Books like 'The Kite Runner: Graphic Novel'
Readers who enjoyed The Kite Runner: Graphic Novel by Khaled Hosseini & Tommaso Valsecchi also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
historical military, war & conflict historical-fiction classics war family friendship drama realistic poc-mc
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The Little Liar by Mitch Albom
Rated: 4.59 of 5 stars · 32 ratingsBeloved bestselling author Mitch Albom returns with a powerful novel that moves from a coastal Greek city during the Holocaust, to America, where the intertwined lives of three survivors are forever changed by the perils of deception and the grace of redemption. Eleven-year-old Nico Krispis never told a lie...Categorized as:
historical-fiction war family literary-fiction coming-of-age friendship spirituality fiction -
Khaled Hosseini's The Kite Runner by Harold Bloom
Rated: 4.69 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsIn "The Kite Runner," history and personal responsibility come together in the story of Amir, an Afghan boy who is haunted by the guilt of betraying his childhood friend Hassan, the son of his father's servant. In the background loom the many tumultuous changes that have gripped Afghanistan in the years since Amir's carefree kite-flying childhood... -
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars · 84 ratingsA Thousand Splendid Suns is a breathtaking story set against the volatile events of Afghanistan's last thirty years - from the Soviet invasion to the reign of the Taliban to post-Taliban rebuilding - that puts the violence, fear, hope, and faith of this country in intimate, human terms...Categorized as:
classics coming-of-age drama family friendship historical-fiction literary-fiction politics -
The World Played Chess by Robert Dugoni
Rated: 4.46 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsIn 1979, Vincent Bianco has just graduated high school. His only desire: collect a little beer money and enjoy his final summer before college. So he lands a job as a laborer on a construction crew. Working alongside two Vietnam vets, one suffering from PTSD, Vincent gets the education of a lifetime...Categorized as:
historical-fiction coming-of-age war literary-fiction family realistic friendship drama -
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The World Starts Anew by Jean Grainger
Rated: 4.56 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsBallycreggan, Northern Ireland, 1955Erich Bannon is happy in the small Irish village he has thought of as home since he arrived as a terrified, traumatized seven year old, one of the last Jewish children to escape Berlin in 1939. Now, at 23, it feels like all of his friends are drawn to The Promised Land, and he can understand why, but Israel is not for him... -
The Evening and the Morning by Ken Follett
Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars · 66 ratingsIt is 997 CE, the end of the Dark Ages. England is facing attacks from the Welsh in the west and the Vikings in the east. Those in power bend justice according to their will, regardless of ordinary people and often in conflict with the king. Without a clear rule of law, chaos reigns.In these turbulent times, three characters find their lives intertwined...Categorized as:
classics drama family historical-fiction literary-fiction politics religion spirituality -
A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry
Rated: 4.36 of 5 stars · 41 ratingsWith a compassionate realism and narrative sweep that recall the work of Charles Dickens, this magnificent novel captures all the cruelty and corruption, dignity and heroism, of India. The time is 1975. The place is an unnamed city by the sea...Categorized as:
classics drama family friendship historical-fiction literary-fiction poc-mc politics -
The Hard Way Home by Jean Grainger
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsDublin 1950Liesl Bannon has never felt like she was truly at home anywhere, not since her mother placed her and her brother Erich on the last Kindertransport out of Berlin in 1939. She’d been so much more fortunate than most Jews, saved from the horrors of the Nazi regime...Categorized as:
drama family friendship historical-fiction literary-fiction religion spirituality war -
The Joy Luck Club by Clare West, Amy Tan
Rated: 4.42 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsThere are so many things that a mother wishes to teach her daughter. This is a story about four mothers born in China, and their daughters born in America. Through their eyes we see life in pre-revolutionary China and life in downtown San Francisco, and also women who struggle to find a cultural identity that can include a past and a future... -
The Winds of War by Herman Wouk
