Books like 'The Rent Collector'
Readers who enjoyed The Rent Collector by Camron Wright also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
historical action / adventure historical-fiction realistic literary-fiction poverty drama poc-mc family survival
-
Five Little Indians: A Novel by Michelle Good
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsWinner of the 2018 HarperCollins/UBC Prize for Best New Fiction Michelle Good's FIVE LITTLE INDIANS, told from the alternating points of view of five former residential school students as they struggle to survive in 1960s Vancouver—one finding her way into the dangerous world of the American Indian movement; one finding unexpected strength in motherhood; and one unable to escape his demons - and...Categorized as:
drama family friendship historical-fiction literary-fiction poc-mc realistic survival -
We Were the Lucky Ones by Georgia Hunter
Rated: 4.39 of 5 stars · 40 ratingsIt is the spring of 1939 and three generations of the Kurc family are doing their best to live normal lives, even as the shadow of war grows closer. The talk around the family Seder table is of new babies and budding romance, not of the increasing hardships threatening Jews in their hometown of Radom, Poland...Categorized as:
drama family historical-fiction journey literary-fiction realistic survival 20th-century -
Cilka's Journey by Heather Morris
Rated: 4.39 of 5 stars · 40 ratingsIn this follow-up to The Tattooist of Auschwitz, the author tells the story, based on a true one, of a woman who survives Auschwitz, only to find herself locked away again. Cilka Klein is 18 years old when Auschwitz-Birkenau is liberated by Soviet soldiers...Categorized as:
drama family female-mc friendship historical-fiction literary-fiction realistic survival -
The Storyteller's Secret: A Novel by Sejal Badani, Soneela Nankani
Rated: 4.36 of 5 stars · 38 ratingsAn Amazon Charts, USA Today, and Washington Post bestseller.From the bestselling author of Trail of Broken Wings comes an epic story of the unrelenting force of love, the power of healing, and the invincible desire to dream.Nothing prepares Jaya, a New York journalist, for the heartbreak of her third miscarriage and the slow unraveling of her marriage in its wake... -
-
Time of White Horses by Ibrahim Nasrallah
Rated: 4.42 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsSpanning the collapse of Ottoman rule and the British Mandate in Palestine, this is the story of three generations of a defiant family from the Palestinian village of Hadiya before 1948. Through the lives of Mahmud, chief elder of Hadiya, his son Khaled, and Khaled’s grandson Naji, we enter the life of a tribe whose fate is decided by one colonizer after another...Categorized as:
family historical-fiction journey literary-fiction poc-mc action-adventure adult book -
Return to Robinswood by Jean Grainger
Rated: 4.45 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsOne Irish house, two very different families, and a war that changed everything. Robinswood Estate, County Waterford, Ireland. 1946.Years of neglect and abandonment have left the family seat of the Keneficks almost derelict, but the new Lord Kenefick and his charming young wife Kate, are determined to breathe life into the old house once more... -
The Cypress Maze by Fiona Valpy
Rated: 4.44 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsIn this haunting tale from the bestselling author of The Storyteller of Casablanca, Beatrice kept a wartime secret to protect the innocent. Now, could telling it set her free?Tuscany, 1943. Stranded in war-ravaged Italy, Beatrice’s dream of an escapist year teaching English is shattered...Categorized as:
historical-fiction drama journey literary-fiction family friendship female-mc fiction -
Yellow Crocus by Laila Ibrahim
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 36 ratingsMattie was never truly mine. That knowledge must have filled me as quickly and surely as the milk from her breasts. Although my family ‘owned’ her, although she occupied the center of my universe, her deepest affections lay elsewhere. So along with the comfort of her came the fear that I would lose her some day. This is our story..Categorized as:
drama family female-mc friendship historical-fiction literary-fiction poc-mc survival -
The Pearl Sister by Lucinda Riley
Rated: 4.32 of 5 stars · 28 ratingsFrom the breathtaking beaches of Thailand to the barely tamed wilds of colonial Australia, The Pearl Sister is the next captivating story in New York Times bestselling author Lucinda Riley’s epic series about two women searching for a place to call home.CeCe D’Aplièse has always felt like an outcast...Categorized as:
drama family female-mc historical-fiction literary-fiction realistic action-adventure adult -
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 family female-mc friendship historical-fiction journey literary-fiction poc-mc -
