Books like 'Invitation to the Waltz'
Readers who enjoyed Invitation to the Waltz by Rosamond Lehmann also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
historical 20th century classics coming-of-age historical-fiction literary-fiction bildungsroman cozy family
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The Fortress by Meša Selimović
Rated: 4.67 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsA novel on 18th century Sarajevo under Ottoman rule, featuring a soldier returned from the wars. A Muslim, he marries a Christian girl who supports him while he dabbles in politics, eventually leading a raid to rescue a friend from jail... -
![The Devil to Pay in the Backlands by João Guimarães Rosa]()
The Devil to Pay in the Backlands by João Guimarães Rosa
Rated: 4.56 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsLively reminiscences of bandit warfare in the sertao, the still primitive Brazilian back country, told by a wise, retired outlaw chief. ~Worldcat.orgGrande Sertão: Veredas (Portuguese for "Great Backlands: Tracks"; English translation: The Devil to Pay in the Backlands) is a novel published in 1956 by the Brazilian writer João Guimarães Rosa...Categorized as:
classics historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century adult book fiction historical -
![Pather Panchali: Song of the Road by Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay]()
Pather Panchali: Song of the Road by Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay
Rated: 4.56 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsPather Panchali deals with the life of the Roy family, consisting of Harihar, Sarbajaya, Apu and Durga, both in their ancestral village Nishchindipur in rural Bengal and later when they move to Varanasi in search of a better life, as well as the anguish and loss they face during their travels... -
![The Orphan's Mother by Marion Kummerow]()
The Orphan's Mother by Marion Kummerow
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 12 ratings1945, the German-Polish border: With Nazis on one side and Soviet forces approaching on the other, a mother and her little boy are torn apart, and so begins an unforgettable tale of courage, heartbreak and motherhood in wartime.“If you ever get lost, Jacob, you need to stay where you are and wait, because I’ll come looking for you. And I’ll always find you... -
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![Kinfolk by Pearl S. Buck]()
Kinfolk by Pearl S. Buck
Rated: 4.36 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsKinfolk is the story of a Chinese family. Dr. Liang moves to America in search of a better life, but his children long to return to China. Each responds to their new life in China differently, providing rich insight into the struggles between Eastern and Western culture, and the differences between generations...Categorized as:
historical-fiction classics family literary-fiction fiction historical 20th-century politics -
![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:
classics coming-of-age family historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century book drama -
![Run with the Horsemen by Ferrol Sams]()
Run with the Horsemen by Ferrol Sams
Rated: 4.31 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsPorter Osborne Jr. is a precocious, sensitive, and rambunctious boy trying to make it through adolescence during the depression years. On a red-clay farm in Georgia he learns all there is to know about cotton chopping, hog killing, watermelon thumping, and mule handling. School provides a quick course in practical joking, schoolboy crushes, athletic glory, and clandestine sex...Categorized as:
classics coming-of-age family historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century animals anthologies -
![The Titan: by Theodore Dreiser]()
The Titan: by Theodore Dreiser
Rated: 4.31 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsIf there is a book that you want to read, but it hasn’t been written yet, you must be the one to write it...Categorized as:
classics historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century adult audiobook book fiction -
![The Settlers by Vilhelm Moberg]()
The Settlers by Vilhelm Moberg
Rated: 4.31 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsConsidered one of Sweden's greatest 20th-century writers, Vilhelm Moberg created Karl Oskar and Kristina Nilsson to portray the joys and tragedies of daily life for early Swedish pioneers in America. His consistently faithful depiction of these humble people's lives is a major strength of the Emigrant Novels...Categorized as:
classics family historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century adult audiobook book -
![A Mind at Peace by Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar]()
A Mind at Peace by Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar
Rated: 4.28 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsLibrarian note: Alternate cover edition of: 9780976395096Set on the eve of World War II, A Mind at Peace captures the anxieties of a Turkish family facing the difficult reality entrenched in the early republic, founded on the ashes of the Ottoman Empire in 1923...Categorized as:
classics historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century adult book fiction historical -
