Books like 'Rooftops of Tehran'
Readers who enjoyed Rooftops of Tehran by Mahbod Seraji also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
historical romance 20th century action / adventure historical-fiction coming-of-age literary-fiction journey drama poc-mc
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The Things We Cannot Say by Kelly Rimmer
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 39 ratingsIn 1942, Europe remains in the relentless grip of war. Just beyond the tents of the Russian refugee camp she calls home, a young woman speaks her wedding vows. It’s a decision that will alter her destiny…and it’s a lie that will remain buried until the next century.Since she was nine years old, Alina Dziak knew she would marry her best friend, Tomasz...Categorized as:
drama family friendship historical-fiction literary-fiction realistic religion spirituality -
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...Categorized as:
coming-of-age drama historical-fiction journey literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure adult -
Sea of Memories by Fiona Valpy
Rated: 4.39 of 5 stars · 30 ratingsWhen Kendra first visits her ailing grandmother, Ella has only one request: that Kendra write her story down, before she forgets…In 1937, seventeen-year-old Ella’s life changes forever when she is sent to spend the summer on the beautiful Île de Ré and meets the charismatic, creative Christophe...Categorized as:
drama epic family friendship historical-fiction journey literary-fiction 20th-century -
Return to Robinswood by Jean Grainger
Rated: 4.45 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsOne Irish house, two very different families, and a war that changed everything. Robinswood Estate, County Waterford, Ireland. 1946.Years of neglect and abandonment have left the family seat of the Keneficks almost derelict, but the new Lord Kenefick and his charming young wife Kate, are determined to breathe life into the old house once more...Categorized as:
epic family friendship historical-fiction journey literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure -
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Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin
Rated: 4.32 of 5 stars · 41 ratingsAn alternate cover for this ISBN can be found here.Baldwin's haunting and controversial second novel is his most sustained treatment of sexuality, and a classic of gay literature...Categorized as:
coming-of-age dark-academia drama historical-fiction journey literary-fiction poc-mc politics -
The Sky Beneath Us by Fiona Valpy
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsAn inspiring, uplifting story of love and loss, courage and adventure, from the bestselling author of The Skylark’s Secret.1927. Violet Mackenzie-Grant is embarking on her dream of studying at the Edinburgh School of Gardening for Women...Categorized as:
historical-fiction family friendship religion literary-fiction epic spirituality asia -
The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris
Rated: 4.31 of 5 stars · 84 ratingsA tale based on interviews that were conducted with Holocaust survivor and Auschwitz-Birkenau tattooist Ludwig (Lale) Sokolov.In April 1942, Lale Sokolov, a Slovakian Jew, is forcibly transported to the concentration camps at Auschwitz-Birkenau...Categorized as:
drama family friendship historical-fiction journey literary-fiction politics realistic -
The Cypress Maze by Fiona Valpy
Rated: 4.44 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsIn this haunting tale from the bestselling author of The Storyteller of Casablanca, Beatrice kept a wartime secret to protect the innocent. Now, could telling it set her free?Tuscany, 1943. Stranded in war-ravaged Italy, Beatrice’s dream of an escapist year teaching English is shattered... -
The Physician by Noah Gordon
Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars · 45 ratingsIn the 11th century, Rob Cole left poor, disease-ridden London to make his way across the land, hustling, juggling, peddling cures to the sick—and discovering the mystical ways of healing. It was on his travels that he found his own very real gift for healing—a gift that urged him on to become a doctor...Categorized as:
drama epic family historical-fiction literary-fiction religion spirituality 20th-century -
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:
coming-of-age drama epic family historical-fiction journey literary-fiction politics -
The Girl From the Island by Lorna Cook
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsA world at war.One woman will risk everything.Another will uncover her story.1940: When the island of Guernsey is invaded by the Nazis, two sisters are determined to rebel in any way they can. But when forced to take in a German soldier, they are shocked to find a familiar face on their doorstep – a childhood friend who has now become their enemy...Categorized as:
coming-of-age epic family friendship historical-fiction religion spirituality 20th-century -
The Winter Rose by Jennifer Donnelly
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 27 ratingsAnother strong, satisfying novel, full of rich storytelling, by the author of the favourite THE TEA ROSE.An epic tale of secret love and hidden passions. It is 1900 and the dangerous streets of East London are no place for a well-bred woman. But India Selwyn Jones is headstrong: she has trained as one of a new breed, a woman doctor, and is determined to practice where the need is greatest...Categorized as:
drama epic family historical-fiction literary-fiction politics realistic 20th-century -
Take What You Can Carry by Gian Sardar
Rated: 4.35 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsAn aspiring photographer follows her dreams and faces her fears in a poignant novel about finding beauty, promise, and love amid the chaos of war-torn Kurdistan.It’s 1979. Olivia Murray, a secretary at a Los Angeles newspaper, is determined to become a photojournalist and make a difference with her work... -
