Recommendations based on HHhHby Laurent Binet

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

  1. Stoner

    by John Williams
    An academic's life of quiet desperation, finding solace in literature.

    William Stoner is born on a small farm in 1891. After high school, the county agent advises he go to agriculture school. Stoner enrolls in the University of Missouri , where all agriculture students ... (Wikipedia)

  2. The Secret History

    by Donna Tartt
    A small group of misfit college students uncover a sinister secret and their lives become entangled with dangerous consequences.

    Under the influence of their charismatic classics professor, a group of clever, eccentric misfits at an elite New England college discover a way of thinking and living that is a world away from the ... (Goodreads)

  3. Freedom

    by Jonathan Franzen
    A family saga revealing the struggles of a divided nation, and the power of love to heal.

    The novel opens with a brief look at the Berglund family during their time living in St. Paul, Minnesota , from the perspective of their nosy neighbors. The Berglunds are portrayed as an ideal ... (Wikipedia)

  4. The Sense of an Ending

    by Julian Barnes
    An exploration of memory and its impact on the present, looking at the choices we make in life.

    By an acclaimed writer at the height of his powers, The Sense of an Ending extends a streak of extraordinary books that began with the best-selling Arthur & George and continued with Nothing to Be ... (Goodreads)

  5. The Trial

    by Franz Kafka
    A man is arrested and put on trial for a crime that remains unclear throughout the novel.

    On the morning of his thirtieth birthday, Josef K., the chief cashier of a bank, is unexpectedly arrested by two unidentified agents from an unspecified agency for an unspecified crime. Josef is not ... (Wikipedia)

  6. Norwegian Wood

    by Haruki Murakami
    A young man's journey of love and loss set against the backdrop of the 1960s.

    Toru, a quiet and preternaturally serious young college student in Tokyo, is devoted to Naoko, a beautiful and introspective young woman, but their mutual passion is marked by the tragic death of ... (Goodreads)

  7. The Kindly Ones

    by Jonathan Littell
    A former Nazi officer's reminiscences of World War II and his role in the Holocaust.

    The book is a fictional autobiography, describing the life of Maximilien Aue, a former officer in the SS who, decades later, tells the story of a crucial part of his life when he was an active member ... (Wikipedia)

  8. The Leopard

    by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa
    Epic story of a Sicilian nobleman's struggle to preserve his family and their way of life in a rapidly changing world.

    Most of the novel is set during the time of the, Risorgimento, , specifically during the period when Giuseppe Garibaldi , the hero of Italian unification, swept through Sicily with his forces, known ... (Wikipedia)

  9. The Name of the Rose

    by Umberto Eco
    A Franciscan friar investigates a series of murders in a medieval monastery, uncovering a sinister plot.

    In 1327, Franciscan friar William of Baskerville and Adso of Melk , a Benedictine novice travelling under his protection, arrive at a Benedictine monastery in Northern Italy to attend a theological ... (Wikipedia)

  10. Life and Fate

    by Vasily Grossman
    An emotionally charged exploration of the Soviet Union during World War II and the power of fate.

    The novel at heart narrates the history of the family of Viktor Shtrum and the Battle of Stalingrad . It is written, despite attempting to get away from it, in the socialist realist style, which can ... (Wikipedia)

  11. Austerlitz

    by W.G. Sebald
    A man discovers his past and identity through the story of a Jewish boy who escaped Nazi Germany.

    Jacques Austerlitz, the main character in the book, is an architectural historian who encounters and befriends the solitary narrator in Antwerp during the 1960s. Gradually we come to understand his ... (Wikipedia)

  12. The Shipping News

    by Annie Proulx
    A man's attempt to rebuild his life in a small Newfoundland town, discovering compassion and joy.

    The story centers around Quoyle, a newspaper reporter from upstate New York , whose father had emigrated from Newfoundland . Shortly after his parents' joint suicide, Quoyle's unfaithful and abusive ... (Wikipedia)

  13. Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World

    by Haruki Murakami
    A surreal exploration of two separate yet interwoven realities.

    The story is split between parallel narratives. The odd-numbered chapters take place in the 'Hard-Boiled Wonderland', although the phrase is not used anywhere in the text, only in page headers. The ... (Wikipedia)

  14. American Pastoral

    by Philip Roth
    A man's experience of the American Dream gone wrong, as his daughter's political radicalism unravels his family life.

    Seymour Irving Levov is born and raised in the Weequahic section of Newark, New Jersey , in 1927 as the elder son of a successful Jewish American glove manufacturer, Lou Levov, and his wife Sylvia. ... (Wikipedia)

  15. 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)

  16. Disgrace

    by J.M. Coetzee
    A professor's fall from grace in post-apartheid South Africa, reckoning with the consequences of his actions.

