Books like 'And the Birds Rained Down'
Readers who enjoyed And the Birds Rained Down by Jocelyne Saucier also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
historical psychological literary-fiction historical-fiction aging outdoors friendship journey drama rural
-
Madonna in a Fur Coat by Sabahattin Ali
Rated: 4.43 of 5 stars · 31 ratingsAvailable in English for the first time, this best-selling Turkish classic of love and alienation in a changing world captures the vibrancy of interwar Berlin. A shy young man leaves his home in rural Turkey to learn a trade and discover life in 1920s Berlin...Categorized as:
drama historical-fiction journey literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook -
![Jayber Crow by Wendell Berry]()
Jayber Crow by Wendell Berry
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 24 ratings"This is a book about Heaven," says Jayber Crow, "but I must say too that . . . I have wondered sometimes if it would not finally turn out to be a book about Hell." It is 1932 and he has returned to his native Port William to become the town's barber...Categorized as:
friendship historical-fiction literary-fiction outdoors rural 20th-century adult audiobook -
![The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane by Lisa See]()
The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane by Lisa See
Rated: 4.26 of 5 stars · 38 ratingsIn their remote mountain village, Li-yan and her family align their lives around the seasons and the farming of tea. For the Akha people, ensconced in ritual and routine, life goes on as it has for generations—until a stranger appears at the village gate in a jeep, the first automobile any of the villagers has ever seen...Categorized as:
drama female-mc friendship historical-fiction journey literary-fiction survival 20th-century -
![Winter Garden by Kristin Hannah]()
Winter Garden by Kristin Hannah
Rated: 4.23 of 5 stars · 40 ratingsCan a woman ever really know herself if she doesn’t know her mother? From the author of the smash-hit bestseller Firefly Lane and True Colors comes a powerful, heartbreaking novel that illuminates the intricate mother-daughter bond and explores the enduring links between the present and the past Meredith and Nina Whitson are as different as sisters can be...Categorized as:
drama female-mc historical-fiction journey literary-fiction secrets survival 20th-century -
-
![One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest : A Play in Two Acts by Dale Wasserman, Ken Kesey]()
One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest : A Play in Two Acts by Dale Wasserman, Ken Kesey
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsComedy Drama / 13m, 4f / Int. w. inset. Kirk Douglas played on Broadway as a charming rogue who contrives to serve a short sentence in an airy mental institution rather in a prison. This, he learns, was a mistake. He clashes with the head nurse, a fierce artinet... -
![The Key by Kathryn Hughes]()
The Key by Kathryn Hughes
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsFrom the #1 bestselling author of The Letter Kathryn Hughes comes The Key, an unforgettable story of a heartbreaking secret that will stay with you for ever. 'Riveting' Lesley Pearse on The Letter. 'Gripping' Good Housekeeping on The Secret. 1956 It's Ellen Crosby's first day at work as a student nurse at Ambergate County Lunatic Asylum...Categorized as:
drama female-mc historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century abuse adult audiobook -
![Matterhorn by Karl Marlantes]()
Matterhorn by Karl Marlantes
Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars · 30 ratingsA big, powerful saga of men in combat, written over the course of thirty-five years by a highly decorated Vietnam veteran.Intense, powerful, and compelling, Matterhorn is an epic war novel in the tradition of Norman Mailer's The Naked and the Dead and James Jones's The Thin Red Line...Categorized as:
drama friendship historical-fiction literary-fiction survival 20th-century action-adventure adult -
![Body and Soul by Frank Conroy]()
Body and Soul by Frank Conroy
Rated: 4.31 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsIn the dim light of a basement apartment, six-year-old Claude Rawlings sits at an old white piano, picking out the sounds he has heard on the radio and shutting out the reality of his lonely world.The setting is 1940s New York, a city that is "long gone, replaced by another city of the same name...Categorized as:
drama historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century book classics coming-of-age epic -
![Soviet Milk by Nora Ikstena]()
Soviet Milk by Nora Ikstena
Rated: 4.28 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsThis novel considers the effects of Soviet rule on a single individual. The central character in the story tries to follow her calling as a doctor. But then the state steps in. She is deprived first of her professional future, then of her identity and finally of her relationship with her daughter. Banished to a village in the Latvian countryside, her sense of isolation increases... -