Eternal by Lisa Scottoline
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 28 ratingsWhat war destroys, only love can heal.Elisabetta, Marco, and Sandro grow up as the best of friends despite their differences. Elisabetta is a feisty beauty who dreams of becoming a novelist; Marco the brash and athletic son in a family of professional cyclists; and Sandro a Jewish mathematics prodigy, kind-hearted and thoughtful, the son of a lawyer and a doctor...Categorized as:
coming-of-age drama family friendship historical-fiction journey literary-fiction religion -
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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... -
The Fountains of Silence by Ruta Sepetys
Rated: 4.26 of 5 stars · 31 ratingsA portrait of love, silence, and secrets under a Spanish dictatorship.Madrid, 1957. Under the fascist dictatorship of General Francisco Franco, Spain is hiding a dark secret. Meanwhile, tourists and foreign businessmen flood into Spain under the welcoming promise of sunshine and wine...Categorized as:
coming-of-age drama family friendship historical-fiction journey literary-fiction poc-mc -
The Skylark's Secret by Fiona Valpy
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsLoch Ewe, 1940. When gamekeeper’s daughter Flora’s remote highland village finds itself the base for the Royal Navy’s Arctic convoys, life in her close-knit community changes forever. In defiance of his disapproving father, the laird’s son falls in love with Flora, and as tensions build in their disrupted home, any chance of their happiness seems doomed...Categorized as:
drama epic family friendship historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure -
Child of All Nations by Pramoedya Ananta Toer
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsIn Child of All Nations, the reader is immediately swept up by a story that is profoundly feminist, devastatingly anticolonialist—and full of heartbreak, suspense, love, and fury. Pramoedya immerses the reader in a world that is astonishing in its vividness: the cultural whirlpool that was the Dutch East Indies of the 1890s...Categorized as:
drama family historical-fiction literary-fiction politics 20th-century action-adventure adult -
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... -
The Angry Tide by Winston Graham
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsThe Angry Tide is the seventh novel in Winston Graham's classic Poldark saga, the major TV series from Masterpiece on PBS.Cornwall, towards the end of the 18th century. Ross Poldark sits for the borough of Truro as Member of Parliament - his time divided between London and Cornwall, his heart divided about his wife, Demelza...Categorized as:
drama epic family historical-fiction literary-fiction politics 20th-century action-adventure -
Of Windmills and War by Diane Moody
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsThe rumblings of war in distant countries mattered little to Danny McClain. Growing up in Chicago, his world revolved around after-school jobs, a rescued beagle, his pen pal in Holland, and the Cubs' chance to go to the World Series. Then, in December of 1941, news of the attack on Pearl Harbor hit much too close to home... -
The Lost Wife by Alyson Richman
Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars · 32 ratingsThere on her forearm, next to a small brown birthmark, were six tattooed numbers. 'Do you remember me now?' he asked, trembling. She looked at him again, as if giving weight and bone to a ghost. 'Lenka, it's me,' he said. 'Josef. Your husband.' During the last moments of calm in prewar Prague, Lenka, a young art student, falls in love with Josef...Categorized as:
drama family historical-fiction journey literary-fiction realistic 20th-century action-adventure -
Daughter of the Reich by Louise Fein
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsFor fans of The Nightingale and All the Light We Cannot See, a spellbinding story of impossible love set against the backdrop of the Nazi regime. She must choose between loyalty to her country or a love that could be her destruction… As the dutiful daughter of a high-ranking Nazi officer, Hetty Heinrich is keen to play her part in the glorious new Thousand Year Reich... -
Rilla of Ingleside by L.M. Montgomery
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 31 ratingsAnne's children were almost grown up, except for pretty, high-spirited Rilla. No one could resist her bright hazel eyes and dazzling smile. Rilla, almost fifteen, can't think any further ahead than going to her very first dance at the Four Winds lighthouse and getting her first kiss from handsome Kenneth Ford...Categorized as:
bildungsroman coming-of-age drama family friendship historical-fiction literary-fiction realistic -
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The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullough
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 74 ratings“Beautiful….Compelling entertainment.”—New York Times“A heart-rending epic…truly marvelous.”—Chicago TribuneOne of the most beloved novels of all time, The Thorn Birds, Colleen McCullough’s sweeping family saga of dreams, titanic struggles, dark passions, and forbidden love in the Australian Outback, returns to enthrall a new generation...Categorized as:
bildungsroman coming-of-age drama epic family historical-fiction journey literary-fiction -
The Stationery Shop by Marjan Kamali
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 30 ratingsRoya, a dreamy, idealistic teenager living amid the political upheaval of 1953 Tehran, finds a literary oasis in kindly Mr. Fakhri’s neighborhood stationery shop, stocked with books and pens and bottles of jewel-colored ink.Then Mr...Categorized as:
coming-of-age drama family historical-fiction journey literary-fiction poc-mc politics -
The Lions of Al-Rassan by Guy Gavriel Kay
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 39 ratingsThe ruling Asharites of Al-Rassan have come from the desert sands, but over centuries, seduced by the sensuous pleasures of their new land, their stern piety has eroded. The Asharite empire has splintered into decadent city-states led by warring petty kings...Categorized as:
epic family friendship historical-fiction literary-fiction politics religion spirituality -
Calling Me Home by Julie Kibler
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 28 ratingsCalling Me Home by Julie Kibler is a soaring debut interweaving the story of a heartbreaking, forbidden love in 1930s Kentucky with an unlikely modern-day friendship. Eighty-nine-year-old Isabelle McAllister has a favor to ask her hairdresser Dorrie Curtis. It's a big one...Categorized as:
coming-of-age drama family friendship historical-fiction journey literary-fiction realistic -
The Four Swans by Winston Graham
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsThe sixth book in the legendary Poldark saga. Cornwall, 1795: Although Ross Poldark - now something of a war hero - seems secure in his hard-won prosperity, a new dilemma faces him in the sudden infatuation of a young naval officer for his wife Demelza. All four women - the four swans - whose lives touch Ross' face a crisis in these years...Categorized as:
drama epic family historical-fiction literary-fiction politics 20th-century action-adventure -
Under the Midnight Sun by Tracie Peterson, Kimberley Woodhouse
Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsTayler Hale is ahead of her time as one of the first women naturalists. She has always loved adventure and the great outdoors, and her remote job location also helps keep her away from the clutches of the man to whom she once made a foolish promise. It seems she must keep running, however, and in secret, her boss from Yellowstone arranges for a new job . . . in Alaska...Categorized as:
family historical-fiction religion spirituality 20th-century action-adventure adult book -
The Invisible Bridge by Julie Orringer
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 32 ratingsA grand love story and an epic tale of three brothers whose lives are torn apart by war.Paris, 1937. Andras Lévi, a Hungarian Jewish architecture student, arrives from Budapest with a scholarship, a single suitcase, and a mysterious letter he has promised to deliver to C. Morgenstern on the rue de Sévigné...Categorized as:
coming-of-age drama family friendship historical-fiction journey literary-fiction religion -
Anne's House of Dreams by L.M. Montgomery
Rated: 4.15 of 5 stars · 40 ratingsAnne's own true love, Gilbert Blythe, is finally a doctor, and in the sunshine of the old orchard, among their dearest friends, they are about to speak their vows. Soon the happy couple will be bound for a new life together and their own dream house, on the misty purple shores of Four Winds Harbor.A new life means fresh problems to solve, fresh surprises...Categorized as:
bildungsroman coming-of-age drama family friendship historical-fiction literary-fiction realistic -
Letters Across the Sea by Genevieve Graham
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsInspired by a little-known chapter of World War II history, a young Protestant girl and her Jewish neighbour are caught up in the terrible wave of hate sweeping the globe on the eve of war in this powerful love story that’s perfect for fans of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society.If you’re reading this letter, that means I’m dead...Categorized as:
drama family friendship historical-fiction journey literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure -
The Planter's Bride by Janet MacLeod Trotter
Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars · 18 ratings1922: cousins and best friends, Sophie and Tilly, are looking for love and adventure. Sophie, orphaned at six, when her tea planter parents died suddenly of fever in India, has been brought up by a radical aunt in Edinburgh. Tilly meanwhile has lived a sheltered life in Newcastle... -
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A Distant Melody by Sarah Sundin
Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsWill a chance meeting in a time of war change her life forever?Never pretty enough to please her gorgeous mother, Allie will do anything to gain her approval - even marry a man she doesn't love. While Allie has nearly resigned herself to that fate, Lt. Walter Novak - fearless in the cockpit but hopeless with women - takes his last furlough at home in California before being shipped overseas...Categorized as:
drama friendship historical-fiction realistic religion spirituality 20th-century action-adventure -
The Paris Orphan by Natasha Lester
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsFrom the USA Today bestselling author of The Paris Seamstress comes a World War II novel that spans continents and crosses generations as an American soldier and an enterprising Vogue photographer brave war-torn France to help a lost little girl find the one thing she never had: a family...Categorized as:
drama epic family historical-fiction literary-fiction religion spirituality 20th-century -
Be Still the Water by Karen Emilson
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsFinalist 2019 Canadian Book Club AwardsShortlisted for the 2017 Margaret Laurence Award for Fiction2017 IPPY Silver Medal WinnerSet in 1906 along the unspoiled shores of Lake Manitoba, Be Still the Water brings us into the fold of the Gudmundsson Family—immigrants determined to begin life anew in the Icelandic farming and fishing community of Siglunes...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction family coming-of-age friendship fiction historical outdoors -
