Books like 'Then the Fish Swallowed Him'
Readers who enjoyed Then the Fish Swallowed Him by Amir Ahmadi Arian also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
contemporary psychological politics literary-fiction historical-fiction
-
Dark Mother Earth by Kristian Novak
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsAn amnesiac writer’s life of lies and false memories reaches a breaking point in this stunning English-language debut from an award-winning Croatian author.As a novelist, Matija makes things up for a living. Not yet thirty, he’s written two well-received books. It’s his third that is as big a failure as his private life...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction 21st-century adult book coming-of-age contemporary crime -
The Stories of John Cheever by John Cheever
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsHere are sixty-one stories that chronicle the lives of what has been called "the greatest generation." From the early wonder and disillusionment of city life in "The Enormous Radio" to the surprising discoveries and common mysteries of suburbia in "The Housebreaker of Shady Hill" and "The Swimmer," Cheever tells us everything we need to know about "the pain and sweetness of life...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century adult anthologies classics contemporary fiction -
The Innkeeper by Tess Thompson
Rated: 4.67 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsIt was supposed to be a night to forget. After a night of sizzling passion, they agreed to never contact each other again. Fate disagreed.Jamie Wattson has no use for men who leave and as far as she’s concerned, they all do. She’s focused on running her inn and spending time with girlfriends. Life is simple and she wants it that way... -
A Treatise on Shelling Beans by Wiesław Myśliwski
Rated: 4.31 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsOur narrator, a retired musician, receives a visit from an enigmatic stranger who inspires him to share the story of his long and stormy life...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction 21st-century adult audiobook book classics contemporary -
-
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:
historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century adult anthologies classics contemporary drama -
The London Flat: Second Chances by Juliet Gauvin
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsWHAT READERS ARE SAYING: “YES! A spectacular sequel to The Irish Cottage…even better than the first book.” Elizabeth Lara has just finished her tour of Ireland. She’s moved on to London, but the dashing Connor Bannon isn’t far from her thoughts as she searches for Mags’ lost love...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction adult billionaire book contemporary drama fiction -
Traitors Gate by Jeffrey Archer
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsTHE TOWER OF LONDON…Impenetrable. Well protected. Secure. Home to the most valuable jewels on earth. But once a year, when the Queen attends the State Opening of Parliament, the Metropolitan Police must execute the most secret operation in their armory as they transport the Crown Jewels across London. SCOTLAND YARD…For decades, the elite squad at Scotland Yard have been in charge of the operation...Categorized as:
historical-fiction politics literary-fiction fiction mystery crime suspense law-enforcement -
Letter from an Unknown Woman: The Fowler Snared by Stefan Zweig
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 28 ratingsThis story of distorted passion and behaviour reveals the unrequited love of a woman for a man who cares so little for her that he fails to recognize her as she obsessively pursues him. Also included is The Fowler Snared, sharing a similar theme, only it is the man whose passion is unrequited...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century adult audiobook book classics contemporary -
Broken Circle by Amy McKinley
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsLife with Alex is simple and secure - everything she's ever wanted. Or so she thought...Upper East Side artist, Olivia Wrightwood is ready for a change. Marrying Alex Mudarra, a dedicated and up-and-coming NYPD detective, is exactly what she needs to escape the clutches and scrutiny of her family's political dynasty...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction action-adventure adult audiobook book contemporary fiction -
The Golden Gate by Vikram Seth
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsThis novel in verse about a group of California yuppies was one of the most highly praised books of 1986 and a bestseller on both coasts...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century adult book classics contemporary fiction -
The Disoriented by Amin Maalouf
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsAfter 25 years in exile, Adam travels from France to his homeland in the Middle East to bid farewell to his dying childhood friend.One night, a phone rings in Paris. Adam learns that Mourad, once his closest friend, is dying. He quickly throws some clothes in a suitcase and takes the first flight out, to the homeland he fled twenty-five years ago...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction politics action-adventure adult book contemporary drama -
Five Steps to Happy by Ella Dove
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratings'An up-lit treasure' Red magazine Life can change in a heartbeat... When struggling actress Heidi has a life-changing accident aged 32, her world falls apart. Stuck in hospital and unable to walk, her only companion is Maud, the elderly lady in the bed next to hers...Categorized as:
literary-fiction historical-fiction fiction womens-fiction drama contemporary psychological medical -
Friend of My Youth by Alice Munro
