Books like 'The Believers'
Readers who enjoyed The Believers by Zoë Heller also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
contemporary psychological urban new-york-state literary-fiction religion family spirituality politics drama
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Collected Stories by Raymond Carver
Rated: 4.57 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsRaymond Carver’s spare dramas of loneliness, despair, and troubled relationships breathed new life into the American short story of the 1970s and ’80s. In collections such as Will You Please Be Quiet, Please? and What We Talk About When We Talk About Love, Carver wrote with unflinching exactness about men and women enduring lives on the knife-edge of poverty and other deprivations... -
I Hid My Voice by Parinoush Saniee
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsThis is the story, based on fact, of a boy who couldn’t speak until the age of seven. Now twenty, he describes the events of his life.Four-year-old Shahaab has not started talking. The family doctor believes there is no cause for concern; nevertheless, Shahaab is ridiculed by others who call him "dumb... -
Thunder and Rain by Charles Martin
Rated: 4.28 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsThird generation Texas Ranger Tyler Steele is the last of a dying breed-- a modern day cowboy hero living in a world that doesn't quite understand his powerful sense of right and wrong and instinct to defend those who can't defend themselves. Despite his strong moral compass, Ty has trouble seeing his greatest weakness... -
To Live by C.G. Cooper
Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsElmore Thadeus Nix, it's retirement time. You're sixty-five and ready. Take that final physical and then it's adios to your old life and hello to the new. Not so fast. Sorry, Elmore. Your plan's about to change. It's Elmore's last day of work. As part of his retirement, he heads to the family doctor for the follow-up to a routine physical. That's when the universe shifts on its axis. Cancer...Categorized as:
drama historical-fiction literary-fiction religion spirituality adult book coming-of-age -
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No Wedding Like Nantucket by Grace Palmer
Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsThe wedding of the year versus the storm of the century. Who will win?Things are finally looking up for the Benson family. After a year of tough choices and big leaps of faith, it seems like love, success, and happiness are right in their grasp. But with a wedding on the horizon and a successful new restaurant growing faster than anyone ever expected, everyone certainly has their hands full... -
The Grapes of Wrath/The Moon is Down/Cannery Row/East of Eden/Of Mice & Men by John Steinbeck
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsThe Grapes of Wrath / The Moon Is Down / Cannery Row / East of Eden / Of Mice and...Categorized as:
drama family historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century adult anthologies classics -
Where Women Are Kings by Christie Watson
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsElijah, seven years old, has a history of disruptive behaviour. His adoptive mother Nikki believes that she and her husband Obi are strong enough to accept his difficulties – and that her being white will not affect her ability to raise a black son... -
High Tea at The Beach House Hotel by Judith Keim
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsGuests can be surprising…Ann and Rhonda continue their work at The Beach House Hotel, always striving to make their upscale property the best on the Gulf Coast of Florida. As they’ve learned, not all guests are easy...Categorized as:
humor domestic-drama literary-fiction religion spirituality womens-fiction psychological cozy -
Tilly's Tuscan Teashop: A gorgeously uplifting summer read by Daisy James
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsWelcome to Tilly's Tuscan Teashop, the first book in a brand new series from the author of the Hummingbird Hotel and the Cornish Confetti Agency series.When photographer Natalie Nicholson’s beach hut studio – and everything she’s spent the last two years working on – is destroyed in a fire, she doesn’t think things can get any worse... -
What's Bred in the Bone by Robertson Davies
Rated: 4.26 of 5 stars · 30 ratingsFrancis Cornish was always good at keeping secrets. From the well-hidden family secret of his childhood to his mysterious encounters with a small-town embalmer, an expert art restorer, a Bavarian countess, and various masters of espionage, the events in Francis's life were not always what they seemed...Categorized as:
family historical-fiction humor literary-fiction religion satire spirituality 20th-century -
A Fraction of the Whole by Steve Toltz
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsAn irreverent comic adventure, spanning three continents, about a father and son against each other and against the world.For most of his life, Jasper Dean couldn’t decide whether to pity, hate, love, or murder his certifiably paranoid father, Martin, a man who overanalyzed anything and everything and imparted his self-garnered wisdom to his only son... -
