Recommendations based on My Absolute Darlingby Gabriel Tallent

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

  1. Sing, Unburied, Sing

    by Jesmyn Ward
    A family's journey through the Mississippi Delta, confronting a traumatic past.

    It is Jojo's thirteenth birthday. To step into his new role as a man, Jojo tries to bravely help his grandfather, Pop, kill a goat. Jojo ends up throwing up at the sight although Pop is sympathetic. ... (Wikipedia)

  2. Fates and Furies

    by Lauren Groff
    A tale of the secrets and passions of a marriage, exploring the depths of private lives.

    Every story has two sides. Every relationship has two perspectives. And sometimes, it turns out, the key to a great marriage is not its truths but its secrets. At the core of this rich, expansive, ... (Goodreads)

  3. The Girls

    by Emma Cline
    An exploration of the dark side of teenagehood, as a young girl is drawn into a cult.

    Northern California, during the violent end of the 1960s. At the start of summer, a lonely and thoughtful teenager, Evie Boyd, sees a group of girls in the park, and is immediately caught by their ... (Goodreads)

  4. We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves

    by Karen Joy Fowler
    A family's secrets and a girl's quest for the truth about her own identity.

    The, New York Times, bestselling author of, The Jane Austen Book Club, introduces a middle-class American family that is ordinary in every way but one in this novel that won the PEN/Faulkner Award ... (Barnes & Noble)

  5. 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)

  6. An American Marriage

    by Tayari Jones
    A newlywed couple's lives are torn apart when the husband is wrongfully convicted of a crime. The novel explores love, loyalty, and injustice.

    Roy, a sales representative for a textbook company, and Celestial, an artist specializing in custom made baby dolls, are newlyweds who live in Atlanta. After their first year of marriage they travel ... (Wikipedia)

  7. 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)

  8. The North Water

    by Ian McGuire
    A gruesome, dark journey on a whaling ship to the icy north, uncovering the depths of human depravity.

    A ship sets sail with a killer on board . . . 1859. A man joins a whaling ship bound for the Arctic Circle. Having left the British Army with his reputation in tatters, Patrick Sumner has little ... (Goodreads)

  9. Flight Behavior

    by Barbara Kingsolver
    A woman's struggle to reconcile her faith and environmentalism as she faces a mysterious ecological disaster.

    Dellarobia Turnbow is a 28-year-old discontented housewife living with her poor family on a farm in Appalachia . On a hike to begin an affair with a telephone repairman, Turnbow finds millions of ... (Wikipedia)

  10. Commonwealth

    by Ann Patchett
    Intertwining story of two families across multiple generations, and how their lives become intertwined.

    It started at Franny Keating’s christening party. Bert Cousins wasn’t even invited, but looking for an excuse to get out of the house, away from his three noisy children and pregnant wife for a few ... (Wikipedia)

  11. Lethal White

    by Robert Galbraith
    Private detective Cormoran Strike and his partner Robin investigate a blackmail case involving a government minister.

    At Robin Ellacott's marriage to Matthew Cunliffe, Cormoran Strike's capture of the Shacklewell Ripper the night before is already widely known, except by Robin. When Strike tells her that he had been ... (Wikipedia)

  12. 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)

  13. 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)

  14. The Secrets She Keeps

    by Michael Robotham
    Two strangers with dark secrets, whose lives become intertwined in a suspenseful tale of suspense, discovery, and redemption.

    “Two terrific female characters, both with secrets. Add Michael Robotham’s clean prose and whipcrack pacing. The result? A book you won’t be able to put down, although you may occasionally want to ... (Barnes & Noble)

  15. The Immortalists

    by Chloe Benjamin
    Four siblings visit a fortune teller who predicts the dates of their deaths, leading them to confront mortality and shape their lives accordingly.

    If you knew the date of your death, how would you live your life? It's 1969 in New York City's Lower East Side, and word has spread of the arrival of a mystical woman, a traveling psychic who claims ... (Goodreads)

  16. The Nix

    by Nathan Hill
    A middle-aged man's quest to discover the truth about his mother and his own identity.

    The Nix is an American epic novel in 10 parts that follows community college professor of English, Samuel Andresen-Anderson who is struggling to find meaning in his life in the years following his ... (Wikipedia)

  17. The Likeness

    by Tana French
    A murder investigation reveals secrets of a young woman's past, threatening her present.