    David Lurie is a South African professor of English who loses everything: his reputation, his job, his peace of mind, his dreams of artistic success, and finally even his ability to protect his own ... (Wikipedia)

  17. The Elementary Particles

    by Michel Houellebecq
    Story of two half-brothers, exploring the depths of humanity and the emptiness of modern life.

    Despite the essentially elaborate scope of the plot revealed in the novel's conclusion, the narrative focuses almost exclusively on the bleak and unrewarding day-to-day lives of the protagonists, two ... (Wikipedia)

  18. All Quiet on the Western Front

    by Erich Maria Remarque
    A soldier's harrowing experience of the horrors of war.

    The book tells the story of Paul Bäumer, who belongs to a group of German soldiers on the Western Front during World War I . The patriotic speeches of his teacher Kantorek had led the whole class to ... (Wikipedia)

  19. 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)

  20. The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet

    by David Mitchell
    An epic tale of love and adventure set in an 18th century Japanese trading port.

    The novel begins in the summer of 1799 at the Dutch East India Company trading post Dejima in the harbor of Nagasaki . It tells the story of a Dutch trader's love for a Japanese midwife who is ... (Wikipedia)

  21. Look Who's Back

    by Timur Vermes
    A satirical novel about a fictional Adolf Hitler, who wakes up in modern-day Germany.

    Berlin, Summer 2011. Adolf Hitler wakes up from a 66-year sleep in his subterranean Berlin bunker to find the Germany he knew entirely changed: Internet-driven media spreads ideas in minutes and ... (Goodreads)

  22. War and Peace

    by Leo Tolstoy
    Epic tale of war, peace, and love, focusing on the lives of five aristocratic families.

    The novel begins in July 1805 in Saint Petersburg , at a soirée given by Anna Pavlovna Scherer—the maid of honour and confidante to the dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna . Many of the main characters ... (Wikipedia)

  23. The Bridge on the Drina

    by Ivo Andrić
    A multigenerational epic of a small Bosnian town and the bridge that stands as its symbol.

    A vivid depiction of the suffering history has imposed upon the people of Bosnia from the late sixteenth century to the beginning of World War I, The Bridge on the Drina earned Ivo Andric the Nobel ... (Goodreads)

  24. Fatherland

    by Robert Harris
    A thriller set in an alternate history of Nazi Germany, where secrets of the past are uncovered.

    The novel opens in Nazi Germany in April 1964 during the week leading up to Adolf Hitler 's ,[note 1], 75th birthday. Detective Xavier March is an investigator working for the Kriminalpolizei ( Kripo ... (Wikipedia)

  25. The Cider House Rules

    by John Irving
    A moral journey through the rural landscape of 1940s Maine, exploring issues of responsibility, family, and love.

    Homer Wells grows up in an orphanage where he spends his childhood trying to be "of use" as a medical assistant to the director, Dr. Wilbur Larch, whose history is told in flashbacks : After a ... (Wikipedia)

  26. The Shock of the Fall

    by Nathan Filer
    A young man's struggle with mental illness and his journey to find understanding and acceptance.

    What begins as the story of a lost boy turns into a story of a brave man yearning to understand what happened that night, in the years since, and to his very person. While on vacation with their ... (Goodreads)

  27. The World According to Garp

    by John Irving
    A humorous and heart-wrenching journey of life, love and literature.

    This is the life and times of T. S. Garp, the bastard son of Jenny Fields—a feminist leader ahead of her times. This is the life and death of a famous mother and her almost-famous son; theirs is a ... (Goodreads)

  28. Doctor Zhivago

    by Boris Pasternak
    A love story set against the backdrop of the Russian Revolution, exploring the tragedy of a nation in upheaval.

    The plot of Doctor Zhivago is long and intricate. It can be difficult to follow for two reasons. First, Pasternak employs many characters, who interact with each other throughout the book in ... (Wikipedia)

  29. The Baker's Daughter

    by Sarah McCoy
    A woman reconciles with her past while exploring the meaning of family, faith, and home.

    Garmisch, Germania, inverno 1944. È un anello di fidanzamento, quello che un ufficiale nazista ha appena messo al dito della giovane Elsie. Un anello che potrebbe cancellare l'amaro sapore della ... (Goodreads)

  30. Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close

    by Jonathan Safran Foer
    A young boy's quest to find the lock that matches a mysterious key his father left behind.

    Nine-year-old Oskar Schell is an inventor, amateur entomologist, Francophile, letter writer, pacifist, natural historian, percussionist, romantic, Great Explorer, jeweller, detective, vegan, and ... (Goodreads)