Literary theme analysis, by a book like {foo}
Books about Introverted
Speak, Memory
by Vladimir Nabokov
Autobiographical journey exploring the intimate memories of author's past.
This is an older alternate cover edition for ISBN 0141183225/ 9780141183220. A newer edition may be found here . From one of the 20th century's great writers comes one of the finest autobiographies ... (Goodreads)
Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic
by Alison Bechdel
An autobiographical story of a daughter's complex relationship with her father and her own journey of self-discovery.
The narrative of Fun Home is non-linear and recursive. , Incidents are told and re-told in the light of new information or themes. , Bechdel describes the structure of Fun Home as a labyrinth , ... (Wikipedia)
Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?
by Joyce Carol Oates
A teenage girl is confronted by a mysterious man who threatens her and her family.
Connie is a pretty, self-conscious 15 year old girl. She has a strained relationship with her mother, who is jealous of her youth and beauty. Her mother constantly compares her to her sister, who is ... (Wikipedia)
Steppenwolf
by Hermann Hesse
The inner struggles of a tortured soul as he searches for redemption.
The book is presented as a manuscript written by its protagonist , a middle-aged man named Harry Haller, who leaves it to a chance acquaintance, the nephew of his landlady. The acquaintance adds a ... (Wikipedia)
Among Others
by Jo Walton
A young girl navigates life after a traumatic event, finding solace in books and magic.
The novel is presented as the diary of Morgana, a 15-year-old Welsh science fiction and fantasy fan, in 1979 and 1980. She and her twin sister Morwenna, both frequently using the nicknames "Mor" or ... (Wikipedia)
The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson
by Emily Dickinson
A compilation of Dickinson's poetic works, exploring themes of nature, mortality, and love.
THE ONLY ONE-VOLUME EDITION CONTAINING ALL 1,775 OF EMILY DICKINSON’S POEMS Only eleven of Emily Dickinson’s poems were published prior to her death in 1886; the startling originality of her work ... (Goodreads)
The Complete Stories
by Franz Kafka
A collection of Kafka's surreal and haunting short stories, exploring the human condition and the absurdity of existence.
The Complete Stories brings together all of Kafka’s stories, from the classic tales such as “The Metamorphosis,” “In the Penal Colony,” and “A Hunger Artist” to shorter pieces and fragments that Max ... (Goodreads)
The Waves
by Virginia Woolf
Inner musings of six characters in search of individual identity, expressed through the ebb and flow of the sea.
The novel follows its six narrators from childhood through adulthood. Woolf is concerned with the individual consciousness and the ways in which multiple consciousnesses can weave together. Bernard ... (Wikipedia)
The Perks of Being a Wallflower
by Stephen Chbosky
A teenager's coming-of-age journey, exploring identity, relationships & life's struggles.
Throughout the 1991–1992 school year , Charlie, the 15-year-old protagonist, begins writing letters about his own life to an unknown recipient addressed, "dear friend". In these letters he discusses ... (Wikipedia)
Villette
by Charlotte Brontë
A young woman's journey of self-discovery in a foreign land, overcoming societal constraints.
Villette begins with its famously passive protagonist, Lucy Snowe, age 14, staying at the home of her godmother Mrs. Bretton in "the clean and ancient town of Bretton", in England. Also in residence ... (Wikipedia)
Wind/Pinball: Two Novels
by Haruki Murakami
Two early novels by Murakami, exploring themes of identity, loneliness, and the search for meaning in a surreal world.
The plot centers on the narrator's brief but intense obsession with pinball, his life as a freelance translator, and his later efforts to reunite with the old pinball machine that he used to play. He ... (Wikipedia)
The Metamorphosis and Other Stories
by Franz Kafka
A collection of surreal stories exploring the depths of the human condition.
Virtually unknown during his lifetime, Franz Kafka is now one of the world’s most widely read and discussed authors. His nightmarish novels and short stories have come to symbolize modern man’s ... (Goodreads)
A Tale of Love and Darkness
by Amos Oz
A tale of love, loss, and identity set against the backdrop of the tumultuous history of Israel.