The Orphan Keeper by Camron Wright
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsBased on a remarkable true story of Taj Rowland. Seven-year-old Chellamuthu's life is forever changed when he is kidnapped from his village in India, sold to a Christian orphanage, and then adopted by an unsuspecting couple in the United States. It takes months before the boy can speak enough English to tell his parents that he already has a family back in India...Categorized as:
drama family friendship historical-fiction journey realistic action-adventure audiobook -
The Storm Sister by Lucinda Riley
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 30 ratingsAlly D’Aplièse is about to compete in one of the world’s most perilous yacht races when she hears the news of her adoptive father’s sudden, mysterious death. Rushing back to meet her five sisters at their family home, she discovers that her father—an elusive billionaire affectionately known to his daughters as Pa Salt—has left each of them a tantalizing clue to their true heritage...Categorized as:
drama family historical-fiction journey literary-fiction realistic action-adventure audiobook -
The Girl in the Picture by Melissa Wiesner
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsAs the newspaper clipping falls from the cardboard box Tegan takes in the woman in the picture: her chestnut hair, her eyes full of laughter, the way she nestles against the man beside her. And as she reads the words in the article, Tegan almost stops breathing...Categorized as:
journey historical-fiction friendship family literary-fiction female-mc mystery fiction -
Amazing Grace by Mary Hoffman
Rated: 4.36 of 5 stars · 35 ratingsAn international bestseller: Grace learns that she can be anything she wants...Categorized as:
family female-mc friendship historical-fiction poc-mc realistic action-adventure book -
-
The Henna Artist by Alka Joshi
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 41 ratingsVivid and compelling in its portrait of one woman’s struggle for fulfillment in a society pivoting between the traditional and the modern, The Henna Artist opens a door into a world that is at once lush and fascinating, stark and cruel.Escaping from an abusive marriage, seventeen-year-old Lakshmi makes her way alone to the vibrant 1950s pink city of Jaipur...Categorized as:
drama family female-mc friendship historical-fiction journey literary-fiction poc-mc -
The Lost Wife by Alyson Richman
Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars · 32 ratingsThere on her forearm, next to a small brown birthmark, were six tattooed numbers. 'Do you remember me now?' he asked, trembling. She looked at him again, as if giving weight and bone to a ghost. 'Lenka, it's me,' he said. 'Josef. Your husband.' During the last moments of calm in prewar Prague, Lenka, a young art student, falls in love with Josef...Categorized as:
drama family historical-fiction journey literary-fiction realistic survival 20th-century -
The Butterfly by Patricia Polacco
Rated: 4.36 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsSince the Tall Boots--the Nazis--have marched into Monique's small French village, terrorizing it, nothing surprises her. Until the night Monique encounters "the little ghost" sitting at the end of her bed... -
The Photograph by Debbie Rix
Rated: 4.36 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsItaly, 1958: Rachael is a young widow with a small child. After a lifetime of running for survival, of not knowing who to trust and where to call home, she finds herself in a place of safety. On a sun-drenched Italian island for one carefree summer the troubles of her past fade away and she falls in love...Categorized as:
drama family female-mc historical-fiction journey literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure -
The Beekeeper of Aleppo by Christy Lefteri
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 38 ratingsThe unforgettable love story of a mother blinded by loss and her husband who insists on their survival as they undertake the Syrian refugee trail to Europe.Nuri is a beekeeper; his wife, Afra, an artist. They live a simple life, rich in family and friends, in the beautiful Syrian city of Aleppo--until the unthinkable happens. When all they care for is destroyed by war, they are forced to escape...Categorized as:
drama family female-mc friendship historical-fiction journey literary-fiction poc-mc -
Daughter of the Reich by Louise Fein
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsFor fans of The Nightingale and All the Light We Cannot See, a spellbinding story of impossible love set against the backdrop of the Nazi regime. She must choose between loyalty to her country or a love that could be her destruction… As the dutiful daughter of a high-ranking Nazi officer, Hetty Heinrich is keen to play her part in the glorious new Thousand Year Reich...Categorized as:
drama family female-mc friendship historical-fiction literary-fiction survival 20th-century -
Call Your Daughter Home by Deb Spera
Rated: 4.23 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsA stunning tour de force following three fierce, unforgettable Southern women in the years leading up to the Great DepressionIt's 1924 South Carolina and the region is still recovering from the infamous boll weevil infestation that devastated the land and the economy...Categorized as:
drama family female-mc friendship historical-fiction literary-fiction poc-mc poverty -
The Moon Sister by Lucinda Riley
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 28 ratingsFrom New York Times bestselling author Lucinda Riley, The Moon Sister transports you to the grandeur of the remote Scottish Highlands and the gypsy caves of Granada, just as Spain descends into civil war, interweaving the stories of two women searching for their destinies, at the risk of potentially losing their chance at love...Categorized as:
drama family female-mc historical-fiction literary-fiction realistic action-adventure audiobook -
What Only We Know by Catherine Hokin
Rated: 4.28 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsA door slammed and the unmistakable sound of boots came crashing up the hall. Liese held her little daughter’s hand so tightly, the tiny fingers had turned purple. The SS officer’s hand was at Liese’s throat before she saw him move. ‘I can kill you easily, then I can kill your daughter.’ He relaxed his grip a little. ‘Or perhaps I could kill her first?’England, forty years later...Categorized as:
drama family female-mc friendship historical-fiction literary-fiction survival 20th-century -
The Arsonists' City by Hala Alyan
Rated: 4.28 of 5 stars · 18 ratings"Feels revolutionary in its freshness." --Entertainment Weekly"The Arsonists' City delivers all the pleasures of a good old-fashioned saga, but in Alyan's hands, one family's tale becomes the story of a nation--Lebanon and Syria, yes, but also the United States. It's the kind of book we are lucky to have...Categorized as:
drama family historical-fiction journey literary-fiction poc-mc action-adventure adult -
-
The People We Keep by Allison Larkin, Julia Whelan
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 27 ratingsListening Length 11 hours and 8 minutesThe People we Keep is about a young songwriter longing to find a home in the world.Little River, New York, 1994: April Sawicki is living in a run-down motorhome, flunking out of school, and picking up shifts at the local diner...Categorized as:
drama family female-mc friendship historical-fiction literary-fiction realistic action-adventure -
Palace of Desire by Naguib Mahfouz
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsThe sensual and provocative second volume in the Cairo Trilogy, Palace Of Desire follows the Al Jawad family into the awakening world of the 1920's and the sometimes violent clash between Islamic ideals, personal dreams and modern realities...Categorized as:
drama family historical-fiction journey literary-fiction poc-mc 20th-century action-adventure -
Moloka'i by Alan Brennert
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 42 ratingsSet in Hawai'i more than a century ago, this is the story of Rachel Kalama, a spirited seven-year-old Hawaiian girl, who dreams of visiting far-off lands like her father, a merchant seaman. Then one day a rose-colored mark appears on her skin, and those dreams are stolen from her...Categorized as:
drama family friendship historical-fiction journey literary-fiction poc-mc realistic -
An Artificial Light by Petra Durst-Benning, Edwin Miles
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsA defiant woman in pre–World War I Germany carves out her own unconventional destiny as the enthralling Photographer’s Saga continues.Germany, 1911. Certain things are expected of a woman. Defiant Mimi Reventlow has chosen to be the woman she wants to be. For now, that’s the resident, if temporary, photographer in Laichingen...Categorized as:
drama family female-mc historical-fiction 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook -
Small Country by Gaël Faye
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 24 ratings‘A luminous and poignant novel about childhood, war, exile and identity…this is literature at its most powerful’ Le Parisien Magazine Burundi, 1992. For ten-year-old Gabriel, life in his comfortable expat neighbourhood of Bujumbura with his French father, Rwandan mother and little sister, Ana, is something close to paradise... -
Green City in the Sun by Barbara Wood
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsA magnificent saga of two proud and powerful families—one British, one African—and their battle over Kenya’s destiny in the twentieth century.In 1917, Dr. Grace Treverton arrives in Kenya, determined to bring modern medicine to the African natives. Her brother, Sir Valentine Treverton, has his own dream for the British protectorate: to establish an agricultural empire to rival any in England...Categorized as:
drama family historical-fiction journey literary-fiction action-adventure adult book -
The Matchbox Diary by Paul Fleischman, Bagram Ibatoulline
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 14 ratings"Pick whatever you like most. Then I’ll tell you its story." When a little girl visits her great-grandfather at his curio-filled home, she chooses an unusual object to learn about: an old cigar box. What she finds inside surprises her: a collection of matchboxes making up her great-grandfather’s diary, harboring objects she can hold in her hand, each one evoking a memory... -
Tuareg by Alberto Vázquez-Figueroa
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsThe Tuaregs are the true sons of the desert. They can survive in the harshest of conditions like nobody else. The noble inmouchar Gacel Sayah, is the master of a large extension of the desert. One day, two fugitives arrive from the north and Gacel, following his ancient and sacred hospitality laws, gives them shelter...Categorized as:
drama historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure adult book fiction -
Tangled Vines by Kay Bratt
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsWith the bad memories of the Cultural Revolution and a life of hard work behind them, Benfu and his treasured Calla Lily are content watching their daughters blossom—six young women who they adopted as their own...Categorized as:
family female-mc historical-fiction journey literary-fiction poverty survival action-adventure -
The Exiles by Christina Baker Kline
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 29 ratingsThe author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Orphan Train returns with an ambitious, emotionally resonant novel about three women whose lives are bound together in nineteenth-century Australia and the hardships they weather together as they fight for redemption and freedom in a new society... -
-
Sapphire Battersea by Jacqueline Wilson, Nick Sharratt
Rated: 4.23 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsHetty Feather is a Foundling Hospital girl and was given her name when she was left there as a baby. When she is reunited with her mother, she hopes her beautiful new name, Sapphire Battersea, will also mean a new life! But things don't always go as planned.…Follow the twists and turns of Hetty's adventure as she goes out to work as a maid for a wealthy man...Categorized as:
drama female-mc friendship historical-fiction realistic action-adventure book children -
Four Fires by Bryce Courtenay
Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsIn a small town like any other small town around Australia live the Maloneys. They are a fifth-generation Australian family of Irish Catholic descent who are struggling to reach the first rung of the social ladder. The Maloneys are a family you won't forget: a strong mother, a father broken by war, three boys and two girls, one of whom has an illegitimate daughter...Categorized as:
drama family female-mc historical-fiction literary-fiction action-adventure adult audiobook -
How We Disappeared by Jing-Jing Lee
Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsSingapore, 1942. As Japanese troops sweep down Malaysia and into Singapore, a village is ransacked, leaving only two survivors and one tiny child.In a neighboring village, seventeen-year-old Wang Di is strapped into the back of a troop carrier and shipped off to a Japanese military brothel where she is forced into sexual slavery as a "comfort woman... -
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 family female-mc friendship historical-fiction journey literary-fiction poc-mc -
When We Were Young & Brave by Hazel Gaynor
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsTheir motto was to be prepared, but nothing could prepare them for war. . .The New York Times bestselling author of The Girl Who Came Home sets her unforgettable new novel in China during WWII, inspired by true events surrounding the Japanese Army’s internment of teachers and children from a British-run missionary school.China, December 1941...Categorized as:
drama family female-mc friendship historical-fiction literary-fiction realistic survival -
Her Own Legacy by Debra Borchert
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsA Woman Fights for Her Legacy as the French Revolution Erupts Headstrong Countess Joliette de Verzat prefers secretly managing her family’s Loire Valley château and vineyards to the cut-throat politics of Versailles. For nearly three centuries, generations of families have toiled to produce Château de Verzat wines, and their homes and livelihoods depend upon Joliette...Categorized as:
historical-fiction female-mc literary-fiction family historical fiction feminism action-adventure -
Be Still the Water by Karen Emilson
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsFinalist 2019 Canadian Book Club AwardsShortlisted for the 2017 Margaret Laurence Award for Fiction2017 IPPY Silver Medal WinnerSet in 1906 along the unspoiled shores of Lake Manitoba, Be Still the Water brings us into the fold of the Gudmundsson Family—immigrants determined to begin life anew in the Icelandic farming and fishing community of Siglunes...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction family survival friendship female-mc fiction historical -
The Last Bookshop in London: A Novel of World War II by Madeline Martin
Rated: 4.15 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsInspired by the true World War II history of the few bookshops to survive the Blitz, The Last Bookshop in London is a timeless story of wartime loss, love and the enduring power of literature.August 1939: London prepares for war as Hitler’s forces sweep across Europe...Categorized as:
drama family female-mc friendship historical-fiction literary-fiction survival 20th-century -
The Secret Keeper of Jaipur by Alka Joshi
Rated: 4.15 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsIn New York Times bestselling author Alka Joshi’s intriguing new novel, henna artist Lakshmi arranges for her protégé, Malik, to intern at the Jaipur Palace in this tale rich in character, atmosphere, and lavish storytelling.It’s the spring of 1969, and Lakshmi, now married to Dr. Jay Kumar, directs the Healing Garden in Shimla. Malik has finished his private school education... -
Fiona's Lace by Patricia Polacco
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsAn Irish family stays together with the help of Fiona’s talent for making one-of-a-kind lace in this heartwarming immigration story from the New York Times bestselling creator of The Keeping Quilt.Many years ago, times were hard in all of Ireland, so when passage to America becomes available, Fiona and her family travel to Chicago...Categorized as:
historical-fiction family poc-mc survival poverty realistic children-books historical -
-
Ruby's Wish by Shirin Yim Bridges, Sophie Blackall
Rated: 4.23 of 5 stars · 13 ratingsRuby is unlike most little girls in old China. Instead of aspiring to get married, Ruby is determined to attend university when she grows up, just like the boys in her family... -
Golden Boy by Tara Sullivan
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsA shocking human rights tragedy brought to light in a story of heartbreak and triumph.Thirteen-year-old Habo has always been different— light eyes, yellow hair and white skin. Not the good brown skin his family has and not the white skin of tourists. Habo is strange and alone. His father, unable to accept Habo, abandons the family; his mother can scarcely look at him... -
A Thread Unbroken by Kay Bratt, Nancy Wu
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsMany believe that those who are destined to be together are connected by an invisible red thread. If that is so, the fates of Chai and Josi are weaved together and tied with a knot that cannot be broken.Chai has been the self-appointed protector of her best friend, Josi, since their toddler days...Categorized as:
drama family female-mc friendship historical-fiction journey literary-fiction poverty -
My Name Is Parvana by Deborah Ellis
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsOn a military base in post-Taliban Afghanistan, American authorities have just imprisoned a teenaged girl found in a bombed-out school. The army major thinks she may be a terrorist working with the Taliban. The girl does not respond to questions in any language and remains silent, even when she is threatened, harassed and mistreated over several days... -
The Explorer by Katherine Rundell
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsFred, Con, Lila, and Max are on their way back to England from Manaus when the plane they’re on crashes and the pilot dies upon landing. For days they survive alone, until Fred finds a map that leads them to a ruined city, and to a secret...Categorized as:
family friendship historical-fiction journey realistic secrets survival action-adventure -
Song of a Captive Bird by Jasmin Darznik
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsA spellbinding debut novel about the trailblazing poet Forugh Farrokhzhad, who defied Iranian society to find her voice and her destiny “Remember the flight, for the bird is mortal.”—Forugh Farrokhzad All through her childhood in Tehran, Forugh is told that Iranian daughters should be quiet and modest...Categorized as:
female-mc friendship historical-fiction journey literary-fiction poc-mc realistic 20th-century
Or - use our amazing romance book finder to get recommendations based on your favorite content tropes and themes. Mix and match at will.