Books like 'Brooklyn'
Readers who enjoyed Brooklyn by Colm Tóibín also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
historical romance 20th century action / adventure psychological historical-fiction literary-fiction coming-of-age family urban
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Madonna in a Fur Coat by Sabahattin Ali
Rated: 4.43 of 5 stars · 31 ratingsAvailable in English for the first time, this best-selling Turkish classic of love and alienation in a changing world captures the vibrancy of interwar Berlin. A shy young man leaves his home in rural Turkey to learn a trade and discover life in 1920s Berlin... -
![Winter Garden by Kristin Hannah]()
Winter Garden by Kristin Hannah
Rated: 4.23 of 5 stars · 40 ratingsCan a woman ever really know herself if she doesn’t know her mother? From the author of the smash-hit bestseller Firefly Lane and True Colors comes a powerful, heartbreaking novel that illuminates the intricate mother-daughter bond and explores the enduring links between the present and the past Meredith and Nina Whitson are as different as sisters can be...Categorized as:
drama family female-mc historical-fiction journey literary-fiction realistic 20th-century -
![Where the Heart Is by Annie Groves]()
Where the Heart Is by Annie Groves
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsA fabulous drama of the Campion family, struggling to stay together as World War Two rages over Liverpool Lou Campion has joined the WAAFs, against the wishes of her parents and twin sister Sasha. Lou's always been a rebel, but now finds that if she wants to succeed she'll have to follow extremely strict rules... -
![The Last Kiss by Sally Malcolm]()
The Last Kiss by Sally Malcolm
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsA tender and triumphant story of forbidden love in the aftermath of warWhen Captain Ashleigh Arthur Dalton went to war in 1914, he never expected to fall in love. Yet over three long years at the front, his dashing batman, Private West, became his reason for fighting—and his reason for living.But Ash’s war ends in catastrophe... -
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![The Good Doctor of Warsaw by Elisabeth Gifford]()
The Good Doctor of Warsaw by Elisabeth Gifford
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsSet in the ghettos of wartime Warsaw, this is a sweeping, poignant and heartbreaking tale, based on the true story of one of World War II's quiet heroes - Dr Janusz Korczak.'You do not leave a sick child alone to face the dark and you do not leave a child at a time like this.'Deeply in love and about to marry, students Misha and Sophia flee a Warsaw under Nazi occupation for a chance at freedom...Categorized as:
historical-fiction 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook book fiction historical -
![The Marriage of Mary Russell by Laurie R. King]()
The Marriage of Mary Russell by Laurie R. King
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsLaurie R. King takes readers way back in her bestselling series with this exclusive ebook short story, as Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes embark upon the riskiest adventure of their their wedding. Includes a special preview of the highly anticipated new mystery from Laurie R... -
![Random Harvest by James Hilton]()
Random Harvest by James Hilton
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsCharles Rainier, a prosperous Briton, loses his memory as a result of shellshock in the First World War...Categorized as:
classics drama historical-fiction literary-fiction realistic 20th-century action-adventure adult -
![London Belles by Annie Groves]()
London Belles by Annie Groves
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsLondon Belles is a tale of four very different young women thrown together by war. Finding freedom and independence – as well as love, passion and heartbreak – for the very first time, a unique bond is formed as the hostilities take their toll on Britain. Four lives. One war that will change them all. When tragedy strikes, Olive is forced to seek lodgers... -
![The Charioteer by Mary Renault]()
The Charioteer by Mary Renault
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsAfter enduring an injury at Dunkirk during World War II, Laurie Odell is sent to a rural veterans’ hospital in England to convalesce. There he befriends the young, bright Andrew, a conscientious objector serving as an orderly. As they find solace and companionship together in the idyllic surroundings of the hospital, their friendship blooms into a discreet, chaste romance... -
![The Moonspinners by Mary Stewart]()
The Moonspinners by Mary Stewart
Rated: 4.05 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsYoung, beautiful, and adventurous Nicola Ferris loves her life as a secretary at the British Embassy on the lush island of Crete. Then on her day off, she links up with two hiking companions who have inadvertently stumbledupon a scene of blood vengeance. And suddenly the life Nicola adores is in danger of coming to an abrupt, brutal, and terrifying end . -
