Books like 'Absence'
Readers who enjoyed Absence by Peter Handke also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
contemporary 20th century supernatural literary-fiction
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Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling
Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars · 88 ratingsHarry Potter's life is miserable. His parents are dead and he's stuck with his heartless relatives, who force him to live in a tiny closet under the stairs. But his fortune changes when he receives a letter that tells him the truth about himself: he's a wizard. A mysterious visitor rescues him from his relatives and takes him to his new home, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry...Categorized as:
20th-century action-adventure audiobook boarding-school book british-isles children classics -
![Coffey's Hands by Stephen King]()
Coffey's Hands by Stephen King
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsWelcome back to E Block, the deadliest place this side of the electric chair, where assaults are a daily grind and miracles are about to happen. Paul Edgecombe has become increasingly curious about John Coffey, the brutal killer of two girls. But Coffey is about to reveal something extraordinary, and life on the Green Mile may never be the same again... -
![Different Seasons by Stephen King]()
Different Seasons by Stephen King
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 67 ratingsFrom the Magical Pen of Stephen King, Four Mesmerizing Novellas…“Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption”An unjustly imprisoned convict seeks a strange and startling revenge…the basis for the Best Picture Academy Award nominee The Shawshank Redemption...Categorized as:
literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure adult anthologies audiobook classics coming-of-age -
![The Quite Nice and Fairly Accurate Good Omens Script Book by Neil Gaiman]()
The Quite Nice and Fairly Accurate Good Omens Script Book by Neil Gaiman
Rated: 4.65 of 5 stars · 30 ratingsTHE QUITE NICE AND FAIRLY ACCURATE GOOD OMENS SCRIPT BOOK contains much that is new and revelatory and even several scenes that are not actually in the final television series... -
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![The Mouse on the Mile by Stephen King]()
The Mouse on the Mile by Stephen King
Rated: 4.48 of 5 stars · 36 ratingsCold Mountain Penitentiary has been home to many troubled souls. E Block, where the electric chair waits for those who must pay the ultimate price, has been home to the most troubled of all. And here, not all the evil is behind bars. Sometimes it carries a gun and wears a badge.Cold Mountain is a place of the damned, but it can also be a place where salvation comes from the most unlikely source... -
![Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling]()
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 86 ratingsThe Dursleys were so mean and hideous that summer that all Harry Potter wanted was to get back to the Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry. But just as he's packing his bags, Harry receives a warning from a strange, impish creature named Dobby who says that if Harry Potter returns to Hogwarts, disaster will strike.And strike it does...Categorized as:
20th-century action-adventure audiobook boarding-school book children classics coming-of-age -
![Matilda by Roald Dahl]()
Matilda by Roald Dahl
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 87 ratingsMatilda is a little girl who is far too good to be true. At age five-and-a-half she's knocking off double-digit multiplication problems and blitz-reading Dickens. Even more remarkably, her classmates love her even though she's a super-nerd and the teacher's pet. But everything is not perfect in Matilda's world. For starters she has two of the most idiotic, self-centered parents who ever lived...Categorized as:
20th-century action-adventure audiobook book british-isles bullying children children-books -
![The Shining by Stephen King, Campbell Scott]()
The Shining by Stephen King, Campbell Scott
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 89 ratingsFirst published in 1977, The Shining quickly became a benchmark in the literary career of Stephen King. This tale of a troubled man hired to care for a remote mountain resort over the winter, his loyal wife, and their uniquely gifted son slowly but steadily unfolds as secrets from the Overlook Hotel's past are revealed, and the hotel itself attempts to claim the very souls of the Torrance family... -
![The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas by Ursula K. Le Guin]()
The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas by Ursula K. Le Guin
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 41 ratingsSome inhabitants of a peaceful kingdom cannot tolerate the act of cruelty that underlies its happiness.The story "Omelas" was first published in New Dimensions 3, a hard-cover science fiction anthology edited by Robert Silverberg, in October 1973, and the following year it won Le Guin the prestigious Hugo Award for best short story...Categorized as:
literary-fiction 20th-century anthologies audiobook classics contemporary dark drama -
![It by Stephen King]()
