Recommendations based on The Reiversby William Faulkner

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

  1. Sanctuary

    by William Faulkner
    A Southern Gothic story of a man's attempt to escape the consequences of his past.

    The novel is set in Faulkner's fictional Yoknapatawpha County , Mississippi and takes place in May/June 1929. In May 1929, Horace Benbow, a lawyer frustrated with his life and family, suddenly leaves ... (Wikipedia)

  2. The Sound and the Fury

    by William Faulkner
    Tragic story of the decline of a southern family, exploring the human condition.

    The first section of the novel is narrated by Benjamin "Benjy" Compson, a source of shame to the family due to his diminished mental capacity; the only characters who show genuine care for him are ... (Wikipedia)

  3. A Rose for Emily and Other Stories

    by William Faulkner
    Collection of short stories exploring the complexities of Southern life, often with dark and tragic themes.

    The story opens with a brief first-person account of the funeral of Emily Grierson , an elderly Southern woman whose funeral is the obligation of their small town. It then proceeds in a non-linear ... (Wikipedia)

  4. A Farewell to Arms

    by Ernest Hemingway
    A story of unrequited love in the midst of war.

    The novel is divided into five sections or 'books'. Frederic Henry is first person narrator of the story. Lieutenant Frederic Henry, an American paramedic , is serving in the Italian Army . The novel ... (Wikipedia)

  5. A Visit from the Goon Squad

    by Jennifer Egan
    A mosaic of characters, lives, and relationships as they intertwine and evolve over time.

    Jennifer Egan’s spellbinding interlocking narratives circle the lives of Bennie Salazar, an aging former punk rocker and record executive, and Sasha, the passionate, troubled young woman he employs. ... (Goodreads)

  6. The Sirens of Titan

    by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
    Intergalactic odyssey exploring the meaning of life and the human condition.

    Malachi Constant is the richest man in a future North America. He possesses extraordinary luck that he attributes to divine favor which he has used to build upon his father's fortune. He becomes the ... (Wikipedia)

  7. Beloved

    by Toni Morrison
    A haunting story of loss and resilience in the aftermath of slavery.

    Beloved begins in 1873 in Cincinnati, Ohio , where the protagonist Sethe, a formerly enslaved woman, has been living with her eighteen-year-old daughter Denver at 124 Bluestone Road. The book ... (Wikipedia)

  8. Cloud Atlas

    by David Mitchell
    A dynamic narrative spanning centuries, exploring the interconnectedness of humanity.

    The book consists of six nested stories; each is read or observed by a main character of the next, thus they progress in time through the central sixth story. The first five stories are each ... (Wikipedia)

  9. Death with Interruptions

    by José Saramago
    A mysterious phenomenon that stops all deaths leading to a dilemma of moral, ethical and social implications.

    The book, set in an unnamed, landlocked country at a point in the unspecified past, opens with the end of death. Mysteriously, at the stroke of midnight on January 1, no one in the country ... (Wikipedia)

  10. The Optimist's Daughter

    by Eudora Welty
    Laurel returns to her hometown to care for her father's affairs after his death, confronting memories and family secrets.

    The Optimist's Daughter is the story of Laurel McKelva Hand, a young woman who has left the South and returns, years later, to New Orleans, where her father is dying. After his death, she and her ... (Goodreads)

  11. A Confederacy of Dunces

    by John Kennedy Toole
    A satirical tale of an eccentric slacker's misadventures in New Orleans.

    Alternate cover for this ISBN can be found, here, "A green hunting cap squeezed the top of the fleshy balloon of a head. The green earflaps, full of large ears and uncut hair and the fine bristles ... (Goodreads)

  12. The Sun Also Rises

    by Ernest Hemingway
    A group of expatriates in 1920s Europe, struggling to come to terms with the aftermath of WWI.

    On the surface, the novel is a love story between the protagonist Jake Barnes—a man whose war wound has made him unable to have sex—and the promiscuous divorcée usually identified as Lady Brett ... (Wikipedia)

  13. The Confessions of Nat Turner

    by William Styron
    A fictionalized account of the life of Nat Turner, a slave who led a rebellion in Virginia in 1831.

    The time is November, 1831. African American slave Nat Turner sits in a Virginia jail awaiting execution for his crimes. Nat led a slave rebellion which ended in the deaths of dozens of white people ... (Wikipedia)

  14. 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)

  15. The Charterhouse of Parma

    by Stendhal
    A young Italian nobleman's adventures in a world of political intrigues and affairs of the heart.