![Embers by Sándor Márai]()
Embers by Sándor Márai
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsAs darkness settles on a forgotten castle at the foot of the Carpathian mountains, two men sit down to a final dinner together. They have not seen one another in forty-one years. At their last meeting, in the company of a beautiful woman, an unspoken act of betrayal left all three lives shattered - and each of them alone...Categorized as:
classics drama historical-fiction journey literary-fiction realistic 20th-century action-adventure -
![The Persimmon Tree by Bryce Courtenay]()
The Persimmon Tree by Bryce Courtenay
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsBryce Courtenays latest novel , The Persimmon Tree, is a big sweeping saga, set among the Pacific Islands and in the Indian Ocean. In the style of Jame Clavell and Jame Michener, it tells the very personal and often romantic stories of men and women caught up in much larger events - in this case starting with the Japanese invasion of Java and the Dutch exodus of the region... -
![半生缘 by Eileen Chang, 张爱玲]()
半生缘 by Eileen Chang, 张爱玲
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsFrom one of twentieth-century China's greatest writers and the author of Lust, Caution, this is an unforgettable story of a love affair set in 1930s Shanghai. Manzhen is a young worker in a Shanghai factory, where she meets Shujun, the son of wealthy merchants. Despite family complications, they fall in love and begin to dream of a shared life together - until circumstances force them apart...Categorized as:
classics family historical-fiction journey literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure adult -
![The Painted Veil by W. Somerset Maugham]()
The Painted Veil by W. Somerset Maugham
Rated: 3.96 of 5 stars · 28 ratingsSet in England and Hong Kong in the 1920s, The Painted Veil is the story of the beautiful, but love-starved Kitty Fane.When her husband discovers her adulterous affair, he forces her to accompany him to the heart of a cholera epidemic...Categorized as:
classics coming-of-age drama historical-fiction journey literary-fiction realistic 20th-century -
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![The Children of Freedom by Marc Levy]()
The Children of Freedom by Marc Levy
Rated: 3.94 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsA remarkable story of struggle and survival in World War II by France's No. 1 bestselling novelist Early in 1942, two young brothers join a Resistance group. All the members of the group are young, most of their families came from elsewhere in Europe or North Africa and all of them are passionately committed to the freedom of France and Europe...Categorized as:
drama family historical-fiction 20th-century 21st-century action-adventure audiobook book -
![The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim]()
The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim
Rated: 3.92 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsAnd indeed Mr. Briggs seemed very much interested. He wanted to hear all about everything she had been doing from the moment she got there...Categorized as:
classics drama female-mc historical-fiction journey literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure -
![Transgression: A Novel of Love and War by James W. Nichol]()
Transgression: A Novel of Love and War by James W. Nichol
Rated: 3.67 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsHow can love survive a brutal time? In 1946 in North America, a child makes a grisly find in a deserted field—a discovery that opens a shuttered window on a secret dating back to the beginning of the turbulent decade...Categorized as:
drama historical-fiction 20th-century action-adventure adult book fiction historical -
![The Lotus Eaters by Tatjana Soli]()
The Lotus Eaters by Tatjana Soli
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsA unique and sweeping debut novel of an American female combat photographer in the Vietnam War, as she captures the wrenching chaos and finds herself torn between the love of two men.On a stifling day in 1975, the North Vietnamese army is poised to roll into Saigon. As the fall of the city begins, two lovers make their way through the streets to escape to a new life...Categorized as:
drama female-mc historical-fiction journey literary-fiction urban 20th-century action-adventure -
![Jamaica Inn by Daphne du Maurier, Wanda McCaddon]()
Jamaica Inn by Daphne du Maurier, Wanda McCaddon
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 30 ratingsThe coachman tried to warn her away from the ruined, forbidding place on the rainswept Cornish coast. But young Mary Yellan chose instead to honor her mother's dying request that she join her frightened Aunt Patience and huge, hulking Uncle Joss Merlyn at Jamaica Inn. From her first glimpse on that raw November eve, she could sense the inn's dark power...Categorized as:
classics drama family female-mc historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure -
![The Girl Who Played Go by Shan Sa]()
The Girl Who Played Go by Shan Sa
Rated: 3.78 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsAs the Japanese military invades 1930s Manchuria, a young girl approaches her own sexual coming of age. Drawn into a complex triangle with two boys, she distracts herself from the onslaught of adulthood by playing the game of go with strangers in a public square--and yet the force of desire, like the occupation, proves inevitable...Categorized as:
classics coming-of-age drama historical-fiction journey literary-fiction 20th-century 21st-century -
![The Painter of Signs by R.K. Narayan]()
The Painter of Signs by R.K. Narayan
Rated: 3.71 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsFor Raman the sign painter, life is a familiar and satisfying routine. A man of simple, rational ways, he lives with his pious aunt and prides himself on his creative work. But all that changes when he meets Daisy, a thrillingly independent young woman who wishes to bring birth control to the area...Categorized as:
classics drama historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure adult anthologies -
![Bengal Nights by Mircea Eliade]()
Bengal Nights by Mircea Eliade
Rated: 3.81 of 5 stars · 38 ratingsSet in 1930s Calcutta, this is a roman à clef of remarkable intimacy. Originally published in Romanian in 1933, this semiautobiographical novel by the world renowned scholar Mircea Eliade details the passionate awakenings of Alain, an ambitious young French engineer flush with colonial pride and prejudice and full of a European fascination with the mysterious subcontinent...Categorized as:
classics drama historical-fiction journey literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure book -
![The Reader by Bernhard Schlink]()
The Reader by Bernhard Schlink
Rated: 3.76 of 5 stars · 44 ratingsHailed 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 postwar Germany.When he falls ill on his way home from school, fifteen-year-old Michael Berg is rescued by Hanna, a woman twice his age. In time she becomes his lover—then she inexplicably disappears...Categorized as:
bildungsroman classics coming-of-age drama historical-fiction journey literary-fiction realistic -
![A Certain Summer by Patricia Beard]()
A Certain Summer by Patricia Beard
Rated: 3.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratings"Nothing ever changes at Wauregan.” That mystique is the tradition of the idyllic island colony off the shore of Long Island, the comforting tradition that its summer dwellers have lived by for over half a century. But in the summer of 1948, after a world war has claimed countless men—even those who came home—the time has come to deal with history’s indelible scars...Categorized as:
family female-mc historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure adult book -
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![I Will Fear No Evil by Robert A. Heinlein]()
I Will Fear No Evil by Robert A. Heinlein
Rated: 3.66 of 5 stars · 36 ratingsJohann Sebastian Bach Smith is immensely rich; and very old. His mind is still keen, so he has surgeons transplant his brain into a new body; the body of his gorgeous, recently deceased secretary, Eunice. But Eunice hasn't completely vacated her body..Categorized as:
classics female-mc lgbtq 20th-century action-adventure adult alternate-history audiobook -
![The Virgin Blue by Tracy Chevalier]()
The Virgin Blue by Tracy Chevalier
Rated: 3.67 of 5 stars · 41 ratingsMeet Ella Turner and Isabelle du Moulin—two women born centuries apart, yet bound by a fateful family legacy. When Ella and her husband move to a small town in France, Ella hopes to brush up on her French, qualify to practice as a midwife, and start a family of her own...Categorized as:
classics drama family female-mc historical-fiction journey literary-fiction realistic -
![The Comet Seekers by Helen Sedgwick]()
The Comet Seekers by Helen Sedgwick
Rated: 3.53 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsOne Day meets The Time Traveler's Wife in this spellbinding, magical debut novel about love, loss, hope and heartbreak that shows us that for each of us, the world can be as lonely or as beautiful as the comets that illuminate the skies above us.Róisín and François first meet in the snowy white expanse of Antarctica. And everything changes... -
![Waiting by Ha Jin]()
Waiting by Ha Jin
Rated: 3.54 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsFor more than seventeen years, Lin Kong, a devoted and ambitious doctor, has been in love with an educated, clever, modern woman, Manna Wu. But back in his traditional home village lives the humble, loyal wife his family chose for him years ago. Every summer, he returns to ask her for a divorce and every summer his compliant wife agrees but then backs out...Categorized as:
classics drama family historical-fiction journey literary-fiction realistic university
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