It by Stephen King
Rated: 4.24 of 5 stars · 90 ratingsWelcome to Derry, Maine ...It’s a small city, a place as hauntingly familiar as your own hometown. Only in Derry the haunting is real ...They were seven teenagers when they first stumbled upon the horror. Now they are grown-up men and women who have gone out into the big world to gain success and happiness...Categorized as:
20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook book california classics coming-of-age -
![This Present Darkness by Frank E. Peretti]()
This Present Darkness by Frank E. Peretti
Rated: 4.23 of 5 stars · 40 ratings"For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places." Ephesians 6:12Ashton is just a typical small town... -
!['Salem's Lot by Stephen King, Jerry N. Uelsmann]()
'Salem's Lot by Stephen King, Jerry N. Uelsmann
Rated: 4.26 of 5 stars · 65 ratingsStephen King's second novel, the vampire bestseller 'Salem's Lot, tells the story of evil in small-town America. For the first time in a major trade edition, this terrifying novel is accompanied by previously unpublished material from King's archive, two short stories, and eerie photographs that bring King's fictional darkness and evil to vivid life... -
![Baptism of Fire by Andrzej Sapkowski]()
Baptism of Fire by Andrzej Sapkowski
Rated: 4.27 of 5 stars · 62 ratingsThe New York Times bestselling series that inspired the international hit video game: The Witcher The Wizards Guild has been shattered by a coup and, in the uproar, Geralt was seriously injured. The Witcher is supposed to be a guardian of the innocent, a protector of those in need, a defender against powerful and dangerous monsters that prey on men in dark times... -
![Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch by Terry Pratchett, Neil Gaiman]()
Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch by Terry Pratchett, Neil Gaiman
Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars · 95 ratings‘Armageddon only happens once, you know. They don’t let you go around again until you get it right.’People have been predicting the end of the world almost from its very beginning, so it’s only natural to be sceptical when a new date is set for Judgement Day...Categorized as:
20th-century action-adventure angels apocalyptic audiobook book british-isles classics -
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![The Waste Lands by Stephen King]()
The Waste Lands by Stephen King
Rated: 4.24 of 5 stars · 71 ratingsSeveral months have passed, and Roland’s two new tet-mates have become proficient gunslingers. Eddie Dean has given up heroin, and Odetta’s two selves have joined, becoming the stronger and more balanced personality of Susannah Dean. But while battling The Pusher in 1977 New York, Roland altered ka by saving the life of Jake Chambers, a boy who—in Roland’s where and when—has already died... -
![Autobiography of Red by Anne Carson]()
Autobiography of Red by Anne Carson
Rated: 4.32 of 5 stars · 40 ratingsThe award-winning poet Anne Carson reinvents a genre in Autobiography of Red, a stunning work that is both a novel and a poem, both an unconventional re-creation of an ancient Greek myth and a wholly original coming-of-age story set in the present...Categorized as:
literary-fiction 20th-century adult ancient-civilization audiobook black-mc book classics -
![Wizard and Glass by Stephen King]()
Wizard and Glass by Stephen King
Rated: 4.24 of 5 stars · 65 ratingsRoland, Eddie, Susannah, Jake, and Jake’s pet bumbler survive Blaine the Mono’s final crash, only to find themselves stranded in an alternate version of Topeka, Kansas, one that has been ravaged by the superflu virus. While following the deserted I-70 toward a distant glass palace, they hear the atonal squalling of a thinny, a place where the fabric of existence has almost entirely worn away... -
![The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty]()
The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty
Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars · 73 ratingsFour decades after it first terrified the world, William Peter Blatty’s The Exorcist is back! An extraordinary classic work of horror and dark paranormal suspense. In this stunning 40th Anniversary Edition, a desperate mother and two priests fight to free the soul of a little girl from a supernatural entity of pure malevolence... -
![Swan Song by Robert McCammon]()
Swan Song by Robert McCammon
Rated: 4.27 of 5 stars · 49 ratingsThe trade paper reissue of Robert McCammon's New York Times bestselling Swan Song.An ancient evil roams the desolate landscape of an America ravaged by nuclear war.He is the Man with the Scarlet Eye, a malevolent force that feeds on the dark desires of the countless followers he has gathered into his service. His only desire is to find a special child named Swan -- and destroy her...Categorized as:
20th-century action-adventure adult apocalyptic audiobook book classics contemporary -
![The Drawing of the Three by Stephen King]()
The Drawing of the Three by Stephen King
Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars · 71 ratingsWhile pursuing his quest for the Dark Tower through a world that is a nightmarishly distorted mirror image of our own, Roland, the last gunslinger, encounters three mysterious doorways on the beach. Each one enters into the life of a different person living in contemporary New York... -