![A Daughter's Sorrow by Cathy Sharp]()
A Daughter's Sorrow by Cathy Sharp
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsHeartache and hardship in London’s East End, from the bestselling author of The Orphans of Halfpenny StreetBridget has always been the one to take on the responsibility for looking after her family... -
![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:
drama historical-fiction journey literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure adult anthologies -
![Your Blues Ain't Like Mine by Bebe Moore Campbell]()
Your Blues Ain't Like Mine by Bebe Moore Campbell
Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsNow, in her first novel, repercussions are felt for decades in a dozen lives after a racist beating turns to cold-blooded murder in a small 1950s Mississippi town.Chicago-born Armstrong Tood is fifteen, black, and unused to the ways of the segregated Deep South, when his mother sends him to spend the summer with relatives in rural Mississippi... -
![The Forty Rules of Love by Elif Shafak]()
The Forty Rules of Love by Elif Shafak
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 40 ratingsA mesmerizing tale of love-from the author of The Bastard of Istanbul Elif Shafak, the most widely read female writer in Turkey, has earned a growing fan base all over the world with her bestselling The Bastard of Istanbul... -
![The Forty Rules of Love by Elif Shafak]()
The Forty Rules of Love by Elif Shafak
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 40 ratingsElla Rubenstein is forty years old and unhappily married when she takes a job as a reader for a literary agent. Her first assignment is to read and report on Sweet Blasphemy, a novel written by a man named Aziz Zahara... -
-
![The Color of Our Sky by Amita Trasi]()
The Color of Our Sky by Amita Trasi
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsIn the spirit of Khaled Hosseini, Nadia Hashimi and Shilpi Somaya Gowda comes this powerful debut from a talented new voice—a sweeping, emotional journey of two childhood friends in Mumbai, India, whose lives converge only to change forever one fateful night...Categorized as:
drama female-mc friendship historical-fiction journey literary-fiction secrets survival -
![A Daughter’s Dream by Cathy Sharp]()
A Daughter’s Dream by Cathy Sharp
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsHeartache and hardship in London’s East End, from the bestselling author of The Orphans of Halfpenny StreetAmy Robinson and her fiance Matthew are struggling to resist the temptations faced by a soon-to-be-wed couple. To avoid these, Matthew throws himself into a new job and she goes to work in an exclusive new dress shop, where she meets Mary Maitland...Categorized as:
historical-fiction female-mc literary-fiction psychological family romance 20th-century holidays -
![Venom by Colin Falconer]()
Venom by Colin Falconer
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsFrom Saigon to Paris, from Bangkok to the Ganges, this thriller is the story of Michel Christian. Abandoned on the streets of Saigon when he is only a child, he grows up with a fatal attraction for women and an insatiable desire for revenge... -
![Honeysuckle Season by Mary Ellen Taylor]()
Honeysuckle Season by Mary Ellen Taylor
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsFrom bestselling author Mary Ellen Taylor comes a story about profound loss, hard truths, and an overgrown greenhouse full of old secrets.Adrift in the wake of her father’s death, a failed marriage, and multiple miscarriages, Libby McKenzie feels truly alone. Though her new life as a wedding photographer provides a semblance of purpose, it’s also a distraction from her profound pain...Categorized as:
drama female-mc friendship historical-fiction literary-fiction secrets 20th-century adult -
![A Girl Is a Body of Water by Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi]()
A Girl Is a Body of Water by Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsIn her twelfth year, Kirabo, a young Ugandan girl, confronts a piercing question that has haunted her childhood: who is my mother? Kirabo has been raised by women in the small village of Nattetta—her grandmother, her best friend, and her many aunts, but the absence of her mother follows her like a shadow... -
![The Complete Stories of Truman Capote by Truman Capote]()
The Complete Stories of Truman Capote by Truman Capote
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsA landmark collection that brings together Truman Capote’s life’s work in the form he called his “great love,” The Complete Stories confirms Capote’s status as a master of the short story...Categorized as:
drama historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century adult anthologies classics fiction -
![In His Father's Footsteps by Danielle Steel]()
In His Father's Footsteps by Danielle Steel
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsNEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • In this powerful novel, #1 New York Times bestselling author Danielle Steel tells the story of two World War II concentration camp survivors, the life they build together, and the son who faces struggles of his own as a first generation American determined to be his own person and achieve success. When U.S... -
