Recommendations based on Awayby Amy Bloom

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

  1. The Thirteenth Tale

    by Diane Setterfield
    A mysterious storyteller reveals a dark family secret, transforming the lives of those around her.

    Vida Winter, a famous novelist in England, has evaded journalists' questions about her past, refusing to answer their inquiries and spinning elaborate tales that they later discover to be false. Her ... (Wikipedia)

  2. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

    by Junot Díaz
    An exploration of love, identity, and the power of fate in a family's struggles and triumphs.

    Oscar de León (nicknamed Oscar Wao, a bastardization of Oscar Wilde ) is an overweight Dominican growing up in Paterson, New Jersey. Oscar desperately wants to be successful with women but, from a ... (Wikipedia)

  3. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay

    by Michael Chabon
    Two cousins create a comic book superhero and find success and adventure in 1940s New York.

    The novel begins in 1939 with the arrival of 19-year-old Josef "Joe" Kavalier as a refugee in New York City , where he comes to live with his 17-year-old cousin, Sammy Klayman. With the help of his ... (Wikipedia)

  4. People of the Book

    by Geraldine Brooks
    A journey through time as an ancient book is discovered and its secrets revealed.

    The "complex and moving" ( The New Yorker ) novel by Pulitzer Prize winner Geraldine Brooks follows a rare manuscript through centuries of exile and war. Inspired by a true story, "People of the ... (Goodreads)

  5. Fingersmith

    by Sarah Waters
    A thrilling tale of two women who conspire to swindle a wealthy gentleman.

    Sue Trinder, an orphan raised in "a Fagin -like den of thieves" by her adoptive mother, Mrs Sucksby, is sent to help Richard "Gentleman" Rivers seduce a wealthy heiress. Posing as a maid, Sue is to ... (Wikipedia)

  6. His Dark Materials

    by Philip Pullman
    An epic fantasy adventure across multiple universes, pitting good against evil.

    In Jordan College, Oxford , 11-year-old Lyra Belacqua and her dæmon Pantalaimon witness the Master attempt to poison Lord Asriel , Lyra's rebellious and adventuring uncle. She warns Asriel, then ... (Wikipedia)

  7. The Art of Fielding

    by Chad Harbach
    A college baseball team's success and failures are intertwined with the lives of five individuals.

    Henry Skrimshander begins the novel as a 17-year-old playing on a Legion baseball team in Lankton, South Dakota. Although physically short and not muscular, Henry has an unusual gift for fielding, ... (Wikipedia)

  8. Let the Great World Spin

    by Colum McCann
    Interconnected stories of ordinary lives in 1970s New York, inspired by a high-wire artist's death-defying feat.

    The events of the story are told in a largely non-linear fashion, with several different narrators telling the story from different perspectives. The story is interspersed with fictionalized accounts ... (Wikipedia)

  9. Unaccustomed Earth

    by Jhumpa Lahiri
    Collection of stories exploring the complexities of family, culture, and identity.

    From the internationally best-selling, Pulitzer Prize–winning author, a superbly crafted new work of fiction: eight stories—longer and more emotionally complex than any she has yet written—that take ... (Goodreads)

  10. 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)

  11. The Lonely Polygamist

    by Brady Udall
    An exploration of the difficulties of a man trying to balance the demands of four wives and 28 children.

    Beautifully written, keenly observed, and ultimately redemptive, The Lonely Polygamist is an unforgettable story of an American family—with its inevitable dysfunctionality, heartbreak, and ... (Goodreads)

  12. Revolutionary Road

    by Richard Yates
    An American couple's struggle to stay afloat in suburban conventions and expectations.

    Set in 1955, the novel focuses on the hopes and aspirations of Frank and April Wheeler, self-assured Connecticut suburbanites who see themselves as very different from their neighbors in the ... (Wikipedia)

  13. The History of Love

    by Nicole Krauss
    A journey through a web of intertwining stories, searching for the meaning of love.

    Approximately 70 years before the present, the 10-year-old Polish-Jewish Leopold (Leo) Gursky falls in love with his neighbor Alma Mereminski. The two begin a relationship that develops over the ... (Wikipedia)

  14. The Plague of Doves

    by Louise Erdrich
    A coming-of-age story set in a small Minnesota town, examining the legacy of violence and vengeance.

    The unsolved murder of a farm family still haunts the white small town of Pluto, North Dakota, generations after the vengeance exacted and the distortions of fact transformed the lives of Ojibwe ... (Goodreads)

  15. The House of Sleep

    by Jonathan Coe
    Exploring the lives of interconnected individuals as dreams and reality intertwine.

    Like a surreal and highly caffeinated version of The Big Chill , Jonathan Coe's new novel follows four students who knew each other in college in the eighties. Sarah is a narcoleptic who has dreams ... (Goodreads)

  16. Zone One

    by Colson Whitehead
    A post-apocalyptic novel following a survivor of a zombie outbreak as he helps to clear out infected areas of New York City.