![Hogfather by Terry Pratchett]()
Hogfather by Terry Pratchett
Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars · 64 ratingsSusan had never hung up a stocking . She'd never put a tooth under her pillow in the serious expectation that a dentally inclined fairy would turn up. It wasn't that her parents didn't believe in such things. They didn't need to believe in them. They know they existed. They just wished they didn't.There are those who believe and those who don't. Through the ages, superstition has had its uses...Categorized as:
20th-century action-adventure audiobook book children-books classics comedy contemporary -
![Harry Potter Series Box Set by J.K. Rowling]()
Harry Potter Series Box Set by J.K. Rowling
Rated: 4.74 of 5 stars · 74 ratingsOver 4000 pages of Harry Potter and his world, including all 7 books.All seven eBooks in the multi-award winning, internationally bestselling Harry Potter series, available as one download with stunning cover art by Olly Moss. Enjoy the stories that have captured the imagination of millions worldwide...Categorized as:
20th-century action-adventure audiobook book box-set children classics coming-of-age -
![La milla verde by Stephen King]()
La milla verde by Stephen King
Rated: 4.47 of 5 stars · 43 ratingsAt Cold Mountain Penitentiary, along the lonely stretch of cells known as the Green Mile, condemned killers such as 'Billy the Kid' Wharton and the possessed Eduard Delacroix await death strapped in 'Old Sparky'. But good or evil, innocent or guilty, prisoner or guard, none has ever seen the brutal likes of the new prisoner, John Coffey, sentenced to death for raping and murdering two young girls... -
![The Kindly Ones by Neil Gaiman, Teddy Kristiansen]()
The Kindly Ones by Neil Gaiman, Teddy Kristiansen
Rated: 4.59 of 5 stars · 49 ratingsThe Penultimate volume to the phenomenal Sandman series: distraught by the kidnapping and presumed death of her son, and believing Morpheus to be responsible, Lyta Hall calls the ancient wrath of the Furies down upon him. A former superheroine blames Morpheus for the death of her child and summons an ancient curse of vengeance against the Lord of Dream...Categorized as:
20th-century action-adventure anthologies classics comics contemporary dark dark-fantasy -
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![Brief Lives by Neil Gaiman, Peter Straub]()
Brief Lives by Neil Gaiman, Peter Straub
Rated: 4.56 of 5 stars · 53 ratingsDream's youngest sister, the loopy Delirium, convinces him to go on a quest for their missing brother, Destruction. But Dream may learn that the cost of finding his prodigal sibling is more than he can bear... -
![Season of Mists by Neil Gaiman, Todd Klein]()
Season of Mists by Neil Gaiman, Todd Klein
Rated: 4.53 of 5 stars · 58 ratingsTen thousand years ago, Morpheus condemned a woman who loved him to Hell. Now the other members of his immortal family, The Endless, have convinced the Dream King that this was an injustice. To make it right, Morpheus must return to Hell to rescue his banished love -- and Hell's ruler, the fallen angel Lucifer, has already sworn to destroy him.Collects THE SANDMAN #21-28... -
![The Green Mile by Stephen King]()
The Green Mile by Stephen King
Rated: 4.46 of 5 stars · 70 ratingsWhen it first appeared, one volume per month, Stephen King's THE GREEN MILE was an unprecedented publishing triumph: all six volumes ended up on the New York Times bestseller lists—simultaneously—and delighted millions of fans the world over.Welcome to Cold Mountain Penitentiary, home to the Depression-worn men of E Block... -
![The Wake by Neil Gaiman]()
The Wake by Neil Gaiman
Rated: 4.52 of 5 stars · 48 ratingsWhen a Dream ends, there is only one thing left to do...THE WAKEIn which the repercussions of the Death of Lord Morpheus are felt, and, in an epilogue, William Shakespeare learns the price of getting what you want...Categorized as:
20th-century action-adventure anthologies classics comics contemporary dark dark-fantasy -
![The Doll's House by Neil Gaiman, Todd Klein]()
The Doll's House by Neil Gaiman, Todd Klein
Rated: 4.43 of 5 stars · 69 ratingsA being who has existed since the beginning of the universe, Dream of the Endless rules over the realm of dreams. In The Doll's House, after a decades-long imprisonment, the Sandman has returned to find that a few dreams and nightmares have escaped to reality...Categorized as:
20th-century action-adventure audiobook classics comics contemporary dark dark-fantasy -
![A Game of You by Neil Gaiman, Todd Klein]()
A Game of You by Neil Gaiman, Todd Klein
Rated: 4.43 of 5 stars · 54 ratingsTake an apartment house, mix in a drag queen, a lesbian couple, some talking animals, a talking severed head, a confused heroine, and the deadly Cuckoo. Stir vigorously with a hurricane and Morpheus himself and you get this fifth installment of the Sandman series. This story stars Barbie, who first makes an appearance in The Doll's House, who here finds herself a princess in a vivid dreamworld...Categorized as:
literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure classics comics contemporary dark dark-fantasy
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