Tragic, comic, and utterly honest, A Tale of Love and Darkness is at once a family saga and a magical self-portrait of a writer who witnessed the birth of a nation and lived through its turbulent ... (Goodreads)
Ahab's Wife, or The Star-Gazer
by Sena Jeter Naslund
A woman's journey of self-discovery, defying society's expectations and finding her own path.
A magnificent, vast, and enthralling saga, Sena Jeter Naslund's Ahab's Wife is a remarkable epic spanning a rich, eventful, and dramatic life. Inspired by a brief passage in Moby Dick , it is the ... (Goodreads)
Demian
by Hermann Hesse
A young man's spiritual journey towards self-discovery and enlightenment.
Emil Sinclair is a young boy raised in a middle class home, amidst what is described as a Scheinwelt , a play on words meaning "world of light" as well as "world of illusion". Sinclair's entire ... (Wikipedia)
Engleby
by Sebastian Faulks
A dark and unsettling novel about a troubled man's search for identity, truth, and redemption.
Bestselling British author Sebastian Faulks reinvents the unreliable narrator with his singular, haunting creation—Mike Engleby. "My name is Mike Engleby, and I'm in my second year at an ancient ... (Goodreads)
Summertime
by J.M. Coetzee
A fictionalized memoir of a writer's life, loves, and losses during a summer in the South African countryside.
Summertime is an inventive and inspired work of fiction that allows J.M. Coetzee to imagine his own life with a critical and unsparing eye, revealing painful moral struggles and attempts to come to ... (Goodreads)
Swimming Home
by Deborah Levy
A haunting tale of a poet's family vacation in the French Riviera, disrupted by the arrival of a disturbed young woman.
In the summer of 1994 the poet Joe Jacobs (Polish émigré Jozef Nowogrodzki) is on vacation in a summer home in the south of France with his wife Isabel, his daughter Nina, and their friends, the ... (Wikipedia)
The New Life
by Orhan Pamuk
A man becomes obsessed with a book and embarks on a journey to find the woman he believes is the key to his new life.
The protagonist, Osman, first notices the book in the university canteen when a female student, Janan, sets a copy down for a moment on his table. He later buys his own copy at a bookstall and is so ... (Wikipedia)
Hangsaman
by Shirley Jackson
A young woman's descent into madness and isolation at college. A haunting exploration of the human psyche.
On the verge of leaving for college, Natalie Waite feels oppressed by the expectations of her pompous, overbearing father, who imposes his personality on her, and by her miserable, defeated mother, ... (Wikipedia)
Bee Season
by Myla Goldberg
A family's unraveling as a daughter discovers an unexpected gift for language and wordplay.
Eleven-year-old Eliza Naumann is the only "ordinary" member in a family of gifted people living in Abington Township, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania . Her father Saul is a cantor at the local ... (Wikipedia)
Good Morning, Midnight
by Lily Brooks-Dalton
Two loners, one in the Arctic and one in the city, embark on a journey of self-discovery.
Augustine, a brilliant, aging astronomer, is consumed by the stars. For years he has lived in remote outposts, studying the sky for evidence of how the universe began. At his latest posting, in a ... (Goodreads)
The Unconsoled
by Kazuo Ishiguro
A surreal and dreamlike exploration of a man's inner self and his search for purpose.
Ryder, a renowned pianist, arrives in a Central European city he cannot identify for a concert he cannot remember agreeing to give. But then as he traverses a landscape by turns eerie and comical – ... (Goodreads)
The Book of Disquiet
by Fernando Pessoa
A collection of philosophical reflections on life, love and fate.
Fernando Pessoa was many writers in one. He attributed his prolific writings to a wide range of alternate selves, each of which had a distinct biography, ideology, and horoscope. When he died in ... (Goodreads)
The Orange Girl
by Jostein Gaarder
Story of a young girl's magical journey through time, discovering her family's history.
