Recommendations based on سقف الكفايةby محمد حسن علوان

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

  1. The Forty Rules of Love

    by Elif Shafak
    A story of romance and spiritual enlightenment, exploring the teachings of a Sufi master.

    Ella Rubenstein is forty years old and unhappily married when she takes a job as a reader for a literary agent. Her first assignment is to read and report on Sweet Blasphemy , a novel written by a ... (Goodreads)

  2. Zorba the Greek

    by Nikos Kazantzakis
    A man embarks on a journey of self-discovery, learning to embrace life with gusto and joy.

    The book opens in a café in Piraeus , just before dawn on a gusty autumn morning. The year is most likely 1916. The narrator, a young Greek intellectual, resolves to set aside his books for a few ... (Wikipedia)

  3. Sophie's World

    by Jostein Gaarder
    A journey of philosophical discovery told through a young girl's exploration of the world.

    Sophie Amundsen is a 14-year-old girl who lives in Lillesand , Norway. The book begins with Sophie receiving two messages in her mailbox and a postcard addressed to Hilde Møller Knag. Afterwards, she ... (Wikipedia)

  4. The Prophet

    by Kahlil Gibran
    Collection of poetic musings about life, spirituality, and love.

    Kahlil Gibran’s masterpiece, The Prophet, is one of the most beloved classics of our time. Published in 1923, it has been translated into more than twenty languages, and the American editions alone ... (Goodreads)

  5. The Bastard of Istanbul

    by Elif Shafak
    Exploring the shared history between Turkey and the US while uncovering secrets of a family’s past.

    From one of Turkey’s most acclaimed and outspoken writers, a novel about the tangled histories of two families. In her second novel written in English, Elif Shafak confronts her country’s violent ... (Goodreads)

  6. The Night in Lisbon

    by Erich Maria Remarque
    Two refugees meet in Lisbon during WWII and share their stories of love, loss, and survival.

    The story takes place in the opening months of World War II. Josef Schwarz is a refugee who offers his visa and tickets for America to another refugee desperate to leave Lisbon. He does this in ... (Wikipedia)

  7. 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)

  8. The Broken Wings

    by Kahlil Gibran
    A philosophical tale of love and loss, exploring the journey of life and death.

    This is the exquisitely tender story of love that beats desperately against the taboos of Oriental tradition. With great sensitivity, Gibran describes his passion as a youth for Selma Karamy, the ... (Goodreads)

  9. The Witch of Portobello

    by Paulo Coelho
    A spiritual journey of a woman's search for identity and purpose.

    As the book begins, Athena is dead. How she ended up that way creates the intrigue sustaining the book. , The child, Sherine Khalil renames herself Athena after her uncle was discussing with her ... (Wikipedia)

  10. Daughter of Fortune

    by Isabel Allende
    A young woman's epic journey to find her lost love, and rediscover her roots.

    In Chile during the 1840s, young Chilean Eliza Sommers is raised and educated by English Anglican siblings Rose, Jeremy, and John Sommers. The Victorian-Spinster Rose, strict Jeremy, and sailor John ... (Wikipedia)

  11. The Unbearable Lightness of Being

    by Milan Kundera
    A story of love and loss in a politically turbulent Czechoslovakia.

    In The Unbearable Lightness of Being , Milan Kundera tells the story of a young woman in love with a man torn between his love for her and his incorrigible womanizing and one of his mistresses and ... (Goodreads)

  12. Notes from Underground

    by Fyodor Dostoevsky
    A portrait of the struggles of a troubled man, exploring his inner turmoil.

    The novel is divided into two parts. Serving as an introduction into the mind of the narrator, the first part of Notes from Underground is split into nine chapters: The narrator observes that utopian ... (Wikipedia)

  13. Memories of My Melancholy Whores

    by Gabriel García Márquez
    An elderly man's reflections on love and life, through the lens of a young prostitute.

    An old journalist, who has just celebrated his 90th birthday, seeks sex with a 14 year old prostitute, who is selling her virginity to help her family. Instead of sex, he discovers love for the first ... (Wikipedia)

  14. My Name Is Red

    by Orhan Pamuk
    An art mystery set in 16th century Istanbul, delving into the power of art, religion and love.

    At once a fiendishly devious mystery, a beguiling love story, and a brilliant symposium on the power of art, My Name Is Red is a transporting tale set amid the splendor and religious intrigue of ... (Goodreads)

  15. Daddy-Long-Legs

    by Jean Webster
    A young girl's coming-of-age story, learning to navigate the world of adulthood.

    Jerusha Abbott was brought up at the John Grier Home, an old-fashioned orphanage . The children were completely dependent on charity and had to wear other people's cast-off clothes. Jerusha's unusual ... (Wikipedia)

  16. Eleven Minutes

    by Paulo Coelho
    A young woman's journey of self-discovery and sexual liberation.

