Books like 'An American Story'
Readers who enjoyed An American Story by Christopher Priest also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
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They Call Her Dirty Sally by Amy Matayo
Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsFor years, the town of Silver Bell, Arkansas has quietly mourned the hospital fire that claimed the lives of nine of its residents—the town doctor, a young expectant mother, and seven infants...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction fiction mystery contemporary womens-fiction small-town drama -
A Page in Your Diary by Keith A. Pearson
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsTen insane days. One miraculous opportunity to re-write the past."If you lived through the 1980s and love time travel novels, you'll struggle to find a more addictive read than Pearson's latest gem." - Joanna JamesIn May 1987 Jackie Benton received a heartbreaking phone call from her boyfriend, Sean Hardy, bringing an end to their five-year relationship...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction adult book contemporary fiction paranormal time-travel -
Kurt Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle by Harold Bloom, Terry Southern
Rated: 4.35 of 5 stars · 39 ratingsA critical overview of the work features the writings of Terry Southern, William S. Doxey, Jerome Klinkowitz, Richard Giannone, John L. Simons, James Lundquist, and other scholars.- After the bomb, Dad came up with ice / Terry Southern- Vonnegut's Cat's cradle / William S...Categorized as:
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Playground by Richard Powers
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsFour lives are drawn together in a sweeping, panoramic new novel from Richard Powers, showcasing the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Overstory at the height of his skills. Twelve-year-old Evie Beaulieu sinks to the bottom of a swimming pool in Montreal strapped to one of the world’s first aqualungs. Ina Aroita grows up on naval bases across the Pacific with art as her only home...Categorized as:
literary-fiction historical-fiction politics disaster fiction sci-fi outdoors audiobook -
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Logic Beach: Part I by Exurb1a
Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsMathematician Polly Hare is missing. She leaves behind: one cat, one scarf, and a hypergeometric theory of everything with the potential to end physics. Her husband Benjamin is determined to bring her home. Papers will be read. Cults will be infiltrated. Cats will be petted. Benjamin Hare cannot tie his shoes, but he may well steer the course of human history... -
Hard to Be a God by Arkady Strugatsky, Boris Strugatsky
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 25 ratingsThe novel follows Anton, an undercover operative from the future planet Earth, in his mission on an alien planet, that is populated by human beings, whose society has not advanced beyond the Middle Ages...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction politics 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook book -
天橋上的魔術師 by Wu Ming-Yi, 吳明益
Rated: 4.43 of 5 stars · 7 ratings...Categorized as:
literary-fiction historical-fiction fiction young-adult magic family contemporary children -
I Am Not a Number by Lisa Heathfield
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsThe powerful and heart-wrenching new novel from Lisa Heathfield, award-winning author of Seed and Paper Butterflies. Perfect for fans of Sarah Crossan, Louise O'Neill and Lisa Williamson.The Traditionals have been voted to lead the country, winning people over with talks of healing a broken society, of stronger families and safer streets. They promised a happier future for everyone... -
Choice by Jodi Picoult, Thérèse Plummer
Rated: 4.18 of 5 stars · 17 ratingsListening Length: 38 minutesIn this thought-provoking short, #1 New York Times best-selling and award-winning author Jodi Picoult explores a dystopian crisis through the pinhole lens of an ex-couple experiencing an unwanted pregnancy.Margot and James are broken up—for good this time. James made sure of it when he dropped the bomb on Margot: that he doesn’t want kids, ever... -
Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
Rated: 4.12 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsIt is the year 2081. Because of Amendments 211, 212, and 213 to the Constitution, every American is fully equal, meaning that no one is stupider, uglier, weaker, or slower than anyone else. The Handicapper General and a team of agents ensure that the laws of equality are enforced.One April, fourteen-year-old Harrison Bergeron is taken away from his parents, George and Hazel, by the government...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction politics 20th-century audiobook book classics contemporary -