The film is based on a 2003 novel by the same name, written by Norwegian author Jostein Gaarder . The main character is the young boy Georg who one day finds a long letter from his deceased father in ... (Wikipedia)
Letter from an Unknown Woman: The Fowler Snared
by Stefan Zweig
A woman's mysterious letter reveals a tragic story of unrequited love and longing.
A rich and well-known writer (R.), returning home to Vienna from one of many holidays, finds a long letter from an unknown woman (Fräulein). As a teenager the woman had lived with her poor widowed ... (Wikipedia)
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)
Man Walks into a Room
by Nicole Krauss
A man wakes up in a hotel room with no memory of his past. As he tries to piece together his life, he discovers unexpected truths about himself.
Samson Greene is found wandering in the Nevada desert and is identified by the ID in his wallet as he has no recollection of who he is or how he got there. Tests reveal that Samson has a cherry-sized ... (Wikipedia)
The Journey to the East
by Hermann Hesse
A spiritual quest in search of truth, enlightenment and community.
Journey to the East is written from the point of view of a man (called "H. H." in the book) who becomes a member of "The League", a timeless religious sect whose members include famous fictional and ... (Wikipedia)
The Confusions of Young Törless
by Robert Musil
A coming-of-age novel exploring the psychological and sexual awakening of a young boy in a strict military school.
Three students of an Austrian boarding school, Reiting, Beineberg and Törless, catch their classmate Basini stealing money from one of the three and decide to punish him themselves instead of turning ... (Wikipedia)
Boys in the Trees
by Carly Simon
Memoir of Carly Simon's life, loves, and music career, including her marriage to James Taylor and struggles with anxiety and stage fright.
The Instant #1, New York Times, Bestseller A People Magazine Top Ten Book of the Year! "Intelligent and captivating. Don't miss it." -, People Magazine, "One of the best celebrity memoirs of the ... (Goodreads)
A Perfect Day for Bananafish
by J.D. Salinger
A man on vacation in Florida struggles with his mental health and has a conversation with a young girl about bananafish.
The story is set at an upscale seaside resort in Florida. Muriel Glass, a wealthy and self-absorbed woman, phones her mother from her suite to discuss Muriel's husband Seymour, a World War II combat ... (Wikipedia)
The High Mountains of Portugal
by Yann Martel
A spiritual journey of three stories across Portugal, spanning three different time periods.
In Lisbon in 1904, a young man named Tomás discovers an old journal. It hints at the existence of an extraordinary artifact that—if he can find it—would redefine history. Traveling in one of Europe’s ... (Goodreads)
A Summons to Memphis
by Peter Taylor
Adult siblings confront their father's decision to sell their childhood home in Memphis. Secrets and family tensions are revealed.
One of the most celebrated novels of its time, the Pulitzer Prize winner, A Summons to Memphis, introduces the Carver family, natives of Nashville, residents, with the exception of Phillip, of ... (Barnes & Noble)
A Girl Is a Half-formed Thing
by Eimear McBride
A young woman's inner journey through trauma and emotional turmoil.
Eimear McBride's debut tells, with astonishing insight and in brutal detail, the story of a young woman's relationship with her brother, and the long shadow cast by his childhood brain tumour. Not so ... (Goodreads)
The Book of Disquiet: The Complete Edition
by Fernando Pessoa
A collection of fragments, thoughts, and musings on life, existence, and the human condition, written by the enigmatic Portuguese poet Fernando Pessoa.
Această carte aproape mitică, probabil opera cea mai seducătoare a lui Fernando Pessoa, e un monolog de o tristețe indicibilă, care surprinde cu o minuție halucinantă interiorul cu mii de fațete al ... (Goodreads)
Larry's Party
by Carol Shields
Follow Larry's life as a journeyman, from his early days as a florist to his eventual career as a landscape designer.
Larry Weller, born in 1950, is an ordinary guy made extraordinary by his creator's perception, irony and tenderness. Carol Shields gives us, as it were, a CAT scan of his life, in episodes between ... (Goodreads)
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)
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