Books like 'Iceland's Bell'
Readers who enjoyed Iceland's Bell by Halldór Laxness & Adam Haslett also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
historical 20th century action / adventure historical-fiction classics literary-fiction colonization journey crime humor
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The Twelve Chairs by Ilya Ilf, Yevgeny Petrov
Rated: 4.41 of 5 stars · 27 ratingsOstap Bender is an unemployed con artist living by his wits in postrevolutionary Soviet Russia. He joins forces with Ippolit Matveyevich Vorobyaninov, a former nobleman who has returned to his hometown to find a cache of missing jewels which were hidden in some chairs that have been appropriated by the Soviet authorities...Categorized as:
classics crime historical-fiction humor literary-fiction satire 20th-century action-adventure -
![They Burn Thistles by Yaşar Kemal]()
They Burn Thistles by Yaşar Kemal
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsThis is the story of a bitter war between the poor Turkish peasants of the Taurus Mountains and the Aghas who covet their land. Ali Safa is determined to take possession of the village of Vayvay but its inhabitants will not sell. Then one villager weakens, prepared to part with his land in return for the Agha's best stallion...Categorized as:
classics historical-fiction journey literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure adult book -
![Forest of the Gods by Balys Sruoga]()
Forest of the Gods by Balys Sruoga
Rated: 4.44 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsBalys Sruoga was a well-known Lithuanian poet, dramatist, and literary critic. In 1943, professor of Vilnius University, he was deported to Stutthof concentration camp (along with other professors, under the charge of campaigning students against joining the Reich troops)... -
![This Earth of Mankind by Pramoedya Ananta Toer]()
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:
classics colonization epic historical-fiction journey literary-fiction magical-realism 20th-century -
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![The Harafish by Naguib Mahfouz]()
The Harafish by Naguib Mahfouz
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 36 ratings"The Harafish begins with the tale of Ashur al-Nagi, a man who grows from humble beginnings to become a great leader, a legend among his people. Generation after generation, however, Ashur's descendants grow further from his legendary example... -
![Conversation in the Cathedral by Mario Vargas Llosa]()
Conversation in the Cathedral by Mario Vargas Llosa
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsA haunting tale of power, corruption, and the complex search for identity, Conversation in The Cathedral takes place in 1950s Peru during the dictatorship of Manuel Apolinario Odría Amoretti... -
![Footsteps by Pramoedya Ananta Toer]()
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 Promise by Michelle Vernal]()
The Promise by Michelle Vernal
Rated: 4.42 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsA wonderfully heartwarming, touching and romantic story - Tammy Robinson Author of Differently Normal Two women from different generations brought together by another’s wrongdoing. When British backpacker, Isabel Stark happens across a car accident on a lonely stretch of road in the South Island of New Zealand her life changes forever...Categorized as:
historical-fiction epic literary-fiction humor romance historical 20th-century fiction -
![Sherlock Holmes: The Complete Illustrated Short Stories by Arthur Conan Doyle]()
Sherlock Holmes: The Complete Illustrated Short Stories by Arthur Conan Doyle
Rated: 4.36 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsThey're among the most influential, enduring, and popular short stories in the English language; marvelous mysteries that feature the "most perfect reasoning and observing machine that the world has ever seen." Here are all 56 Sherlock Holmes tales in one very handsome collection, accompanied by the original artwork in facsimile reproduction...Categorized as:
classics crime historical-fiction humor literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure adult -
![House of Glass by Pramoedya Ananta Toer]()
House of Glass by Pramoedya Ananta Toer
Rated: 4.31 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsWith House Of Glass comes the final chapter of Pramoedya's epic quartet, set in the Dutch East Indies at the turn of the century. A novel of heroism, passion, and betrayal, it provides a spectacular conclusion to a series hailed as one of the great works of modern literature... -
![The Day Lasts More Than a Hundred Years by Chingiz Aitmatov]()
The Day Lasts More Than a Hundred Years by Chingiz Aitmatov
Rated: 4.28 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsSet in the vast windswept Central Asian steppes and the infinite reaches of galactic space, this powerful novel offers a vivid view of the culture and values of the Soviet Union's Central Asian peoples... -