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 18 ratings**Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature**A woman haunted by dreams of her dead mother. An adulterous couple stepping over the line where the initial excitement ends and the pain begins. A widow visiting a Scottish village in search of her husband's past - and instead discovering unsettling truths about a total stranger...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century adult anthologies audiobook classics contemporary -
House of Day, House of Night by Olga Tokarczuk
Rated: 4.09 of 5 stars · 27 ratingsThe English translation of the prize-winning international bestseller Winner of the Gunter Grass PrizeNowa Ruda is a small town in Silesia, an area that has been a part of Poland, Germany, and the former Czechoslovakia in the past. When the narrator moves into the area, she discovers everyone--and everything--has a story...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook book contemporary -
-
The Joke by Milan Kundera
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 28 ratingsThe authoritative version of the brilliant first novel by the author of The Unbearable Lightness of Being. A great novel of thwarted love and revenge miscarried, in a completely revised translation that is nothing less than the restoration of a classic...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction politics 20th-century adult audiobook book classics -
Wittgenstein's Nephew by Thomas Bernhard
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsIt is 1967. In separate wings of a Viennese hospital, two men lie bedridden. The narrator, Thomas Bernhard, is stricken with a lung ailment; his friend Paul, nephew of the celebrated philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein, is suffering from one of his periodic bouts of madness...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century adult book classics contemporary death -
Go, Went, Gone by Jenny Erpenbeck
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsAn unforgettable German bestseller about the European refugee crisis: “Erpenbeck will get under your skin” (Washington Post Book World) Go, Went, Gone is the masterful new novel by the acclaimed German writer Jenny Erpenbeck, “one of the most significant German-language novelists of her generation” (The Millions)...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction politics 21st-century adult audiobook book contemporary -
Linden Hills by Gloria Naylor
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsA world away from Brewster Place, yet intimately connected to it, lies Linden Hills. With its showcase homes, elegant lawns, and other trappings of wealth, Linden Hills is not unlike other affluent black communities. But residence in this community is indisputable evidence of "making it...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction politics 20th-century black-mc book classics contemporary -
Tall Oaks by Chris Whitaker
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsFor fans of Twin Peaks and The Truth about the Harry Quebert Affair, this brilliant debut is dark yet hilarious, suspenseful and sad.Everyone has a secret in Tall Oaks . . .When three-year-old Harry goes missing, the whole of America turns its attention to one small town. Everyone is eager to help. Everyone is a suspect.Desperate mother Jess, whose grief is driving her to extreme measures... -
What We Owe by Golnaz Hashemzadeh Bonde
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsNahid has six months left to live. Or so the doctors say. But Nahid is not the type to trust anyone. She resents the cancer diagnosis she has been given and the doctor who has given it to her. Bubbling inside her is also resentment toward life as it turned out, and the fact that it will go on without her. She feels alone, alone with her illness and alone with her thoughts...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction politics 21st-century adult book contemporary death -
A Proper Marriage by Doris Lessing
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsOne of Doris Lessing's most important novels -- here beautifully repackaged This is the second volume in Doris Lessing's renowned quartet of novels tracing the life of Martha Quest from her childhood in Africa to an imagined post-nuclear Britain. A Proper Marriage sees twenty-something Martha beginning to realise that her marriage has been a terrible mistake... -
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 -
Emotional Geology by Linda Gillard
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsRose Leonard is on the run from her life. Taking refuge in a remote island community, she cocoons herself in work, silence and solitude in a house by the sea. But she is haunted by her past, by memories and desires she'd hoped were long dead. Life and love are offered by new friends, her lonely daughter, and most of all Calum, a fragile younger man who has his own demons to exorcise... -
The Clown by Heinrich Böll
Rated: 3.96 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsAcclaimed entertainer Hans Schnier collapses when his beloved Marie leaves him because he won’t marry her within the Catholic Church. The desertion triggers a searing re-examination of his life—the loss of his sister during the war, the demands of his millionaire father and the hypocrisies of his mother, who first fought to “save” Germany from the Jews, then worked for “reconciliation” afterwards...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction politics 20th-century adult audiobook book classics -
-
Berta Isla by Javier Marías
Rated: 3.94 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsFrom the award-winning, internationally best-selling Spanish writer, author of The Infatuations, comes a gripping new novel of intrigue and missed chances--at once a spy story and a profound examination of a marriage founded on secrets and lies...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction 21st-century adult book contemporary drama espionage -
The Faces by Tove Ditlevsen, Tiina Nunnally
Rated: 3.94 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsIt's Copenhagen, 1968. Lise, a children's book writer and married mother of three, is becoming increasingly haunted by disembodied faces and taunting voices. Convinced that her housekeeper and husband are plotting against her, she descends into a terrifying world of sickness, pills and institutionalisation... -