    A virus has laid waste to civilization, turning the infected into flesh-eating and mortally contagious zombies. But events have stabilized, and the rebuilding process has begun. Over a three-day ... (Wikipedia)

  17. Olive Kitteridge

    by Elizabeth Strout
    An exploration of the life of a small-town woman, revealing her struggles and emotional complexities.

    Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, Olive Kitteridge offers profound insights into the human condition – its conflicts, its tragedies and joys, and the endurance it requires. At times stern, at other times ... (Goodreads)

  18. The Hour I First Believed

    by Wally Lamb
    A teacher's life is shattered by the Columbine shooting, leading to a journey of self-discovery and healing.

    When high school teacher Caelum Quirk and his wife, Maureen, move to Littleton, Colorado, they both get jobs at Columbine High School. In April 1999, while Caelum is away, Maureen finds herself in ... (Barnes & Noble)

  19. Interpreter of Maladies

    by Jhumpa Lahiri
    Collection of stories exploring the struggles of Indian-American immigrants in the US.

    A married couple, Shukumar and Shoba, live as strangers in their house until an electrical outage brings them together when all of sudden "they [are] able to talk to each other again" in the four ... (Wikipedia)

  20. American Born Chinese

    by Gene Luen Yang
    Three seemingly unrelated stories converge to explore themes of identity, assimilation, and acceptance in the American-born Chinese experience.

    All Jin Wang wants is to fit in. When his family moves to a new neighborhood, he suddenly finds that he's the only Chinese American student at his school. Jocks and bullies pick on him constantly, ... (Goodreads)

  21. Self-Help

    by Lorrie Moore
    Collection of humorous short stories exploring the lives of characters facing disappointments and heartbreaks.

    In these tales of loss and pleasure, lovers and family, a woman learns to conduct an affair, a child of divorce dances with her mother, and a woman with a terminal illness contemplates her exit. ... (Goodreads)

  22. Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage: Stories

    by Alice Munro
    Interconnected stories exploring the complexities of love, relationships, and family.

    In the her tenth collection (the title story of which is the basis for the new film Hateship Loveship ), Alice Munro achieves new heights, creating narratives that loop and swerve like memory, and ... (Goodreads)

  23. The Inheritance of Loss

    by Kiran Desai
    An exploration of the effects of colonialism on the characters' lives in a small Himalayan town.

    In a crumbling, isolated house at the foot of Mount Kanchenjunga in the Himalayas lives an embittered judge who wants only to retire in peace, when his orphaned granddaughter, Sai, arrives on his ... (Goodreads)

  24. A Single Man

    by Christopher Isherwood
    A man's exploration of life after losing his partner, as he contemplates his own mortality.

    George, an English professor, is unable to cope with the despondent, bereaved nature of his existence after the sudden death of his partner, Jim. Throughout the day, he has various encounters with ... (Wikipedia)

  25. The Night Watch

    by Sarah Waters
    A suspenseful story of ordinary people living through the turmoil of World War II.

    Kay The novel begins with Kay Langrish-a woman broken by the war. She spends her days locked in her room in London, watching her landlord's patients arrive and leave at precisely the same hours every ... (Wikipedia)

  26. Manhattan Beach

    by Jennifer Egan
    A female-led story of crime, courage and sacrifice set in 1940s Brooklyn.

    Anna Kerrigan, nearly twelve years old, accompanies her father to visit Dexter Styles, a man who, she gleans, is crucial to the survival of her father and her family. She is mesmerized by the sea ... (Goodreads)

  27. Special Topics in Calamity Physics

    by Marisha Pessl
    Blue van Meer navigates her senior year at an eccentric school, uncovering secrets and tragedies along the way.

    Blue van Meer is a film-obsessed, erudite teenager. She is the daughter of itinerant and arrogant academic Gareth van Meer, who, after the death of his amateur lepidopteran-catching wife (and Blue's ... (Wikipedia)

  28. No One Belongs Here More Than You

    by Miranda July
    Short stories of everyday people struggling to find their place in the world.

    Screenwriter, director, and star of the acclaimed film Me and You and Everyone We Know, Miranda July brings her extraordinary talents to the page in a startling, sexy, and tender collection. ... (Goodreads)

  29. Out Stealing Horses

    by Per Petterson
    An elderly man reflects on his past, uncovering long-buried secrets and memories.

    We were going out stealing horses. That was what he said, standing at the door to the cabin where I was spending the summer with my father. I was fifteen. It was 1948 and one of the first days of ... (Goodreads)

  30. Peace Like a River

    by Leif Enger
    A young boy's journey of faith, hope, and courage in the midst of tragedy.

    Once in a great while, we encounter a novel in our voluminous reading that begs to be read aloud. Leif Enger's debut, Peace Like a River , is one such work. His richly evocative novel, narrated by an ... (Goodreads)