Recommendations based on Autumnby Ali Smith

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

  1. Winter

    by Ali Smith
    A novel set in the winter season, exploring family relationships, politics, and the impact of technology on society.

    A family gathers in a large Cornwall house for a Christmas reuinion. With matriarch Sophia and her estranged sister Iris are her son Art and who they believe is his girlfriend Charlotte. Art has paid ... (Wikipedia)

  2. How to Be Both

    by Ali Smith
    Exploring duality and interconnectedness through the life of a girl and a Renaissance artist.

    Passionate, compassionate, vitally inventive and scrupulously playful, Ali Smith’s novels are like nothing else. A true original, she is a one-of-a-kind literary sensation. Her novels consistently ... (Goodreads)

  3. Hot Milk

    by Deborah Levy
    A woman's quest for answers to her mysterious, chronic illness.

    Sofia, a young anthropologist, has spent much of her life trying to solve the mystery of her mother's unexplainable illness. She's frustrated with Rose and her constant complaints but utterly ... (Goodreads)

  4. Lincoln in the Bardo

    by George Saunders
    A spiritual exploration of death, exploring the afterlife through the eyes of President Lincoln.

    In his long-awaited first novel, American master George Saunders delivers his most original, transcendent, and moving work yet. Unfolding in a graveyard over the course of a single night, narrated by ... (Goodreads)

  5. The Power

    by Naomi Alderman
    A world where women have the power to control electricity, and use it to fight against gender-based oppression.

    In a matriarchal society, a gushing male writer writes to an influential author about his fictional account of how the matriarchy came to be. Five thousand years earlier (in our current time), men ... (Wikipedia)

  6. Giovanni's Room

    by James Baldwin
    A man's struggle for identity and acceptance amidst a tumultuous romantic relationship.

    David, a young American man whose girlfriend has gone off to Spain to contemplate marriage, is left alone in Paris and begins an affair with an Italian man, Giovanni. The entire story is narrated by ... (Wikipedia)

  7. Exit West

    by Mohsin Hamid
    Reflection on displacement and immigration as two refugees traverse the world in search of a new life.

    Nadia and Saeed meet when they are working students in an unnamed city. Saeed is more conservative and still lives at home, as custom generally requires, but the more independent Nadia has chosen to ... (Wikipedia)

  8. Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit

    by Jeanette Winterson
    A young girl's journey of self-discovery, navigating the boundaries between religion, sexuality and identity.

    Alternate cover edition for 9780802135162 This is the story of Jeanette, adopted and brought up by her mother as one of God's elect. Zealous and passionate, she seems destined for life as a ... (Goodreads)

  9. Elmet

    by Fiona Mozley
    A family living off the grid in rural England faces threats from the outside world. A haunting exploration of violence, loyalty, and love.

    The narrator who speaks in the sections in cursive seems to be looking for somebody against a modern landscape of highways, lorries and café stopovers. We will come to realise that this is Daniel, ... (Wikipedia)

  10. 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)

  11. The Vegetarian

    by Han Kang
    A woman's radical decision to pursue a vegetarian lifestyle, leading to unexpected and far-reaching consequences.

    The Vegetarian tells the story of Yeong-hye, a home-maker who, one day, suddenly decides to stop eating meat after a series of dreams involving images of animal slaughter. This abstention leads her ... (Wikipedia)

  12. Home Fire

    by Kamila Shamsie
    A family torn apart by tragedy, facing the choices of loyalty, love and politics.

    Isma is free. After years of watching out for her younger siblings in the wake of their mother’s death, she’s accepted an invitation from a mentor in America that allows her to resume a dream long ... (Goodreads)

  13. 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)

  14. Human Acts

    by Han Kang
    An exploration of the devastating effects of political violence, told through the lens of one family's tragedy.

    Human Acts deals with the May 1980 Gwangju uprising and the death of the young boy Kang Dong-ho. The novel is composed of seven chapters including the final epilogue, with each chapter tracing the ... (Wikipedia)

  15. The Overstory

    by Richard Powers
    Nine strangers are brought together by their love for trees, leading to a fight to save the last of the remaining forests.