![Flashman in the Great Game by George MacDonald Fraser]()
Flashman in the Great Game by George MacDonald Fraser
Rated: 4.35 of 5 stars · 29 ratingsOne of literature's most delightful rakes is back in another tale of rollicking adventure and tantalizing seduction. The plucky Flashman's latest escapades are sure to entertain devotees as well as attract new aficionados... -
![An Invincible Memory by João Ubaldo Ribeiro]()
An Invincible Memory by João Ubaldo Ribeiro
Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsA family saga spanning nearly 400 years, this absorbing epic novel lays bare the soul of the Brazilian nation. Whaling, war, macumba, slavery, murder, cannibalism and Brazil's struggle for independence add momentum to Ribeiro's lyrical, effusive, sonorous, serpentine prose laced with a touch of magic realism, something of a cross between Melville and Gabriel Garcia Marquez...Categorized as:
classics historical-fiction journey magical-realism 20th-century action-adventure adult book -
![The Day of the Scorpion by Paul Scott, Richard Brown]()
The Day of the Scorpion by Paul Scott, Richard Brown
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsThe second novel in The Raj Quartet: the arrest by British police of Mohammed Ali Kasim, who is known to sympathise with the Quit India movement, signifies a further deterioration in Anglo-India relations. For families such as the Laytons, who have lived and served in India for generations, the immediate social and political realities are both disturbing and tragic... -
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![Extinction by Thomas Bernhard]()
Extinction by Thomas Bernhard
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsThe last work of fiction by one of the twentieth century’s greatest artists, Extinction is widely considered Thomas Bernhard’s magnum opus. Franz-Josef Murau—the intellectual black sheep of a powerful Austrian land-owning family—lives in Rome in self-imposed exile, surrounded by a coterie of artistic and intellectual friends...Categorized as:
classics historical-fiction humor journey literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure adult -
![Trustee from the Toolroom by Nevil Shute]()
Trustee from the Toolroom by Nevil Shute
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsA novel tells the story of a man who leads an ordinary, uneventful life, until overnight he becomes the trustee of his 10-year-old niece, and involved in the search for some missing money...Categorized as:
classics crime historical-fiction humor literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure adult -
![Flashman and the Dragon by George MacDonald Fraser]()
Flashman and the Dragon by George MacDonald Fraser
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsHarry Flashman: the unrepentant bully of Tom Brown's schooldays, now with a Victoria Cross, has three main talents - horsemanship, facility with foreign languages and fornication. A reluctant military hero, Flashman plays a key part in most of the defining military campaigns of the 19th century, despite trying his utmost to escape them all...Categorized as:
epic historical-fiction humor literary-fiction satire 20th-century action-adventure adult -
![The Kites by Romain Gary]()
The Kites by Romain Gary
Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsOn a small farm in Normandy, as Hitler rises to power in Germany, young Ludo comes of age in the care of his Uncle Ambrose, an eccentric mailman, kite-maker, and pacifist. Ludo’s quiet existence changes the day he meets Lila, a girl from the aristocratic Polish family who own the estate next door. In a single glance, Ludo instantly falls in love forever; Lila, on the other hand, remains elusive...Categorized as:
classics historical-fiction journey literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure adult book -
![The War of the End of the World by Mario Vargas Llosa]()
The War of the End of the World by Mario Vargas Llosa
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsThe War of the End of the World is one of the great modern historical novels. Inspired by a real episode in Brazilian history, Mario Vargas Llosa tells the unforgettable story of an apocalyptic movement, led by a mysterious prophet, in which prostitutes, beggars and bandits establish Canudos, a new republic, a libertarian paradise... -
![Selected Stories by O. Henry]()
Selected Stories by O. Henry
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 24 ratings"Selected Stories of O. Henry," by O. Henry, 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 historical-fiction humor literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure anthologies comedy -
![They Were Counted by Miklós Bánffy, Patrick Leigh Fermor]()
They Were Counted by Miklós Bánffy, Patrick Leigh Fermor