Christmas at the Cornish Confetti Agency by Daisy James
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsIt's Christmas at The Cornish Confetti Agency!When Lexie Harrington is asked to choreograph Phoebe and Sam’s Christmas-themed wedding, she can’t wait to create the perfect winter wonderland - elegantly dressed fir trees, glossy garlands of holly and mistletoe, baskets of yule logs and pine cones, and the mouth-watering fragrance of gingerbread, cinnamon sticks and warm mulled wine floating... -
Secrets Mothers Keep by Anya Mora
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsOn Friday night in the clay fields of Bethel Creek, seventeen-year-old Daniel Reyes is found brutally attacked and left for dead. On Saturday morning, Cora Maxwell finds her teenage son’s clothes covered in blood. A small town torn apart by a horrific hate crime. An investigative reporter hell bent on finding the truth. A mother’s worst nightmare... -
Torture the Artist by Joey Goebel
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsVincent Spinetti is an archetypal tortured artist ? a sensitive young writer who falls victim to alienation, parental neglect, poverty, depression, alcoholism, illness, nervous breakdowns, and unrequited love... -
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Deserve To Die by Miranda Rijks
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsDom and Stacey have the perfect life. Until they meet Tamara. Brilliant, beautiful, she hides a horrifying secret. One that may destroy them all.Happily married with two wonderful children, Dom and Stacey are living the dream. He runs a successful design agency, she is finding fame as an author of children’s books.Everything is perfect... -
Cracks in the Sidewalk by Bette Lee Crosby
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsFrom the Bestselling Author of Spare Change, comes a powerful story that is a heart-wrenching reminder of how fragile relationships can be. Cracks in the Sidewalk is based on a true story. Claire McDermott is a Wife, a Mother, a Grandmother... Her only daughter is gravely ill...Her son-in-law is resentful and angry...Her grandchildren are missing..Categorized as:
drama family historical-fiction literary-fiction spirituality book children children-books -
What Makes Sammy Run? by Budd Schulberg
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsWhat Makes Sammy Run?Everyone of us knows someone who runs. He is one of the symp-toms of our times—from the little man who shoves you out of the way on the street to the go-getter who shoves you out of a job in the office to the Fuehrer who shoves you out of the world. And all of us have stopped to wonder, at some time or another, what it is that makes these people tick... -
Saint Richard Parker by Merlin Franco
Rated: 4.28 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsHis search for love and enlightenment across India, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia...Ace businessman, writer, and investigative journalist Richard Parker loses his job when he exposes the vegetarian CEO of his newspaper as a beef exporter. Accused of misconduct and forced to dissolve his company, he retreats to his wretched little village... -
Silent Signs by Ana Simons
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratings~When life falls apart, what if sharing your secrets with a perfect stranger made it all fall back into place? ~ On the fateful weekend her husband puts an end to their marriage, Sophie Thompson must leave for a two-week work assignment in London. As she juggles her emotions at the airport terminal, Matthew O’Brian observes her, intrigued...Categorized as:
domestic-drama literary-fiction family religion spirituality romance contemporary fiction -
Shy Girl by Katie Cross
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsDagny:Once upon a time, I thought my stutter was the worst thing that ever happened to me. But now I know better.Being held at gunpoint outranks a speech impediment any day.Thankfully, my longtime crush Jayson Hernandez tackled that problem to the ground with those broad shoulders—the ones that make my stutter oh-so-much-worse... -
Buzz Aldrin, What Happened to You in All the Confusion? by Johan Harstad
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsA pop-saturated epic novel about the second man on the moon, and the quiet thirty-year-old gardener who idolizes him. A story of unconventional psychiatry, the Faroe Islands, amateur boat building, and the journey across the space that divides us from other people: a journey as remote and dangerous as the trip to the moon itself... -
A Fan's Notes by Frederick Exley
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsFrederick Exley's inimitable "fictional memoir" A Fan's Notes has assumed the status of a classic since its first publication in 1968. Mordantly and poignantly, Exley describes the profound failures of his life; professional, sexual, and personal... -
Like Life by Lorrie Moore
