Books like 'The Cleft'
Readers who enjoyed The Cleft by Doris Lessing also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
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After the Fall by Dan Santat
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsSHORTLISTED FOR THE 2019 UKLA BOOK AWARDAfter the fall, Humpty Dumpty is a broken egg. Life is tough: he's so afraid of heights, he can't even bear to climb onto his bed, or reach his favourite cereal on the top shelf at the supermarket. But one day, fuelled by his passion for bird-watching, he decides to conquer his fears and something amazing happens.. -
Dark Mother Earth by Kristian Novak
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsAn amnesiac writer’s life of lies and false memories reaches a breaking point in this stunning English-language debut from an award-winning Croatian author.As a novelist, Matija makes things up for a living. Not yet thirty, he’s written two well-received books. It’s his third that is as big a failure as his private life...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction 21st-century adult book coming-of-age contemporary crime -
The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas by Ursula K. Le Guin
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 41 ratingsSome inhabitants of a peaceful kingdom cannot tolerate the act of cruelty that underlies its happiness.The story "Omelas" was first published in New Dimensions 3, a hard-cover science fiction anthology edited by Robert Silverberg, in October 1973, and the following year it won Le Guin the prestigious Hugo Award for best short story...Categorized as:
classics dystopia literary-fiction 20th-century anthologies audiobook contemporary dark -
Iliad, Books 1–12 by Homer
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsHere is a new Loeb Classical Library edition of Homer's stirring heroic account of the Trojan war and its passions...Categorized as:
classics literary-fiction myths retellings adult ancient-civilization audiobook book -
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Incarnations Of Immortality by Piers Anthony
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 12 ratings...Categorized as:
myths retellings fantasy fiction young-adult urban-fantasy contemporary psychological -
Franz Kafka: The Complete Stories by Franz Kafka, John Updike
Rated: 4.34 of 5 stars · 38 ratingsThe only available collection that brings together all of Kafka's storiesthose published during his lifetime and those released after his death...Categorized as:
classics dystopia literary-fiction 20th-century adult anthologies contemporary drama -
The Next Person You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 41 ratingsThe Next Person You Meet in Heaven: (B&N Exclusive Edition) The Sequel to The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch AlbomThis special edition contains an extra chapter and is available exclusively at Barnes & Noble... -
Set This House in Order by Matt Ruff
Rated: 4.28 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsAndy Gage was born in 1965 and murdered not long after by his stepfather. . . . It was no ordinary murder. Though the torture and abuse that killed him were real, Andy Gage's death wasn't. Only his soul actually died, and when it died, it broke in pieces. Then the pieces became souls in their own right, coinheritors of Andy Gage's life. . .Categorized as:
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Buddha's Little Finger by Victor Pelevin
Rated: 4.28 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsRussian novelist Victor Pelevin is rapidly establishing himself as one of the most brilliant young writers at work today. His comic inventiveness and mind-bending talent prompted Time magazine to proclaim him a "psychedelic Nabokov for the cyber-age...Categorized as:
classics historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century adult audiobook book contemporary -
Del tiempo y sus demonios by Diego Armando Arciniegas Malagón
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsDEL TIEMPO Y SUS DEMONIOS: PERSIGUIENDO LA VERDADEsta novela se desarrolla en un pequeño y misterioso pueblo. En un territorio hermoso, inhóspito a la luz de aquellas certezas que las mayorías consideran irrefutables. Lejos del tiempo que, arbitrariamente, tomara la sabia decisión de separar el bien del mal...Categorized as:
classics dystopia literary-fiction historical-fiction mystery fiction horror magical-realism -
A Day Like This by Kelley McNeil
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsWhat if everything you’ve ever loved, ever known, ever believed to be true…just disappeared?Annie Beyers has everything—a beautiful house, a loving husband, and an adorable daughter. It’s a day like any other when she takes Hannah to the pediatrician…until she wakes hours later from a car accident. When she asks for her daughter, confused doctors tell Annie that Hannah never existed...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction adult audiobook book breakup contemporary domestic-drama -
