Recommendations based on The Night in Questionby Tobias Wolff

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

  1. Where I'm Calling From: New and Selected Stories

    by Raymond Carver
    An exploration of human relationships and the complexity of emotions.

    By the time of his early death in 1988, Raymond Carver had established himself as one of the greatest practitioners of the American short story, a writer who had not only found his own voice but ... (Goodreads)

  2. Birds of America

    by Lorrie Moore
    A collection of comedic stories depicting everyday life with a unique, wry sense of humor.

    A long-awaited collection of stories–twelve in all--by one of the most exciting writers at work today, the acclaimed author of Who Will Run the Frog Hospital? and Self-Help. Stories remarkable in ... (Goodreads)

  3. Tenth of December

    by George Saunders
    A collection of stories exploring the human condition through diverse characters and their struggles.

    A young girl named Alison is kidnapped three days before her birthday. Kyle, a boy who lives nearby whose parents enforce very strict household rules, sees the event unfold and must decide whether to ... (Wikipedia)

  4. Old School

    by Tobias Wolff
    An aspiring writer's journey of self-discovery, competing against his peers for the attention of a prestigious school's faculty.

    The book is narrated by a school senior ("sixth former" in prep-school vernacular) at an unnamed elite boarding school in the northeastern United States in 1960–61. The unnamed protagonist is a ... (Wikipedia)

  5. Jesus' Son

    by Denis Johnson
    A collection of short stories exploring life of addiction and redemption.

    Jesus' Son , the first collection of stories by Denis Johnson, presents a unique, hallucinatory vision of contemporary American life unmatched in power and immediacy and marks a new level of ... (Goodreads)

  6. Cathedral

    by Raymond Carver
    An unexpected encounter changes a man's outlook on life and his relationships.

    Raymond Carver’s third collection of stories, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, including the canonical titular story about blindness and learning to enter the very different world of another. These ... (Goodreads)

  7. What We Talk About When We Talk About Love

    by Raymond Carver
    Exploration of relationships, revealing the complexities of love and its many forms.

    Alternate-cover edition can be found, here, In his second collection, Carver establishes his reputation as one of the most celebrated and beloved short-story writers in American literature—a haunting ... (Goodreads)

  8. Play It As It Lays

    by Joan Didion
    A woman's search for identity amidst the glamour and emptiness of 1960s Hollywood.

    The novel begins with an internal monologue by the 31-year-old Maria Wyeth, followed by short reminiscences of her friend Helene, and ex-husband, film producer Carter Lang. The further narration is ... (Wikipedia)

  9. The Stories of John Cheever

    by John Cheever
    A collection of short stories that explore the human condition in the modern era.

    Here are sixty-one stories that chronicle the lives of what has been called "the greatest generation." From the early wonder and disillusionment of city life in "The Enormous Radio" to the surprising ... (Goodreads)

  10. Cat's Cradle

    by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
    A satirical exploration of human folly, exposing the dangers of unchecked science and technology.

    Told with deadpan humour and bitter irony, Kurt Vonnegut's cult tale of global destruction preys on our deepest fears of witnessing Armageddon and, worse still, surviving it ... Dr Felix Hoenikker, ... (Goodreads)

  11. Notes of a Dirty Old Man

    by Charles Bukowski
    A collection of raw and unfiltered short stories and essays, exploring the gritty and seedy underbelly of society.

    Bukowski uses his own life as the basis for his series of articles, and characteristically leaves nothing out. The different stories range from hooking up with the wife of a stranger who invites him ... (Wikipedia)

  12. To the Lighthouse

    by Virginia Woolf
    Exploration of the complexities of human relationships and family life.

    The novel is set in the Ramsays' summer home in the Hebrides , on the Isle of Skye . The section begins with Mrs Ramsay assuring her son James that they should be able to visit the lighthouse on the ... (Wikipedia)

  13. The Corrections

    by Jonathan Franzen
    A family drama exploring the complexities of relationships, aging and life’s choices.

    The novel shifts back and forth through the late 20th century, intermittently following spouses Alfred and Enid Lambert as they raise their children Gary, Chip, and Denise in the traditional ... (Wikipedia)

  14. Money

    by Martin Amis
    A satirical look at the power of money and the cut-throat world of 1980s high finance.

    Money tells the story of, and is narrated by, John Self, a successful director of adverts who is invited to New York City by Fielding Goodney, a film producer, to shoot his first film. Self is an ... (Wikipedia)

  15. A Good Man Is Hard to Find and Other Stories

    by Flannery O'Connor
    A collection of short stories exploring the human condition, from the comic to the grotesque.