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsIn Like Life's eight exquisite stories, Lorrie Moore's characters stumble through their daily existence. These men and women, unsettled and adrift and often frightened, can't quite understand how they arrived at their present situations. Harry has been reworking a play for years in his apartment near Times Square in New York. Jane is biding her time at a cheese shop in a Midwest mall... -
The Halo Effect by Anne D. LeClaire
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsIn this tour de force, a father, shaken by tragedy, tries to avenge his daughter’s murder—and restore his family’s shattered life. It was supposed to be a typical October evening for renowned portrait artist Will Light... -
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The Joke by Milan Kundera
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 28 ratingsThe authoritative version of the brilliant first novel by the author of The Unbearable Lightness of Being. A great novel of thwarted love and revenge miscarried, in a completely revised translation that is nothing less than the restoration of a classic... -
The Woman in Our House by Andrew Hart
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsWhat happens when you open your home to the perfect stranger?Anna Klein is ready to return to work as a literary agent for the first time since having children. She and her husband, Josh, decide to hire a live-in nanny with some trepidation, but all their misgivings disappear as soon as they meet Oaklynn Durst. She has stellar references, a calm disposition, and a natural way with children... -
Little Whispers by K.L. Slater
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsYou shared a secret with the wrong person.Janey Markham is thrilled to be moving with her family to Buckingham Crescent, the smartest address in a desirable suburban town.Worried she’ll be excluded by the glossy local mothers, Janey is thrilled when she meets Tanya, the kind of woman she has always looked up to... -
Among the Missing by Dan Chaon
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsIn this haunting, bracing new collection, Dan Chaon shares stories of men, women, and children who live far outside the American Dream, while wondering which decision, which path, or which accident brought them to this place. Chaon mines the psychological landscape of his characters to dazzling effect. Each story radiates with sharp humor, mystery, wonder, and startling compassion... -
Mama's Boy by David Goudreault
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsWinner of the 2016 Grand Prix littéraire ArchambaultWritten with gritty humour in the form of a confession, Mama's Boy recounts the family drama of a young man who sets out in search of his mother after a childhood spent shuffling from one foster home to another. A bizarre character with a skewed view of the world, he leads the reader on a quest that is both tender and violent... -
What We Owe by Golnaz Hashemzadeh Bonde
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsNahid has six months left to live. Or so the doctors say. But Nahid is not the type to trust anyone. She resents the cancer diagnosis she has been given and the doctor who has given it to her. Bubbling inside her is also resentment toward life as it turned out, and the fact that it will go on without her. She feels alone, alone with her illness and alone with her thoughts... -
Valentina by S.E. Lynes
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsWhen Glasgow journalist Shona McGilvery moves with her partner Mikey and their baby to an idyllic cottage in rural Scotland, they believe that all that lies ahead of them is happiness.But with Mikey working offshore, the frightening isolation of the Aberdeenshire countryside begins to drive her insane...That is, until she is rescued by a new friendship with the enchanting Valentina... -
Good Little Liars by Sarah Clutton
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsEmma held the photo for a long moment before her eyes focused on the girl’s face. She dropped it and let out a muted cry.The girl in the photograph was Tessa.Twenty-five years after losing her friend Tessa in a tragic accident, Emma’s life is happy and settled. She rarely thinks about the day that Tessa fell to her death, or the secret that she made Emma swear to keep just hours before... -
Words Unspoken by Elizabeth Musser
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsLissa Randall's future was bright with academic promise until the tragic accident that took her mother's life--and brought her own plans to a screeching halt. Eighteen months later Lissa is still unable to get back behind the wheel.Ev McAllistair's driving school looks like Lissa's best hope for getting her life back on the road again...Categorized as:
historical-fiction religion spirituality romance christian fiction contemporary psychological -
The Clown by Heinrich Böll
