Books like 'Youth'
Readers who enjoyed Youth by J.M. Coetzee also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
contemporary literary-fiction classics historical-fiction coming-of-age family
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The Five Wishes of Mr. Murray McBride: 1 by Joe Siple
Rated: 4.63 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsWith all his family and friends gone, one-hundred-year-old Murray McBride is looking for a reason to live. He finds it in Jason Cashman, a ten-year-old boy with a terminal heart defect and a list of five things he wants to do before he dies. Together, they race against the limited time each has left, ticking off wishes one by one... -
The Ones We Leave Behind by Deanna Lynn Sletten
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsDiane picked up her mother’s phone. “How do you feel about your mother being let out of prison today after sixty-five years?” the reporter asked. Diane stared at her mother. “My grandmother is alive?” That one phone call hurled shock waves throughout the entire family.1955 – Anna Bergman Craine’s life changes in an instant when she commits a crime of passion and is sentenced to life in prison... -
Shonkhonil Karagar by Humayun Ahmed
Rated: 4.39 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsShonkhonil Karagar is a 1973 novel by Bangladeshi author Humayun Ahmed. It is also a book that was made into a popular movie in Bangladesh. The book was made into the 1992 film with the same title, starring Zafar Iqbal, Champa, Doli Johur, Abul Hayat, Suborna Mustafa and Asaduzzaman Noor. It was filmed in 1992 in Dhaka, Bangladesh... -
Hard Land by Benedict Wells
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsMissouri, 1985: Um vor den Problemen zu Hause zu fliehen, nimmt der fünfzehnjährige Sam einen Ferienjob in einem alten Kino an. Und einen magischen Sommer lang ist alles auf den Kopf gestellt. Er findet Freunde, verliebt sich und entdeckt die Geheimnisse seiner Heimatstadt. Zum ersten Mal ist er kein unscheinbarer Außenseiter mehr. Bis etwas passiert, das ihn zwingt, erwachsen zu werden... -
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All My Mothers by Joanna Glen
Rated: 4.42 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsFrom the author of the Costa shortlisted debut, The Other Half of Augusta Hope, comes the story of one girl’s journey to find her birth mother, and her realisation that mothers – and family – can be discovered in the most unexpected of places…London, 1980s. Though she has a comfortable, privileged life, Eva Martínez-Green is deeply unhappy...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction coming-of-age family fiction contemporary audiobook parenthood -
Selected Stories by Alice Munro
Rated: 4.28 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsSpanning almost thirty years and settings that range from big cities to small towns and farmsteads of rural Canada, this magnificent collection brings together twenty-eight stories by a writer of unparalleled wit, generosity, and emotional power...Categorized as:
classics family historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century adult anthologies audiobook -
The Grapes of Wrath/The Moon is Down/Cannery Row/East of Eden/Of Mice & Men by John Steinbeck
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsThe Grapes of Wrath / The Moon Is Down / Cannery Row / East of Eden / Of Mice and...Categorized as:
classics family historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century adult anthologies contemporary -
Calling for a Blanket Dance by Oscar Hokeah
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsA moving and deeply engaging debut novel about a young Native American man struggling to find strength in his familial identity, from a stellar new voice in literary fiction... -
Champagne Widows: First Woman of Champagne, Veuve Clicquot by Rebecca Rosenberg
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsChampagne, France, 1800. Twenty-year-old Barbe-Nicole inherited Le Nez (an uncanny sense of smell) from her great-grandfather, a renowned champagne maker. She is determined to use Le Nez to make great champagne, but the Napoleon Code prohibits women from owning a business...Categorized as:
historical-fiction family coming-of-age literary-fiction romance drama contemporary fiction -
Han cantado bingo by Lana Corujo
Rated: 4.44 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsTodo empieza con un algunas noches, en los diez minutos suspendidos antes de que Abuela regrese del bingo, dos hermanas salen a escondidas por la puerta de atrás hasta El Ahorcado —un volcán redondo como una panza bocarriba—, cuentan hasta tres y corren de vuelta sin mirar atrás...Categorized as:
coming-of-age family literary-fiction fiction magical-realism contemporary female-author book -
অপেক্ষা by Humayun Ahmed
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsমানুষের জীবন কি চক্রের মত? চক্রের কোন শুরু নেই, শেষ নেই। মানব জীবনও কি তাই? রহস্যময় চক্রের ভেতর এই জীবন ঘুরপাক খেতে থাকে? শুরু নেই, শেষ নেই। চক্র ঘুরছে।এই চক্রের ভেতরে ঘুরপাক খেতে খেতে অপেক্ষা করে কেউ কেউ। কিংবা সকলেই কিসের... -
Beatles by Lars Saabye Christensen
Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsBeatles is the story of Kim Karlsen and his three buddies, Gunnar, Ola and Seb - and, yes, they occasionally like to think of themselves as the Fab Four. They were born in 1951, and the story starts with the first wave of Beatlemania in Norway, in the spring of 1965... -
All The Colours In Between by Eva Jordan
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsEva Jordan's much-anticipated follow up to the bestselling 183 Times a Year It's not a life, it's an adventure! Lizzie is fast approaching 50. Her once angst ridden teenage daughters, now grown and in their twenties, have flown the nest, Cassie to London and Maisy to Australia... -
