Books like 'Shantytown'
Readers who enjoyed Shantytown by César Aira also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
contemporary mystery university noir literary-fiction journey classics hard-boiled
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Ciganin, ali najljepši by Kristian Novak
Rated: 4.64 of 5 stars · 14 ratings"Ciganin, ali najljepši" Kristiana Novaka jest strogo žanrovski gledano krimić, s enigmom, brutalnim ubojstvima nepoznatih – jer leševe bez lica teško je identificirati – i istragom, i lijep pokazatelj da se stvari ne smiju strogo gledati, ni suditi, jer je krimić koliko i "Zločin i kazna"... -
![Ficciones by Jorge Luis Borges]()
Ficciones by Jorge Luis Borges
Rated: 4.43 of 5 stars · 49 ratingsThe seventeen pieces in Ficciones demonstrate the whirlwind of Borges's genius and mirror the precision and potency of his intellect and inventiveness, his piercing irony, his skepticism, and his obsession with fantasy...Categorized as:
classics journey literary-fiction university 20th-century action-adventure adult anthologies -
![Kill Them Cold by J.M. Dalgliesh]()
Kill Them Cold by J.M. Dalgliesh
Rated: 4.39 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsOne lie requires commitment... Multiple lies require dedication...When the remains of a young woman are discovered near to Branodunum, a Roman archaeological site on the Norfolk coast, DI Tom Janssen and his team must work to discover who she was and how she came to be buried there.The area is steeped in myth and folklore, a site excavated many times over the years... -
![Death Leaves a Shadow: A Marlowe Black Mystery by Gabriel F.W. Koch]()
Death Leaves a Shadow: A Marlowe Black Mystery by Gabriel F.W. Koch
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsThen comes the brutal announcement that his pregnant fianc�e has committed suicide. Marlowe simply cannot accept the official verdict, and as anguish and rage replace the love he once felt, he is driven by a madness that forces him to question his own integrity while he hunts an elusive killer."Koch is an author who has his priorities in order... -
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![Poison, Shadow, and Farewell by Javier Marías]()
Poison, Shadow, and Farewell by Javier Marías
Rated: 4.42 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsPoison, Shadow, and Farewell, with its heightened tensions between meditations and noir narrative, with its wit and and ever deeper forays into the mysteries of consciousness, brings to a stunning finale Marías’s three-part Your Face Tomorrow... -
![The Flaw by Antonis Samarakis]()
The Flaw by Antonis Samarakis
Rated: 4.31 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsA man is seized from his afternoon drink at the Café Sport by two agents of the Regime - though what exactly he is suspected of we do not know, and neither, apparently, does he.What follows is a journey by car toward Special Branch headquarters, and the interrogation that undoubtedly awaits him there... -
![Tell No Tales by J.M. Dalgliesh]()
Tell No Tales by J.M. Dalgliesh
Rated: 4.28 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsIn a world of lies, one truth remains. Dead men tell no tales…When the body of an unidentified man is found at the foot of Sheringham cliffs with injuries inconsistent with a fall, DI Tom Janssen must piece together his final days to determine how he fell to his death... or who pushed him...The investigation quickly reveals a network of locals with ties to the victim, but as for the man himself.. -
![The Raven Song by J.M. Dalgliesh]()
The Raven Song by J.M. Dalgliesh
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsOne song for the dying... sung by the dead...When the body of a young woman is discovered at the home she shared with her disabled daughter, DI Tom Janssen and his team must investigate the circumstances surrounding her death.The woman was a single mother, well regarded and popular among the group she frequented, but she had a chequered past... a life she kept secret from those around her.. -
![Final Breath by Robert F. Barker]()
Final Breath by Robert F. Barker
Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsA monstrous killer, safely behind bars – But just how safe is, ‘safe’? An archive of debauchery and murder, poised to ruin reputations, careers, lives A detective running out of time to find what he seeks Eighteen months on from the case that nearly cost him his life, only DCI Jamie Carver knows the incredible extent of the Worshipper Killer’s network of depravity – and the storm that will...Categorized as:
hard-boiled literary-fiction noir action-adventure adult book conspiracies contemporary -
![Bury Your Past by J.M. Dalgliesh]()
Bury Your Past by J.M. Dalgliesh