    The story follows the efforts of detective Cassie Maddox to determine the circumstances surrounding the death of Lexie Madison, a young woman who is her doppelgänger . , The dead woman not only ... (Wikipedia)

  18. The Heart's Invisible Furies

    by John Boyne
    A man's life journey spanning seven decades and three continents, searching for love and acceptance.

    Cyril Avery is not a real Avery or at least that’s what his adoptive parents tell him. And he never will be. But if he isn’t a real Avery, then who is he? Born out of wedlock to a teenage girl cast ... (Goodreads)

  19. Boy Swallows Universe

    by Trent Dalton
    A coming-of-age story set in 1980s Australia, where a boy navigates his dysfunctional family and the criminal underworld.

    A novel of love, crime, magic, fate and coming of age, set in Brisbane's violent working class suburban fringe - from one of Australia's most exciting new writers. Brisbane, 1983: A lost father, a ... (Goodreads)

  20. The Terror

    by Dan Simmons
    A gripping survival story set during the doomed Arctic expedition of the HMS Terror.

    The story begins, in medias res, in the winter of 1847, when HMS, Terror, and HMS, Erebus, have been trapped in ice, 28 miles north-northwest of King William Island , for more than a year. The ... (Wikipedia)

  21. The Snow Child

    by Eowyn Ivey
    A couple's dream of a child comes true in the Alaskan wilderness, but with unexpected consequences.

    Alaska, 1920: a brutal place to homestead, and especially tough for recent arrivals Jack and Mabel. Childless, they are drifting apart–he breaking under the weight of the work of the farm; she ... (Goodreads)

  22. The Art of Hearing Heartbeats

    by Jan-Philipp Sendker
    An epic search for the truth, discovering the power of love and the beauty of forgiveness.

    A poignant and inspirational love story set in Burma, The Art of Hearing Heartbeats spans the decades between the 1950s and the present. When a successful New York lawyer suddenly disappears without ... (Goodreads)

  23. 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)

  24. I Am Pilgrim

    by Terry Hayes
    A former operative is called back into action to track down a terrorist plotting a global attack.

    A breakneck race against time...and an implacable enemy. An anonymous young woman murdered in a run-down hotel, all identifying characteristics dissolved by acid. A father publicly beheaded in the ... (Goodreads)

  25. Stay with Me

    by Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀
    A sweeping tale of love, betrayal, and the power of family, set in Nigeria.

    This celebrated, unforgettable first novel, shortlisted for the prestigious Women's Prize for Fiction and set in Nigeria, gives voice to both husband and wife as they tell the story of their ... (Goodreads)

  26. All the Ugly and Wonderful Things

    by Bryn Greenwood
    A story of forbidden love, testing the boundaries of morality and redemption.

    - A, New York Times, and, USA Today, bestseller - Book of the Month Club 2016 Book of the Year - Second Place Goodreads Best Fiction of 2016 A beautiful and provocative love story between two ... (Barnes & Noble)

  27. Beartown

    by Fredrik Backman
    A small-town hockey team and its community grapple with the consequences of a traumatic event.

    Peter Andersson, in his forties, is the general manager of the ice hockey club in Beartown, a small town located somewhere in Sweden. Peter grew up in Beartown and was a junior hockey star. He went ... (Wikipedia)

  28. Before the Fall

    by Noah Hawley
    A mysterious plane crash leads to a tangled web of secrets, lies, and betrayal.

    On a foggy summer night, eleven people—ten privileged, one down-on-his-luck painter—depart Martha's Vineyard on a private jet headed for New York. Sixteen minutes later, the unthinkable happens: the ... (Barnes & Noble)

  29. Doctor Sleep

    by Stephen King
    A man confronts his dark past as he defends a young girl from a supernatural evil.

    Following the events of The Shining , after receiving a settlement from the owners of the Overlook Hotel, Danny Torrance remains psychologically traumatized as his mother Wendy slowly recovers from ... (Wikipedia)

  30. Shantaram

    by Gregory David Roberts
    An Australian convict escapes to India and embarks on a journey of self-discovery.

    In 1978, Roberts was sentenced to a 19-year imprisonment in Australia after being convicted of a series of armed robberies of building society branches, credit unions , and shops. In July 1980, he ... (Wikipedia)