天橋上的魔術師 by Wu Ming-Yi, 吳明益
Rated: 4.43 of 5 stars · 7 ratings...Categorized as:
family coming-of-age literary-fiction historical-fiction fiction young-adult magic contemporary -
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My Struggle: Book Three by Karl Ove Knausgård
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsA family of four--mother, father and two boys--move to the South Coast of Norway to a new house on a newly developed site. It is the early 1970s and the family's trajectory, upwardly mobile: the future seems limitless...Categorized as:
classics coming-of-age family historical-fiction literary-fiction 21st-century adult anthologies -
Grown Women by Sarai Johnson
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsIn this stunning debut novel, four generations of complex Black women contend with motherhood and daughterhood, generational trauma and the deeply ingrained tensions and wounds that divide them as they redefine happiness and healing for themselves. Erudite Evelyn, her cynical daughter Charlotte, and Charlotte’s optimistic daughter Corinna see the world very differently... -
Island: The Complete Stories by Alistair MacLeod
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsThe sixteen exquisitely crafted stories in Island prove Alistair MacLeod to be a master. Quietly, precisely, he has created a body of work that is among the greatest to appear in English in the last fifty years.A book-besotted patriarch releases his only son from the obligations of the sea. A father provokes his young son to violence when he reluctantly sells the family horse...Categorized as:
classics family historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century adult anthologies contemporary -
In Youth Is Pleasure: & I Left My Grandfather's House by Denton Welch, William S. Burroughs
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsKeenly observed autobiographical fiction and journal entries from acclaimed writer Denton Welch, featuring an introduction by William S. Burroughs “In Youth Is Pleasure” recounts the summer vacation of Orvil Pym—a sensitive, withdrawn, and deeply unhappy boy of fifteen. Following a trying year at public school, Orvil spends the summer with his father and two older brothers...Categorized as:
classics coming-of-age literary-fiction anthologies contemporary fiction lgbtq literary -
A Family Affair - A Free Preview of the First 7 Chapters by ReShonda Tate Billingsley
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsAward-winning author ReShonda Tate Billingsley, whose bestselling fiction "tackles some of life’s toughest situations" ( The Florida Times-Union ), unravels the secrets in a mother’s past that turn her daughter’s life upside down—by revealing the family she never knew existed... -
No Honour by Awais Khan
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsA young woman defies convention in a small Pakistani village, with devastating results for her and her family. A stunning, immense beautiful novel about courage, family and the meaning of love, when everything seems lost… In sixteen-year-old Abida’s small Pakistani village, there are age-old rules to live by, and her family’s honour to protect...Categorized as:
family historical-fiction literary-fiction adult book contemporary female-mc fiction -
They Knew Mr. Knight by Dorothy Whipple
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsThe Blakes are an ordinary family: Celia looks after the house and Thomas works at the family engineering business in Leicester. The book begins when he meets Mr Knight, a financier as crooked as any on the front pages of our newspapers nowadays; and tracks his and his family's swift climb and fall.Categorized as:
classics literary-fiction historical-fiction fiction female-author season-winter contemporary book -
Aloha, Kanani by Lisa Yee
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsKanani loves helping out in her family's store and sharing the wonders of Hawaii with visitors. When her chic cousin Rachel from Manhattan comes to stay for a month, Kanani can't wait to get to know her cousin and help Rachel feel at home. But a clash of cultures ensures, and Kanani feels ignored. She tries to extend hospitality but everything she does seems to make Rachel unhappy...Categorized as:
historical-fiction classics family coming-of-age middle-grade children-books fiction realistic -
Cómplices by Taibo
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsJulián ha luchado contra el aburrimiento de todas las maneras posibles. Desde que le diagnosticaron hepatitis, ha recreado en su cabeza conversaciones imaginarias entre ostras que no tienen nada que hacer, ha buscado formas fantasiosas en las manchas de la pared, ha lanzado mocos al aire. Pero es feliz porque no tiene que ir a la escuela... -
The Orchard by Kristina Gorcheva-Newberry
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsFour teenagers grow inseparable in the last days of the Soviet Union—but not all of them will live to see the new world arrive in this powerful debut novel, loosely based on Anton Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard.Coming of age in the USSR in the 1980s, best friends Anya and Milka try to envision a free and joyful future for themselves...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction family coming-of-age fiction contemporary retellings audiobook -
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Zenzele: A Letter for My Daughter by J. Nozipo Maraire