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsA secret worth dying for is a secret worth killing… When a violent storm uncovers the remains of an unknown young woman, long buried among the sand dunes, DI Tom Janssen must piece together fragmentary evidence to determine how she came to be there... -
![Hairspray and Lighter by J. Jupes]()
Hairspray and Lighter by J. Jupes
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsAll Detective Eckerly wanted to do that day was place a bet on a horse. He didn't expect Darlene Johnson to walk into his office with her chocolate box. And certainly didn't expect what followed. . Book One of the Detectives That Don't Fit Series... -
![Dead to Me by J.M. Dalgliesh]()
Dead to Me by J.M. Dalgliesh
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsLet go of your past... or it will be the death of you...When a man's body is discovered crammed into the boot of an abandoned car in a remote location, DI Tom Janssen and his team must unpick his life to find out how he came to be there.The victim was a local man, popular with some although hated by others, and he had a habit of making enemies, enemies that any sane man would seek to avoid... -
![The Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolaño]()
The Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolaño
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 28 ratingsFirst published in Spanish in 1998, The Savage Detectives was immediately hailed as a critical success, wining the Herralde Prize and the Romulo Gallegos Prize. But with the 2007 English-language translation the book became more than a bestseller -- it began the global sensation of Bolanomania. New Year's Eve 1975, Mexico City...Categorized as:
classics journey literary-fiction noir university 20th-century action-adventure adult -
![The Long Goodbye by Raymond Chandler]()
The Long Goodbye by Raymond Chandler
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 28 ratingsDown-and-out drunk Terry Lennox has a problem: his millionaire wife is dead and he needs to get out of LA fast. So he turns to the only friend he can trust: private investigator Philip Marlowe. Marlowe is willing to help a man down on his luck, but later Lennox commits suicide in Mexico and things start to turn nasty... -
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![Dance and Dream by Javier Marías]()
Dance and Dream by Javier Marías
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsYour Face Tomorrow, Javier Marias's dazzling unfolding magnum opus, is a novel in three parts, which began with Volume One: Fever and Spear. Described as a "brilliant dark novel" (Scotland on Sunday), the book now takes a wild swerve in its new volume. Skillfully constructed around a central perplexing and mesmerizing scene in a nightclub, Volume Two: Dance and Dream again features Jacques Deza... -
![Anima by Wajdi Mouawad]()
Anima by Wajdi Mouawad
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsA man, returning home one evening after work, discovers his wife brutally murdered, lying in a pool of blood. A cat, their cat, a domesticated animal, tells the man the macabre tale of what happened, and in the second chapter, birds at the window continue the tale... -
![Narraciones Extraordinarias by Edgar Allan Poe, Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra]()
Narraciones Extraordinarias by Edgar Allan Poe, Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsEdgar Allan Poe created some of the finest literature the world has ever known. His name conjures up thoughts of hearts beating long after their owners are dead, of disease and plague amid wealth, of love that extends beyond the grave, and of black ravens who utter only one word. Poe perfected the psychological thriller... -
![Journey by Moonlight by Antal Szerb]()
Journey by Moonlight by Antal Szerb
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsA major classic of 1930s literature, Antal Szerb's Journey by Moonlight (Utas és Holdvilág) is the fantastically moving and darkly funny story of a bourgeois businessman torn between duty and desire.'On the train, everything seemed fine. The trouble began in Venice ...'Mihály has dreamt of Italy all his life...Categorized as:
classics journey literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook book -
![Blow-Up and Other Stories by Julio Cortázar]()
Blow-Up and Other Stories by Julio Cortázar
Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars · 30 ratingsA young girl spends her summer vacation in a country house where a tiger roams . . . A man reading a mystery finds out too late that he is the murderer's victim . .Categorized as:
classics literary-fiction university 20th-century adult anthologies contemporary fiction -
![The Overcoat, and Other Tales of Good and Evil by Nikolai Gogol]()
The Overcoat, and Other Tales of Good and Evil by Nikolai Gogol
Rated: 4.26 of 5 stars · 23 ratingsWith the publication of "The Overcoat" in 1842, Nikolai Gogol (1809-1852) inaugurated a new chapter in Russian literature, in which the underdog and social misfit is treated not as a figure of fun or an object of charity, but as a human being with as much right to happiness as anybody else...Categorized as:
classics literary-fiction university action-adventure adult anthologies contemporary fiction -
![Write to Kill by Daniel Pennac]()
Write to Kill by Daniel Pennac
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 29 ratingsBenjamin Malaussene is a downtrodden publisher at Vendetta Press. Treated as a scapegoat by Queen Zabo, the redoubtable doyenne of publishing, he has finally had enough. After one row too many with her, he resigns, only to have Zabo offer him a starring role. All he has to do is impersonate the world's best-loved but hitherto anonymous author, J.L.B... -
![And Come Day's End: A Michael McKaybees Mystery by Gabriel F.W. Koch]()
And Come Day's End: A Michael McKaybees Mystery by Gabriel F.W. Koch
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsLenny Oliver’s secrets ended his life—lies he dressed up in detailed and occasionally elaborate finery. But only the secret holder is fooled in the long run, as Lenny discovered in a dark alley in the Wall Street neighborhood. Michael McKaybees is a private investigator working in New York’s five boroughs... -
![Cemetery Nights by Stephen Dobyns]()
Cemetery Nights by Stephen Dobyns
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsFrom the fabulous storytelling of our dreams to the mute passions of domestic life, Stephen Dobyns explores a full range of human experience in these narrative poems... -
![Memento & Following by Christopher J. Nolan]()
Memento & Following by Christopher J. Nolan
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsChristopher Nolan's Memento is an intricate, original, fascinating thriller, hailed by Philip French of the Observer as 'one of the year's most exciting pictures'. Its protagonist Leonard (Guy Pearce) is a puzzle, even to himself. He sports the trappings of an expensive lifestyle, yet he lives in seedy motels, and seems to be on a desperate mission of revenge to find the man who murdered his wife... -
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![High Lonesome: Selected Stories, 1966-2006 by Joyce Carol Oates]()
High Lonesome: Selected Stories, 1966-2006 by Joyce Carol Oates
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsAn unprecedented collection of the best of Joyce Carol Oates's short stories combined with eleven new storiesNo other writer can match the impressive oeuvre of Joyce Carol Oates, and High Lonesome: Selected Stories, 1966-2006 gathers stories from Oates's seminal collections, including The Wheel of Love (1970), Marriages and Infidelities (1972), and Heat (1991), arranged by decade...Categorized as:
classics literary-fiction adult anthologies contemporary female-author fiction gothic -
![The Lost Get-Back Boogie by James Lee Burke]()
The Lost Get-Back Boogie by James Lee Burke
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsIry Paret's done his time -- two years for manslaughter in Louisiana's Angola State Penitentiary. Now the war vet and blues singer is headed to Montana, where he hopes to live clean working on a ranch owned by the father of his prison pal, Buddy Riordan. In prison, Iry tinkered with a song -- "The Lost Get-Back Boogie" -- that never came out quite right... -
![Chinaman by Shehan Karunatilaka]()
Chinaman by Shehan Karunatilaka
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsWinner of Commonwealth Book Prize,AsiaChinaman is the story of W.G. Karunasena, a fictional retired sports writer and major alcoholic. In his last days, Karunasena decides to make a documentary on Sri Lankan cricket, with special focus on Pradeep S. Mathew, a forgotten Sri Lankan spin bowler. Karunasena, along with his friend Ari, sets off on a journey to find him...Categorized as:
literary-fiction journey classics fiction sports contemporary humor historical-fiction -
![Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? by Joyce Carol Oates]()
Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? by Joyce Carol Oates
Rated: 4.18 of 5 stars · 30 ratingsThe sixties and seventies witnessed the emergence of Joyce Carol Oates as one of America's foremost writers of the short story. In 1962, 'The Fine White Mist of Winter, ' composed when the author was 19 years old, appeared in The Literary Review and was selected for both the O. Henry Awards and Best American Short Stories of that year...Categorized as:
classics literary-fiction university 20th-century adult anthologies coming-of-age contemporary -
![The Dead Girls by Jorge Ibargüengoitia]()
The Dead Girls by Jorge Ibargüengoitia
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsThis is the first appearance in English of a Mexican novelist of enormous talent. His brilliant novel is based on fact: the discovery in the yard of a small-town brothel of the corpses of six prostitutes... -
