble)
Trout Fishing in America
by Richard Brautigan
A poetic and humorous exploration of the American experience.
Richard Brautigan was a literary idol of the 1960s and 1970s whose comic genius and iconoclastic vision of American life caught the imagination of young people everywhere. He came of age during the ... (Goodreads)
Lady Cottington's Pressed Fairy Book
by Terry Jones
A mischievous young girl captures fairies and presses them into her book, creating a whimsical and humorous collection of illustrations.
This is a reproduction of the diary of Lady Angelica Cottingham, which features pressed garden fairies. Or rather the psychic images of the fairies, who quickly turned it into a game, where they ... (Goodreads)
Changing Planes
by Ursula K. Le Guin
A collection of short stories exploring alternate worlds accessed through airport layovers. Each story offers a unique perspective on society and humanity.
Sita Dulip has missed her flight. But instead of listening to garbled announcements in the airport, she has found a method of bypassing the crowds at the desks, the long lines at the toilets, the ... (Goodreads)
The Stranger in the Woods: The Extraordinary Story of the Last True Hermit
by Michael Finkel
Story of a man who isolated himself in the woods for 27 years, and the journey of understanding his motivations.
Many people dream of escaping modern life, but most will never act on it. This is the remarkable true story of a man who lived alone in the woods of Maine for 27 years, making this dream a ... (Goodreads)
X'ed Out
by Charles Burns
A surreal graphic novel that follows a young man's journey through a nightmarish world of memories, dreams, and strange creatures.
Doug is having a strange night. A weird buzzing noise on the other side of the wall has woken him up, and there, across the room, next to a huge hole torn out of the bricks, sits his beloved cat, ... (Goodreads)
Lady Oracle
by Margaret Atwood
A woman's journey of self-discovery, exploring her identity and place in the world.
The novel's protagonist , Joan Foster, is a romance novelist who has spent her life running away from difficult situations. The novel alternates between flashbacks from the past and scenes from the ... (Wikipedia)
I Am David
by Anne Holm
An orphan's journey of escape and redemption, seeking freedom and a place to belong.
12-year-old David has lived in a concentration camp for as long as he can remember. While the people who run the camp are only referred to as them , later in the book it is stated that they came to ... (Wikipedia)
Shouldn't You Be in School?
by Lemony Snicket
Young detective investigates a mysterious organization while trying to avoid being sent back to school.
S. Theodora Markson and her apprentice Lemony Snicket are hired to investigate a case of arson. Sharon Haines, an employee of the Department of Education informs Snicket of the fire, and becomes ... (Wikipedia)
The Impossible Lives of Greta Wells
by Andrew Sean Greer
Greta Wells navigates parallel lives in different eras, exploring love, loss, and the complexities of identity.
1985. After the death of her beloved twin brother, Felix, and the break up with her long-time lover, Nathan, Greta Wells embarks on a radical psychiatric treatment to alleviate her suffocating ... (Goodreads)
Day 21
by Kass Morgan
The 100 teens struggle to survive on a post-apocalyptic Earth, while the adults face their own challenges in space.
It's been 21 days since the hundred landed on Earth. They're the only humans to set foot on the planet in centuries... or so they thought. Book 2 in The 100 series, now a popular show on the CW ... (Barnes & Noble)
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