![The Secret by Kathryn Hughes]()
The Secret by Kathryn Hughes
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsFrom Kathryn Hughes, the author of the No. 1 Kindle bestseller The Letter, comes The Secret - a heartbreaking novel of tragedy, hope and second chances. Readers who treasure the novels of Lesley Pearse and Susan Lewis will adore this author. Mary has been nursing a secret. Forty years ago, she made a choice that would change her world for ever, and alter the path of someone she holds dear... -
![The Madness of a Seduced Woman by Susan Fromberg Schaeffer]()
The Madness of a Seduced Woman by Susan Fromberg Schaeffer
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsAgnes is on her way to Montpelier, when she sees a young man rescue a girl from a burning building. Agnes falls in love with this man, a local stonecutter, but the hero is also a betrayer, the apex of a triangle that eventually leads Agnes to commit murder... -
![Darjeeling Inheritance by Liz Harris]()
Darjeeling Inheritance by Liz Harris
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsDarjeeling, 1930After eleven years in school in England, Charlotte Lawrence returns to Sundar, the tea plantation owned by her family, and finds an empty house. She learns that her beloved father died a couple of days earlier and that he left her his estate. She learns also that it was his wish that she marry Andrew McAllister, the good-looking younger son from a neighbouring plantation...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction female-mc asia south-asia india fiction domestic-drama -
-
![Bodies of Water by T. Greenwood]()
Bodies of Water by T. Greenwood
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsIn 1960, Billie Valentine is a young housewife living in a sleepy Massachusetts suburb, treading water in a dull marriage and caring for two adopted daughters. Summers spent with the girls at their lakeside camp in Vermont are her one escape--from her husband's demands, from days consumed by household drudgery, and from the nagging suspicion that life was supposed to hold something different... -
![Road Ends by Mary Lawson]()
Road Ends by Mary Lawson
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsOn a perfect August morning in 1967, above a river just outside a small town in the north of Canada, a young man meets his death. And so begins the unravelling of his best friend Tom's already precarious family.Eighteen months on, and the town of Struan is in the grip of winter. Still reeling from his friend's death, Tom has dropped out and spends his days driving a snow plough... -
![In the Distance by Hernan Diaz]()
In the Distance by Hernan Diaz
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsA young Swedish boy finds himself penniless and alone in California. He travels east in search of his brother, moving on foot against the great push to the west. Driven back over and over again on his journey through vast expanses, Håkan meets naturalists, criminals, religious fanatics, Indians, and lawmen, and his exploits turn him into a legend... -
![Hunger by Knut Hamsun]()
Hunger by Knut Hamsun
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 30 ratingsOne of the most important and controversial writers of the 20th century, Knut Hamsun made literary history with the publication in 1890 of this powerful, autobiographical novel recounting the abject poverty, hunger and despair of a young writer struggling to achieve self-discovery and its ultimate artistic expression...Categorized as:
drama historical-fiction journey literary-fiction survival 20th-century adult audiobook -
![Zorba the Greek by Nikos Kazantzakis]()
Zorba the Greek by Nikos Kazantzakis
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 30 ratingsThe classic novel, international sensation, and inspiration for the film starring Anthony Quinn explores the struggle between the aesthetic and the rational, the inner life and the life of the mind.The classic novel Zorba the Greek is the story of two men, their incredible friendship, and the importance of living life to the fullest...Categorized as:
drama friendship historical-fiction journey literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure adult -
![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:
historical-fiction journey literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure adult book classics -
![Father of Frankenstein by Christopher Bram]()
Father of Frankenstein by Christopher Bram
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsThis is a novel by the author of Hold Tight...Categorized as:
drama friendship historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century adult book fiction -
![Destroyed & Restored: The Baron's Courageous Wife by Bree Wolf]()
Destroyed & Restored: The Baron's Courageous Wife by Bree Wolf