Rated: 4.36 of 5 stars · 32 ratingsLike no other masterpiece of historical fiction, Herman Wouk's sweeping epic of World War II is the great novel of America's Greatest Generation.Wouk's spellbinding narrative captures the tide of global events, as well as all the drama, romance, heroism, and tragedy of World War II, as it immerses us in the lives of a single American family drawn into the very center of the war's maelstrom...Categorized as:
classics drama family historical-fiction literary-fiction politics religion spirituality -
The Girl Who Escaped from Auschwitz by Ellie Midwood
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 16 ratings“We must die standing up for something.”“And what are we standing up for?”“The most important thing there is. Freedom.”Millions of people walked through Auschwitz’s gates, but she was the first woman who escaped. This powerful novel tells the inspiring true story of Mala Zimetbaum, whose heroism will never be forgotten, and whose fate altered the course of history…Nobody leaves Auschwitz alive... -
Šikmý kostel: románová kronika ztraceného města by Karin Lednická
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsRománová kronika ztraceného města. Podtitul knihy lapidárně shrnuje příběh o někdejší pastevecké vesnici, která vystavěla svůj rozkvět na těžbě uhlí, aby o století později zašla na úbytě – také kvůli těžbě uhlí. Dnes už z výstavních budov a vznosné katedrály nezbylo nic. Jen šikmý kostel, který strmě a varovně ční do pusté krajiny... -
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
Rated: 4.27 of 5 stars · 51 ratingsTwelve-year-old Amir is desperate to gain the approval of his father and resolves to win the local kite-fighting tournament, to prove that he has the makings of a man...Categorized as:
classics coming-of-age drama family friendship historical-fiction literary-fiction poc-mc -
The Woman from Tantoura: A Palestinian Novel by Radwa Ashour
Rated: 4.35 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsPalestine. For most of us, the word brings to mind a series of confused images and disjointed associations-massacres, refugee camps, UN resolutions, settlements, terrorist attacks, war, occupation, checkered kouffiyehs and suicide bombers, a seemingly endless cycle of death and destruction... -
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Stay by Catherine Ryan Hyde
Rated: 4.35 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsAn unforgettable novel about the power of friendship and kindness by the New York Times bestselling author of Pay It Forward. In the summer of 1969, fourteen-year-old Lucas Painter carries a huge weight on his shoulders. His brother is fighting in Vietnam. His embattled parents are locked in a never-ending war. And his best friend, Connor, is struggling with his own family issues...Categorized as:
coming-of-age drama family friendship historical-fiction literary-fiction realistic war -
Against the Loveless World by Susan Abulhawa
Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsA sweeping and lyrical novel that follows a young Palestinian refugee as she slowly becomes radicalized while searching for a better life for her family throughout the Middle East, for readers of international literary bestsellers including Washington Black, My Sister, The Serial Killer, and Her Body and Other Parties... -
Rain of Gold by Victor Villaseñor
Rated: 4.49 of 5 stars · 29 ratingsThis is the Hispanic Roots, an all-American story of poverty, immigration, struggle and success. It focuses on three generations of Villasenor's kin, their spiritual and cultural roots back in Mexico, their immigration to California and their overcoming poverty, prejudice and economic exploitation... -
To Live by Yu Hua, 余华
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsFrom the author of Brothers and China in Ten Words this celebrated contemporary classic of Chinese literature was also adapted for film by Zhang Yimou. This searing novel, originally banned in China but later named one of that nation's most influential books, portrays one man's transformation from the spoiled son of a landlord to a kindhearted peasant... -
The Brothers K by David James Duncan
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsDuncan took almost 10 years to follow up the publication of his much-praised first novel, The River Why, but this massive second effort is well worth the wait. It is a stunning work: a complex tapestry of family tensions, baseball, politics and religion, by turns hilariously funny and agonizingly sad...Categorized as:
classics coming-of-age drama family historical-fiction literary-fiction politics realistic -
Two Brothers by Ben Elton
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsTwo Brothers is a heartrending story of two boys growing up under the darkening shadow of the Nazis. Born in Berlin in 1920 and raised by the same parents, one boy is Jewish, his adopted brother is Aryan. At first, their origins are irrelevant. But as the political landscape changes they are forced to make decisions with horrifying consequences...Categorized as:
coming-of-age drama family friendship historical-fiction literary-fiction politics realistic -
The Heart of Aleppo: A Story of the Syrian Civil War by Ammar Habib
Rated: 4.39 of 5 stars · 18 ratings#1 Bestseller in Asian-American Literature!Available in paperback, Kindle, and Kindle Unlimited!Winner of the 2019 Independent Press Award From the ashes of the Syrian Civil War comes this story of hope, love, and courage... After standing for over 7,000 years, Aleppo's ruin came overnight... -
The Spoon Stealer by Lesley Crewe
Rated: 4.39 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsBorn into a basket of clean sheets—ruining a perfectly good load of laundry—Emmeline never quite fit in on her family's rural Nova Scotian farm. After suffering multiple losses in the First World War, her family became so heavy with grief, toxicity, and mental illness that Emmeline felt their weight smothering her. And so, she fled across the Atlantic and built her life in England...Categorized as:
historical-fiction family literary-fiction war realistic friendship fiction historical -
The Mountains Sing by Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai
Rated: 4.31 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsWith the epic sweep of Min Jin Lee’s Pachinko or Yaa Gyasi’s Homegoing and the lyrical beauty of Vaddey Ratner’s In the Shadow of the Banyan, The Mountains Sing tells an enveloping, multigenerational tale of the Tran family, set against the backdrop of the Viet Nam War...Categorized as:
coming-of-age drama family historical-fiction literary-fiction poc-mc politics realistic -
Trinity by Leon Uris
Rated: 4.27 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsLeon Uris’s beloved Irish classic, available in Avon mass market. From the acclaimed author who enthralled the world with Exodus, Battle Cry, QB VII, Topaz, and other beloved classics of twentieth-century fiction comes a sweeping and powerful epic adventure that captures the "terrible beauty" of Ireland during its long and bloody struggle for freedom...Categorized as:
classics drama family historical-fiction literary-fiction politics religion spirituality -
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The Incorrigible Optimists Club by Jean-Michel Guenassia
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsParis, 1959. As dusk settles over the immigrant quarter, 12-year-old Michel Marini - amateur photographer and compulsive reader - is drawn to the hum of the local bistro. From his usual position at the football table, he has a vantage point on a grown-up world - of rock 'n' roll and of the Algerian War...Categorized as:
coming-of-age drama historical-fiction literary-fiction politics war 21st-century adult -
Pastel Orphans by Gemma Liviero
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsIn 1930s Berlin, young Henrik, the son of a Jewish father and Aryan mother, watches the world around him crumbling: people are rioting in the streets, a strange yellow star begins appearing in shop windows, and friends are forced to move—or they simply disappear.After his father becomes gravely ill, Henrik and his little sister, Greta, are taken by their mother to Poland for safety...Categorized as:
coming-of-age drama family historical-fiction literary-fiction religion spirituality tragedy -
Hum If You Don't Know the Words by Bianca Marais
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsPerfect for readers of The Secret Life of Bees and The Help, a perceptive and searing look at Apartheid-era South Africa, told through one unique family brought together by tragedy.Life under Apartheid has created a secure future for Robin Conrad, a ten-year-old white girl living with her parents in 1970s Johannesburg...Categorized as:
coming-of-age drama family historical-fiction literary-fiction poc-mc politics realistic -
Γκιακ by Δημοσθένης Παπαμάρκος
Rated: 4.31 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsΟι ήρωες των διηγημάτων του Γκιακ, στρατιώτες που πολέμησαν στη Μικρασιατική Εκστρατεία, έρχονται αντιμέτωποι με τους ρόλους που τους επιβάλλουν οι παραδοσιακοί κανόνες και το βίωμα του πολέμου. Συγκρούονται, υποτάσσονται, ζουν εν κρυπτώ ή φεύγουν. Το γκιακ είναι το αίμα, ο συγγενικός δεσμός και ο νόμος του αίματος που σκιάζει τις ζωές τους...Categorized as:
historical-fiction war literary-fiction drama fiction 21st-century historical violent-conflict -
Twice Born by Margaret Mazzantini, Ann S. Gagliardi
Rated: 4.28 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsThis international bestseller is a sweeping portrait of motherhood, loss, and redemption in war-torn Sarajevo. Filled with memories of the four-year siege of Sarajevo, Gemma reluctantly boards a flight from her native Rome to that war-scarred city with her sixteen-year-old son, Pietro. She hopes to teach her son about the city of his birth and about Diego, the father he never knew... -
