Books like 'Augustown'
Readers who enjoyed Augustown by Kei Miller also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
historical action / adventure historical-fiction magical-realism literary-fiction religion journey poc-mc politics family
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Roots: The Saga of an American Family by Alex Haley
Rated: 4.43 of 5 stars · 41 ratingsWhen he was a boy in Henning, Tennessee, Alex Haley's grandmother used to tell him stories about their family—stories that went back to her grandparents, and their grandparents, down through the generations all the way to a man she called "the African... -
Time of White Horses by Ibrahim Nasrallah
Rated: 4.42 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsSpanning the collapse of Ottoman rule and the British Mandate in Palestine, this is the story of three generations of a defiant family from the Palestinian village of Hadiya before 1948. Through the lives of Mahmud, chief elder of Hadiya, his son Khaled, and Khaled’s grandson Naji, we enter the life of a tribe whose fate is decided by one colonizer after another...Categorized as:
family historical-fiction journey literary-fiction poc-mc politics spirituality action-adventure -
This Earth of Mankind by Pramoedya Ananta Toer
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsMinke is a young Javanese student of great intelligence and ambition. Living equally among the colonists and colonized of 19th-century Java, he battles against the confines of colonial strictures. It is his love for Annelies that enables him to find the strength to embrace his world...Categorized as:
colonization drama epic family historical-fiction journey literary-fiction magical-realism -
Against the Loveless World by Susan Abulhawa
Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsA sweeping and lyrical novel that follows a young Palestinian refugee as she slowly becomes radicalized while searching for a better life for her family throughout the Middle East, for readers of international literary bestsellers including Washington Black, My Sister, The Serial Killer, and Her Body and Other Parties...Categorized as:
drama family historical-fiction journey literary-fiction poc-mc politics spirituality -
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Fishers of Men by Gerald N. Lund
Rated: 4.39 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsFishers of Men is a sweeping epic filled with memorable characters who bring to life an extraordinary time in the history of the world. It is a story about the importance of family, the power of faith, the miracle of forgiveness, and the strength needed to follow your heart...Categorized as:
drama historical-fiction realistic religion spirituality action-adventure book christian -
The Mountains Sing by Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai
Rated: 4.31 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsWith the epic sweep of Min Jin Lee’s Pachinko or Yaa Gyasi’s Homegoing and the lyrical beauty of Vaddey Ratner’s In the Shadow of the Banyan, The Mountains Sing tells an enveloping, multigenerational tale of the Tran family, set against the backdrop of the Viet Nam War... -
The Queen of Beauty by Petra Durst-Benning, Edwin Miles
Rated: 4.43 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsPetra Durst-Benning’s captivating historical novel pays homage to the trailblazing women of the early twentieth century—like Elizabeth Arden and Estée Lauder—who shaped culture, shattered convention, and strived to make the world around them more beautiful...Categorized as:
drama epic family historical-fiction religion spirituality 20th-century action-adventure -
The Harafish by Naguib Mahfouz
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 36 ratings"The Harafish begins with the tale of Ashur al-Nagi, a man who grows from humble beginnings to become a great leader, a legend among his people. Generation after generation, however, Ashur's descendants grow further from his legendary example...Categorized as:
drama family historical-fiction journey literary-fiction magical-realism politics spirituality -
The Magic Strings of Frankie Presto by Mitch Albom
Rated: 4.35 of 5 stars · 41 ratingsMitch Albom creates a magical world through his love of music in this remarkable new novel about the power of talent to change our livesThis is the epic story of Frankie Presto—the greatest guitar player who ever lived—and the six lives he changed with his six magical blue stringsFrankie, born in a burning church, abandoned as an infant, and raised by a music teacher in a small Spanish town,...Categorized as:
drama family historical-fiction literary-fiction magic magical-realism realistic religion -
The Rent Collector by Camron Wright