Iliad, Books 13–24 by Homer
Rated: 4.53 of 5 stars · 15 ratingsHere is a new Loeb Classical Library edition of Homer's stirring heroic account of the Trojan war and its passions... -
Starlet: A Dark Hollywood Mafia Romance by Cora Kenborn
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsFrom USA Today Bestselling Author Cora Kenborn comes a dark and twisted enemies to lovers retelling of Anastasia. They call me America’s Sweetheart. Hollywood royalty. The last of an era. Sole survivor of LA’s most infamous crime. I’m not any of those things. He forced me into the spotlight. The liar with a perfect smile and cold blue eyes. But Alexandra Romanov’s fate won’t be mine... -
Burning Your Boats: The Collected Short Stories by Angela Carter, Salman Rushdie
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsOne of our most imaginative and accomplished writers, Angela Carter left behind a dazzling array of work: essays, citicism, and fiction. But it is in her short stories that her extraordinary talents—as a fabulist, feminist, social critic, and weaver of tales—are most penetratingly evident...Categorized as:
classics historical-fiction literary-fiction myths retellings 20th-century adult anthologies -
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The Husband Stitch by Carmen Maria Machado
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 10 ratings"‘I have heard all of the stories about girls like me, and I am unafraid to make more of them.’ If you read this story out loud, please use the following voices:Me: as a child, high-pitched, forgettable; as a woman, the same.The boy who will grow into a man, and be my spouse: robust with his own good fortune.My father: Like your father, or the man you wish was your father... -
Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World by Haruki Murakami
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 66 ratings'A narrative particle accelerator that zooms between Wild Turkey Whiskey and Bob Dylan, unicorn skulls and voracious librarians, John Coltrane and Lord Jim. Science fiction, detective story and post-modern manifesto all rolled into one rip-roaring novel, Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World is the tour de force that expanded Haruki Murakami's international following...Categorized as:
classics dystopia literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure adult asia audiobook -
The Discovery of Heaven by Harry Mulisch
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 35 ratingsHarry Mulisch's magnum opus, is a rich mosaic of twentieth-century trauma in which many themes—friendship, loyalty, family, art, technology, religion, fate, good, and evil—suffuse a suspenseful and resplendent narrative.The Discovery of Heaven begins with the meeting of Onno and Max, two complicated individuals whom fate has mysteriously and magically brought together...Categorized as:
classics historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook book -
Figment by Cameron Jace
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsAfter her encounter with the Cheshire Cat, Alice Wonder can hardly tell reality from imagination. But when kids have their head chopped off and stuffed in watermelons all over the city, it's clear that another Wonderland Monster has arrived, possibly scarier than the Cheshire... -
The Complete Cosmicomics by Italo Calvino, Jefferson Mays
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsThe definitive edition of Calvino’s cosmicomics, bringing together all of these enchanting stories—including some never before translated—in one volume for the first timeIn Italo Calvino’s cosmicomics, primordial beings cavort on the nearby surface of the moon, play marbles with atoms, and bear ecstatic witness to Earth’s first dawn...Categorized as:
classics literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure adult anthologies audiobook comedy -
Sum: Tales from the Afterlives by David Eagleman, Multivoice
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsSUM shows us forty wonderfully imagined possibilities of life beyond death. In one afterlife you may find that God is the size of a microbe and is unaware of your existence. In another, your creators are a species of dim-witted creatures who built us to figure out what they could not. In a different version of the afterlife you work as a background character in other people's dreams...Categorized as:
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The Magus by John Fowles
Rated: 4.05 of 5 stars · 32 ratingsThis daring literary thriller, rich with eroticism and suspense, is one of John Fowles's best-loved and bestselling novels and has contributed significantly to his international reputation as a writer of the first degree. At the center of The Magus is Nicholas Urfe, a young Englishman who accepts a teaching position on a remote Greek island, where he befriends a local millionaire...Categorized as:
classics historical-fiction literary-fiction myths 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook -
Freshwater by Akwaeke Emezi
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 27 ratingsAn extraordinary debut novel, Freshwater explores the surreal experience of having a fractured self. It centers around a young Nigerian woman, Ada, who develops separate selves within her as a result of being born "with one foot on the other side...Categorized as:
literary-fiction myths retellings 21st-century action-adventure audiobook book coming-of-age -
The Tenant by Roland Topor
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsThe Tenant chronicles a harrowing, fascinating descent into madness as the pathologically alienated Trelkovsky is subsumed into Simone Choule, an enigmatic suicide whose presence saturates his new apartment. More than a tale of possession, the novel probes disturbing depths of guilt, paranoia, and sexual obsession with an unsparing detachment... -
The Force of Such Beauty: A Novel by Barbara Bourland
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsAfter a failed escape attempt, the princess of a tiny kingdom begins to reevaluate her life. Caroline, a former marathon runner who dropped out of school at fourteen to pursue an Olympic medal, was the perfect candidate for a tiara: shapely, disciplined, accustomed to public attention, and utterly uneducated. When she meets Finn, the handsome prince of a small European kingdom, her fate is sealed...Categorized as:
literary-fiction historical-fiction romance fiction contemporary fantasy family audiobook -
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Man Tiger by Eka Kurniawan
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsA wry, affecting tale set in a small town on the Indonesian coast, Man Tiger tells the story of two interlinked and tormented families and of Margio, a young man ordinary in all particulars except that he conceals within himself a supernatural female white tiger. The inequities and betrayals of family life coalesce around and torment this magical being...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction action-adventure adult book contemporary crime drama -
Teatro Grottesco by Thomas Ligotti
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsThis collection features tormented individuals who play out their doom in various odd little towns, as well as in dark sectors frequented by sinister and often blackly comical eccentrics. The cycle of narratives that includes the title work of this collection, for instance, introduces readers to a freakish community of artists who encounter demonic perils that ultimately engulf their lives...Categorized as:
dystopia literary-fiction 20th-century 21st-century adult anthologies contemporary cosmic-horror -
My Ishmael by Daniel Quinn
Rated: 4.05 of 5 stars · 21 ratingsAn extraordinary and startlingly original sequel to Ishmael "Enthralling, shocking, hope-filled, and utterly fearless, Daniel Quinn leads us deeper and deeper into the human heart, history, and spirit. In My Ishmael, Quinn strikes out into entirely new territory, posing questions that will rock you on your heels, and providing tantalizing possibilities for a truly new world vision...Categorized as:
classics literary-fiction action-adventure adult animals anthologies contemporary female-mc -
World of Wonders by Robertson Davies
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 29 ratingsHailed by the Washington Post Book World as "a modern classic," Robertson Davies’s acclaimed Deptford Trilogy is a glittering, fantastical, cunningly contrived series of novels, around which a mysterious death is woven...Categorized as:
classics historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century adult book coming-of-age contemporary -
The Mires by Tina Makereti
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsA literary page turner that explores the intertwined lives of three neighboring families in a small coastal New Zealand town—a blend of Little Fires Everywhere and The Island of Missing Trees, combining domestic drama, suspense, indigenous folklore, and the threat of extremism on ordinary lives.Three women give birth in different countries and different decades...Categorized as:
literary-fiction historical-fiction dystopia fiction audiobook contemporary female-author multi-pov -
Vita Nostra by Marina Dyachenko, Sergey Dyachenko
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 36 ratingsThe definitive English language translation of the internationally bestselling Ukrainian novel—a brilliant dark fantasy with "the potential to be a modern classic" (Lev Grossman), combining psychological suspense, enchantment, and terror that makes us consider human existence in a fresh and provocative way.Our life is brief . .Categorized as:
classics dystopia literary-fiction 21st-century action-adventure audiobook boarding-school book -
Knock Knock, Open Wide by Neil Sharpson
Rated: 4.05 of 5 stars · 11 ratingsKnock Knock, Open Wide weaves horror and Celtic myth into a terrifying, heartbreaking supernatural tale of fractured family bonds, the secrets we carry, and the veiled forces that guide Irish life.Driving home late one night, Etain Larkin finds a corpse on a pitch-black country road deep in the Irish countryside. She takes the corpse to a remote farmhouse... -
The People of Paper by Salvador Plascencia
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 30 ratingsThe People of Paper reveals the ever-elusive prophesies of the Shandean Baby Nostradamus and the approximate temperature and incendiary potential of halos. Herein disillusioned and AWOL saints reclaim their crowns and fight purses, while a gang of flower pickers go off to war, led by a lonely man who can not help but wet his bed in sadness...Categorized as:
classics historical-fiction literary-fiction adult book contemporary fiction hispanic -
The Metamorphosis and Other Stories by Franz Kafka
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars · 50 ratingsThe Metamorphosis and Other Stories, by Franz Kafka, is part of the Barnes & Noble Classics series, which offers quality editions at affordable prices to the student and the general reader, including new scholarship, thoughtful design, and pages of carefully crafted extras...Categorized as:
classics dystopia literary-fiction 20th-century adult anthologies audiobook contemporary -
Ghostwritten by David Mitchell
Rated: 4.05 of 5 stars · 38 ratingsA gallery attendant at the Hermitage. A young jazz buff in Tokyo. A crooked British lawyer in Hong Kong. A disc jockey in Manhattan. A physicist in Ireland. An elderly woman running a tea shack in rural China. A cult-controlled terrorist in Okinawa. A musician in London. A transmigrating spirit in Mongolia... -
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Last Call by Tim Powers
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 30 ratingsTwenty years ago Scott Crane abandoned his career as a professional poker player and went into hiding, after a weird high-stakes game played with Tarot cards. But now the cards - and the supernatural powers behind them - have found him again.Crane's father killed gangster Bugsy Siegel in 1948 to become the Fisher King, and to keep that power he is determined to kill his son...Categorized as:
historical-fiction myths retellings 20th-century action-adventure adult alternate-history arthurian -
A Collapse of Horses by Brian Evenson
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsA stuffed bear's heart beats with the rhythm of a dead baby; Reno keeps receding to the east no matter how far you drive; and in a mine on another planet, the dust won't stop seeping in. In these stories, Brian Evenson unsettles us with the everyday and the extraordinary—the terror of living with the knowledge of all we cannot know...Categorized as:
dystopia literary-fiction 21st-century adult anthologies contemporary fiction horror -
The Divine Farce by Michael S.A. Graziano
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 14 ratings“A Dante/Beckett reduction of human struggle to its lowest common denominator.”— Michael Mirolla, author of The Formal Logic of Emotion and Berlin“One of the most original and thought-provoking stories I have ever read...true literary art...Not a word is wasted in this masterpiece. Yes, I call it that... -
Death with Interruptions by José Saramago
Rated: 3.98 of 5 stars · 30 ratingsNobel Prize-winner Jose Saramago's brilliant new novel poses the question what happens when the grim reaper decides there will be no more death?On the first day of the new year, no one dies. This, of course, causes consternation among politicians, religious leaders, morticians, and doctors. Among the general public, on the other hand, there is initially mass celebration...Categorized as:
classics dystopia literary-fiction 20th-century 21st-century action-adventure adult audiobook -
Windeye by Brian Evenson
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsA woman falling out of sync with the world; a king's servant hypnotized by his murderous horse; a transplanted ear with a mind of its own. The characters in these stories live as interlopers in a world shaped by mysterious disappearances and unfathomable discrepancies between the real and imagined... -
A History of Wild Places by Shea Ernshaw
Rated: 4.03 of 5 stars · 38 ratingsTravis Wren has an unusual talent for locating missing people. Hired by families as a last resort, he requires only a single object to find the person who has vanished. When he takes on the case of Maggie St. James—a well-known author of dark, macabre children’s books—he’s led to a place many believed to be only a legend...Categorized as:
dystopia historical-fiction literary-fiction audiobook book contemporary crime cults -
Catastrophe: And Other Stories by Dino Buzzati
