Recommendations based on Spill Simmer Falter Witherby Sara Baume

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

  1. The Girls

    by Emma Cline
    An exploration of the dark side of teenagehood, as a young girl is drawn into a cult.

    Northern California, during the violent end of the 1960s. At the start of summer, a lonely and thoughtful teenager, Evie Boyd, sees a group of girls in the park, and is immediately caught by their ... (Goodreads)

  2. Ghost Wall

    by Sarah Moss
    A teenage girl joins an archaeological reenactment of Iron Age Britain, but the experiment takes a dark turn.

    In the north of England, far from the intrusions of cities but not far from civilization, Silvie and her family are living as if they are ancient Britons, surviving by the tools and knowledge of the ... (Goodreads)

  3. The Turner House

    by Angela Flournoy
    The Turner family's Detroit home is at the center of their struggles as they confront their past and present.

    The novel tells the story of a Detroit family with 13 children as it responds to the economic woes of the city, in both the 1940s, and then in 2008. The house that sees the changes in the family, ... (Wikipedia)

  4. The Fishermen

    by Chigozie Obioma
    Four Nigerian brothers' lives are forever changed after they encounter a local madman. A tale of family, tradition, and tragedy.

    Four brothers, Ikenna, Boja, Obembe, and Benjamin, begin to fish at the Omi-Ala river near their home in a quiet neighbourhood of the city of Akure in Nigeria , despite being forbidden from doing so ... (Wikipedia)

  5. The Refugees

    by Viet Thanh Nguyen
    Short stories of Vietnamese refugees in America, and their struggles to assimilate and find belonging.

    From a young Vietnamese refugee who suffers profound culture shock when he comes to live with two gay men in San Francisco, to a woman whose husband is suffering from dementia and starts to confuse ... (Goodreads)

  6. The Sea

    by John Banville
    A man reflects on his past and reconciles his memories of youth with the present.

    The story is told by Max Morden, a self-aware, retired art historian attempting to reconcile himself to the deaths of those he loved as a child and as an adult. The novel is written as a reflective ... (Wikipedia)

  7. Eventide

    by Kent Haruf
    An exploration of life in a small rural community, and the struggles of its inhabitants.

    Kent Haruf, award-winning, bestselling author of Plainsong returns to the high-plains town of Holt, Colorado, with a novel of masterful authority. The aging McPheron brothers are learning to live ... (Goodreads)

  8. Americanah

    by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
    An exploration of race, identity, and belonging as two Nigerian immigrants experience life in America and beyond.

    Ifemelu and Obinze are young and in love when they depart military-ruled Nigeria for the West. Beautiful, self-assured Ifemelu heads for America, where despite her academic success, she is forced to ... (Goodreads)

  9. Eileen

    by Ottessa Moshfegh
    Eileen, a disturbed young woman, works at a boys' prison and becomes involved in a crime. A dark and unsettling character study.

    The story of an unhappy 24-year-old woman named Eileen who works at a prison, and what happens to her during a bitter Massachusetts winter in 1964. The novel was well received by, The New York Times, ... (Wikipedia)

  10. The North Water

    by Ian McGuire
    A gruesome, dark journey on a whaling ship to the icy north, uncovering the depths of human depravity.

    A ship sets sail with a killer on board . . . 1859. A man joins a whaling ship bound for the Arctic Circle. Having left the British Army with his reputation in tatters, Patrick Sumner has little ... (Goodreads)

  11. Runaway: Stories

    by Alice Munro
    A collection of short stories exploring the complexities of human relationships and the struggles of women in rural Canada.

    The incomparable Alice Munro’s bestselling and rapturously acclaimed Runaway is a book of extraordinary stories about love and its infinite betrayals and surprises, from the title story about a young ... (Goodreads)

  12. The Reader

    by Bernhard Schlink
    A man's journey of understanding, uncovering a dark secret from his past.

    Hailed for its coiled eroticism and the moral claims it makes upon the reader, this mesmerizing novel is a story of love and secrets, horror and compassion, unfolding against the haunted landscape of ... (Goodreads)

  13. 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)

  14. Our Souls at Night

    by Kent Haruf
    An elderly couple's exploration of love, loneliness, and companionship.

    A spare yet eloquent, bittersweet yet inspiring story of a man and a woman who, in advanced age, come together to wrestle with the events of their lives and their hopes for the imminent future. In ... (Goodreads)

  15. We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves

    by Karen Joy Fowler
    A family's secrets and a girl's quest for the truth about her own identity.

    The, New York Times, bestselling author of, The Jane Austen Book Club, introduces a middle-class American family that is ordinary in every way but one in this novel that won the PEN/Faulkner Award ... (Barnes & Noble)

  16. Plainsong

    by Kent Haruf
    Interconnected stories of rural life in small-town America, and the struggles of the people living there.