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsPainting an unrivalled portrait of the vanished world of pre-1914 Hungary, this story is told through the eyes of two young Transylvanian cousins, Count Balint Abady and Count Laszlo Gyeroffy...Categorized as:
classics historical-fiction journey literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure adult book -
![The Fields by Conrad Richter]()
The Fields by Conrad Richter
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsConrad Richter's trilogy of novels The Trees (1940), The Fields (1946), and The Town (1950) trace the transformation of Ohio from wilderness to farmland to the site of modern industrial civilization, all in the lifetime of one character. The Fields continues the saga of the Luckett family that began in The Trees...Categorized as:
classics epic historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure book family -
![Bosnian Chronicle by Ivo Andrić, Joseph Hitrec]()
Bosnian Chronicle by Ivo Andrić, Joseph Hitrec
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsSet in the town of Travnik, Bosnian Chronicle presents the struggle for supremacy in a region that stubbornly refuses to submit to any outsider. The era is Napoleanic and the novel, both in its historical scope and psychological subtley, Tolstoyan. In its portray of conflict and fierce ethnic loyalties, the story is also eerily relevant...Categorized as:
classics historical-fiction journey literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure adult book -
![The Third Wedding by Costas Taktsis, Κώστας Ταχτσής]()
The Third Wedding by Costas Taktsis, Κώστας Ταχτσής
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsThe German Occupation, the Civil War and life itself seen through the eyes of two Athenian women...Categorized as:
classics historical-fiction journey 20th-century action-adventure adult book fiction -
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![The Living Reed: A Novel of Korea by Pearl S. Buck]()
The Living Reed: A Novel of Korea by Pearl S. Buck
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 15 ratingsThe Living Reed follows four generations of one family, the Kims, beginning with Il-han and his father, both advisors to the royal family in Korea. When Japan invades and the queen is killed, Il-han takes his family into hiding. In the ensuing years, he and his family take part in the secret war against the Japanese occupation. Pearl S... -
![The Inhabited Woman by Gioconda Belli, Margaret Randall]()
The Inhabited Woman by Gioconda Belli, Margaret Randall
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsLavinia is The Inhabited Woman: accomplished, independent, and fiercely modern. She is sheltered and self-involved, until the spirit of an Indian woman warrior enters her being, then she dares to join a revolutionary movement against a violent dictator and—through the power of love—finds the courage to act... -
![My Uncle Napoleon by Iraj Pezeshkzad, Azar Nafisi]()
My Uncle Napoleon by Iraj Pezeshkzad, Azar Nafisi
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsA teenage boy makes the mistake of falling in love with the much-protected daughter of his uncle, mischievously nicknamed after his hero Napoleon Bonaparte, the curmudgeonly self-appointed patriarch of a large and extended Iranian family in 1940s Tehran...Categorized as:
classics historical-fiction humor journey literary-fiction satire 20th-century action-adventure -
![Fish Preferred by P.G. Wodehouse]()
Fish Preferred by P.G. Wodehouse
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsHugh Carmody loved Millicent, Lord Emsworth niece, but he was very good friends with Sue Brown - an attachment which Millicent, perhaps, could hardly be expected to enthuse over. Ronnie Fish loved Sue, and entertained feelings o unrestrained ferocity towards Pilbeam, a blister of the first water, who was pestering her with flowers...Categorized as:
classics crime historical-fiction humor literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure adult -
![Selected Stories by O. Henry]()
Selected Stories by O. Henry
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 36 ratingsO. Henry originated the humorous, energetic tale that ends with an ironic, even shocking twist. In "After Twenty Years," for example, two boys agree to meet at a particular spot exactly twenty years later. Both are faithful, but in the intervening years one boy has turned into a criminal, the other into a policeman...Categorized as:
classics historical-fiction humor literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure anthologies comedy -
![Rapsodie der eenzaamheid by Agnar Mykle, Maurice Michael]()
Rapsodie der eenzaamheid by Agnar Mykle, Maurice Michael
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsDutch translation of Lasso rundt fru Luna... -
![The Blue Mountain by Meir Shalev]()
The Blue Mountain by Meir Shalev
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsThe absorbing first novel by one of Israel's most important and acclaimed contemporary writers focuses on four idealistic early settlers of the modern state of Israel... -