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsIn Catastrophe, the renowned Italian short story writer Dino Buzzati brings vividly to life the slow and quietly terrifying collapse of our known, everyday world. In stories touched by the fantastical and the strange, and filled with humor, irony, and menace, Buzzati illuminates the nightmarish side of our ordinary existence...Categorized as:
classics literary-fiction 20th-century adult anthologies contemporary fiction horror -
Everville by Clive Barker
Rated: 4.03 of 5 stars · 36 ratingsOn the borderland between this world and the world of Quiddity, the sea of our dreams, sits Everville. For years, it has lived in ignorance of the gleaming shore on which it lies. But its ignorance is not bliss...Categorized as:
classics literary-fiction myths retellings 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook -
The Love We Share Without Knowing by Christopher Barzak
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsOn a train filled with quietly sleeping passengers, a young man’s life is forever altered when he is miraculously seen by a blind man. In a quiet town an American teacher who has lost her Japanese lover to death begins to lose her own self. On a remote road amid fallow rice fields, four young friends carefully take their own lives—and in that moment they become almost as one...Categorized as:
literary-fiction adult anthologies coming-of-age contemporary epic fiction magical-realism -
For a Little While by Rick Bass
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsA "New York Times Book Review" Editors' Choice "A literary titan...Bass is, hands down, a master of the short form, creating in a few pages a natural world of mythic proportions." -- "New York Times Book Review" Long considered one of the most gifted practitioners of the short story, Rick Bass is unsurpassed in his ability to perceive and portray the enduring truths of the human heart...Categorized as:
literary-fiction adult anthologies audiobook contemporary fiction outdoors psychological -
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The Lost Storyteller by Amanda Block
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 8 ratings"A powerful novel about the bond between fathers and daughters, and how stories connect us all. I loved it" Jenny Colgan THE LOST STORYTELLER is the heartwarming and evocative debut novel from a stunning new voice in fiction, Amanda Block. Perfect for fans of Ruth Hogan, Jessie Burton and Diane Setterfield.Rebecca hasn't seen her father Leo since she was six... -
There Are Monsters Everywhere by Mercer Mayer
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsWhat kid doesn't suspect that there are monsters lurking under the bed, behind the shower curtain, in the basement, and even outside by the garbage cans? Mercer Mayer brilliantly and hilariously captures this classic childhood fear—and conquers it! Kids will cheer as the young hero of the story takes matters into his own hands by learning karate... -
Under the Cover of Darkness by Emma Luna
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsA dark contemporary romanceADDYI thought the suffocating loneliness of the last two year were bad, but then I was sent to Lakeridge Psychiatric Facility.On the outside it’s disguised as helpful brochures and friendly doctors who have vowed to help, but the real truth is just below the surface, lurking in the shadows, and haunting my dreams.At night he comes—taunting and abusing me...Categorized as:
retellings myths literary-fiction dark mental-illness suspense friends-to-lovers organized-crime -
At the Waterfall by Smardline S.
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsTwo strangers. One cabin. A summer fling .Grief and fear aren’t strangers to Jake and Mia. Jake, a climber addicted to control, lives for the next thrill but avoids love at all costs.He has his Never sleeps with the same girl twice.No exchanging names.No staying over—can't risk anyone catching feelings.That is until he’s forced to share a cabin with princess and her no-noise-before-8-AM rule...Categorized as:
literary-fiction romance contemporary poc-mc multi-pov psychological fiction fantasy -
Ishmael by Daniel Quinn
Rated: 3.99 of 5 stars · 67 ratingsWinner of the 1992 Turner Tomorrow Fellowship, "Ishmael" is a unique and captivating novel that has earned a large and passionate following among readers and critics worldwide...Categorized as:
classics historical-fiction literary-fiction myths 20th-century action-adventure animals audiobook -
The Fisherman by John Langan
Rated: 3.96 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsIn upstate New York, in the woods around Woodstock, Dutchman's Creek flows out of the Ashokan Reservoir. Steep-banked, fast-moving, it offers the promise of fine fishing, and of something more, a possibility too fantastic to be true...Categorized as:
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