    This now classic book revealed Flannery O'Connor as one of the most original and provocative writers to emerge from the South. Her apocalyptic vision of life is expressed through grotesque, often ... (Goodreads)

  16. The Complete Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway

    by Ernest Hemingway
    Collection of short stories depicting the human experience in all its complexities.

    THE ONLY COMPLETE COLLECTION BY THE NOBEL PRIZE-WINNING AUTHOR In this definitive collection of Ernest Hemingway's short stories, readers will delight in the author's most beloved classics such as ... (Goodreads)

  17. The Sportswriter

    by Richard Ford
    A sportswriter navigates through life after the death of his son, reflecting on his past relationships and current struggles.

    As a sportswriter, Frank Bascombe makes his living studying people–men, mostly--who live entirely within themselves. This is a condition that Frank himself aspires to. But at thirty-eight, he suffers ... (Goodreads)

  18. On the Road

    by Jack Kerouac
    A young man's journey across America, seeking adventure and freedom.

    The two main characters of the book are the narrator, Sal Paradise, and his friend Dean Moriarty, much admired for his carefree attitude and sense of adventure, a free-spirited maverick eager to ... (Wikipedia)

  19. Ask the Dust

    by John Fante
    A young writer's journey of self-discovery in 1930s Los Angeles.

    Ask the Dust is the story of Arturo Bandini, a young Italian-American writer in 1930s Los Angeles who falls hard for the elusive, mocking, unstable Camilla Lopez, a Mexican waitress. Struggling to ... (Goodreads)

  20. The Feast of All Saints

    by Anne Rice
    Follows a Creole family's struggle with racism and oppression in 19th century Louisiana.

    This novel is about the gens de couleur libres , or free people of color , who lived in New Orleans before the Civil War . The gens de couleur libres were the descendants of European settlers of ... (Wikipedia)

  21. Legends of the Fall

    by Jim Harrison
    Epic tale of three brothers and their father living in the wilderness of Montana, facing love, war, and tragedy.

    Three novellas by the, New York Times, bestselling author, including the classic tale of brotherhood from the Montana plains through the horrors of WWI. Jim Harrison’s critically acclaimed novella ... (Barnes & Noble)

  22. 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)

  23. In Our Time

    by Ernest Hemingway
    A collection of short stories exploring themes of war, nature, and human relationships.

    First published in 1925, earning Hemingway praise as a promising American writer. Contains several early Hemingway classics, including the famous Nick Adams stories. This volume introduces readers to ... (Goodreads)

  24. So Long, See You Tomorrow

    by William Maxwell
    A tale of friendship, betrayal, and regret set in rural Illinois during the 1920s.

    On an Illinois farm in the 1920s, a man is murdered, and in the same moment the tenuous friendship between two lonely boys comes to an end. In telling their interconnected stories, American Book ... (Goodreads)

  25. Selected Stories of Anton Chekhov

    by Anton Chekhov
    A collection of short stories depicting the lives of ordinary people in Russia.

    Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky, the highly acclaimed translators of War and Peace, Doctor Zhivago, and Anna Karenina, which was an Oprah Book Club pick and million-copy bestseller, bring ... (Goodreads)

  26. The Dharma Bums

    by Jack Kerouac
    A journey of self-discovery, fueled by a passion for Buddhism and nature.

    The character Japhy drives Ray Smith's story, whose penchant for simplicity and Zen Buddhism influenced Kerouac on the eve of the sudden and unpredicted success of, On the Road, . The action shifts ... (Wikipedia)

  27. A Streetcar Named Desire

    by Tennessee Williams
    A woman's struggle to come to terms with her past and present in a post-war New Orleans.

    After the loss of her family home to creditors, Blanche DuBois travels from the small town of Laurel, Mississippi , to the New Orleans French Quarter to live with her younger married sister, Stella , ... (Wikipedia)

  28. The First Bad Man

    by Miranda July
    A woman's exploration of her inner life, as she discovers unexpected depths of her own desires.

    From the acclaimed filmmaker, artist, and bestselling author of No One Belongs Here More Than You, a spectacular debut novel that is so heartbreaking, so dirty, so tender, so funny–so Miranda ... (Goodreads)

  29. 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)

  30. Difficult Women

    by Roxane Gay
    A collection of stories exploring the complexity of womanhood through the eyes of diverse characters.

    Award-winning author and powerhouse talent Roxane Gay burst onto the scene with, An Untamed State, and the, New York Times, bestselling essay collection, Bad Feminist, (Harper Perennial). Gay returns ... (Goodreads)