    The Charterhouse of Parma chronicles the adventures of the young Italian nobleman Fabrice del Dongo from his birth in 1798 to his death. Fabrice spends his early years in his family's castle on Lake ... (Wikipedia)

  16. The Stone Diaries

    by Carol Shields
    A woman's life story told through a series of vignettes, examining the joys and sorrows of life.

    The book is the fictional autobiography of Daisy Goodwill Flett, a seemingly ordinary woman whose life is marked by death and loss from the beginning, when her mother dies during childbirth. Through ... (Wikipedia)

  17. If on a Winter's Night a Traveler

    by Italo Calvino
    An exploration of the nature of storytelling, as two readers attempt to uncover the lost story of the novel's title.

    If on a Winter's Night a Traveler is a marvel of ingenuity, an experimental text that looks longingly back to the great age of narration—"when time no longer seemed stopped and did not yet seem to ... (Goodreads)

  18. Richard II

    by William Shakespeare
    King Richard II's downfall and deposition, as he loses the support of his nobles and faces the consequences of his actions.

    Written in 1595, Richard II occupies a significant place in the Shakespeare canon, marking the transition from the earlier history plays dominated by civil war and stark power to a more nuanced ... (Goodreads)

  19. East of Eden

    by John Steinbeck
    Exploration of the timeless struggle between good and evil, set against a backdrop of a family saga.

    In his journal, Nobel Prize winner John Steinbeck called East of Eden “the first book,” and indeed it has the primordial power and simplicity of myth. Set in the rich farmland of California’s Salinas ... (Goodreads)

  20. The Violent Bear It Away

    by Flannery O'Connor
    Exploration of religious faith and fanaticism in the American South.

    Mason Tarwater, an outspoken evangelist and self-ordained prophet, dies many years after kidnapping his great-nephew Francis, raising him in a backwoods cabin and preparing him to someday take his ... (Wikipedia)

  21. Lonesome Dove

    by Larry McMurtry
    Epic tale of two former Texas Rangers on a cattle drive from Texas to Montana.

    It is the late 1870s. , Captain Woodrow F. Call and Captain Augustus "Gus" McCrae, two famous retired Texas Rangers , run the Hat Creek Cattle Company and Livery Emporium in the small Texas border ... (Wikipedia)

  22. 1Q84

    by Haruki Murakami
    A surreal journey of two people entangled in a mysterious dual-world conspiracy.

    The events of 1Q84 take place in Tokyo during a fictionalized year of 1984, with the first volume set between April and June, the second between July and September, and the third between October and ... (Wikipedia)

  23. 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)

  24. The Moon Is Down

    by John Steinbeck
    A small town is occupied by an unnamed army, and the townspeople must decide whether to resist or collaborate.

    Taken by surprise, a small coastal town is overrun by an invading army with little resistance. The town is important because it is a port that serves a large coal mine. Colonel Lanser, the head of ... (Wikipedia)

  25. 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)

  26. The Plague

    by Albert Camus
    A small town in Algeria is struck by a deadly plague, testing the courage and faith of its citizens.

    The book begins with an epigraph quoting Daniel Defoe , author of, A Journal of the Plague Year, . In the town of Oran, thousands of rats, initially unnoticed by the populace, begin to die in the ... (Wikipedia)

  27. The Bridge of San Luis Rey

    by Thornton Wilder
    Unexpected tragedy brings together a disparate group of strangers, revealing the interconnectedness of all lives.

    The first few pages of the first chapter explain the book's basic premise: the story centers on a fictional event that happened in Peru on the road between Lima and Cuzco , at noon on Friday, July ... (Wikipedia)

  28. Tales of the South Pacific

    by James A. Michener
    Collection of interrelated stories set in the Pacific theater during World War II, exploring the complexities of war and human relationships.

    Winner of the 1948 Pulitzer Prize for FictionEnter the exotic world of the South Pacific, meet the men and women caught up in the drama of a big war. The young Marine who falls madly in love with a ... (Goodreads)

  29. Slaughterhouse-Five

    by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
    A surrealistic, satirical commentary on the horror of war and the loss of innocence.

    The story is told in a non-linear order by an unreliable narrator (he begins the novel by telling the reader, "All of this happened, more or less"). Events become clear through flashbacks and ... (Wikipedia)

  30. Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters & Seymour: An Introduction

    by J.D. Salinger
    Examination of family relationships, growing pains, and human connections.

    The author writes: The two long pieces in this book originally came out in The New Yorker ? RAISE HIGH THE ROOF BEAM, CARPENTERS in 1955, SEYMOUR ? An Introduction in 1959. Whatever their differences ... (Goodreads)