The Secrets Mothers Keep by Jacquie Underdown
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsIn the enchanting landscapes of Tasmania, "The Secrets Mothers Keep" unravels a captivating tale of three generations bound by a shared purpose—to restore the family manor into a charming bed and breakfast. But beneath the surface lies a lifetime of concealed truths that threaten to tear them apart... -
A Jest of God by Margaret Laurence, Margaret Atwood
Rated: 3.94 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsIn this celebrated novel, Margaret Laurence writes with grace, power, and deep compassion about Rachel Cameron, a woman struggling to come to terms with love, with death, with herself and her world.Trapped in a milieu of deceit and pettiness – her own and that of others – Rachel longs for love, and contact with another human being who shares her rebellious spirit...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century adult book classics contemporary female-author -
Thus Bad Begins by Javier Marías
Rated: 3.94 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsFrom the internationally acclaimed author of The Infatuations comes the mesmerizing story of a couple living in the shadow of a mysterious, unhappy history–a novel about the cruel, tender punishments we exact on those we love.Madrid, 1980. Juan de Vere, nearly finished with his university degree, takes a job as personal assistant to Eduardo Muriel, an eccentric, once-successful film director...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction 21st-century adult audiobook book contemporary crime -
Dusk and Other Stories by James Salter
Rated: 3.93 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsVirtuosic and exquisitely compressed, these stories show Salter at his best.The collection received the 1989 PEN/Faulkner Award... -
People Who Knew Me by Kim Hooper
Rated: 3.93 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsEverything was fine fourteen years after she left New York. Until suddenly, one day, it wasn’t. Emily Morris got her happily-ever-after earlier than most. Married at a young age to a man she loved passionately, she was building the life she always wanted. But when enormous stress threatened her marriage, Emily made some rash decisions. That’s when she fell in love with someone else...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction fiction womens-fiction contemporary audiobook mystery urban -
Sundog by Jim Harrison
Rated: 3.92 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsA “feisty, passionate novel” (Newsday) from a writer whose “storytelling instincts are nearly flawless” (The New York Times). The New York Times–bestselling author of thirty-nine books of fiction, non-fiction, and poetry including Legends of the Fall, Dalva, and Returning to Earth, Jim Harrison was one of our most beloved and acclaimed writers, adored by both readers and critics...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction action-adventure adult book classics contemporary family -
Fig by Sarah Elizabeth Schantz
Rated: 3.90 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsAn NPR Best Book of 2015Love and sacrifice intertwine in this brilliant debut of rare beauty about a girl dealing with her mother’s schizophrenia and her own mental illness.Fig’s world lies somewhere between reality and fantasy.But as she watches Mama slowly come undone, it becomes hard to tell what is real and what is not, what is fun and what is frightening...Categorized as:
literary-fiction historical-fiction north-america usa arkansas kansas young-adult mental-illness -
Signal Fires by Dani Shapiro
Rated: 3.92 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsA GRIPPING NEW NOVEL FROM THE BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF INHERITANCEOne Night. One Fateful Choice. A Constellation of Lives Changed Forever.SIGNAL FIRES opens on a summer night in 1985. Three teenagers have been drinking. One of them gets behind the wheel of a car, and, in an instant, everything on Division Street changes...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction fiction audiobook contemporary mystery family grief -
-
Touch: The Inspiration for the Film, Explore the Complexities of the Human Heart by Olaf Olafsson
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsA mesmerizing, panoramic story of one man's search to find a lover who suddenly disappeared decades beforeWhen the pandemic hits, Kristofer is forced to shutter his successful restaurant in Reykjavik, sending him into a spiral of uncertainty, even as his memory seems to be failing...Categorized as:
literary-fiction historical-fiction romance fiction mystery contemporary audiobook journey -
The Black Book by Orhan Pamuk
Rated: 3.92 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsA New Translation and Afterword by Maureen FreelyGalip is a lawyer living in Istanbul. His wife, the detective novel–loving Ruya, has disappeared. Could she have left him for her ex-husband or Celâl, a popular newspaper columnist? But Celâl, too, seems to have vanished...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction politics 20th-century action-adventure adult book classics -
Tortuga by Rudolfo Anaya
Rated: 3.88 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsRudolfo Anaya's personal journey to Tortuga began one desert-hot day when, as an adolescent, he and some friends were swimming in irrigation ditches. He dove in, sustaining an injury that put him in the hospital for an arduous period of time.Tortuga is set in a hospital for crippled children and is based on Anaya's swimming accident...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction book contemporary drama fiction hispanic investigator -
The Clouds by Juan José Saer
Rated: 3.88 of 5 stars · 8 ratings"Saer is one of the best writers of today in any language."—Ricardo Piglia"What Saer presents marvelously is the experience of reality, and the characters' attempts to write their own narratives within its excess... -
