Recommendations based on الفيل الأزرقby أحمد مراد

* 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. The Dream of a Ridiculous Man

    by Fyodor Dostoevsky
    A man's quest for happiness and meaning, resulting in a journey of self-realization.

    The story opens with the narrator wandering the streets of St. Petersburg . He is contemplating the ridiculousness of his own life, and his recent realization that nothing matters to him any more. It ... (Wikipedia)

  3. 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)

  4. 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)

  5. 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)

  6. The Architect's Apprentice

    by Elif Shafak
    A young boy becomes the apprentice of the chief architect of the Ottoman Empire, and navigates through love, war, and the construction of Istanbul's most iconic buildings.

    From the acclaimed author of, The Bastard of Istanbul, a colorful, magical tale set during the height of the Ottoman Empire In her latest novel, Elif Shafak spins an epic tale spanning nearly a ... (Goodreads)

  7. 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)

  8. The Yacoubian Building

    by Alaa Al Aswany
    A novel set in a Cairo apartment building, exploring the lives of its diverse inhabitants and their struggles with love, politics, and societal norms.

    The novel described the Yacoubian Building as one of the most luxurious and prestigious apartment blocks in Cairo following its construction by Armenian businessman Hagop Yacoubian in 1934, with ... (Wikipedia)

  9. 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)

  10. 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)

  11. 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)

  12. The Zahir

    by Paulo Coelho
    A man's journey to understand the meaning of love and of life, in the face of loss.

    The Zahir means 'the obvious' or 'conspicuous' in Arabic . The story revolves around the life of the narrator , a bestselling novelist, and in particular his search for his missing wife, Esther. He ... (Wikipedia)

  13. 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)

  14. The Overcoat

    by Nikolai Gogol
    A tale of a lowly bureaucrat's journey to reclaim his sense of self-worth.

    The story narrates the life and death of titular councillor Akaky Akakievich Bashmachkin (Russian: Акакий Акакиевич Башмачкин), an impoverished government clerk and copyist in the Russian capital of ... (Wikipedia)

  15. King Lear

    by William Shakespeare
    An aging king's descent into madness reveals the consequences of pride and vanity.

    Shakespeare’s King Lear challenges us with the magnitude, intensity, and sheer duration of the pain that it represents. Its figures harden their hearts, engage in violence, or try to alleviate the ... (Goodreads)

  16. Robinson Crusoe

    by Daniel Defoe
    A shipwrecked sailor's struggle to survive on an isolated island, and his eventual redemption.

    Crusoe (the family name corrupted from the German name "Kreutznaer") set sail from Kingston upon Hull on a sea voyage in August 1651, against the wishes of his parents, who wanted him to pursue a ... (Wikipedia)

  17. Poor Folk

    by Fyodor Dostoevsky
    A tale of romance between two unprivileged people, exploring the human condition of poverty.

    Varvara Dobroselova and Makar Devushkin are second cousins twice-removed and live across from each other on the same street in terrible apartments. Devushkin's, for example, is merely a portioned-off ... (Wikipedia)

  18. The Signature of All Things

    by Elizabeth Gilbert
    A woman's quest for knowledge and self-fulfillment, spanning through the 19th century.

    A glorious, sweeping novel of desire, ambition, and the thirst for knowledge, from the # 1 New York Times bestselling author of Eat, Pray, Love and Committed. In The Signature of All Things, ... (Goodreads)

  19. Oliver Twist

    by Charles Dickens
    An orphan's journey of survival and resilience in the face of poverty and injustice.

    Oliver Twist is born into a life of poverty and misfortune, raised in a workhouse in the fictional town of Mudfog , located 70 miles (110 km) north of London . , , , He is orphaned by his father's ... (Wikipedia)

  20. 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)

  21. Journey to the Center of the Earth

    by Jules Verne
    Explorers embark on an incredible subterranean adventure, uncovering the secrets of a lost world.

    Designed to appeal to the book lover, the Macmillan Collector's Library is a series of beautifully bound pocket-sized gift editions of much loved classic titles. Bound in real cloth, printed on high ... (Barnes & Noble)

  22. David Copperfield

    by Charles Dickens
    A rags-to-riches story of a young boy's adventures, trials, and tribulations.

    David Copperfield is the story of a young man's adventures on his journey from an unhappy and impoverished childhood to the discovery of his vocation as a successful novelist. Among the gloriously ... (Goodreads)

  23. The Prisoner of Zenda

    by Anthony Hope
    A thrilling adventure of mistaken identity, political intrigue, and romance.

    On the eve of the coronation of King Rudolf V of Ruritania, his younger half-brother Michael, Duke of Strelsau, has him drugged. The unconscious king is abducted and imprisoned in a castle in the ... (Wikipedia)

  24. 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)

  25. Veronika Decides to Die

    by Paulo Coelho
    A young woman's journey of self-discovery, learning to confront mortality and the power of love.

    Veronika is a young woman from Ljubljana , Slovenia, who appears to have a perfect life, but nevertheless decides to commit suicide by overdosing with sleeping pills. While she waits to die, she ... (Wikipedia)

  26. Midaq Alley

    by Naguib Mahfouz
    A story of life in a small Egyptian alleyway, exploring the interwoven lives of its inhabitants.

    Never has Nobel Prize-winner Naguib Mahfouz's talent for rich and luxurious storytelling been more evident than in Midaq Alley , which centers around the residents of one of the hustling, teeming ... (Goodreads)

  27. 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)

  28. Redeeming Love

    by Francine Rivers
    A woman's journey of transformation and redemption through the power of love.

    The story starts off in New England, 1835. Sarah, a beautiful young girl, meets her father, Alex Stafford, for the first time. Six-year-old Sarah learns that she is the product of Stafford's ... (Wikipedia)

  29. Forrest Gump

    by Winston Groom
    A story of an intellectually disabled man's incredible journey through life, with all its turns and surprises.

    Forrest Gump, named after Klu Klux Klan Grand Wizard Nathan Bedford Forrest , narrates the story of his life. The author uses misspellings and grammatical errors to indicate his Southern accent, ... (Wikipedia)

  30. The Autumn of the Patriarch

    by Gabriel García Márquez
    A powerful tyrant's downfall as he is manipulated by his inner circle and loses his grip on power.

    One of Gabriel Garcia Marquez's most intricate and ambitious works, The Autumn of the Patriarch is a brilliant tale of a Caribbean tyrant and the corruption of power. From charity to deceit, ... (Goodreads)