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 30 ratingsSurvival for Ki Lim and Sang Ly is a daily battle at Stung Meanchey, the largest municipal waste dump in all of Cambodia. They make their living scavenging recyclables from the trash. Life would be hard enough without the worry for their chronically ill child, Nisay, and the added expense of medicines that are not working...Categorized as:
drama family historical-fiction journey literary-fiction poc-mc realistic action-adventure -
Trinity by Leon Uris
Rated: 4.27 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsLeon Uris’s beloved Irish classic, available in Avon mass market. From the acclaimed author who enthralled the world with Exodus, Battle Cry, QB VII, Topaz, and other beloved classics of twentieth-century fiction comes a sweeping and powerful epic adventure that captures the "terrible beauty" of Ireland during its long and bloody struggle for freedom...Categorized as:
drama epic family historical-fiction literary-fiction politics religion spirituality -
Conversation in the Cathedral by Mario Vargas Llosa
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsA haunting tale of power, corruption, and the complex search for identity, Conversation in The Cathedral takes place in 1950s Peru during the dictatorship of Manuel Apolinario Odría Amoretti...Categorized as:
epic historical-fiction journey literary-fiction magical-realism poc-mc politics 20th-century -
Footsteps by Pramoedya Ananta Toer
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsAs the world moves into the twentieth century, Minke, one of the few European-educated Javanese, optimistically starts a new life in a new town: Betawi. With his enrollment in medical school and the opportunity to meet new people, there is every reason to believe that he can leave behind the tragedies of the past...Categorized as:
black-mc colonization drama epic family historical-fiction literary-fiction magical-realism -
Mustard Seed by Laila Ibrahim
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsThe bestselling author of Yellow Crocus returns with a haunting and tender story of three women returning to the plantation they once called home.Oberlin, Ohio, 1868. Lisbeth Johnson was born into privilege in the antebellum South. Jordan Freedman was born a slave to Mattie, Lisbeth’s beloved nurse. The women have an unlikely bond deeper than friendship... -
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Like a Fire Burning by Gerald N. Lund
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsSwept up in the drama of an infant Church expanding westward into Ohio and Missouri, the fictional Steed family members become eyewitnesses to miracles as well as the horror of mob violence. This groundbreaking historical fiction series is filled with little known historical information that will captivate the reader...Categorized as:
drama epic family historical-fiction realistic religion spirituality action-adventure -
Hum If You Don't Know the Words by Bianca Marais
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsPerfect for readers of The Secret Life of Bees and The Help, a perceptive and searing look at Apartheid-era South Africa, told through one unique family brought together by tragedy.Life under Apartheid has created a secure future for Robin Conrad, a ten-year-old white girl living with her parents in 1970s Johannesburg... -
Hawaii by James A. Michener
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 36 ratingsAn alternate cover edition for this ISBN can be found here.Pulitzer Prize–winning author James A. Michener brings Hawaii’s epic history vividly to life in a classic saga that has captivated readers since its initial publication in 1959... -
The Arsonists' City by Hala Alyan
Rated: 4.28 of 5 stars · 18 ratings"Feels revolutionary in its freshness." --Entertainment Weekly"The Arsonists' City delivers all the pleasures of a good old-fashioned saga, but in Alyan's hands, one family's tale becomes the story of a nation--Lebanon and Syria, yes, but also the United States. It's the kind of book we are lucky to have...Categorized as:
drama family historical-fiction journey lgbtq literary-fiction poc-mc action-adventure -
The Book of Fate by Parinoush Saniee
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsA bestselling novel in Iran, despite being banned twice by the government, The Book of Fate follows a teenage girl in pre-revolutionary Iran through five turbulent decades, from before the 1979 revolution, through the Islamic Republic, and up to the present in this powerful story of friendship, passion, and hope...Categorized as:
drama family historical-fiction journey literary-fiction politics religion spirituality -
Palace of Desire by Naguib Mahfouz