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsWritten as a letter from a Zimbabwean mother to her daughter, a student at Harvard, J. Nozipo Maraire evokes the moving story of a mother reaching out to her daughter to share the lessons life has taught her and bring the two closer than ever before...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction family fiction contemporary epistolary 20th-century book -
The Wine of Youth by John Fante
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsContains the stories in Dago Red, first published in 1940, together with seven new stories, including "A Nun No More" and "My Father’s God...Categorized as:
classics family literary-fiction 20th-century adult anthologies contemporary fiction -
The Visiting Privilege: New and Collected Stories by Joy Williams
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsThe legendary writer's definitive story collection, and a literary event of the highest orderPowerful, important, compassionate, and full of dark humor. This is a book that will be reread with admiration and love many times over...Categorized as:
literary-fiction classics family fiction contemporary anthologies audiobook female-author -
The Half Brother by Lars Saabye Christensen
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsThis Nordic Prize-winning novel, a truly gripping epic, relates the lives of four generations of a unique and strange family with touching intimacy and surreal comedy.Traces four generations of a family marked by the untimely birth of Fred, a misfit and boxer conceived during a devastating rape who forges an unusual friendship with his younger half-brother, Barnum...Categorized as:
classics coming-of-age family historical-fiction literary-fiction 21st-century adult book -
The Temptation to Be Happy by Lorenzo Marone, Shaun Whiteside
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsCesare is a seventy-seven-year-old widower and cynical troublemaker, a man who has always struggled to care for others and has given up trying. Aside from an intermittent fling with a nurse called Rossana, he avoids contact with his neighbours and even his own children. One day, the enigmatic Emma moves into the neighbouring flat with her strange and sinister husband... -
The Orange Grove by Larry Tremblay
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 18 ratings“A finely sculpted gem . . . Possibly the best novel to come from Quebec in 2013.”—Elle“A fluid and disturbing fable . . . Subtle and extraordinary.”—La Presse“An essential book.”—ChatelaineIn an unnamed and war-torn country, twin brothers Amed and Aziz live in the sanctuary of the family’s orange grove...Categorized as:
classics coming-of-age family historical-fiction literary-fiction 21st-century book contemporary -
Forbidden Notebook by Alba de Céspedes
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsOut running an errand, Valeria Cossati gives in to a sudden impulse - she buys a shiny black notebook. She starts keeping a diary in secret, recording her concerns about her daughter, fears her husband will discover her new habit and the constant churn of the domestic routine. With each entry Valeria plunges deeper into her interior life, uncovering profound dissatisfaction and restlessness...Categorized as:
historical-fiction classics literary-fiction family fiction feminism audiobook contemporary -
Lessons by Ian McEwan
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsWhen the world is still counting the cost of the Second World War and the Iron Curtain has closed, eleven-year-old Roland Baines's life is turned upside down. Two thousand miles from his mother's protective love, stranded at an unusual boarding school, his vulnerability attracts piano teacher Miss Miriam Cornell, leaving scars as well as a memory of love that will never fade...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction family coming-of-age fiction audiobook contemporary book -
Misophonia by Dana Vowinckel
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsPart coming-of-age tale, part family saga, an extraordinary debut novel set between Berlin, Chicago, and Jerusalem “about being Jewish and German, and all the awkwardness that entails” (The Guardian).It’s the hottest of summers in Chicago, and fifteen-year-old Margarita is spending her vacation as usual, under the not-so-watchful eyes of her aging maternal grandparents... -
Rabbit Novels: Rabbit is Rich and Rabbit at Rest by John Updike
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsThe third and fourth novel in John Updike's acclaimed quartet of Rabbit books -- now in one marvelous volume. RABBIT IS RICHWinner of the American Book Award andthe National Book Critics Circle Award"Dazzlingly reaffirms Updike's place as master chronicler of the spiritual maladies and very earthly pleasure of the Middle-American male... -
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In the Time of Our History by Susanne Pari
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsInspired by her own Iranian-American heritage, the acclaimed author weaves a beautifully crafted story of mothers and daughters, secrets and lies, and defying expectations—even when those choices come with an irrevocable cost...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction family fiction contemporary audiobook friendship female-mc -
The Lover by A.B. Yehoshua, Philip Simpson
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 14 ratings“Elusive, haunting.”— New York Times Book Review A husband’s search for his wife’s lover, lost amid the turbulence of the Yom Kippur War, is the heart of this dreamlike novel. Through five different perspectives, Yehoshua explores the realities and consequences of the affair and the search, laying bare deep-rooted tensions within family, between generations, between Jews and Arabs...Categorized as:
family historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century adult book contemporary fiction -
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Gravel Heart by Abdulrazak Gurnah
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsFrom the winner of the 2021 Nobel Prize in Literature, a powerful story of exile, migration, and betrayal.Salim has always known that his father does not want him. Living with his parents and his adored Uncle Amir in a house full of secrets, he is a bookish child, a dreamer haunted by night terrors. It is the 1970s and Zanzibar is changing... -
Barndommens gate by Tove Ditlevsen
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsRomanen handler om ungjenta Esters oppvekst i en arbeiderfamilie i København, om hennes forhold til familien, omgivelsene og en gryende seksualitet. Romanen er sterkt selvbiografisk... -
Eddie's Bastard by William Kowalski
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 12 ratings"Eddie's Bastard" is William Amos Mann IV, known as Billy -- the son of a heroic pilot killed in Vietnam and an unknown woman. The last in a line of proud, individualistic Irish-American men, Billy is discovered in a basket at the door of the dilapidated mansion where his bitter, hard-drinking grandfather, Thomas Mann, has exiled himself... -
The Swell Season: A Text on the Most Important Things in Life by Josef Škvorecký
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsSix tales which trace the libidinous ardours of a young man in wartime Czechoslovakia. His fantasies obstinately refuse to become reality, and in a world of unyielding girls and ruthless Nazi invaders, jazz is his only solace. By the author of "The Bass Saxophone" and "The Engineer of Human Souls"...Categorized as:
classics historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century adult anthologies contemporary fiction -
The Life List by Chrissy Anderson
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsWhen she was just sixteen, Chrissy Anderson made a life list… …The outcome is a dream husband, a career to envy, and the kind of best friends every girl wants. Then out of nowhere…an affair. What would you do if you realized the life you created wasn’t right for you? You think you know the answer? Think again... -
Blodsbunden by Augustin Erba
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsMitt i en nedgången förort bor en blåblodig prinsessa med sin man, deras tre barn och en gigantisk schäfer. Innanför väggarna i höghuslägenheten försöker familjen hålla en egen värld vid liv, och där vill mamman helst stanna. Den äldste sonen Amadeus sätts i privatskola i stan "för att inte bli knarkare som grannbarnen", som hans mamma säger... -
Abandoned Child by Kitty Neale
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsKitty Neale is back! Curl up with this heartrending new novel from the Sunday Times bestselling author of A BROKEN FAMILY and A FATHER’S REVENGEAll she wanted was a mother’s love …DESPISEDPenny’s childhood was spent in the shadows of her mother’s business schemes, feeling alone and unimportant... -
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The Promise: A Passionate Romance by M.V. Kasi
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsTwo billionaire brothers. Two village belles. A promise. A charade. And falling in love... Vikram and Vishal are the heirs to the well-known Saaho Group fortune. London bred and educated, the handsome brothers are accustomed to a jet-setting lifestyle while they win cutthroat business deals, date beautiful women and spend time with their doting family... -
Hôtel Splendid by Marie Redonnet
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsThese three short novels are the first works to appear in English by a remarkable contemporary French author, Marie Redonnet. Born in Paris in 1947, Redonnet taught for a number of years in a suburban lycée before deciding to pursue a writing career full time... -
Sea of Tranquillity by Paul Russell
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsPaul Russell's delicately layered, richly textured novels have won him widespread acclaim as one of the finest contemporary American novelists... -
Five Night Stand by Richard J. Alley
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsLegendary jazz pianist Oliver Pleasant finds himself alone at the end of his career, playing his last five shows, hoping the music will draw his estranged family back…Frank Severs, a middle-aged, out-of-work journalist, is at a crossroads as his longtime dreams and marriage grind to a standstill…And piano prodigy Agnes Cassady is desperately grasping for fulfillment before a debilitating disease... -
The Half Moon by Mary Beth Keane
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsFrom the beloved author of the triumphant New York Times bestseller Ask Again, Yes comes a magnificently told novel about the complexities of marriage, family, longing, and desire.Malcolm Gephardt, the handsome and gregarious longtime bartender at the Half Moon, has always dreamed of owning a bar. When his boss is finally ready to retire, Malcolm is inspired to buy the place...Categorized as:
coming-of-age family historical-fiction literary-fiction adult book contemporary fiction -
Em's Awful Good Fortune: A Novel by Marcie Maxfield
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsPart dysfunctional marriage, part global romp, this is not your typical expat story. Em’s Awful Good Fortune is a deeply personal, marriage-coming-apart-at-the-seams look at the struggle between a woman’s desire for partnership and her need for identity...Categorized as:
coming-of-age family literary-fiction fiction contemporary female-mc breakup domestic-drama
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