Falling Stars by Kyla Stone
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsThey survived the Grand Voyager. They believed they were safe. They were wrong. After a violent ambush, the survivors find themselves thrust into a harsh, unrecognizable world. No communications. No shelter. No food. All they have is each other—a ragtag group of elites and misfits. Amelia faces her deadliest test yet. Guilt-ridden Willow must save her brother at any cost...Categorized as:
disaster literary-fiction action-adventure aliens apocalyptic book contemporary drama -
The Free People's Village by Sim Kern
Rated: 4.15 of 5 stars · 13 ratingsIn an alternate 2020 timeline, Al Gore won the 2000 election and declared a War on Climate Change rather than a War on Terror. For twenty years, Democrats have controlled all three branches of government, enacting carbon-cutting schemes that never made it to a vote in our world. Green infrastructure projects have transformed U.S... -
Martial Law by Bobby Akart
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsThe end begins tomorrow.“Author Bobby Akart possesses the analytic capability of a supercomputer coupled with the expressiveness of an exceptional writer.”~ Amazon ReviewsA government big enough to give you everything you want, is strong enough to take everything you have.~ Thomas JeffersonMartial Law is a prophetic and prescient novel by author Bobby Akart...Categorized as:
disaster historical-fiction politics action-adventure adult apocalyptic book conspiracies -
Last of the Curlews by Fred Bodsworth
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratings"The story of this migration is magnificent, informative, breathtaking and exotic". Los Angeles TimesMore than three million readers around the world have been touched by this conservation classic, the story of a solitary Eskimo curlew's last perilous migration and search for a mate. The lone survivor comes to stand for the entirety of a lost species...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century adult animals anthropomorphism book classics -
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The Oracle Code by Charles Brokaw
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsIt was the most renowned and respected shrine in the Roman Empire, the object of veneration by Julius Caesar, Cleopatra, Octavian, and a host of other luminaries. It stood for centuries within a sacred precinct the size of a large town at the heart of the greatest Greek city in the world. Yet it disappeared without a trace, creating the greatest archaeological enigma of the ancient world...Categorized as:
historical-fiction politics action-adventure fiction mystery contemporary myths terrorism -
Czarne oceany by Jacek Dukaj
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsDukaj od nowa skonfigurował klasyczną twardą fantastykę naukową.Mroczna, sugestywna, boleśnie realistyczna wizja społeczeństwa posthumanistycznego.Czarne oceany – przerażająca otchłań myśli ludzkiej.Nicolas Hunt kieruje tajnym projektem rządowym, badającym komercyjne zastosowania telepatii. Rezultaty tych badań zmienią nieodwracalnie nie tylko jego życie, ale także losy całego świata... -
Jollof Rice and Other Revolutions: A Novel in Interlocking Stories by Omolola Ijeoma Ogunyemi
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 12 ratings6 hrs. 10 min.Nigerian author Omolola Ijeoma Ogunyemi makes her American debut with this dazzling novel which explores her homeland's past, present, and possible future through the interconnected stories of four fearless globe-trotting women...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction fiction contemporary audiobook female-author friendship poc-mc -
Dreamland by Rosa Rankin-Gee
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratings'You said that you would come back. You looked me in the eye and said that. Well, if you had, this is what you would have seen: soft wood, black cracks, fridges in the road. The broken spines of old rides at Dreamland.'In the coastal resort of Margate, hotels lie empty and sun-faded 'For Sale' signs line the streets. The sea is higher - it's higher everywhere - and those who can are moving inland... -
Cyber Attack by Bobby Akart
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsAmerica is one bad news story away from societal and economic collapse.As one cyber attack after another disrupts everyday life, powerful political forces and wealthy oligarchs plot the demise of the United States in Cyber Attack Book Two in The Boston Brahmin series...Categorized as:
disaster historical-fiction politics action-adventure adult apocalyptic audiobook book -
Not Forgetting the Whale by John Ironmonger
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsWhen a young man washes up, naked, on the sands of St Piran, he is quickly rescued by the villagers. From the retired village doctor and the schoolteacher, to the beachcomber and the owner of the local bar, the priest's wife and the romantic novelist, they take this lost soul into their midst... -
