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Recommendations based on Au revoir là-hautby Pierre Lemaitre
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Chess Story
by Stefan Zweig
A chess master's attempt to regain his lost skill, and the psychological battle he faces.
The narrator opens the story on a passenger liner traveling from New York to Buenos Aires. Driven to mental anguish as the result of total isolation by the Nazis , Dr B, a securities expert hiding ... (Wikipedia)
The Story of a New Name
by Elena Ferrante
Two young women's search for identity and independence in a patriarchal society.
In 2012, Elena Ferrante's My Brilliant Friend introduced readers to the unforgettable Elena and Lila, whose lifelong friendship provides the backbone for the Neapolitan Novels. The Story of a New ... (Goodreads)
The Ladies' Paradise
by Émile Zola
A story of ambition and romance set in the world of a 19th Century Parisian department store.
The Ladies Paradise (Au Bonheur des Dames) recounts the rise of the modern department store in late nineteenth-century Paris. The store is a symbol of capitalism, of the modern city, and of the ... (Goodreads)
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)
The Reader
by Bernhard Schlink
A man's journey of understanding, uncovering a dark secret from his past.
Hailed for its coiled eroticism and the moral claims it makes upon the reader, this mesmerizing novel is a story of love and secrets, horror and compassion, unfolding against the haunted landscape of ... (Goodreads)
Lie With Me
by Philippe Besson
A poignant tale of a secret love affair between two teenage boys in rural France, and the impact it has on their lives.
“I remember the movement of his hips pressing against the pinball machine. This one sentence had me in its grip until the end. Two young men find each other, always fearing that life itself might be ... (Barnes & Noble)
The Children Act
by Ian McEwan
A family court judge must make a difficult decision between the law and her conscience.
Fiona Maye is a respected High Court Judge specialising in Family Law and living in Gray's Inn Square. While reviewing a case, she is approached by her husband, Jack, who tells her that because of ... (Wikipedia)
The Chessmen
by Peter May
A story of crime, secrets, and betrayal, set in the Shetland Islands.
Fin Macleod, now head of security on a privately owned Lewis estate, is charged with investigating a spate of illegal game-hunting taking place on the island. This mission reunites him with Whistler ... (Goodreads)
Monsieur Ibrahim and The Flowers of the Qur'an
by Éric-Emmanuel Schmitt
A young Jewish boy befriends a Muslim shopkeeper and embarks on a journey of self-realization.
The book begins with a young Moïse, commonly referred to as Momo, preparing to search for a prostitute . It is written as a reflection of his childhood, and he notes that he was only eleven years old ... (Wikipedia)
The Name of the Rose
by Umberto Eco
A Franciscan friar investigates a series of murders in a medieval monastery, uncovering a sinister plot.
In 1327, Franciscan friar William of Baskerville and Adso of Melk , a Benedictine novice travelling under his protection, arrive at a Benedictine monastery in Northern Italy to attend a theological ... (Wikipedia)
South of the Border, West of the Sun
by Haruki Murakami
A married man's reflections on a once-in-a-lifetime love affair, and his struggle to reconcile the past with the present.
Alternate cover edition, here,. Growing up in the suburbs of post-war Japan, it seemed to Hajime that everyone but him had brothers and sisters. His sole companion was Shimamoto, also an only child. ... (Goodreads)
Silk
by Alessandro Baricco
Adventure of a 19th century French trader who travels to Japan to find rare silkworm eggs.
The novel tells the story of a French silkworm merchant-turned-smuggler named Hervé Joncour in 19th century France who travels to Japan for his town's supply of silkworms after a disease wipes out ... (Wikipedia)
My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry
by Fredrik Backman
An imaginative quest to uncover the truth behind a beloved grandmother's mysterious stories.
The story takes place in Sweden and follows Elsa, a 7-year-old who knows she is different from other children her age. Elsa has a habit of correcting others' grammar, she is smart for her age, and is ... (Wikipedia)
The End of Eddy
by Édouard Louis
Autobiographical novel revealing the oppression and social exclusion experienced by an impoverished rural French family.
The most talked-about European novel since My Struggle —a sexually frank, brutally honest coming-of-age story “Every morning in the bathroom I would repeat the same phrase to myself over and over ... (Goodreads)
The Unbearable Lightness of Being
by Milan Kundera
A story of love and loss in a politically turbulent Czechoslovakia.
In The Unbearable Lightness of Being , Milan Kundera tells the story of a young woman in love with a man torn between his love for her and his incorrigible womanizing and one of his mistresses and ... (Goodreads)
Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay
by Elena Ferrante
Two friends navigate the changing relationships of their youth and adulthood, and the consequences of their choices.
