Powered by a book like {foo}
Recommendations based on English Passengersby Matthew Kneale
* statistically, based on millions of data-points provided by fellow humans
Star of the Sea
by Joseph O'Connor
A harrowing journey of a group of Irish immigrants to America, facing danger and despair.
In the bitter winter of 1847, from an Ireland torn by famine and injustice, the Star of the Sea sets sail for NewYork. On board are hundreds of refugees, some optimistic, many more desperate. Among ... (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)
High Fidelity
by Nick Hornby
A man reflects on his past relationships while trying to understand the nature of love.
Rob Fleming is a 35-year-old man who owns a record shop in London called Championship Vinyl. His lawyer girlfriend, Laura, has just left him and now he's going through a crisis. At his record shop, ... (Wikipedia)
Cloud Atlas
by David Mitchell
A dynamic narrative spanning centuries, exploring the interconnectedness of humanity.
The book consists of six nested stories; each is read or observed by a main character of the next, thus they progress in time through the central sixth story. The first five stories are each ... (Wikipedia)
Regeneration
by Pat Barker
Story of WWI soldiers & their experiences of trauma, set amidst the backdrop of a psychiatric hospital.
The novel begins as Dr W. H. R. Rivers , an army psychiatrist at Craiglockhart War Hospital , learns of poet Siegfried Sassoon 's declaration against the continuation of the war. A government board ... (Wikipedia)
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)
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)
Bring Up the Bodies
by Hilary Mantel
A gripping historical drama recounting the downfall of Anne Boleyn during the reign of Henry VIII.
Bring Up the Bodies follows closely upon the events of Wolf Hall . The King and Cromwell —now Master Secretary to the King's Privy Council—are guests of the Seymour family at Wolf Hall. The King ... (Wikipedia)
Ghostwritten
by David Mitchell
A series of interconnected stories spanning across the globe, exploring the lives of seemingly unrelated characters and their impact on each other.
This section details the actions of Quasar, a member of a millenarianist doomsday cult , attempting to evade capture after releasing nerve agents into a Tokyo subway train. He believes himself to be ... (Wikipedia)
Saint Maybe
by Anne Tyler
A man's journey of atonement, struggling to make amends for his past mistakes.
Tyler's plot explores the ways ordinary people react to disastrous events with quietly heroic behavior. When seventeen-year-old Ian Bedloe confronts his older brother Danny with his belief that the ... (Wikipedia)
Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit
by Jeanette Winterson
A young girl's journey of self-discovery, navigating the boundaries between religion, sexuality and identity.
Alternate cover edition for 9780802135162 This is the story of Jeanette, adopted and brought up by her mother as one of God's elect. Zealous and passionate, she seems destined for life as a ... (Goodreads)
The Bonfire of the Vanities
by Tom Wolfe
An ambitious Wall Street banker's moral downfall in New York City.
The story centers on Sherman McCoy, a successful New York City bond trader . His $3 million Park Avenue co-op , combined with his aristocratic wife's extravagances and other expenses required to keep ... (Wikipedia)
Mary Barton
by Elizabeth Gaskell
Social injustice and class divisions explored through the lens of a mill worker’s family.
The novel begins in Manchester, where we are introduced to the Bartons and the Wilsons, two working-class families. John Barton is a questioner of the distribution of wealth and the relations between ... (Wikipedia)
The Berlin Stories
by Christopher Isherwood
A collection of stories about life in Berlin, exploring themes of humanity in a time of political upheaval.
The two novellas are set in Berlin between 1930 and 1933, just as Adolf Hitler was moving into power. Berlin is portrayed by Isherwood during this transition period of cafes and quaint avenues, ... (Wikipedia)
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)
The Luminaries
by Eleanor Catton
A complex mystery set in New Zealand's gold rush era, as a web of secrets and lies unravels.