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsThe sensual and provocative second volume in the Cairo Trilogy, Palace Of Desire follows the Al Jawad family into the awakening world of the 1920's and the sometimes violent clash between Islamic ideals, personal dreams and modern realities...Categorized as:
drama family historical-fiction journey literary-fiction poc-mc spirituality 20th-century -
A History of Loneliness by John Boyne
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsPropelled into the priesthood by a family tragedy, Odran Yates is full of hope and ambition. When he arrives at Clonliffe Seminary in the 1970s, it is a time in Ireland when priests are highly respected, and Odran believes that he is pledging his life to "the good."Forty years later, Odran's devotion is caught in revelations that shatter the Irish people's faith in the Catholic Church... -
The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich
Rated: 4.18 of 5 stars · 32 ratingsWinner of the 2021 Pulitzer Prize for fiction. Based on the extraordinary life of National Book Award-winning author Louise Erdrich’s grandfather who worked as a night watchman and carried the fight against Native dispossession from rural North Dakota all the way to Washington, D.C...Categorized as:
colonization drama family historical-fiction literary-fiction magical-realism poc-mc politics -
Green City in the Sun by Barbara Wood
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsA magnificent saga of two proud and powerful families—one British, one African—and their battle over Kenya’s destiny in the twentieth century.In 1917, Dr. Grace Treverton arrives in Kenya, determined to bring modern medicine to the African natives. Her brother, Sir Valentine Treverton, has his own dream for the British protectorate: to establish an agricultural empire to rival any in England...Categorized as:
drama family historical-fiction journey literary-fiction action-adventure adult book -
The Lizard Cage by Karen Connelly
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsBeautifully written and taking us into an exotic land, Karen Connelly’s debut novel The Lizard Cage is a celebration of the resilience of the human spirit.Teza once electrified the people of Burma with his protest songs against the dictatorship. Arrested by the Burmese secret police in the days of mass protest, he is seven years into a twenty-year sentence in solitary confinement... -
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The City of Joy by Dominique Lapierre, Elina Klersy Imberciadori
Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsMade into a movie starring Patrick Swayze, this is the inspiring story of an American doctor who experienced a spiritual rebirth in an impoverished section of Calcutta... -
Noli Me Tángere by José Rizal, Harold Augenbraum
Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsIn more than a century since its appearance, José Rizal's Noli Me Tangere has become widely known as the great novel of the Philippines...Categorized as:
colonization drama historical-fiction humor journey literary-fiction poc-mc politics -
The War of the End of the World by Mario Vargas Llosa
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsThe War of the End of the World is one of the great modern historical novels. Inspired by a real episode in Brazilian history, Mario Vargas Llosa tells the unforgettable story of an apocalyptic movement, led by a mysterious prophet, in which prostitutes, beggars and bandits establish Canudos, a new republic, a libertarian paradise...Categorized as:
drama epic historical-fiction journey literary-fiction magical-realism politics religion -
Palace Walk by Naguib Mahfouz, Naguib Mahfouz
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsThis is a sweeping and evocative portrait of both a family and a country struggling to move toward independence in a society that has resisted change for centuries. Set against the backdrop of Britain's occupation of Egypt immediately after World War I, Palace Walk introduces us to the Al Jawad family... -
The Orenda by Joseph Boyden
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsIn the remote winter landscape a brutal massacre and the kidnapping of a young Iroquois girl violently re-ignites a deep rift between two tribes. The girl’s captor, Bird, is one of the Huron Nation’s great warriors and statesmen. Years have passed since the murder of his family, and yet they are never far from his mind...Categorized as:
drama family historical-fiction journey literary-fiction magic magical-realism poc-mc -
Ruby's Wish by Shirin Yim Bridges, Sophie Blackall
Rated: 4.23 of 5 stars · 13 ratingsRuby is unlike most little girls in old China. Instead of aspiring to get married, Ruby is determined to attend university when she grows up, just like the boys in her family...Categorized as:
historical-fiction family realistic poc-mc journey social-commentary children-books fiction -