![Eureka Street by Robert McLiam Wilson]()
Eureka Street by Robert McLiam Wilson
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsAs two pals wander the streets of Belfast in search of something better--a better pint, a better job, a better woman, a better now--readers are treated to their hilarious misadventures, political intrigues, and outlandish schemes...Categorized as:
classics crime historical-fiction humor literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure adult -
![Gabriela, Clove and Cinnamon by Jorge Amado]()
Gabriela, Clove and Cinnamon by Jorge Amado
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsOne bright spring day in 1925, Gabriela arrives from the poverty-stricken backwoods of Brazil to the lively seaside port of Ilhéus amid a flock of filthy migrant workers. Though wearing rags and covered in dirt, she attracts the attention of Nacib, a cafe owner, who is in desperate need of a new cook. So dire is his situation that he hires the disheveled girl... -
![The Sot-Weed Factor by John Barth]()
The Sot-Weed Factor by John Barth
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsConsidered by critics to be Barth's most distinguished masterpiece, The Sot-Weed Factor has acquired the status of a modern classic. Set in the late 1600s, it recounts the wildly chaotic odyssey of hapless, ungainly Ebenezer Cooke, sent to the New World to look after his father's tobacco business and to record the struggles of the Maryland colony in an epic poem...Categorized as:
classics historical-fiction humor literary-fiction satire 20th-century action-adventure adult -
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![The Bracelet of Garnets and Other Stories by Aleksandr Kuprin, Leo Pasvolsky]()
The Bracelet of Garnets and Other Stories by Aleksandr Kuprin, Leo Pasvolsky
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsThis scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the original. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages... -
![Dictionary of the Khazars by Milorad Pavić]()
Dictionary of the Khazars by Milorad Pavić
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 29 ratingsA national bestseller, Dictionary of the Khazars was cited by The New York Times Book Review as one of the best books of the year... -
![A Book of Memories by Péter Nádas, Imre Goldstein]()
A Book of Memories by Péter Nádas, Imre Goldstein
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsThis extraordinary magnum opus seems at first to be a confessional autobiographical novel in the grand manner, claiming and extending the legacy of Proust and Mann. But it is more: Peter Nadas has given us a superb contemporary psychological novel that comes to terms with the ghosts, corpses, and repressed nightmares of Europe's recent past...Categorized as:
classics historical-fiction journey literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure adult book -
![The Bridge of Beyond by Simone Schwarz-Bart]()
The Bridge of Beyond by Simone Schwarz-Bart
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsThis is an intoxicating tale of love and wonder, mothers and daughters, spiritual values and the grim legacy of slavery on the French Antillean island of Guadeloupe. Here long-suffering Telumee tells her life story and tells us about the proud line of Lougandor women she continues to draw strength from... -
![Les Liaisons Dangereuses a Play by Christopher Hampton]()
Les Liaisons Dangereuses a Play by Christopher Hampton
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratings"Les Liaisons Dangereuses", A Play by Christopher Hampton, from the novel by Choderlos de Laclos. Produced on the Broadway Stage by James M. Nederlander, The Schubert Organization, Inc., Jerome Minskoff, Elizabeth I. McCann and Stephen Graham in association with Jonathan Farkas...Categorized as:
classics historical-fiction humor journey 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook -
![The Shiralee by D'Arcy Niland]()
The Shiralee by D'Arcy Niland
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsA shiralee is a swag, a burden, a bloody millstone - and that's what four-year-old Buster is to her father, Macauley. He takes the child on the road with him to spite his wife, but months pass and still no word comes to ask for the little girl back...Categorized as:
classics historical-fiction journey literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook -
![The Treasure of the Sierra Madre by B. Traven]()
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre by B. Traven
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsA CULT MASTERPIECE—THE ADVENTURE NOVEL THAT INSPIRED JOHN HUSTON'S CLASSIC FILM, BY THE ELUSIVE AUTHOR WHO WAS A MODEL FOR THE HERO OF ROBERTO BOLAÑO'S 2666 Little is known for certain about B. Traven. Evidence suggests that he was born Otto Feige in Schlewsig-Holstein and that he escaped a death sentence for his involvement with the anarchist underground in Bavaria...Categorized as:
classics crime historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure adult book -
![Rain and Other South Sea Stories by W. Somerset Maugham]()
Rain and Other South Sea Stories by W. Somerset Maugham
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsW. Somerset Maugham led many lives, including that of a doctor in London's slums, a successful playwright and novelist, an agent for British Intelligence during World War I, and a world traveler. In 1917, he took the first of many voyages to the Pacific Islands and the Far East, where his keen sense of observation found inspiration for some of his finest writing... -
![The Traitor by V.S. Alexander]()
The Traitor by V.S. Alexander
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsDrawing on the true story of the White Rose—the resistance movement of young Germans against the Nazi regime—The Traitor tells of one woman who offers her life in the ultimate battle against tyranny, during one of history’s darkest hours... -
![I Served the King of England by Bohumil Hrabal]()
I Served the King of England by Bohumil Hrabal
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsFirst published in 1971 in a typewritten edition, then finally printed in book form in 1989, I Served the King of England is "an extraordinary and subtly tragicomic novel" (The New York Times), telling the tale of Ditie, a hugely ambitious but simple waiter in a deluxe Prague hotel in the years before World War II...Categorized as:
classics historical-fiction humor journey literary-fiction magical-realism satire 20th-century -
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![Tales of the South Pacific by James A. Michener]()
Tales of the South Pacific by James A. Michener
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsWinner of the 1948 Pulitzer Prize for FictionEnter the exotic world of the South Pacific, meet the men and women caught up in the drama of a big war. The young Marine who falls madly in love with a beautiful Tonkinese girl. Nurse Nellie and her French planter, Emile De Becque. The soldiers, sailors, and nurses playing at war and waiting for love in a tropic paradise...Categorized as:
classics epic historical-fiction journey literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure adult -
![Something Fresh by P.G. Wodehouse]()
Something Fresh by P.G. Wodehouse
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsOne thing that constantly disrupts the peace of life at Blandings is the constant incursion of impostors. Blandings has impostors like other houses have mice. Now there are two of them – both intent on a dangerous enterprise...Categorized as:
classics crime historical-fiction humor literary-fiction satire 20th-century action-adventure -
![Señor Vivo and the Coca Lord by Louis de Bernières]()
Señor Vivo and the Coca Lord by Louis de Bernières
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 30 ratingsIn this iridescent gem of a novel, Louis de Bernieres returns to the territory he mapped so well in The War of Don Emmanuel's Nether Parts, a South American country of resplendent eccentricity, gargantuan corruption, and terrifying violence, where the ordinary machinery of government has rusted and the only thing that works is magic...Categorized as:
crime historical-fiction humor journey literary-fiction magical-realism satire 20th-century -
![The Street of Crocodiles by Bruno Schulz, Mikolaj Dutsch]()
The Street of Crocodiles by Bruno Schulz, Mikolaj Dutsch
Rated: 4.09 of 5 stars · 33 ratingsThe Street of Crocodiles in the Polish city of Drogobych is a street of memories and dreams where recollections of Bruno Schulz's uncommon boyhood and of the eerie side of his merchant family's life are evoked in a startling blend of the real and the fantastic... -
![Memoirs of a Space Traveler: Further Reminiscences of Ijon Tichy by Stanisław Lem]()
Memoirs of a Space Traveler: Further Reminiscences of Ijon Tichy by Stanisław Lem
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsIjon Tichy is an ordinary space traveler whose extraordinary curiosity leads him to the very fringes of science. Their plans are grandiose, the bargains they make too often Faustian, for the ends these scientists pursue concern humanity's greatest and most ancient obsessions: immortality, artificial intelligence, and top-of-the-line consumer items... -
![Tales from Two Pockets by Karel Čapek]()
Tales from Two Pockets by Karel Čapek
Rated: 4.12 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsCapek wrote 48 stories that deconstruct the mystery story by breaking one rule here, three rules there, and yet also make for wonderful reading. His unique approaches to the mysteries of justice and truth are full of the ordinary and the extraordinary, humor and humanism...
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