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsA fearful lady. A shamed lord. And a hand at cards that will change both their lives. Terrified of her father’s temper, LADY ADELAIDE has lived a life of complete obedience. However, now, when her father threatens to gamble away her hand in marriage in the next card game, she turns to a trusted friend for help...Categorized as:
female-mc friendship historical-fiction literary-fiction adult book bullying classics -
![Whose Names Are Unknown by Sanora Babb]()
Whose Names Are Unknown by Sanora Babb
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsOriginally written and slated for publication in 1939, this long-forgotten masterpiece was shelved by Random House when The Grapes of Wrath met with wide acclaim...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction rural 20th-century adult audiobook book classics -
![The Measure of Silence by Elizabeth Langston]()
The Measure of Silence by Elizabeth Langston
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsTwo sisters fulfilling their grandfather’s dying wish uncover decades of secrets in a powerful novel about family, truth, and forgiveness.Dallas, Dealey Plaza, 1963. Nineteen-year-old Mariah Byrne is following her dream of a career in photography. One moment she’s filled with joy and hope watching the president and Mrs. Kennedy drive past...Categorized as:
historical-fiction drama female-mc fiction historical audiobook psychological family -
-
![Dina's Book by Herbjørg Wassmo]()
Dina's Book by Herbjørg Wassmo
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsOn the scale of Gone with the Wind and War and Peace, this grand, sweeping epic will enthrall readers just as Dina bewitches everyone she meets.Set in Norway in the mid-nineteenth century, Dina's Book presents an extraordinary heroine. Beautiful, eccentric, and tempestuous, Dina carries a terrible burden: at the age of five she accidentally causes her mother's death...Categorized as:
drama female-mc historical-fiction journey literary-fiction action-adventure adult audiobook -
![The Missing Daughter by Emily Gunnis]()
The Missing Daughter by Emily Gunnis
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsFrom the author of the runaway bestseller The Girl in the Letter comes a heartwrenching, twisting novel of betrayal, tragedy and a shocking family secret buried for decades.1960. Thirteen-year-old Rebecca lives in fear of her father’s temper. As a storm batters Seaview Cottage one night, she hears a visitor at the door and a violent argument ensues...Categorized as:
drama female-mc historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century adult book coming-of-age -
![Fatelessness by Imre Kertész]()
Fatelessness by Imre Kertész
Rated: 4.05 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsAt the age of 14 Georg Koves is plucked from his home in a Jewish section of Budapest and without any particular malice, placed on a train to Auschwitz. He does not understand the reason for his fate. He doesn’t particularly think of himself as Jewish. And his fellow prisoners, who decry his lack of Yiddish, keep telling him, “You are no Jew...Categorized as:
drama historical-fiction journey literary-fiction survival 20th-century action-adventure adult -
![Keeping Lucy by T. Greenwood]()
Keeping Lucy by T. Greenwood
Rated: 4.05 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsFrom the author of Rust & Stardust comes this heartbreaking story, inspired by true events, of how far one mother must go to protect her daughter. Dover, Massachusetts, 1969. Ginny Richardson's heart was torn open when her baby girl, Lucy, born with Down Syndrome, was taken from her... -
![Truths I Never Told You by Kelly Rimmer]()
Truths I Never Told You by Kelly Rimmer
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsFrom the bestselling author of The Things We Cannot Say comes a poignant novel about the fault in memories and the lies that can bond a family together—or tear it apart.With her father recently moved to a care facility for his worsening dementia, Beth Walsh volunteers to clear out the family home and is surprised to discover the door to her childhood playroom padlocked... -
![The Lobotomist's Wife by Samantha Greene Woodruff]()
The Lobotomist's Wife by Samantha Greene Woodruff
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsAn enthralling historical novel of a compassionate and relentless woman, a cutting-edge breakthrough in psychiatry, and a nightmare in the making.Since her brother took his life after WWI, Ruth Emeraldine has had one goal: to help those suffering from mental illness. Then she falls in love with charismatic Robert Apter—a brilliant doctor championing a radical new treatment, the lobotomy...Categorized as:
drama historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century adult audiobook book disability -
![The Space Between Us by Thrity Umrigar]()
The Space Between Us by Thrity Umrigar
Rated: 4.01 of 5 stars · 31 ratingsSet in modern-day India, it is the story of two compelling and achingly real women: Sera Dubash, an upper-middle-class Parsi housewife whose opulent surroundings hide the shame and disappointment of her abusive marriage, and Bhima, a stoic illiterate hardened by a life of despair and loss, who has worked in the Dubash household for more than twenty years...Categorized as:
drama female-mc friendship historical-fiction journey literary-fiction 21st-century abuse -
![Embers by Sándor Márai]()
Embers by Sándor Márai
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsAs darkness settles on a forgotten castle at the foot of the Carpathian mountains, two men sit down to a final dinner together. They have not seen one another in forty-one years. At their last meeting, in the company of a beautiful woman, an unspoken act of betrayal left all three lives shattered - and each of them alone...Categorized as:
drama friendship historical-fiction journey literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure adult -
![Dreams of Falling by Karen White]()
Dreams of Falling by Karen White
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsFrom the New York Times bestselling author of The Night the Lights Went Out comes an exquisite new novel about best friends, family ties and the love that can both strengthen and break those bonds.It's been nine years since Larkin fled Georgetown, South Carolina, vowing never to go back...Categorized as:
drama female-mc friendship historical-fiction literary-fiction secrets audiobook book -
![So Big by Edna Ferber]()
So Big by Edna Ferber
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsAuthor Edna Ferber described the story of So Big as being about a "material man, son of his earth-grubbing, idealistic mother". Left an orphan at 19 years old in the late 1880s, Selina Peake needs to support herself. She leaves the city life she has known to become a teacher in the farming community of High Prairie, IL...Categorized as:
drama female-mc historical-fiction literary-fiction rural 20th-century adult audiobook -
-
![Lilli de Jong by Janet Benton]()
Lilli de Jong by Janet Benton
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsA young woman finds the most powerful love of her life when she gives birth at an institution for unwed mothers in 1883 Philadelphia. She is told she must give up her daughter to avoid a life of poverty and shame. But she chooses to keep her...Categorized as:
drama historical-fiction literary-fiction survival action-adventure adult audiobook book -
![Master and Man by Leo Tolstoy]()
Master and Man by Leo Tolstoy
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 18 ratings"Master and Man" (Russian: Хозяин и работник) is a story by Leo Tolstoy (1895).It happened in the 'seventies in winter, on the day after St. Nicholas's Day. There was a fete in the parish and the innkeeper, Vasili Andreevich Brekhunov, a Second Guild merchant, being a church elder had to go to church, and had also to entertain his relatives and friends at home... -
![A Dictionary of Mutual Understanding by Jackie Copleton]()
A Dictionary of Mutual Understanding by Jackie Copleton
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsIn the tradition of Memoirs of a Geisha and The Piano Teacher, a heart-wrenching debut novel of family, forgiveness, and the exquisite pain of love When Amaterasu Takahashi opens the door of her Philadelphia home to a badly scarred man claiming to be her grandson, she doesn’t believe him. Her grandson and her daughter, Yuko, perished nearly forty years ago during the bombing of Nagasaki...Categorized as:
drama female-mc historical-fiction journey literary-fiction secrets 20th-century action-adventure -
![On the Black Hill by Bruce Chatwin]()
On the Black Hill by Bruce Chatwin
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsLewis and Benjamin Jones, identical twins, were born with the century on a farm on the English-Welsh border. For eighty years they live on the farm--sharing the same clothes, tilling the same soil, sleeping in the same bed. Their lives and the lives of their neighbors--farmers, drovers, clergymen, traders, coffin-makers--are only obliquely touched by the chaos of twentieth-century progress... -
![Winter Journey by Diane Armstrong]()
Winter Journey by Diane Armstrong
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsHalina Shore is a Polish-born forensic dentist who lives in Australia. When she travels to Poland to take part in the investigation of a war crime, she finds herself at the centre of a bitter struggle in a community that has been divided by a grim legacy...Categorized as:
drama female-mc historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century adult audiobook book -
![A Million Drops by Víctor del Árbol]()
A Million Drops by Víctor del Árbol
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsAn intense literary thriller that tears through the interlocked histories of fascism and communism in Europe without pausing for breath. Gonzalo Gil is a disaffected lawyer stuck in a failed career and a strained marriage, dodging the never-ending manipulation of his powerful father-in-law...
Or - use our amazing romance book finder to get recommendations based on your favorite content tropes and themes. Mix and match at will.