![Collected Short Stories: Volume 2 by W. Somerset Maugham]()
Collected Short Stories: Volume 2 by W. Somerset Maugham
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsThis final classic collection reveals Somerset Maugham's unique talent for exposing and exploring the bitter realities of human relationships in tales of love, infidelity, passion and prejudice. The stories range from "The Lotus Eater" where a man envisions a life of bliss in the Mediterranean, to the astringent tales of "The Outstation" and "The Back of Beyond" in Malaya and South East Asia...Categorized as:
classics historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century adult anthologies fiction historical -
![They Were Sisters by Dorothy Whipple]()
They Were Sisters by Dorothy Whipple
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 12 ratings'They Were Sisters is a compulsively readable but often harrowing novel by one of Persephone's best writers, who always manages to make the ordinary extraordinary,' writes Celia Brayfield. This, the second Dorothy Whipple novel we have republished as a Classic, is, like the others, apparently gentle but it has a very strong theme, in this case domestic violence...Categorized as:
classics historical-fiction literary-fiction family fiction historical female-author marriage -
![The Guermantes Way by Marcel Proust, D.J. Enright]()
The Guermantes Way by Marcel Proust, D.J. Enright
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 33 ratingsThe "Guermantes Way," in this the third volume of In Search of Lost Time, refers to the path that leads to the Duc and Duchesse de Guermantes's chateau near Combray... -
![Uncle Fred in the Springtime by P.G. Wodehouse]()
Uncle Fred in the Springtime by P.G. Wodehouse
Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsPongo Twistleton is in a state of financial embarrassment, again. Uncle Fred, meanwhile, has been asked by Lord Emsworth to foil a plot to steal the Empress, his prize pig. Along with Polly Pott (daughter of old Mustard), they form a deputation to Blandings Castle, bent on doing a "bit of good"... -
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![The Rose Stone by Teresa Crane]()
The Rose Stone by Teresa Crane
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsA dazzling jewel holds the key to a prosperous new life… or total ruin The Rose Stone. A diamond, gained through betrayal and blood, upon which the Rosenberg family's fortunes were founded and whose price is yet to be paid. Kiev, 1875: Josef Rosenberg narrowly escapes death from a Cossack raid, rescuing Tanya, the youngest daughter of his old friend Boris Anatov...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction family romance historical 20th-century fiction epic -
![Margot's Secret by Roberta Kagan]()
Margot's Secret by Roberta Kagan
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsAmid the chaos of Hitler's conquest of Europe, a family teeters on the edge of utter destruction.Trudy is still obsessed with her sister's husband, Max. But Max is torn between his loyalty to his wife, Margot, and giving in to Trudy, who might turn him in for the murder of her husband, the SS officer Rudolph...Categorized as:
historical-fiction family literary-fiction ww2 mystery historical fiction 20th-century -
![The Girl in the Photo by Catherine Hokin]()
The Girl in the Photo by Catherine Hokin
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsTheresienstadt Concentration Camp, 1944. ‘I have to go away, my darling. Please, be brave, stay alive, for me.’ Mama’s voice breaks. The little girl tries to stop the forbidden tears from falling, as the train takes her mother, and she is left alone…Berlin, six years later. Hanni Winter glows with pride as she shows her new husband around her first solo photography exhibition...Categorized as:
coming-of-age historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century adult book female-mc fiction -
![Buddenbrooks: The Decline of a Family by Thomas Mann]()
Buddenbrooks: The Decline of a Family by Thomas Mann
Rated: 4.15 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsBuddenbrooks, first published in Germany in 1901, when Mann was only twenty-six, has become a classic of modern literature.It is the story of four generations of a wealthy bourgeois family in northern Germany facing the advent of modernity; in an uncertain new world, the family’s bonds and traditions begin to disintegrate...Categorized as:
bildungsroman classics family historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century adult audiobook -
![Katherine Wentworth by D.E. Stevenson]()
Katherine Wentworth by D.E. Stevenson
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsA pretty, courageous young widow, faced with the task of bringing up three children and making her way alone in the world, is the appealing heroine of this touching love story executed with D.E. Stevenson's characteristic freshness and charm... -
![The Traveller's Daughter by Michelle Vernal]()
The Traveller's Daughter by Michelle Vernal
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsROSA’S PAST IS HER PANDORA’S BOX, AND THE LID IS ABOUT TO BE LIFTED … ‘If you lie down with dogs you’ll rise with fleas’ – Irish Proverb Rosa Sorenson’s conversation was often peppered with sayings from her homeland. It was these conversational clangers that gave her daughter Kitty the only clue as to a childhood her mother refused to speak of...Categorized as:
family historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century adult book female-mc fiction -
![Madame by Antoni Libera]()
Madame by Antoni Libera
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsThe comic "sentimental education" of a schoolboy who falls in love with his French teacher. Madame is an unexpected gem: a novel about Poland during the grim years of Soviet-controlled mediocrity, which nonetheless sparkles with light and warmth...Categorized as:
classics coming-of-age historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century adult audiobook book -
![Someone at a Distance by Dorothy Whipple]()
Someone at a Distance by Dorothy Whipple
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsWritten in 1953, the last book by novelist Dorothy Whipple, Someone at a Distance is a story about the destruction of a marriage. Ellen is “that unfashionable creature, a happy housewife” who loves her life in the English countryside. She tends her garden, dotes on her children, and, when she remembers, visits her cantankerous mother-in-law...Categorized as:
classics family historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century adult book female-author -
![The Kudzu Queen by Mimi Herman]()
The Kudzu Queen by Mimi Herman
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 7 ratings“Funny, sad, and tender… Mimi Herman has written a novel that possesses a true and hard won understanding of the South.” —David Sedaris, author of Happy-Go-Lucky Fifteen-year-old Mattie Lee Watson dreams of men, not boys. So when James T...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction family coming-of-age fiction historical audiobook 21st-century -
![Collected Stories by Frank O'Connor]()
Collected Stories by Frank O'Connor
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsThe definitive collection of short stories by a master of the form and one of Ireland's most celebrated authorsThis indispensable volume contains the best of Frank O’Connor's short fiction. From “Guests of the Nation” to “The Mad Lomasneys” to “First Confession” to “My Oedipus Complex,” these tales of Ireland have touched generations of readers the world over and placed O'Connor alongside W. B...Categorized as:
classics historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century adult anthologies fiction historical -
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![The Valley Of Decision by Marcia Davenport]()
The Valley Of Decision by Marcia Davenport
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsOn the eve of World War II writer Marcia Davenport, best known for her biography of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, spent several years in Pittsburgh, her imagination caught by the drama of American industry. In 1942, Charles Scribner’s sons published her Pittsburgh novel, The Valley of Decision... -
![The Family Moskat by Isaac Bashevis Singer]()
The Family Moskat by Isaac Bashevis Singer
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsThe vanished way of life of Eastern European Jews in the early part of the twentieth century is the subject of this extraordinary novel. All the strata of this complex society were populated by powerfully individual personalities, and the whole community pulsated with life and vitality... -
![The Priory by Dorothy Whipple]()
The Priory by Dorothy Whipple
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsThis 1939 country-house novel is set at Saunby Priory, a large house somewhere in England which has seen better times. We are shown the two Marwood girls, who are nearly grown-up, their father, the widower Major Marwood, and their aunt; then, as soon as their lives have been described, the Major proposes marriage to a woman much younger than himself - and many changes begin...Categorized as:
classics family historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century adult book female-author -
![Daddy Was a Number Runner by Louise Meriwether, Nellie Y. McKay]()
Daddy Was a Number Runner by Louise Meriwether, Nellie Y. McKay
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsThis modern classic is “a tough, tender, bitter novel of a black girl struggling towards womanhood” in 1930s Harlem—with a foreword by James Baldwin ( Publishers Weekly ). Depression-era Harlem is home for twelve-year-old Francie Coffin and her family, and it’s both a place of refuge and the source of untold dangers for her and her poor, working class family...Categorized as:
historical-fiction classics coming-of-age literary-fiction family bildungsroman fiction young-adult -
![Explosion in a Cathedral by Alejo Carpentier]()
Explosion in a Cathedral by Alejo Carpentier
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsThis fine, somber novel, by the author of the widely acclaimed The Lost Steps, deals with the French Revolution, chiefly in the Caribbean...Categorized as:
bildungsroman classics historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century adult book fiction -
![A World for Julius by Alfredo Bryce Echenique]()
A World for Julius by Alfredo Bryce Echenique
