The Virgin Suicides
Five Lisbon sisters die in 1970s Grosse Pointe as boys watch.
2,559-word summary · 11 min read
Tag: literary fiction
307 books with this tag.
Page 11 of 13
The Paper Palace
Elle faces Jonas choice at Cape Cod while assault memory returns.
2,588-word summary · 12 min read
The Master and Margarita
Devil Woland visits 1930s Moscow while Master writes Pilate and Margarita bargains.
2,535-word summary · 11 min read
The Karamazov Brothers
Dmitri, Ivan, and Alyosha Karamazov face their father, murder, faith, and doubt in Dostoevsky's final novel.
2,512-word summary · 11 min read
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan
Footbound Lily and Snow Flower share laotong bond through 19th century Hunan hardship.
2,557-word summary · 11 min read
She's Come Undone
Abused as a girl, divorced and struggling with weight, Dolores Price slowly finds healing after years of trauma.
2,550-word summary · 11 min read
My Dark Vanessa
Vanessa recalls teacher Strane abuse as adult reckoning looms.
2,600-word summary · 12 min read
My Brilliant Friend
Elena and Lila grow up in 1950s Naples bound by rivalry and love.
2,584-word summary · 11 min read
Mansfield Park
Fanny Price loves Edmund amid Crawfords theatricals at Mansfield.
2,389-word summary · 11 min read
Madame Bovary
Emma Rouault marries Charles Bovary for romance, then seeks lovers and luxury until debts ruin them both.
2,400-word summary · 11 min read
Klara and the Sun
Solar robot Klara loves Josie and bargains with the Sun to save her.
2,251-word summary · 10 min read
Homegoing
Half sisters Effia and Esi lines span Ghana to America across centuries.
2,552-word summary · 11 min read
And the Mountains Echoed
When Abdullah and Pari are split in 1952 Afghanistan, their parting echoes across decades from Kabul to Paris to California in linked stories of loss and…
2,572-word summary · 11 min read
An American Marriage
Newlywed Roy is wrongly imprisoned and Celestial loves Andre while waiting.
2,535-word summary · 11 min read
Americanah
Ifemelu leaves Nigeria for America on a scholarship, blogs about race and hair, while Obinze endures undocumented London until they reunite years later in…
2,527-word summary · 11 min read
Cutting for Stone
Twin surgeon brothers come of age in Ethiopia and America in Verghese's sweeping medical saga.
2,664-word summary · 12 min read
The Sun Also Rises
Jake Barnes drifts through Paris bars and Pamplona bullfights with Brett Ashley and a wounded generation.
3,187-word summary · 14 min read
Perfume: The Story of a Murderer
Born with a perfect nose in 1738 Paris, Grenouille masters perfume craft then murders young women in Grasse to bottle the ultimate scent.
2,561-word summary · 11 min read
My Year of Rest and Relaxation
A young art graduate tries to sleep for a year with pills and Reva while the city drifts toward 2001.
3,146-word summary · 14 min read
Kafka on the Shore
Fifteen year old Kafka Tamura flees Tokyo while old Nakata, who talks to cats, drifts toward the same library town in Shikoku in parallel.
2,496-word summary · 11 min read
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
Nine year old Oskar searches New York for a lock matching his father's key after 9/11.
2,999-word summary · 13 min read
Beloved
Sethe lives with the memory of killing her child to save her from slavery until a young woman named Beloved arrives.
2,586-word summary · 11 min read
Beautiful World, Where Are You
Two friends Alice and Eileen trade letters while navigating love with Felix and Simon.
2,872-word summary · 13 min read
All Quiet on the Western Front
Paul Bäumer enlists at nineteen and faces the trenches of World War I in Remarque's 1929 classic, told from the German side of the wire.
2,543-word summary · 11 min read