The High House by Jessie Greengrass
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsIn this powerful, highly anticipated novel from an award-winning author, four people attempt to make a home in the midst of environmental disaster.Perched on a sloping hill, set away from a small town by the sea, the High House has a tide pool and a mill, a vegetable garden, and, most importantly, a barn full of supplies... -
Not Fade Away by Jim Dodge
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsGeorge Gastin is a Bay Area tow-truck operator who wrecks cars as part of an insurance scam. One of the cars he is hired to demolish is a snow-white Cadillac that was supposed to be a present for the Big Bopper, who died in the Iowa plane crash that killed Buddy Holly and Ritchie Valens. Gastin has a change of heart and takes off in the car, heading for Texas where the Bopper is buried...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction action-adventure adult book contemporary dark-humor fiction -
How to Buy a Planet by D.A. Holdsworth
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsThe Earth has been sold to aliens. What could possibly go wrong?It’s the Year 2024. Drowning in debt following the pandemic and facing ruin, the world's leaders have taken the only logical decision.They’ve sold the planet...Categorized as:
literary-fiction politics action-adventure aliens book contemporary dystopia fiction -
We Have Lost The Chihuahuas by Paul Mathews
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsLondon, 2046. The British Republic has a new First Lady. She’s Californian, ‘in-your-face, for sure’ and she’s got big plans for a Buckingham Palace refurb. When her three Chihuahuas go missing, one man is determined to avoid getting dragged into it all. His name is Pond. Howie Pond – presidential spokesperson, retired secret agent and cat lover... -
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The Works of Rudyard Kipling (500+ works) by Rudyard Kipling
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsWith A to Z Classics, discover or rediscover all the classics of literature... -
The Names by Florence Knapp
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsThe extraordinary debut that Can a name change the course of a life?In the wake of a catastrophic storm, Cora sets off with her nine-year-old daughter, Maia, to register her son's birth. Her husband, Gordon, a local doctor, respected in the community but a terrifying and controlling presence at home, intends for her to name the infant after him...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction fiction contemporary sci-fi family female-author breakup -
Every Version of You by Grace Chan
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsIn late twenty-first century Australia, Tao-Yi and her partner Navin spend most of their time inside a hyper-immersive, hyper-consumerist virtual reality called Gaia. They log on, go to work, socialise, and even eat in this digital utopia. Meanwhile their aging bodies lie suspended in pods inside cramped apartments... -
Turtle Diary by Russell Hoban
Rated: 3.93 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsThe turtles in London Zoo become the mutual obsession of two lonely strangers who dream of setting free the turtles and themselves. Detail by detail their diaries record a world in which thought leads to action and action brings William G. and Neaera H. to their own open sea... -
Memories of the Future by Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky
Rated: 3.92 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsWritten in Soviet Moscow in the 1920s—but considered too subversive even to show to a publisher—the seven tales included here attest to Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky’s boundless imagination, black humor, and breathtaking irony: a man loses his way in the vast black waste of his own small room; the Eiffel Tower runs amok; a kind soul dreams of selling “everything you need for suicide”; an absentminded...Categorized as:
literary-fiction politics 20th-century adult anthologies classics communism contemporary -
Underworld by Don DeLillo
Rated: 3.93 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsA finalist for the National Book Award, Underworld is Don DeLillo’s most powerful and riveting novel—“a great American novel, a masterpiece, a thrilling page-turner” (San Francisco Chronicle).Underworld is a story of men and women together and apart, seen in deep, clear detail and in stadium-sized panoramas, shadowed throughout by the overarching conflict of the Cold War...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction politics urban 20th-century adult audiobook book -
Wolfe Island by Lucy Treloar
