Recommendations based on The Submissionby Amy Waldman

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

  1. Cutting for Stone

    by Abraham Verghese
    A sweeping journey of two twin brothers and their search for identity, belonging and family.

    The story is told by the protagonist, Marion Stone. He and his conjoined twin Shiva are born at Mission Hospital (called "Missing" in accordance with the local pronunciation), Addis Ababa , in ... (Wikipedia)

  2. The Art of Fielding

    by Chad Harbach
    A college baseball team's success and failures are intertwined with the lives of five individuals.

    Henry Skrimshander begins the novel as a 17-year-old playing on a Legion baseball team in Lankton, South Dakota. Although physically short and not muscular, Henry has an unusual gift for fielding, ... (Wikipedia)

  3. The Imperfectionists

    by Tom Rachman
    A story of interconnected lives, exploring the fragility of human relationships.

    Set against the gorgeous backdrop of Rome, Tom Rachman’s wry, vibrant debut follows the topsy-turvy private lives of the reporters, editors, and executives of an international English language ... (Goodreads)

  4. The Orphan Master's Son

    by Adam Johnson
    A man's struggle to survive in a totalitarian North Korean regime and his journey to freedom.

    Part 1 details Jun Do's upbringing in a state orphanage and his service to the state, including as a kidnapper of Japanese citizens , and later as a signal operator stationed on a fishing boat. Due ... (Wikipedia)

  5. The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry

    by Rachel Joyce
    An elderly man's unexpected quest of faith, discovering the power of hope and love.

    Harold Fry, 65, has cut the lawn outside his home at Kingsbridge on the south coast of Devon when he receives a letter. A colleague of twenty years ago, Queenie Hennessy, has cancer and is in a ... (Wikipedia)

  6. The Age of Miracles

    by Karen Thompson Walker
    An exploration of the effects of a global phenomenon on a young girl's life.

    NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY,, People ∙ O: The Oprah Magazine ∙ Financial Times ∙ Kansas City Star ∙ BookPage ∙ Kirkus Reviews ∙ Publishers Weekly ∙ Booklist, , , With a voice as ... (Barnes & Noble)

  7. We Need to Talk About Kevin

    by Lionel Shriver
    A mother's struggle to come to terms with the monstrous acts of her disturbed son.

    In the wake of a school massacre conducted by Kevin Khatchadourian, the 15-year-old son of Franklin Plaskett and Eva Khatchadourian, Eva begins writing letters to Franklin in November 2000. She ... (Wikipedia)

  8. And the Mountains Echoed

    by Khaled Hosseini
    Interconnected stories of family and love, tracing the consequences of decisions made throughout life.

    The novel opens in the year 1952. Saboor, an impoverished farmer from the fictional village of Shadbagh, decides to sell his three-year-old daughter Pari to a wealthy, childless couple in Kabul. ... (Wikipedia)

  9. Bel Canto

    by Ann Patchett
    A story of redemption and transformation amidst a hostage crisis.

    Set in an unspecified South American country, , the story begins at a birthday party thrown at the country's vice presidential home in honor of Katsumi Hosokawa, the visiting chairman of a large ... (Wikipedia)

  10. Major Pettigrew's Last Stand

    by Helen Simonson
    A widower finds love and acceptance in an unlikely place, challenging social conventions.

    You are about to travel to Edgecombe St. Mary, a small village in the English countryside filled with rolling hills, thatched cottages, and a cast of characters both hilariously original and as ... (Goodreads)

  11. Wife 22

    by Melanie Gideon
    Alice Buckle, a suburban housewife, participates in a marriage survey and begins an online flirtation with the researcher.

    For fans of Helen Fielding’s, Bridget Jones’s Diary, and Allison Pearson’s, I Don’t Know How She Does It, comes an irresistible novel of a woman losing herself . . . and finding herself again . . . ... (Goodreads)

  12. In the Shadow of the Banyan

    by Vaddey Ratner
    A young girl's idyllic life in Cambodia is shattered by the Khmer Rouge regime. She must navigate the horrors of war and loss to survive.

    Displaying the author's extraordinary gift for language, In the Shadow of the Banyan is testament to the transcendent power of narrative and a brilliantly wrought tale of human resilience. For ... (Goodreads)

  13. 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)

  14. Tell the Wolves I'm Home

    by Carol Rifka Brunt
    A young girl's journey of grief and healing as she discovers the secrets of her beloved uncle's life.

    June Elbus is a 14-year-old girl living in Westchester in 1986. She is in love with her gay uncle, Finn Weiss, a fact she is scared to admit even to herself. Finn is dying of AIDS. Being a ... (Wikipedia)

  15. 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)

  16. State of Wonder

    by Ann Patchett
    A journey in the Amazon rainforest to find a missing colleague and unlock the secrets of a mysterious drug.