    Eleven Minutes is the story of Maria, a young girl from a Brazilian village, whose first innocent brushes with love leave her heartbroken. At a tender age, she becomes convinced that she will never ... (Goodreads)

  17. The Festival of Insignificance

    by Milan Kundera
    A philosophical novel exploring the meaning of life through the mundane experiences of four Parisian men.

    Alain is strolling down a Paris street, examining women and he comes up with an explanation for their thighs, buttocks, and breasts, he fails to grasp the mystery behind the seductive power of their ... (Wikipedia)

  18. Perfume: The Story of a Murderer

    by Patrick Süskind
    A murder mystery set in 18th century France, exploring the depths of human obsession.

    An acclaimed bestseller and international sensation, Patrick Suskind's classic novel provokes a terrifying examination of what happens when one man's indulgence in his greatest passion—his sense of ... (Goodreads)

  19. The Spy

    by Paulo Coelho
    A young man's journey of self-discovery and exploration of his own destiny.

    In his new novel, Paulo Coelho, best-selling author of The Alchemist and Adultery, brings to life one of history's most enigmatic women: Mata Hari. HER ONLY CRIME WAS TO BE AN INDEPENDENT WOMAN When ... (Goodreads)

  20. N or M?

    by Agatha Christie
    A married couple must solve a mystery to prevent a Nazi invasion of Britain.

    The final words of the dying man...the code names of Hitler's most dangerous agents...the mysterious clue that sends Tommy and Tuppence to a seaside resort on a mission of wartime intelligence. But ... (Goodreads)

  21. Please Look After Mom

    by Shin Kyung-sook
    A family's journey of grief and healing following the disappearance of their mother.

    When sixty-nine-year-old So-Nyo is separated from her husband among the crowds of the Seoul subway station , her family begins a desperate search to find her. Yet as long-held secrets and private ... (Wikipedia)

  22. Mornings in Jenin

    by Susan Abulhawa
    A Palestinian family's generations-long journey, struggling for identity and freedom.

    A heart-wrenching, powerfully written novel that could do for Palestine what, The Kite Runner, did for Afghanistan. Forcibly removed from the ancient village of Ein Hod by the newly formed state of ... (Goodreads)

  23. Chronicle of a Death Foretold

    by Gabriel García Márquez
    A murder mystery narrated by the townspeople and tracing the events leading up to the crime.

    The non-linear story, told by an anonymous narrator, begins with the morning of Santiago Nasar's death. The reader learns that Santiago lives with his mother, Placida Linero; the cook, Victoria ... (Wikipedia)

  24. Blindness

    by José Saramago
    A society is plunged into chaos when everyone suddenly loses their sight.

    Blindness is the story of an unexplained mass epidemic of blindness afflicting nearly everyone in an unnamed city, and the social breakdown that swiftly follows. The novel follows the misfortune of a ... (Wikipedia)

  25. Mother

    by Maxim Gorky
    A journey of self-discovery for a young man, as he learns the truth of his past.

    In his novel, Gorky portrays the life of a woman who works in a Russian factory doing hard manual labour and combating poverty and hunger, among other hardships. Pelageya Nilovna Vlasova is the real ... (Wikipedia)

  26. Palace Walk

    by Naguib Mahfouz
    An exploration of family life in Cairo during the 1920s, uncovering secrets and tensions in the everyday.

    al-Sayyid Ahmad Abd al-Jawad is the tyrannical head of his household, demanding total, unquestioning obedience from his wife, Amina, his sons, Yasin, Fahmy and Kamal, and his daughters, Khadija and ... (Wikipedia)

  27. Samarkand

    by Amin Maalouf
    Epic tale of a man's journey to discover his identity and the truths of his ancestry.

    The first half of the story is set in Persia (present day Iran ) and Central Asia in the 11th century, and revolves around the scientist, philosopher, and poet Omar Khayyám . It recounts the creation ... (Wikipedia)

  28. Season of Migration to the North

    by Tayeb Salih
    A stranger arrives in a small Sudanese village, stirring up dark secrets from the past.

    After years of study in Europe, the young narrator of Season of Migration to the North returns to his village along the Nile in the Sudan. It is the 1960s, and he is eager to make a contribution to ... (Goodreads)

  29. The Feast of the Goat

    by Mario Vargas Llosa
    A political thriller exploring a dictatorship in the Dominican Republic.

    The novel's narrative is divided into three distinct strands. One is centred on Urania Cabral, a fictional Dominican character; another deals with the conspirators involved in Trujillo's ... (Wikipedia)

  30. Cyrano de Bergerac

    by Edmond Rostand
    A tale of unrequited love, an unlikely hero's journey for acceptance and admiration.

    Hercule Savinien de Cyrano de Bergerac , a cadet (nobleman serving as a soldier) in the French Army , is a brash, strong-willed man of many talents. In addition to being a remarkable duelist, he is a ... (Wikipedia)