Rated: 3.90 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsFor years Kitty Hawke has lived alone on Wolfe Island, witness to the island’s erosion and clinging to the ghosts of her past. Her work as a sculptor and her wolfdog Girl are enough. News of mainland turmoil is as distant as myth until refugees from that world arrive: her granddaughter Cat, and Luis and Alejandra, a brother and sister escaping persecution... -
Vida by Marge Piercy
Rated: 3.90 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsOriginally published in 1979, this piece of revolutionary fiction is a bestselling author’s classic paean to the 1960s. At the center of the novel stands Vida Asch, who has lived underground for almost a decade...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction politics 20th-century adult book classics contemporary -
Armageddon in Retrospect: And Other New and Unpublished Writings on War and Peace by Kurt Vonnegut Jr., Mark Vonnegut
Rated: 3.92 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsTo be published on the first anniversary of Kurt Vonnegut's death, Armageddon in Retrospect is a collection of twelve new and unpublished writings on war and peace, imbued with Vonnegut's trademark rueful humor... -
From the Fatherland, with Love by Ryū Murakami
Rated: 3.88 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsFrom the Fatherland, with Love is set in an alternative, dystopian present in which the dollar has collapsed and Japan's economy has fallen along with it. The North Korean government, sensing an opportunity, sends a fleet of rebels in the first land invasion that Japan has ever faced. Japan can't cope with the surprise onslaught of Operation From the Fatherland, with Love...Categorized as:
literary-fiction politics adult alternate-history asian-mc book contemporary dystopia -
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Event Factory by Renee Gladman
Rated: 3.88 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsA “linguist-traveler” arrives by plane to Ravicka, a city of yellow air in which an undefined crisis is causing the inhabitants to flee. Although fluent in the native language, she quickly finds herself on the outside of every experience. Things happen to her, events transpire, but it is as if the city itself, the performance of life there, eludes her... -
A History of the Island by Eugene Vodolazkin
Rated: 3.88 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsMonks devious and devout – and an age-defying royal pair – chronicle the history of their fictional island in this witty critique of Western civilization and history itself.Eugene Vodolazkin, internationally acclaimed novelist and scholar of medieval literature, returns with a satirical parable about European and Russian history, the myth of progress, and the futility of war... -
Palestine +100: Stories from a Century after the Nakba by Basma Ghalayini, Mazen Maarouf
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsPalestine + 100 poses a question to twelve Palestinian writers: what might your country look like in the year 2048 – a century after the tragedies and trauma of what has come to be called the Nakba? How might this event – which, in 1948, saw the expulsion of over 700,000 Palestinian Arabs from their homes – reach across a century of occupation, oppression, and political isolation, to shape the...Categorized as:
literary-fiction politics adult anthologies contemporary dystopia fiction poc-author -
The Lake Wobegon Virus by Garrison Keillor, Richard Dworsky
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsBestselling author and humorist Garrison Keillor returns to one of America's most beloved mythical towns, beset by a contagion of alarming candor. A mysterious virus has infiltrated the good people of Lake Wobegon, transmitted via unpasteurized cheese made by a Norwegian bachelor farmer, the effect of which is episodic loss of social inhibition... -
The Hall of the Singing Caryatids by Victor Pelevin
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsAfter auditioning for the part as a singing geisha at a dubious bar, Lena and eleven other “lucky” girls are sent to work at a posh underground nightclub reserved exclusively for Russia’s upper-crust elite. They are to be a sideshow attraction to the rest of the club’s entertainment, and are billed as the “famous singing caryatids.” Things only get weirder from there... -
American Estrangement: Stories by Said Sayrafiezadeh
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsSaid Sayrafiezadeh has been hailed by Philip Gourevitch as "a masterful storyteller working from deep in the American grain." His new collection of stories—some of which have appeared in The New Yorker, the Paris Review, and the Best American Short Stories—is set in a contemporary America full of the kind of emotionally bruised characters familiar to readers of Denis Johnson and George Saunders... -
Mania by Lionel Shriver
