Recommendations based on Nights at the Circusby Angela Carter

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

  1. The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories

    by Angela Carter
    A collection of subversive, darkly fantastical tales exploring the power of femininity.

    Angela Carter was a storytelling sorceress, the literary godmother of Neil Gaiman, David Mitchell, Audrey Niffenegger, J. K. Rowling, Kelly Link, and other contemporary masters of supernatural ... (Goodreads)

  2. The Magic Toyshop

    by Angela Carter
    A young girl's fantastical journey of self-discovery, learning to navigate the complexities of a strange new world.

    The novel starts with Melanie stealing her mother's wedding dress and venturing out in the night into her family's property. However, on her way home, she realises she forgot the door key and is ... (Wikipedia)

  3. 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)

  4. Mrs. Dalloway

    by Virginia Woolf
    A day in the life of a high-society woman, delving into her inner thoughts and feelings.

    Clarissa Dalloway goes around London in the morning, getting ready to host a party that evening. The nice day reminds her of her youth spent in the countryside in Bourton and makes her wonder about ... (Wikipedia)

  5. Shame

    by Salman Rushdie
    Exploring the intricacies of identity and belonging in an ever-changing world.

    This story takes place in a town called "Q" which is actually a fictitious version of Quetta, Pakistan . In Q, one of the three sisters (Chunni, Munnee, and Bunny Shakil) gives birth to Omar Khayyám ... (Wikipedia)

  6. Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There

    by Lewis Carroll
    Alice's fantastical journey through a strange and surreal world of her own making.

    Chapter One – Looking-Glass House : Alice is playing with a white kitten (whom she calls "Snowdrop") and a black kitten (whom she calls "Kitty") when she ponders what the world is like on the other ... (Wikipedia)

  7. The Master and Margarita

    by Mikhail Bulgakov
    A fantastical, satirical examination of Soviet life, intersecting with the supernatural.

    The novel has two settings. The first is Moscow during the 1930s, where Satan appears at Patriarch's Ponds as Professor Woland . He is accompanied by Koroviev, a grotesquely-dressed valet; Behemoth , ... (Wikipedia)

  8. The Passion

    by Jeanette Winterson
    A story of love, loss, and enduring passion between two people across time and space.

    Jeanette Winterson’s novels have established her as one of the most important young writers in world literature. The Passion is perhaps her most highly acclaimed work, a modern classic that confirms ... (Goodreads)

  9. Midnight's Children

    by Salman Rushdie
    A magical tale of India's history told through the story of a boy born at the stroke of midnight.

    Saleem Sinai is born at the stroke of midnight on August 15, 1947, the very moment of India’s independence. Greeted by fireworks displays, cheering crowds, and Prime Minister Nehru himself, Saleem ... (Goodreads)

  10. Orlando

    by Virginia Woolf
    A fantastical journey through history and gender, exploring the complexities of identity.

    The eponymous hero is born as a male nobleman in England during the reign of Elizabeth I . He undergoes a mysterious change of sex at the age of about 30 and lives on for more than 300 years into ... (Wikipedia)

  11. Gravity's Rainbow

    by Thomas Pynchon
    A surreal exploration of war and technology, and their impact on the human spirit.

    Winner of the 1973 National Book Award, Gravity's Rainbow is a postmodern epic, a work as exhaustively significant to the second half of the 20th century as Joyce's Ulysses was to the first. Its ... (Goodreads)

  12. Narcissus and Goldmund

    by Hermann Hesse
    An exploration of the spiritual journey of two men, contrasting their different paths.

    Narcissus and Goldmund tells the story of two medieval men whose characters are diametrically opposite: Narcissus, an ascetic monk firm in his religious commitment, and Goldmund, a romantic youth ... (Goodreads)

  13. Even Cowgirls Get the Blues

    by Tom Robbins
    An eccentric story of freedom and adventure, exploring themes of identity, fate and love.

    Sissy Hankshaw, the novel's protagonist , is a woman born with enormously large thumbs who considers her mutation a gift. , The novel covers various topics, including free love , feminism , drug use ... (Wikipedia)

  14. 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)

  15. The Tempest

    by William Shakespeare
    A story of magical revenge, redemption, and forgiveness set on a remote island.

    A ship is caught in a powerful storm, there is terror and confusion on board, and the vessel is shipwrecked. But the storm is a magical creation carried out by the spirit Ariel , and caused by the ... (Wikipedia)

  16. Nine Stories

    by J.D. Salinger
    Nine short stories of insight into the human condition and its mysteries.