LOVE AND MONEY by Ruth Harris
Rated: 3.88 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsA SECRET BABY. A FORTUNE AT STAKE. A BROKEN FAMILY HEALED.Beautiful, pampered Park Avenue heiress, Deedee Dahlen, and Lana Bantry, abused child from the wrong side of the tracks, live in different worlds. They share a father but not an inheritance, a lover but not a commitment. They are sisters—and strangers...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction romance fiction contemporary womens-fiction death 20th-century -
Aliens & Anorexia by Chris Kraus
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsAs the rope was tightening around my neck, an Alien made love to me. Belief is a technology for softening the landscape. The world becomes more beautiful when God is in it. Here is what happens inside a person's body when they starve...Categorized as:
literary-fiction politics fiction feminism philosophy contemporary 21st-century mental-illness -
Museums & Women and Other Stories by John Updike
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsThis is John Updike’s largest and most various collection of short stories. Some, such as the title story, have the tone and personality of essays; others objectify the chimeras of middle-class existence; a number of vignettes reflect the face of America in the fictional microcosm of Tarbox; the longest story, a hallucinatory trip up the Nile, allegorizes our foreign policy... -
The Jericho Deception: A Novel by Jeffrey Small
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsAt the intersection of science and spirituality lies the human mind.The Jericho Deception is a psychological adventure into the interplay of mind and spirit, science and religion, mystery and mysticism...Categorized as:
historical-fiction politics fiction spirituality thriller suspense psychological horror -
The Years, Months, Days: Two Novellas by Yan Lianke
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsOver the last decade, Yan Lianke has been continually heralded as one of the "best contemporary Chinese writers" (The Independent) and "one of the country's fiercest satirists" (The Guardian). Among many awards and honors, he has been twice a finalist for the Man Booker International Prize and he was awarded the prestigious Franz Kafka Prize for his impressive body of work... -
Where Are You, Echo Blue? by Hayley Krischer
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsA smart, juicy, and page-turning novel about celebrity, fandom, and the price of ambition following a journalist's obsessive search for a missing Hollywood starletWhen Echo Blue, the most famous child star of the nineties, disappears ahead of a highly publicized television appearance on the eve of the millennium, the salacious theories instantly start swirling...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction fiction mystery contemporary audiobook female-author suspense -
-
The Moons of Jupiter by Alice Munro
Rated: 3.89 of 5 stars · 18 ratings**Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature**The characters who populate an Alice Munro story live and breathe. Passions hopelessly conceived, affections betrayed, marriages made and broken: the joys, fears, loves and awakenings of women echo throughout these twelve unforgettable stories, laying bare the unexceptional and yet inescapable pain of human contact...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century adult anthologies classics contemporary drama -
A Terrible Country by Keith Gessen
Rated: 3.89 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsA New York Times Editors' Choice Named a Best Book of 2018 by Bookforum, Nylon, Esquire, and Vulture"This artful and autumnal novel, published in high summer, is a gift to those who wish to receive it."--Dwight Garner, The New York Times"Hilarious, heartbreaking . . . A Terrible Country may be one of the best books you'll read this year...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction politics adult audiobook book contemporary crime -
Shred Sisters by Betsy Lerner
Rated: 3.89 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsA wry and riveting debut novel about family, mental illness, and a hard-won path between two sistersIt is said that when one person in a family is unstable, the whole family is destabilized. Meet the Shreds. Olivia is the sister in the spotlight, but when her stunning confidence morphs into something erratic and unpredictable, she becomes a hurricane leaving people wrecked in her wake... -
The Small Rain by Madeleine L'Engle
Rated: 3.88 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsMadeleine L'Engle's classic young adult books include A Wrinkle in Time, A Swiftly Tilting Planet, and Certain Women. The Small Rain, an adult novel, focuses on Katherine Forrester, the daughter of distinguished musical artists, whose career as a concert pianist evolves through loves and losses...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction book classics coming-of-age contemporary family female-author -
A Thousand Years of Good Prayers by Yiyun Li
Rated: 3.94 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsBrilliant and original, A Thousand Years of Good Prayers introduces a remarkable new writer whose breathtaking stories are set in China and among Chinese Americans in the United States. In this rich, astonishing collection, Yiyun Li illuminates how mythology, politics, history, and culture intersect with personality to create fate... -
The Lover: A Novel by Rebecca Sacks, Gabi Epstein
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsThe author of the acclaimed City of a Thousand Gates returns with an intense, page-turning love story between a twenty-seven year old Canadian woman and a nineteen-year old Israeli soldier, set in contemporary Israel...Categorized as:
literary-fiction politics romance fiction contemporary audiobook female-author 21st-century
Or - use our amazing romance book finder to get recommendations based on your favorite content tropes and themes. Mix and match at will.