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsSet in a parallel yet all too familiar near past, a brilliant subversive novel from the New York Times bestselling author about a lifelong friendship threatened by the Culture Wars. In an alternative 2011, the Mental Parity movement takes hold. Americans now embrace the sacred, universal truth that there is no such thing as variable human intelligence... -
Prime Meridian by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Rated: 3.96 of 5 stars · 15 ratingsLove, life, dreams, and a world beyond reach.Amelia dreams of Mars. The Mars of the movies and the imagination, an endless bastion of opportunities for a colonist with some guts...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction adult audiobook book contemporary dystopia female-author -
Beauty Salon by Mario Bellatin
Rated: 3.86 of 5 stars · 14 ratings"Like much of Mr. Bellatin’s work, Beauty Salon is pithy, allegorical and profoundly disturbing, with a plot that evokes The Plague by Camus or Blindness by José Saramago."--New York Times"Including a few details that may linger uncomfortably with the reader for a long time, this is contemporary naturalism as disturbing as it gets."--BooklistA strange plague appears in a large city... -
Venomous Lumpsucker by Ned Beauman
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsA dark and witty story of environmental collapse and runaway capitalism from the Booker-listed author of The Teleportation Accident.The near future. Tens of thousands of species are going extinct every year. And a whole industry has sprung up around their extinctions, to help us preserve the remnants, or perhaps just assuage our guilt... -
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Spider Kiss by Harlan Ellison
Rated: 3.80 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsHe claims he's not a fan of rock-and-roll, but somehow Harlan Ellison's seminal novel based on the career of Jerry Lee Lewis ended up in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. One of the first -- and still one of the best -- dissections of the wildly destructive rock-and-roll lifestyle, Spider Kiss isn't about giant cockroaches that attack Detroit or space invaders that smell like chicken soup...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction adult anthologies audiobook classics contemporary crime -
Heat and Light by Ellen Van Neerven
Rated: 3.80 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsIn ‘Heat’, we meet several generations of the Kresinger family and the legacy left by the mysterious Pearl. In ‘Water’, a futuristic world is imagined and the fate of a people threatened. In ‘Light’, familial ties are challenged and characters are caught between a desire for freedom and a sense of belonging...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction adult anthologies australia contemporary female-author fiction -
Noah's Ark: Survivors by Harry Dayle
Rated: 3.80 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsMay 1st 2014 the Earth is scorched by a stray asteroid, wiping out almost all life. Almost, but not quite. Three thousand souls aboard a cruise ship visiting the north pole are spared by a freak of nature.The ship’s First Officer, Jake Noah, was looking forward to getting back to dry land once and for all...Categorized as:
disaster literary-fiction action-adventure adult apocalyptic book contemporary crime -
The Dog King by Christoph Ransmayr
Rated: 3.88 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsWorld War II has ended, but only in the West. Central Europe is slipping back into its agricultural past. The bomb has not yet been dropped - nor will it be for twenty years. The Allies have punished Germany for its war crimes by forcing it to revert to a preindustrial age: power stations, railways, factories, and all the machinery of technology have been destroyed or abandoned and left to decay...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century adult alternate-history book contemporary fiction -
The Glad Shout by Alice Robinson
Rated: 3.75 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsAfter a catastrophic storm destroys Melbourne, Isobel flees to higher ground with her husband and young daughter. Food and supplies run low, panic sets in and still no help arrives. To protect her daughter, Isobel must take drastic action. The Glad Shout is an extraordinary novel of rare depth and texture...Categorized as:
disaster literary-fiction adult alternate-history book contemporary dystopia epidemy -
Meet Us by the Roaring Sea by Akil Kumarasamy
Rated: 3.75 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsIn the near future, a young woman finds her mother's body starfished on the kitchen floor in Queens and sets on a journey through language, archives, artificial intelligence, and TV for a way back into herself...Categorized as:
literary-fiction historical-fiction fiction sci-fi dystopia contemporary lgbtq magical-realism
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