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsJulius was born in a mansion on Salaverry Avenue, directly across from the old San Felipe Hippodrome. Life-size Disney characters and cowboy movie heroes romp across the walls of his nursery. Out in the carriage house, his great-grandfather’s ornate, moldering carriage takes him on imaginary adventures...Categorized as:
classics coming-of-age historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century adult book drama -
![Climates by André Maurois]()
Climates by André Maurois
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsWritten in 1928 by French biographer and novelist Andre Maurois, Climates became a best seller in France and all over Europe. The first 100,000 copies printed of its Russian translation sold out the day they appeared in Moscow bookstores... -
![Ellan Vannin by Lyn Andrews]()
Ellan Vannin by Lyn Andrews
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsLife was not easy for widowed George Vannin and his young daughter but somehow George had raised the child alone and Ellan adored her father. She was ten when the shaft at Foxdale Mine collapsed, and her father never came up. From then on she lived with Aunt Maud, a dour woman with a quick temper... -
![The Less You Know The Sounder You Sleep by Juliet Butler]()
The Less You Know The Sounder You Sleep by Juliet Butler
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsBased on a true story, The Less You Know the Sounder You Sleep is a tale of survival and self-determination, innocence and lies.‘We’re waiting. I squeeze my eyes shut and dig my fingers into Masha’s neck where I’m holding her. She digs hers into mine. The curtains slowly open. I can’t see anything because the spotlight is on us, bright as anything and blinding me, but I can hear the gasp go up...Categorized as:
classics coming-of-age family historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century adult book -
![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 family historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook -
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![Listening Valley by D.E. Stevenson]()
Listening Valley by D.E. Stevenson
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsNothing will stop Tonia from finding a home of her own Tonia has lived all her life in the quiet Scottish countryside and can't imagine herself anywhere else. But when her beloved older sister gets married and moves away, Tonia begins to wonder if there aren't bigger things on the horizon for her too...Categorized as:
classics cozy family historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century adult audiobook -
![The Manor by Isaac Bashevis Singer]()
The Manor by Isaac Bashevis Singer
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsThis novel portrays the difficulties encountered by traditionalist Jews coming to terms with the social changes that rocked Poland in the late 19th century. The central figure of the novel is Calman Jacoby, who stands between the old and the new, unable to embrace either whole-heartedly...Categorized as:
classics historical-fiction literary-fiction family fiction historical 20th-century book -
![Green Days by the River by Michael Anthony]()
Green Days by the River by Michael Anthony
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsA novel about a boy on the edge of adult responsibilities, this is the story of Shell - a Trinidadian boy wtho moves to a new village and meets two girls...Categorized as:
literary-fiction coming-of-age classics bildungsroman fiction young-adult high-school poc-author -
![Winter Wheat by Mildred Walker]()
Winter Wheat by Mildred Walker
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsFor this Bison Books edition, James Welch, the acclaimed author of Winter in the Blood (1986) and other novels, introduces Mildred Walker's vivid heroine, Ellen Webb, who lives in the dryland wheat country of central Montana during the early 1940s. He writes, "It is a story about growing up, becoming a woman, mentally, emotionally, spiritually, within the space of a year and a half...Categorized as:
bildungsroman classics coming-of-age family historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century book -
![Where the Air Is Clear by Carlos Fuentes]()
Where the Air Is Clear by Carlos Fuentes
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratings"Where the Air Is Clear," Carlos Fuentes's first novel, is an unsparing portrayal of Mexico City's upper class. Departing from a traditional linear narrative, Fuentes overlays Mexican myths onto contemporary settings, showing that even the rich and powerful must succumb to the indomitable spirit of Mexico, which undermines all institutions and shapes all destinies...Categorized as:
classics historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century adult book fiction historical -
![You Can't Go Home Again by Thomas Wolfe]()
You Can't Go Home Again by Thomas Wolfe
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsGeorge Webber has written a successful novel about his family and hometown. When he returns to that town he is shaken by the force of the outrage and hatred that greets him. Family and friends feel naked and exposed by the truths they have seen in his book, and their fury drives him from his home...Categorized as:
classics coming-of-age family historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century adult book -