You Will Be Safe Here by Damian Barr
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsAn extraordinary debut that explores legacies of abuse, redemption, and the strength of the human spirit--from the Boer Wars in South Africa to brutal wilderness camps for teenage boys. South Africa, 1901. It is the height of the second Boer War. Sarah van der Watt and her six-year-old son Fred are forced from their home on Mulberry Farm... -
A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth
Rated: 4.12 of 5 stars · 30 ratingsVikram Seth's novel is, at its core, a love story: Lata and her mother, Mrs. Rupa Mehra, are both trying to find—through love or through exacting maternal appraisal—a suitable boy for Lata to marry... -
A Single Swallow by Zhang Ling
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsThe eagerly awaited English translation of award-winning author Zhang Ling’s epic and intimate novel about the devastation of war, forgiveness, redemption, and the enduring power of love.On the day of the historic 1945 Jewel Voice Broadcast—in which Emperor Hirohito announced Japan’s surrender to the Allied forces, bringing an end to World War II—three men, flush with jubilation, made a pact...Categorized as:
drama epic family historical-fiction journey literary-fiction magical-realism poc-mc -
My Uncle Napoleon by Iraj Pezeshkzad, Azar Nafisi
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsA teenage boy makes the mistake of falling in love with the much-protected daughter of his uncle, mischievously nicknamed after his hero Napoleon Bonaparte, the curmudgeonly self-appointed patriarch of a large and extended Iranian family in 1940s Tehran... -
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The Joys of Motherhood by Buchi Emecheta
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsNnu Ego is a woman who gives all her energy, money and everything she has to raising her children - leaving her little time to make friends...Categorized as:
colonization drama family historical-fiction journey literary-fiction poc-mc realistic -
The Tide Between Us by Olive Collins
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratings1821: After the landlord of Lugdale Estate in Kerry is assassinated, young Art O'Neill's innocent father is hanged and Art is deported to the cane fields of Jamaica as an indentured servant. On Mangrove Plantation he gradually acclimatises to the exotic country and unfamiliar customs of the African slaves, and achieves a kind of contentment.Then the new heirs to the plantation arrive...Categorized as:
black-mc epic family historical-fiction journey literary-fiction poc-mc action-adventure -
The Bell in the Lake by Lars Mytting
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsThe engrossing epic novel—a #1 bestseller in Norway-of a young woman whose fate plays out against her village’s mystical church bells As long as people could remember, the stave church’s bells had rung over the isolated village of Butangen, Norway. Cast in memory of conjoined twins, the bells are said to ring on their own in times of danger... -
China by Edward Rutherfurd
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsThe internationally bestselling author of Paris and New York takes on an exhilarating new world with his trademark epic style in China: The Novel Edward Rutherfurd has enthralled millions of readers with his grand, sweeping historical sagas that tell the history of a famous place over multiple generations... -
A Well-Tempered Heart by Jan-Philipp Sendker
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsThe sequel to the international best-selling novel The Art of Hearing Heartbeats Almost ten years have passed since Julia Win came back from Burma, her father’s native country. Though she is a successful Manhattan lawyer, her private life is at a crossroads; her boyfriend recently left her, she has suffered a miscarriage, and she is, despite her wealth, unhappy with her professional life... -
Mama Hissa's Mice by Saud Alsanousi
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsFrom the author of The Bamboo Stalk and winner of the International Prize for Arabic Fiction comes an apocalyptic and caustically funny novel about the power of friendship in a war-torn world...Categorized as:
drama historical-fiction journey literary-fiction poc-mc politics religion spirituality -
A Place to Call Home by June Francis
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsA tale of loss and the healing power of love After suffering the loss of her family, the last thing Greta Peters needs is to discover a young man has broken into her home, and is rifling through her possessions. But there is more to Alexander Armstrong than meets the eye. When it becomes clear his intentions are pure, she is determined to help him on his quest...Categorized as:
epic family historical-fiction religion spirituality 20th-century action-adventure adult -
Almost to Freedom by Vaunda Micheaux Nelson
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsLindy and her doll Sally are best friends - wherever Lindy goes, Sally stays right by her side. They eat together, sleep together, and even pick cotton together. So, on the night Lindy and her mama run away in search of freedom, Sally goes too. This young girl's rag doll vividly narrates her enslaved family's courageous escape through the Underground Railroad...Categorized as:
black-mc family historical-fiction poc-mc realistic social-commentary action-adventure book -
Swami and Friends, The Bachelor of Arts, The Dark Room, The English Teacher by R.K. Narayan, Alexander McCall Smith
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsR. K. Narayan (1906—2001) witnessed nearly a century of change in his native India and captured it in fiction of uncommon warmth and vibrancy. The four novels collected here, all written during British rule, bring colonial India into intimate focus through the narrative gifts of this master of literary realism...Categorized as:
epic historical-fiction humor literary-fiction magical-realism poc-mc action-adventure adult -
An Instant in the Wind by André P. Brink
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsThe year is 1749, when the Boers ruled South Africa. And so it has come to his Baas's final command to his Hottentot slave Adam, to flog his mother, because she refuses to prune the master's vineyard in order to attend her own beloved mother's funeral. And when he refuses to do so, and his Baas smashes his face with a piece of wood, Adam turns on him, and beats him almost to death...Categorized as:
colonization drama historical-fiction literary-fiction poc-mc 20th-century action-adventure adult -
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A Distant Hope by Ellin Carsta, Gerald Chapple
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsIn this breathtaking and emotional saga, a family must travel far from home to save what they hold dear. Hamburg 1888: After thirty prosperous years, coffee importer Peter Hansen & Sons faces hard times—and certain bankruptcy—unless three brothers can make savvy moves to save the faltering business after their father’s untimely death... -
Dusk by F. Sionil José
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsWith Dusk (originally published in the Philippines as Po-on), F. Sionil Jose begins his five-novel Rosales Saga, which the poet and critic Ricaredo Demetillo called "the first great Filipino novels written in English." Set in the 1880s, Dusk records the exile of a tenant family from its village and the new life it attempts to make in the small town of Rosales...Categorized as:
drama epic family historical-fiction journey literary-fiction magical-realism action-adventure -
We Measure the Earth with Our Bodies by Tsering Yangzom Lama
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 15 ratingsIn the wake of China's invasion of Tibet throughout the 1950s, Lhamo and her younger sister, Tenkyi, arrive at a refugee camp in Nepal. They survived the dangerous journey across the Himalayas, but their parents did not...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction family religion journey poc-mc spirituality fiction -
Kintu by Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsUganda’s history reimagined through the cursed bloodline of the Kintu clan in an award-winning debut.In 1750, Kintu Kidda unleashes a curse that will plague his family for generations...Categorized as:
drama epic family historical-fiction journey literary-fiction magical-realism poc-mc -
The Almond Tree by Michelle Cohen Corasanti
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsThis is an alternate-cover edition for ASIN B008XM0AZM.Gifted with a brilliant mind that has made a deep impression on the elders of his Palestinian village, Ahmed Hamid is nevertheless tormented by his inability to save his friends and family. Living under occupation, the inhabitants of the village harbour a constant fear of losing their homes, jobs, belongings – and each other...Categorized as:
drama family historical-fiction journey literary-fiction politics realistic religion -
The Ardent Swarm by Yamen Manai
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsFrom an award-winning Tunisian author comes a stirring allegory about a country in the aftermath of revolution and the power of a single quest.Sidi lives a hermetic life as a bee whisperer, tending to his beloved “girls” on the outskirts of the desolate North African village of Nawa. He wakes one morning to find that something has attacked one of his beehives, brutally killing every inhabitant...
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