![Shadowless by Hasan Ali Toptaş]()
Shadowless by Hasan Ali Toptaş
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsHasan Ali Toptas exquisitely weaves an enigmatic, mystical tale of memory and identity, displacement and belonging 'I'm a barber,' he said. 'I come from afar. Across lands already forgotten…' In an Anatolian village forgotten both by God and the government, the muhtar has been elected leader for the sixteenth successive year... -
![The Most Secret Memory of Men by Mohamed Mbougar Sarr]()
The Most Secret Memory of Men by Mohamed Mbougar Sarr
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsA gripping literary mystery in the vein of Bolaño’s Savage Detectives , this coming-of-age novel unravels the fascinating life of a maligned Black author, based on Yambo Ouologuem.The first Sub-Saharan African winner of France’s top literary prize, the Goncourt.In 2018, Diégane Latyr Faye, a young Senegalese writer in Paris, discovers a legendary book from the 1930s, The Labyrinth of Inhumanity...Categorized as:
literary-fiction journey fiction contemporary 21st-century mystery historical-fiction audiobook -
![Selected Poems & Tales by Edgar Allan Poe, Neil Gaiman]()
Selected Poems & Tales by Edgar Allan Poe, Neil Gaiman
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsFor more than a century-and-a-half, Edgar Allan Poe's poems and tales have thrilled readers with chilling accounts of matters mysterious and macabre... -
![Night Games: And Other Stories and Novellas by Arthur Schnitzler, John Simon]()
Night Games: And Other Stories and Novellas by Arthur Schnitzler, John Simon
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsThese artful new translations of nine of Schnitzler's most important stories and novellas reinforce the Viennese author's remarkable achievement... -
![Never Come Morning by Nelson Algren]()
Never Come Morning by Nelson Algren
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsNever Come Morning is unique among the novels of Algren. The author's only romance, the novel concerns Brun Bicek, a would-be pub from Chicago's Northwest side, and Steffi, the woman who shares his dream while living his nightmare. "It is an unusual and brilliant book," said The New York Times. "A bold scribbling upon the wall for comfortable Americans to ponder and digest... -
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![The Magdalen Martyrs by Ken Bruen]()
The Magdalen Martyrs by Ken Bruen
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsJack Taylor is walking the delicate edge of a sobriety he doesn't trust when his phone rings. He's in debt to a Galway tough named Bill Cassell, what the locals call a "hard man." Bill did Jack a big favor a while back; the trouble is, he never lets a favor go unreturned... -
![Hard Candy by Andrew Vachss]()
Hard Candy by Andrew Vachss
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsIn this mercilessly compelling thriller, Burke—the private eye, sting artist, and occasional hit man who metes out a cruelly ingenious vengeance on those who victimize children—is up against a soft-spoken messiah, who may be rescuing runaways or recruiting them for his own hideous purposes... -
![The Hustler by Walter Tevis]()
The Hustler by Walter Tevis
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsThe legendary novel from the bestselling author of The Queen's Gambit about an ambitious pool shark who discovers what it takes to make the big time. The basis for the acclaimed film starring Paul Newman. To the strangers he plays in darkened pool halls, at first "Fast" Eddie Felson seems like a sloppy pool player with bright eyes and an extraordinary grin... -
![I'm Not Stiller by Max Frisch]()
I'm Not Stiller by Max Frisch
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsArrested and imprisoned in a small Swiss town, a prisoner begins this book with an exclamation: "I'm not Stiller!" He claims that his name is Jim White, that he has been jailed under false charges and under the wrong identity...Categorized as:
classics journey literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure adult book contemporary -
![Light of the World by James Lee Burke]()
Light of the World by James Lee Burke
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsJames Lee Burke introduces his most evil character yet in the twentieth thriller in the bestselling Dave Robicheaux series.A New York Times bestselling author many times over, James Lee Burke is a two-time Edgar Award-winner whose every book is cause for excitement, especially those in the wildly popular Dave Robicheaux series...Categorized as:
hard-boiled literary-fiction noir action-adventure adult audiobook book contemporary -
![Clockers by Richard Price]()
Clockers by Richard Price
Rated: 4.05 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsAward-winning author Richard Price here offers a viscerally affecting and accomplished portrait of inner-city America.Veteran homicide detective Rocco Klein's passion for the job gave way long ago... -