![The Mother by Pearl S. Buck]()
The Mother by Pearl S. Buck
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsWithin this novel Ms. Buck paints the portrait of a poor woman living in a remote village whose joys are few and hardships are many. As the ancient traditions, which she bases her philosophies upon, begin to collide with the new ideals of the communist era, this peasant woman must find a balance between them and deal with the consequences... -
![The Triumph of the Lions by Stefania Auci]()
The Triumph of the Lions by Stefania Auci
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsKnown as the Lions of Sicily, the Florios have officially arrived. Once rich only in ambition, the family has amassed a fortune that includes palaces, factories, ships, silks, and jewels. The city of Sicily admires them, honors them and, above all, fears them...Categorized as:
historical-fiction family literary-fiction romance fiction historical audiobook 20th-century -
![Tandia by Bryce Courtenay]()
Tandia by Bryce Courtenay
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsTandia sat waiting anxiously for the fight to begin between the man she loved the most in the world and the man she hated the most in the world.Tandia is a child of Africa: half Indian, half African, beautiful and intelligent, she is only sixteen when she is first brutalised by the police. Her fear of the white man leads her to join the black resistance movement, where she trains as a terrorist... -
![Reunion by Fred Uhlman]()
Reunion by Fred Uhlman
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsA daring novella about the loss of innocence in pre-war Germany.Reunion is the story of intense and innocent devotion between two young men growing up in "the soft, serene, bluish hills of Swabia," and the sinister (but all too mundane) forces that end both their friendship and their childhood.The year is 1932... -
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![Thrush Green by Miss Read]()
Thrush Green by Miss Read
Rated: 4.12 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsMiss Read's charming chronicles of small-town life have achieved an almost legendary popularity worldwide by offering a welcome return to a gentler time and "wit, humor, and wisdom in equal measure" (Cleveland Plain Dealer). This volume introduces Thrush Green, the neighboring village to Fairacre: its blackthorn bushes, thatch-roofed cottages, enchanting landscape, and jumble sales...Categorized as:
classics cozy family historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century adult audiobook -
![No Great Mischief by Alistair MacLeod]()
No Great Mischief by Alistair MacLeod
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsAlistair MacLeod musters all of the skill and grace that have won him an international following to give us No Great Mischief, the story of a fiercely loyal family and the tradition that drives it.Generations after their forebears went into exile, the MacDonalds still face seemingly unmitigated hardships and cruelties of life...Categorized as:
classics coming-of-age family historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century adult book -
![Arturo's Island by Elsa Morante]()
Arturo's Island by Elsa Morante
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsOn a small Island in the Tyrrhenian Sea there lives a boy as innocent as a seabird. Arturo's mother is dead; his father away. Black-clad women care for him, give him the freedom to come and go as he likes. Then the father returns with a new wife, Nunziata, a girl barely older than Arturo. At first hatred and contempt are all the boy feels for his stepmother... -
![Babylon Revisited and Other Stories by F. Scott Fitzgerald, James L.W. West III]()
Babylon Revisited and Other Stories by F. Scott Fitzgerald, James L.W. West III
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsWritten between 1920 and 1937, when F. Scott Fitzgerald was at the height of his creative powers, these ten lyric tales represent some of the author's finest fiction...Categorized as:
classics family historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century adult anthologies audiobook -
![The Trees by Conrad Richter]()
The Trees by Conrad Richter
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsThe Trees is a moving novel of the beginning of the American trek to the west. Toward the close of the eighteenth century, the land west of the Alleghenies and north of the Ohio River was an unbroken sea of trees. Beneath them the forest trails were dark, silent, and lonely, brightened only by a few lost beams of sunlight... -
![The Keeper of Secrets by Julie Thomas]()
The Keeper of Secrets by Julie Thomas
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsBeautiful and mysterious, this debut novel follows a priceless violin across five decades-from WWII to Stalinist Russia to the gilded international concert halls of today-and reveals the loss, love, and secrets of the families who owned it.A priceless violin. A family torn apart. A decision that could change everything.Berlin, 1939. Fourteen year old Simon Horowitz is awash in a world of music...Categorized as:
coming-of-age family historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century book drama fiction
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