War & Peace, Volume 1 by Leo Tolstoy, Neville Jason
Rated: 4.27 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsWar and Peace is one of the greatest monuments in world literature. Set against the dramatic backdrop of the Napoleonic Wars, it examines the relationship between the individual and the relentless march of history...Categorized as:
classics drama family historical-fiction literary-fiction politics religion spirituality -
The Book of Fate by Parinoush Saniee
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsA bestselling novel in Iran, despite being banned twice by the government, The Book of Fate follows a teenage girl in pre-revolutionary Iran through five turbulent decades, from before the 1979 revolution, through the Islamic Republic, and up to the present in this powerful story of friendship, passion, and hope...Categorized as:
coming-of-age drama family historical-fiction literary-fiction politics religion spirituality -
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...Categorized as:
coming-of-age drama family historical-fiction literary-fiction poc-mc politics realistic -
The Wall by John Hersey
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsRiveting & compelling, The Wall tells the inspiring story of forty men & women who escape the dehumanizing horror of the Warsaw ghetto. John Hersey's novel documents the Warsaw ghetto both as an emblem of Nazi persecution & as a personal confrontation with torture, starvation, humiliation & cruelty--a gripping, visceral story, impossible to put down...Categorized as:
classics coming-of-age historical-fiction literary-fiction spirituality war 20th-century adult -
The Keys of the Kingdom by A.J. Cronin, Germaine de Tonnac-Villeneuve
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsFrancis Chisholm is a compassionate and humble priest whose individuality and directness make him unpopular with other clergy. Considered a failure by his superiors, he is sent to China to maintain a mission amid desperate poverty, civil war, plague, and the hostility of his superiors. In the face of this constant danger and hardship, Father Chisholm finds the keys to the kingdom of heaven...Categorized as:
classics drama historical-fiction literary-fiction religion spirituality war 20th-century -
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Freedom or Death by Nikos Kazantzakis
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsFreedom or Death by Nikos Kazantzakis is a novel on the heroic or epic scale about the rebellion of the Greek Christians against the Turks on the island of Crete, where Kazantzakis was from...Categorized as:
classics historical-fiction literary-fiction politics religion spirituality war 20th-century -
Jessica by Bryce Courtenay
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 20 ratings'A superb storyteller ... it is impossible not to be impressed by Courtenay's talents' - The Times JESSICA is based on the real life of a remarkable young Australian woman who defied the conventions of her time. She had a stubborn streak and the courage to act out her convictions ... in spite of the consequences...Categorized as:
classics coming-of-age drama family historical-fiction literary-fiction realistic sad -
Heartbreak in the Valleys by Francesca Capaldi
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsThe world was crumbling, but her love stayed strongNovember 1915. For young housemaid, Anwen Rhys, life is hard in the Welsh mining village of Dorcalon, deep in the Rhymney Valley. She cares for her ill mother and beloved younger sister Sara, all while shielding them from her father’s drunken, violent temper...Categorized as:
historical-fiction family war coming-of-age religion spirituality fiction historical -
Number the Stars by Lois Lowry
Rated: 4.15 of 5 stars · 81 ratingsTen-year-old Annemarie Johansen and her best friend Ellen Rosen often think of life before the war. It's now 1943 and their life in Copenhagen is filled with school, food shortages, and the Nazi soldiers marching through town. When the Jews of Denmark are "relocated," Ellen moves in with the Johansens and pretends to be one of the family...Categorized as:
classics coming-of-age drama family friendship historical-fiction literary-fiction poc-mc -
Dawn's Early Light by Elswyth Thane
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsColonial Williamsburg lives again in this rich story which is Elswyth Thane's first novel of American history in her bestselling series... -
I'll Watch the Moon by Ann Tatlock
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsThe tender story of a polio victim and her friendship with an Auschwitz survivor who dreams of becoming the first man on the moon. Award-winning novelist Ann Tatlock once again lovingly crafts a story that will touch readers' hearts while illuminating a powerful spiritual truth...Categorized as:
classics coming-of-age family historical-fiction literary-fiction religion spirituality war -
You Will Be Safe Here by Damian Barr
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsAn extraordinary debut that explores legacies of abuse, redemption, and the strength of the human spirit--from the Boer Wars in South Africa to brutal wilderness camps for teenage boys. South Africa, 1901. It is the height of the second Boer War. Sarah van der Watt and her six-year-old son Fred are forced from their home on Mulberry Farm... -
The Bogside Boys by Eoin Dempsey
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsFrom the Amazon Top Ten Overall Bestselling author of Finding RebeccaThe war will force him to choose between his community, his family, or the woman he loves. The city of Derry, Northern Ireland, 1972The Bogside is an area in open revolt, cordoned off from the rest of the city of Derry, patrolled by masked IRA men atop burnt out barricades... -
The Hope by Herman Wouk
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 16 ratings“One of our best writers today—a modern Charles Dickens—is Herman Wouk… The Hope is not only a good read, but it also causes a good think.” —William Safire, New York Times Starting in 1948 and reaching its climax during the Six-Day War of 1967, The Hope begins the story of Israel, a country fighting for its life—outmatched and surrounded by enemies...Categorized as:
classics historical-fiction literary-fiction religion spirituality war 20th-century adult -
The Street Sweeper by Elliot Perlman
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsHow breathtakingly close we are to lives that at first seem so far away. From the civil rights struggle in the United States to the Nazi crimes against humanity in Europe, there are more stories than people passing each other every day on the bustling streets of every crowded city. Only some survive to become history... -
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What the Day Owes the Night by Yasmina Khadra
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratings'If a woman loves you, Younes, if she truly loves you, and if you have the wisdom to appreciate this great privilege, then there is no god to touch you.'As a young man Younes' life is irrevocably changed when he leaves his broken home for the vibrant, colourful and affluent European district of Río Salado...Categorized as:
coming-of-age drama family friendship historical-fiction literary-fiction politics war -
The Berlin Boxing Club by Robert Sharenow
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsSydney Taylor Award-winning novel Berlin Boxing Club is loosely inspired by the true story of boxer Max Schmeling's experiences following Kristallnacht. Karl Stern has never thought of himself as a Jew. But the bullies at his school in Nazi-era Berlin, don't care that Karl has never been in a synagogue or that his family doesn't practice religion...Categorized as:
classics coming-of-age family friendship historical-fiction poc-mc realistic religion -
My Son, My Son by Howard Spring
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsThe story of William Essex, who rose from humble beginnings to become a successful dramatist and novelist, and his friend Dermot O'Riordon, a fervent Irish patriot and founder of a great London furnishing house; and their sons, Oliver Essex and Rory O'Riordon. Plus some other assorted characters, from old Mr Moscrop and his daughter Nellie, and Maeve O'Riordon... -
Beyond That, the Sea by Laura Spence-Ash
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 8 ratings“Spence-Ash has written the novel in eight points of view, but each character is utterly three-dimensional and distinct. This debut novel captivated me from start to finish...Categorized as:
coming-of-age family friendship historical-fiction literary-fiction war 20th-century adult -
1776 by Peter Stone, Sherman Edwards
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 12 ratings1776 is an inspiring and imaginative re-creation of the events from May 8 to July 4 in Philadelphia, when the second Continental Congress argued about, voted on, and signed the Declaration of Independence. From John Adams's opening diatribe to the signing of the document, 1776 is a classic musical play of mounting tension and triumph... -
The Stars Look Down by A.J. Cronin
Rated: 4.36 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsThe Stars Look Down was A.J. Cronin's fourth novel, published in 1935, and this tale of a North country mining family was a great favourite with his readers. Robert Fenwick is a miner, and so are his three sons. His wife is proud that all her four men go down the mines...
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