    A heartstrong story of family and romance, tribulation and tenacity, set on the High Plains east of Denver. In the small town of Holt, Colorado, a high school teacher is confronted with raising his ... (Goodreads)

  17. The Girl of Ink and Stars

    by Kiran Millwood Hargrave
    A young girl sets out on a dangerous adventure to find her missing friend, using her map-making skills to navigate a mystical island.

    Winner of the Waterstones Children's Book Prize 2017, and the British Book Awards' Children's Book of Year 2017 Forbidden to leave her island, Isabella Riosse dreams of the faraway lands her father ... (Goodreads)

  18. The Hours

    by Michael Cunningham
    Interwoven stories of three women and the impact of Virginia Woolf's novel, Mrs. Dalloway.

    Note: This Summary does not contain the whole book, nor end at the ending. The stream-of-consciousness style being so prominent in this work, a summary of the plot based on physical action does not ... (Wikipedia)

  19. A Tale for the Time Being

    by Ruth Ozeki
    An exploration of the connections between two lives, bridging time, space and cultures.

    In Tokyo, sixteen-year-old Nao has decided there’s only one escape from her aching loneliness and her classmates’ bullying, but before she ends it all, Nao plans to document the life of her ... (Goodreads)

  20. At the Wolf's Table

    by Rosella Postorino
    A young German woman is forced to taste Hitler's food for poison during WWII. A story of survival, guilt, and the power of friendship.

    The main character is telling the story while in the present day as a senior citizen. , The novel won the Premio Campiello literary prize. , ... (Wikipedia)

  21. 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)

  22. The Opposite of Everyone

    by Joshilyn Jackson
    A woman confronts her past and family secrets while searching for the brother she never knew existed.

    A fiercely independent divorce lawyer learns the power of family and connection when she receives a cryptic message from her estranged mother in this bittersweet, witty novel from the nationally ... (Barnes & Noble)

  23. We Have Always Lived in the Castle

    by Shirley Jackson
    A family isolated from society, struggling to cope with prejudice and tragedy.

    My name is Mary Katherine Blackwood. I am eighteen years old, and I live with my sister Constance. I have often thought that with any luck at all I could have been born a werewolf, because the two ... (Goodreads)

  24. All Things Cease to Appear

    by Elizabeth Brundage
    A family moves into a haunted farmhouse, and the husband is accused of murder. The past and present collide in this chilling mystery.

    A dark, riveting, beautifully written book—by “a brilliant novelist” according to Richard Bausch—that combines noir and the gothic in a story about two families entwined in their own unhappiness, ... (Goodreads)

  25. The Taxidermist's Daughter

    by Kate Mosse
    A young woman in a small English village uncovers dark secrets about her family's past and the town's history.

    A chilling and spooky Gothic historical thriller reminiscent of Rebecca and The Turn of the Screw , dripping with the dark twists and eerie surprises that are the hallmarks of Edgar Allan Poe, from ... (Barnes & Noble)

  26. Homegoing

    by Yaa Gyasi
    Spanning centuries, the intertwining stories of two African sisters, their descendants, and the legacy of slavery.

    Effia is raised by her mother, Baaba, who is cruel to her. Nevertheless she works hard to please her mother. Known as a beauty, Effia is intended to be married to the future chief of her village, but ... (Wikipedia)

  27. Sisters One, Two, Three

    by Nancy Star
    A family drama about a woman who must confront her past and secrets when her estranged sister returns home.

    After a tragic accident on Martha’s Vineyard, keeping secrets becomes a way of life for the Tangle family. With memories locked away, the sisters take divergent paths. Callie disappears, Mimi keeps ... (Barnes & Noble)

  28. The Call

    by Peadar Ó Guilín
    Nessa must survive the brutal fairyland hunt to save humanity from being decimated by the Sidhe.

    Imagine a world where you might disappear any minute, only to find yourself alone in a grey sickly land, with more horrors in it than you would ever wish to know about. And then you hear a horn and ... (Goodreads)

  29. Bitter Orange

    by Claire Fuller
    A tale of love, obsession, and betrayal set in a dilapidated English country mansion.

    From the attic of Lyntons, a dilapidated English country mansion, Frances Jellico sees them—Cara first: dark and beautiful, then Peter: striking and serious. The couple is spending the summer of 1969 ... (Goodreads)

  30. Troubling Love

    by Elena Ferrante
    A woman returns to Naples after her mother's death and uncovers dark secrets about her family's past.

    A woman goes home to Naples after her mother’s mysterious death in a “tour de force” by the, New York Times,–bestselling author of, My Brilliant Friend, (, Seattle Times, ). Following her mother’s ... (Barnes & Noble)