    Nicholas Hoel, Mimi Ma, Adam Appich, Ray Brinkman, Dorothy Cazaly, Douglas Pavlicek, Neelay Mehta, Patricia Westerford, and Olivia Vandergriff are people who had unique relationships with trees which ... (Wikipedia)

  16. Pachinko

    by Lee Min-jin
    A saga spanning four generations of a Korean family living in Japan, struggling to survive and thrive amidst prejudice and poverty.

    The novel takes place over the course of three books: Book I Gohyang/Hometown, Book II Motherland, and Book III Pachinko. In 1883, in the little island fishing village of Yeongdo , which is a ferry ... (Wikipedia)

  17. The Bluest Eye

    by Toni Morrison
    Coming of age story of a young Black girl dealing with prejudice and racism in 1940s Ohio.

    In Lorain, Ohio , nine-year-old Claudia MacTeer and her 10-year-old sister Frieda live with their parents, a tenant named Mr. Henry, and Pecola Breedlove, a temporary foster child whose house was ... (Wikipedia)

  18. Call Me By Your Name

    by André Aciman
    A tender story of first love, exploring the complexities of identity, sexuality and desire.

    The narrator, Elio Perlman , recalls the events of the summer of about 1987, when he was seventeen and living with his parents in Italy . Each summer, his parents would take in a doctoral student as ... (Wikipedia)

  19. On Chesil Beach

    by Ian McEwan
    A young couple's journey through a difficult, yet passionate, wedding night.

    In July 1962, Edward Mayhew, a graduate student of history, and Florence Ponting, a violinist of a string quartet, have just been married and are spending their honeymoon in a small hotel on the ... (Wikipedia)

  20. 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)

  21. 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)

  22. A Manual for Cleaning Women: Selected Stories

    by Lucia Berlin
    An exploration of female experience, weaving together stories of love, loss, and resilience.

    A Manual for Cleaning Women compiles the best work of the legendary short-story writer Lucia Berlin. With the grit of Raymond Carver, the humor of Grace Paley, and a blend of wit and melancholy all ... (Barnes & Noble)

  23. Transit

    by Rachel Cusk
    A woman's journey of rediscovering herself after divorce, through encounters with others.

    The stunning second novel of a trilogy that began with, Outline, one of, The New York Times Book Review,’s ten best books of 2015 . In the wake of family collapse, a writer and her two young sons ... (Goodreads)

  24. Americanah

    by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
    An exploration of race, identity, and belonging as two Nigerian immigrants experience life in America and beyond.

    Ifemelu and Obinze are young and in love when they depart military-ruled Nigeria for the West. Beautiful, self-assured Ifemelu heads for America, where despite her academic success, she is forced to ... (Goodreads)

  25. The Remains of the Day

    by Kazuo Ishiguro
    A butler reflects on his past, grappling with the lost opportunities of a life devoted to service.

    The novel tells, in first-person narration , the story of Stevens, an English butler who has dedicated his life to the loyal service of Lord Darlington (who is recently deceased, and whom Stevens ... (Wikipedia)

  26. The Waves

    by Virginia Woolf
    Inner musings of six characters in search of individual identity, expressed through the ebb and flow of the sea.

    The novel follows its six narrators from childhood through adulthood. Woolf is concerned with the individual consciousness and the ways in which multiple consciousnesses can weave together. Bernard ... (Wikipedia)

  27. Burnt Sugar

    by Avni Doshi
    A daughter's complex relationship with her mother, who is suffering from memory loss. A story of love, resentment, and the search for identity.

    In her youth, Tara was wild. She abandoned her loveless marriage to join an ashram, endured a brief stint as a beggar (mostly to spite her affluent parents), and spent years chasing after a ... (Goodreads)

  28. The Underground Railroad

    by Colson Whitehead
    An escaped slave's daring escape to freedom, fighting against the brutality of slavery.

    The story is told in the third person, focusing mainly on Cora. Scattered single chapters also focus on Cora's mother Mabel, the slavecatcher Ridgeway, a reluctant slave sympathizer named Ethel, and ... (Wikipedia)

  29. 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)

  30. The Idiot

    by Elif Batuman
    A young woman's journey of self-discovery, learning to navigate the complexities of life.

    Selin Karadağ is a freshman studying linguistics at Harvard University . She meets an older Hungarian mathematics student, Ivan, in a Russian language class and the two begin corresponding over ... (Wikipedia)