The story begins with one of the book's protagonists, Walter Moody, arriving in the smoking room of the Crown Hotel after having encountered a horrific sight on his boat trip to Hokitika . There, he ... (Wikipedia)
Chocolat
by Joanne Harris
An enchanting tale of love, belonging, and the power of chocolate.
Vianne Rocher, with her daughter Anouk, come to the small French village of Lansquenet-sous-Tannes. They are brought by "the wind" during the last days of Carnival to open a, chocolaterie, , La ... (Wikipedia)
To Rise Again at a Decent Hour
by Joshua Ferris
A successful dentist questions his identity and purpose after discovering a fake website impersonating him.
A big, brilliant, profoundly observed novel about the mysteries of modern life by National Book Award Finalist Joshua Ferris, one of the most exciting voices of his generation Paul O'Rourke is a man ... (Goodreads)
The Narrow Road to the Deep North
by Richard Flanagan
A man's journey to reconcile his past and make sense of his actions during the Japanese occupation of Burma.
Dorrigo Evans has found fame and public recognition as a war veteran in old age, but inwardly he is plagued by his own shortcomings and considers his numerous accolades to be a “failure of perception ... (Wikipedia)
Every Man Dies Alone
by Hans Fallada
A man and his wife struggle to resist Nazi oppression in 1940s Berlin.
Inspired by a true story, Hans Fallada's Alone in Berlin is the gripping tale of an ordinary man's determination to defy the tyranny of Nazi rule. This Penguin Classics edition contains an afterword ... (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)
Ethan Frome
by Edith Wharton
Tale of doomed romance set against a harsh New England winter.
The novel is a framed narrative . The framing story concerns an unnamed male narrator spending a winter in Starkfield while in the area on business. He spots a limping, quiet man around the village, ... (Wikipedia)
City of Thieves
by David Benioff
Two young men embark on a perilous mission in the besieged Leningrad of WWII.
The story is introduced as the recollections of the narrator's grandfather Lev Beniov, a contemporary Russian Jewish émigré. It is set in the first week of 1942, with the 17-years-old Lev trying to ... (Wikipedia)
Instructions for a Heatwave
by Maggie O'Farrell
A family's struggles with secrets and lies amidst a summer of record-breaking heat.
Sophisticated, intelligent, impossible to put down, Maggie O'Farrell's beguiling novels - After You'd Gone, winner of a Betty Trask Award; The Distance Between Us, winner of a Somerset Maugham Award; ... (Goodreads)
Cold Mountain
by Charles Frazier
A Confederate soldier's homecoming journey, filled with danger and adventure.
The novel opens in a Confederate military hospital near Raleigh, North Carolina , where Inman is recovering from battle wounds during the American Civil War . The soldier is tired of fighting for a ... (Wikipedia)
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
by John le Carré
A retired spy is called back into action to uncover a mole in the British Secret Service.
Control , chief of the Circus, suspects one of the five senior intelligence officers at the Circus to be a long-standing Soviet mole and assigns code names with the intention that should his agent ... (Wikipedia)
Brideshead Revisited
by Evelyn Waugh
A nostalgic reflection on a wealthy family and the enduring power of love.
The novel is divided into three parts, framed by a prologue and epilogue. The prologue takes place during the final years of the Second World War . Charles Ryder and his battalion are sent to a ... (Wikipedia)
Small Island
by Andrea Levy
A story of post-WWII immigration, exploring themes of identity, belonging, and racism.
Hortense Joseph arrives in London from Jamaica in 1948 with her life in her suitcase, her heart broken, her resolve intact. Her husband, Gilbert Joseph, returns from the war expecting to be received ... (Goodreads)
Any Human Heart
by William Boyd
A man's life journey, chronicling his loves, losses, and adventures.
Logan Gonzago Mountstuart, writer, was born in 1906, and died of a heart attack on October 5, 1991, aged 85. William Boyd's novel Any Human Heart is his disjointed autobiography, a massive tome ... (Goodreads)