    In a narrative replete with poison arrows, devouring snakes, scientific miracles, and spiritual transformations, "State of Wonder" presents a world of stunning surprise and danger, rich in emotional ... (Goodreads)

  17. The Paris Wife

    by Paula McLain
    A woman's journey of self-discovery, navigating the complexities of a passionate and tumultuous relationship.

    The Paris Wife focuses on the romance, marriage and divorce of Ernest Hemingway and his first wife Hadley Richardson, who met when Hemingway was 20 years old, and Richardson 28. They marry and move ... (Wikipedia)

  18. The Round House

    by Louise Erdrich
    A teenage boy seeks justice for a crime committed against his mother in a Native American community.

    The novel opens with Joe Coutts and his father, Judge Bazil Coutts, pulling out saplings from their house's garden and foundation. They realize Joe's mother and Bazil's wife, Geraldine Coutts, has ... (Wikipedia)

  19. The Keep

    by Jennifer Egan
    Two cousins renovate a castle in Eastern Europe, uncovering dark secrets and confronting their own troubled pasts.

    Danny is an aging hipster in New York City who has fallen on hard times. He does not have a real career, and he has a habit of burning bridges with old friends. His cousin Howard presents him with an ... (Wikipedia)

  20. Revolutionary Road

    by Richard Yates
    An American couple's struggle to stay afloat in suburban conventions and expectations.

    Set in 1955, the novel focuses on the hopes and aspirations of Frank and April Wheeler, self-assured Connecticut suburbanites who see themselves as very different from their neighbors in the ... (Wikipedia)

  21. The Chemistry of Death

    by Simon Beckett
    A forensic scientist returns to his hometown to escape his past, but is drawn into a murder investigation.

    Forensics expert David Hunter is recovering from a shattering tragedy three years earlier. While he is working in an isolated Norfolk village as a doctor, a woman's mutilated corpse is discovered. ... (Wikipedia)

  22. Partials

    by Dan Wells
    In a post-apocalyptic world, a group of humans struggle to survive against the deadly Partials, engineered beings who caused the downfall of civilization.

    Humanity is all but extinguished after a war with Partials—engineered organic beings identical to humans—has decimated the population. Reduced to only tens of thousands by a weaponized virus to which ... (Goodreads)

  23. The Blind Assassin

    by Margaret Atwood
    A complex, interwoven story of family secrets, love, tragedy, and mystery.

    The novel's protagonist , Iris Chase, and her sister Laura, grow up well-off but motherless in a small town in southern Ontario. As an old woman, Iris recalls the events and relationships of her ... (Wikipedia)

  24. Absurdistan

    by Gary Shteyngart
    Misha Vainberg, a wealthy Russian-American, travels to Absurdistan to obtain a new visa, but gets stuck in a war-torn country.

    After Misha's father kills a prominent businessman from Oklahoma , the INS bars the entire Vainberg family entry to the United States, trapping Misha in his native Saint Petersburg , which he ... (Wikipedia)

  25. Rules of Civility

    by Amor Towles
    An ambitious young woman looks to make her mark in 1930s New York, learning the complex rules of high society.

    This sophisticated and entertaining first novel presents the story of a young woman whose life is on the brink of transformation. On the last night of 1937, twenty-five-year-old Katey Kontent is in a ... (Goodreads)

  26. The Invention of Wings

    by Sue Monk Kidd
    A powerful story about a girl's journey to freedom, despite the limitations of slavery.

    Writing at the height of her narrative and imaginative gifts, Sue Monk Kidd presents a masterpiece of hope, daring, the quest for freedom, and the desire to have a voice in the world—and it is now ... (Goodreads)

  27. The Patron Saint of Liars

    by Ann Patchett
    A woman's escape from an unhappy marriage leads to a chance at finding true love.

    The book is divided into four sections: Habit, Rose, Son, and Sissy In 1906, George Clatterbuck witnesses a miracle as his daughter, June Clatterbuck, is healed by water from a spring in the back ... (Wikipedia)

  28. Middlemarch

    by George Eliot
    A grand narrative of life in a small English town, exploring the lives of its inhabitants.

    Middlemarch centres on the lives of residents of Middlemarch, a fictitious Midlands town, from 1829 onwards – the years up to the 1832 Reform Act . The narrative is variably considered to consist of ... (Wikipedia)

  29. The Light Between Oceans

    by M.L. Stedman
    A lighthouse keeper and his wife make a heartbreaking decision that has lifelong repercussions.

    Librarian's note: An alternate cover edition can be found, here, Australia, 1926. After four harrowing years fighting on the Western Front, Tom Sherbourne returns home to take a job as the lighthouse ... (Goodreads)

  30. The Thirteenth Tale

    by Diane Setterfield
    A mysterious storyteller reveals a dark family secret, transforming the lives of those around her.

    Vida Winter, a famous novelist in England, has evaded journalists' questions about her past, refusing to answer their inquiries and spinning elaborate tales that they later discover to be false. Her ... (Wikipedia)