![Set in Darkness by Ian Rankin]()
Set in Darkness by Ian Rankin
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsOn the eve of the first Scottish parliament in three hundred years, Edinburgh is a city rife with political passions and expectations. Queensbury House, the home of Scotland's new rulers, falls in the middle of John Rebus' turf, keeping him busy with ceremonial tasks... -
![Plays, Prose Writings, and Poems by Oscar Wilde]()
Plays, Prose Writings, and Poems by Oscar Wilde
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 8 ratings(Book Jacket Status: Not Jacketed)Introduction by Terry EagletonOscar Wilde has been acknowledged as the wittiest writer in the English language. This collection proves that he was also one of the most versatile... -
![The Scapegoat by Daniel Pennac]()
The Scapegoat by Daniel Pennac
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsPathetic, contrite and hapless, Benjamin is nonetheless the scapegoat at The Store: there is nothing for which he cannot be blamed. While his blunders remain minor, most of his unwitting victims can find it in their hearts to forgive him, but when violent explosions begin to follow him around, he inevitably becomes the prime suspect... -
![A Heart So White by Javier Marías]()
A Heart So White by Javier Marías
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsAn alternate cover of this ISBN can be found here.Javier Marías's A Heart So White chronicles with unnerving insistence the relentless power of the past. Juan knows little of the interior life of his father Ranz; but when Juan marries, he begins to consider the past anew, and begins to ponder what he doesn't really want to know...Categorized as:
classics journey literary-fiction university 20th-century action-adventure adult book -
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![Sleepwalking Land by Mia Couto]()
Sleepwalking Land by Mia Couto
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsAs the civil war rages in 1980s Mozambique, an old man and a young boy, refugees from the war, seek shelter in a burnt-out bus. Among the effects of a dead passenger, they come across a set of notebooks that tell of his life. As the boy reads the story to his elderly companion, this story and their own develop in tandem...Categorized as:
classics journey literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure adult book contemporary -
![Cosmos by Witold Gombrowicz]()
Cosmos by Witold Gombrowicz
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsA dark, quasi-detective novel, Cosmos follows the classic noir motif to explore the arbitrariness of language, the joke of human freedom, and man’s attempt to bring order out of chaos in his psychological life.Published in 1965, Cosmos is the last novel by Witold Gombrowicz (1904–1969) and his most somber and multifaceted work... -
![The Devil Knows You're Dead by Lawrence Block]()
The Devil Knows You're Dead by Lawrence Block
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsThe police think yuppie lawyer Glenn Holtzmann was randomly blown away by a deranged derelict. The accused's brother thinks otherwise-and hires Matt Scudder to prove the crazed Vietnam vet innocent. But Scudder's investigation is leading the tormented p.i. into the darkest corners of his own soul. And it threatens to destory everything he believes in... and everyone he loves... -
![Gantenbein by Max Frisch]()
Gantenbein by Max Frisch
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsA stranger walks out of a bar and is later found dead at the wheel of his car. The narrator creates the story of this man -- or, rather, two stories, based on the two personae that he has imagined. One of these is named Enderlin; the other, Gantenbein.Originally published as A Wilderness of Mirrors... -
![Handling Sin by Michael Malone]()
Handling Sin by Michael Malone
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsOn the Ides of March, our hero, Raleigh Whittier Hayes (forgetful husband, baffled father, prosperous insurance agent and leading citizen of Thermopylae, North Carolina), learns that his father has discharged himself from the hospital, taken all his money out of the bank and, with a young black female mental patient, vanished in a yellow Cadillac convertible... -
![The Dramatist by Ken Bruen]()
The Dramatist by Ken Bruen
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsSeems impossible, but Jack Taylor is sober---off booze, pills, powder, and nearly off cigarettes, too. The main reason he's been able to keep clean: his dealer's in jail, which leaves Jack without a source. When that dealer calls him to Dublin and asks a favor in the soiled, sordid visiting room of Mountjoy Prison, Jack wants to tell him to take a flying leap...
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