    Nine Stories (1953) is a collection of short stories by American fiction writer J. D. Salinger published in April 1953. It includes two of his most famous short stories, "A Perfect Day for ... (Goodreads)

  17. Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close

    by Jonathan Safran Foer
    A young boy's quest to find the lock that matches a mysterious key his father left behind.

    Nine-year-old Oskar Schell is an inventor, amateur entomologist, Francophile, letter writer, pacifist, natural historian, percussionist, romantic, Great Explorer, jeweller, detective, vegan, and ... (Goodreads)

  18. Eva Luna

    by Isabel Allende
    A magical story of a woman's journey of love, adventure and self-discovery.

    Meet New York Times bestselling author Isabel Allende’s most enchanting creation, Eva Luna : a lover, a writer, a revolutionary, and above all a storyteller—available for the first time in ebook. Eva ... (Goodreads)

  19. Kafka on the Shore

    by Haruki Murakami
    A surreal journey of self-discovery, exploring the boundaries between the real and surreal.

    Comprising two distinct but interrelated plots, the narrative runs back and forth between both plots, taking up each plotline in alternating chapters. The odd-numbered chapters tell the 15-year-old ... (Wikipedia)

  20. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead

    by Tom Stoppard
    A humorous exploration of fate and free will, seen through the eyes of two minor characters in Shakespeare's "Hamlet".

    Hamlet told from the worm's-eye view of two minor characters, bewildered Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. Echoes of Waiting for Godot resound, reality and illusion mix, and where fate leads heroes to a ... (Goodreads)

  21. Habibi

    by Craig Thompson
    A love story between a young man and woman within the context of Middle Eastern culture.

    From the internationally acclaimed author of, Blankets , a highly anticipated new graphic novel. Sprawling across an epic landscape of deserts, harems, and modern industrial clutter, Habibi tells the ... (Goodreads)

  22. Grim Tuesday

    by Garth Nix
    Arthur Penhaligon battles Grim Tuesday, the second of the Morrow Days, to save the Lower House and prevent the destruction of the universe.

    Arthur Penhaligon has returned home when the telephone that the first part of the Will (now known as Dame Primus) gave him starts ringing. Dame Primus informs him that in the six months of House Time ... (Wikipedia)

  23. Autobiography of Red

    by Anne Carson
    A modern retelling of Greek myth, exploring the intersections of love, art, and identity.

    The award-winning poet Anne Carson reinvents a genre in Autobiography of Red , a stunning work that is both a novel and a poem, both an unconventional re-creation of an ancient Greek myth and a ... (Goodreads)

  24. Ulysses

    by James Joyce
    Epic narrative following a day in the life of an Irishman living in Dublin.

    It is 8 a.m. Buck Mulligan , a boisterous medical student, calls Stephen Dedalus (a young writer encountered as the principal subject of, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, ) up to the roof of ... (Wikipedia)

  25. Howards End

    by E.M. Forster
    Exploration of the societal divides in early 20th century England, and the consequences of class prejudice.

    Howards End is a novel by E. M. Forster about social conventions, codes of conduct and relationships in turn-of-the-century England. A strong-willed and intelligent woman refuses to allow the ... (Goodreads)

  26. V for Vendetta

    by Alan Moore
    A dystopian future, where a mysterious vigilante fights for freedom and justice.

    On Guy Fawkes Night in London in 1997, a young girl goes to see her boss after curfew when she is sexually attacked by three men who are actually members of the state secret police , called "The ... (Wikipedia)

  27. Thud!

    by Terry Pratchett
    A comedic fantasy novel about a dwarf police officer's investigation into the murder of a troll.

    As the book opens, a dwarf demagogue , Grag Hamcrusher, is apparently murdered. Ethnic tensions between Ankh-Morpork 's troll and dwarf communities mount in the build-up to the anniversary of the ... (Wikipedia)

  28. The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

    by Haruki Murakami
    A surreal journey of self-discovery, exploring the inner and outer worlds.

    The first part, "The Thieving Magpie", begins with the narrator, Toru Okada, a low-key and unemployed lawyer's assistant, being tasked by his wife, Kumiko, to find their missing cat. Kumiko suggests ... (Wikipedia)

  29. The Queen of the Damned

    by Anne Rice
    A vampire queen's quest to restore the vampires to power and uncover the secrets of the past.

    Librarian's note: An alternate cover edition can be found, here, In 1976, a uniquely seductive world of vampires was unveiled in the now-classic Interview with the Vampire . . . in 1985, a wild and ... (Goodreads)

  30. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

    by Lewis Carroll
    A young girl's fantastical journey, filled with curious creatures and imaginative experiences.

    Chris Riddell's brilliant new full-colour illustrated, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, in a sumptuous hardback and jacketed edition. A perfect gift for families, children and all fans of this ... (Goodreads)