In this third Neapolitan novel, Elena and Lila, the two girls whom readers first met in My Brilliant Friend, have become women. Lila married at sixteen and has a young son; she has left her abusive ... (Goodreads)
The Sympathizer
by Viet Thanh Nguyen
Vietnam War refugee returns to his homeland and struggles to reconcile conflicting loyalties.
It is April 1975, and Saigon is in chaos. At his villa, a general of the South Vietnamese army is drinking whiskey and, with the help of his trusted captain, drawing up a list of those who will be ... (Goodreads)
In Search of Lost Time
by Marcel Proust
An exploration of memory, identity and loss of innocence, through the narrator's journey of self-discovery.
On the surface a traditional "Bildungsroman" describing the narrator’s journey of self-discovery, this huge and complex book is also a panoramic and richly comic portrait of France in the author’s ... (Goodreads)
Brooklyn
by Colm Tóibín
A young Irish woman's migration to America, exploring themes of identity and belonging.
Eilis Lacey is a young woman who is unable to find work in 1950s Ireland . Her older sister Rose organises a meeting with a Catholic priest called Father Flood on a visit from New York City , who ... (Wikipedia)
Winter of the World
by Ken Follett
Epic saga of war, family, and love during the tumultuous times of the 20th century.
The story follows characters from Germany , Britain , the United States and the Soviet Union , who become linked by events leading to World War II , and continues through the war and its immediate ... (Wikipedia)
The Swarm
by Frank Schätzing
A thrilling tale of a giant creature from the deep wreaking havoc on a world unprepared.
The book follows an ensemble of protagonists who are investigating what at first appear to be freak events related to the world's oceans . The book has several sub-plots and will occasionally follow ... (Wikipedia)
Men Without Women
by Haruki Murakami
Collection of stories exploring the experiences of men coping with loneliness and isolation.
A dazzling new collection of short stories—the first major new work of fiction from the beloved, internationally acclaimed, Haruki Murakami since his #1 best-selling Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His ... (Goodreads)
Bel-Ami
by Guy de Maupassant
A man rises to power by manipulating the powerful people around him.
The story chronicles the rise to power of journalist Georges Duroy from a poor ex-NCO to one of the most successful men in Paris – most of which he achieves by means of a series of powerful, ... (Barnes & Noble)
The Kindly Ones
by Jonathan Littell
A former Nazi officer's reminiscences of World War II and his role in the Holocaust.
The book is a fictional autobiography, describing the life of Maximilien Aue, a former officer in the SS who, decades later, tells the story of a crucial part of his life when he was an active member ... (Wikipedia)
The Fourth Hand
by John Irving
A journalist loses his hand to a lion and receives a transplant from a man who died in India. He then falls in love with the widow of the donor.
While reporting a story from India, Patrick Wallingford, a New York television journalist, has his left hand eaten by a lion. Millions of TV viewers witness the accident, and Patrick achieves instant ... (Wikipedia)
Le Grand Meaulnes
by Alain-Fournier
A young man's journey of adventure, romance, and self-discovery.
François Seurel, the 15-year-old narrator of the book, is the son of M. Seurel, who is the director of the mixed-ages school in a small village in the Sologne , a region of lakes and sandy forests in ... (Wikipedia)
Suite Française
by Irène Némirovsky
A story of love and loss set against the backdrop of Nazi-occupied France.
The first two stories of a masterwork once thought lost, written by a pre-WWII bestselling author who was deported to Auschwitz and died before her work could be completed. By the early l940s, when ... (Goodreads)
The Baker's Daughter
by Sarah McCoy
A woman reconciles with her past while exploring the meaning of family, faith, and home.
Garmisch, Germania, inverno 1944. È un anello di fidanzamento, quello che un ufficiale nazista ha appena messo al dito della giovane Elsie. Un anello che potrebbe cancellare l'amaro sapore della ... (Goodreads)
The Overcoat
by Nikolai Gogol
A tale of a lowly bureaucrat's journey to reclaim his sense of self-worth.
The story narrates the life and death of titular councillor Akaky Akakievich Bashmachkin (Russian: Акакий Акакиевич Башмачкин), an impoverished government clerk and copyist in the Russian capital of ... (Wikipedia)
In the Land of the Long White Cloud
by Sarah Lark
Two women, one Māori and one English, navigate love, loss, and cultural clashes in 19th century New Zealand.
Helen Davenport, governess for a wealthy London household, longs for a family of her own—but nearing her late twenties and with no dowry, her prospects are dim. Responding to an advertisement seeking ... (Goodreads)