On the Wings of Hope by Ella Zeiss, Helen MacCormac
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsAs World War II draws to a close, can two young people find love, hope—and freedom?February 1942: Terrifying reports of the Wehrmacht’s advance across the Soviet Union spread like wildfire, striking new fear into the already oppressed German families living there.Harri Pfeiffer, now sixteen, is summoned to the forced labour camp in Chelyabinsk...Categorized as:
drama epic family friendship historical-fiction literary-fiction politics 20th-century -
A Girl Of The Limberlost by Gene Stratton-Porter
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsDeeply wounded by her embittered mother's lack of sympathy for her aspirations, Elnora finds comfort in the nearby Limberlost Swamp, whose beauty and rich abundance provide her with the means to better her life...Categorized as:
coming-of-age drama family friendship historical-fiction literary-fiction realistic spirituality -
Anne's House of Dreams by L.M. Montgomery
Rated: 4.12 of 5 stars · 41 ratingsAnne's own true love, Gilbert Blythe, is finally a doctor, and in the sunshine of the old orchard, among their dearest friends, they are about to speak their vows. Soon the happy couple will be bound for a new life together and their own dream house, on the misty purple shores of Four Winds Harbor. A new life means fresh problems to solve, fresh surprises...Categorized as:
bildungsroman coming-of-age drama family friendship historical-fiction literary-fiction realistic -
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... -
What the Day Owes the Night by Yasmina Khadra
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratings'If a woman loves you, Younes, if she truly loves you, and if you have the wisdom to appreciate this great privilege, then there is no god to touch you.'As a young man Younes' life is irrevocably changed when he leaves his broken home for the vibrant, colourful and affluent European district of Río Salado...Categorized as:
coming-of-age drama family friendship historical-fiction journey literary-fiction politics -
The Price of Paradise by Susana López Rubio
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsIn a city as corrupt as it was luxurious, those who dared to dream were bound to pay the price. Havana, Cuba, 1947. Young Patricio flees impoverished Spain and steps into the sultry island paradise of Havana with only the clothes on his back and half-baked dreams of a better life... -
Mrs. Mike by Benedict Freedman, Nancy Freedman
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsA moving love story set in the Canadian wilderness, Mrs. Mike is a classic tale that has enchanted millions of readers worldwide. It brings the fierce, stunning landscape of the Great North to life—and tenderly evokes the love that blossoms between Sergeant Mike Flannigan and beautiful young Katherine Mary O'Fallon...Categorized as:
coming-of-age drama family historical-fiction literary-fiction poc-mc realistic spirituality -
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Birds Without Wings by Louis de Bernières, Christopher Kay
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsLength: 22 hrs and 47 mins Birds Without Wings tells of the inhabitants of a small coastal town in south-west Anatolia in the dying days of the Ottoman empire. When jihad is declared against the Allies the young men of the town are sent to war... -
Spring Snow by Yukio Mishima, Michael Gallagher
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsTokyo, 1912. The closed world of the ancient aristocracy is being breached for the first time by outsiders - rich provincial families, a new and powerful political and social elite.Kiyoaki has been raised among the elegant Ayakura family - members of the waning aristocracy - but he is not one of them...Categorized as:
bildungsroman coming-of-age drama family historical-fiction journey literary-fiction poc-mc -
The Girl from the Train by Irma Joubert
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsSix-year-old Gretl Schmidt is on a train bound for Auschwitz. Jakób Kowalski is planting a bomb on the tracks. As World War II draws to a close, Jakób fights with the Polish resistance against the crushing forces of Germany and Russia. They mean to destroy a German troop transport, but Gretl’s unscheduled train reaches the bomb first. Gretl is the only survivor...Categorized as:
drama family friendship historical-fiction journey literary-fiction realistic religion -
Sebastian by Christoph Fischer
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsSebastian is the story of a young man who has his leg amputated before World War I. When his father is drafted to the war it falls on to him to run the family grocery store in Vienna, to grow into his responsibilities, bear loss and uncertainty and hopefully find love... -
Queen of the Mersey by Maureen Lee
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsLiverpool, 1939. The Second World War is about to start when pretty Laura Oliver meets Queenie Todd. Laura is 21 and happily married. At 14, Queenie lacks Laura's confidence, and has been deserted by her good-time mother...Categorized as:
epic family friendship historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure adult -
His Watchful Eye by Jack Cavanaugh
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsKonrad Reichmann, an outstanding product of Hitler??'s youth movement, becomes disillusioned as the reality of the Russian front bears no resemblance to the "glory" of the Third Reich. Even lower than his unit??'s morale are supplies and fuel as Russia??'s winter is unleashed against them...Categorized as:
drama epic friendship historical-fiction spirituality 20th-century action-adventure adult
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