Rated: 3.96 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsAcclaimed entertainer Hans Schnier collapses when his beloved Marie leaves him because he won’t marry her within the Catholic Church. The desertion triggers a searing re-examination of his life—the loss of his sister during the war, the demands of his millionaire father and the hypocrisies of his mother, who first fought to “save” Germany from the Jews, then worked for “reconciliation” afterwards...Categorized as:
drama historical-fiction humor literary-fiction politics religion spirituality 20th-century -
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The Secrets Mothers Keep by Jacquie Underdown
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsIn the enchanting landscapes of Tasmania, "The Secrets Mothers Keep" unravels a captivating tale of three generations bound by a shared purpose—to restore the family manor into a charming bed and breakfast. But beneath the surface lies a lifetime of concealed truths that threaten to tear them apart... -
A Perfectly Good Man by Patrick Gale
Rated: 3.94 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsWhen 20-year-old Lenny Barnes, paralysed in a rugby accident, commits suicide in the presence of Barnaby Johnson, the much-loved priest of a West Cornwall parish, the tragedy's reverberations open up the fault-lines between Barnaby and his nearest and dearest... -
Stolen Child by Laura Elliot
Rated: 3.94 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsWhen Carla Kelly and Robert Gardner marry, they seem destined for happiness. But tragedy strikes when their two-day-old baby, Isobel, is stolen. Distraught and bewildered, they must cope with the media frenzy that follows. As hope of finding her fades, their marriage disintegrates under the strain and they divorce... -
Saving Grace by Lee Smith
Rated: 3.93 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsSurrounded all of her life by zealous religious figures, Florida Grace Shepherd recounts a story that begins with her father's revival meetings and ends at Uncle Slidell's Christian Fun Golf course...Categorized as:
drama family historical-fiction literary-fiction spirituality audiobook bildungsroman book -
People Like Us by Dominick Dunne
Rated: 3.93 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsThe way journalist Gus Bailey tells it, old money is always preferred, but occasionally new money sneaks in--even where it is most unwelcome. After moving from Cincinnati, Elias and Ruby Renthal strike it even richer in New York, turning their millions into billions. It would be impolite for high society to refuse them now. Not to mention disadvantageous... -
The Mothers by Genevieve Gannon
Rated: 3.93 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsWhat if you gave birth to someone else’s child? An emotional family drama about two couples, one baby, and an unimaginable choice. Inspired by a real-life case of an IVF laboratory mix-up.Grace and Dan Arden are in their forties and have been on the IVF treadmill since the day they got married. Six attempts have yielded no results, and with each failure a little piece of their hope dies... -
The Choice by Susan Lewis
Rated: 3.92 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsSometimes the choice is too hard to bear...Nikki Grant is only twenty-one when she discovers she's pregnant. Despite her parents' disappointment and anger, she welcomes the news with joy. The baby will complete the happy home she shares with the man she adores, Spencer James. Baby Zac arrives and is perfect in every way... -
The Tenants of Moonbloom by Edward Lewis Wallant
Rated: 3.90 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsNorman Moonbloom is a loser, a drop-out who can't even make it as a deadbeat. His brother, a slumlord, hires him to collect rent in the buildings he owns in Manhattan... -
Meg's Confession by Sierra Donovan
Rated: 3.90 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsMeg Reilly is a pregnant widow who ducks into a confessional to spill her deepest, darkest secrets. Trouble is, the man on the other side of the booth isn't a priest. Craig Stovall is the owner of a local construction business--he's just there to repair the confessional. But when Meg starts talking, he's too surprised and tongue-tied to stop her until he hears too much... -
Signal Fires by Dani Shapiro
Rated: 3.92 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsA GRIPPING NEW NOVEL FROM THE BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF INHERITANCEOne Night. One Fateful Choice. A Constellation of Lives Changed Forever.SIGNAL FIRES opens on a summer night in 1985. Three teenagers have been drinking. One of them gets behind the wheel of a car, and, in an instant, everything on Division Street changes...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction family drama fiction audiobook contemporary mystery -
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Thank You for Smoking by Christopher Buckley
Rated: 3.92 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsNick Naylor likes his job. In the neo-puritanical nineties, it's a challenge to defend the rights of smokers and a privilege to promote their liberty. Sure, it hurts a little when you're compared to Nazi war criminals, but Nick says he's just doing what it takes to pay the mortgage and put his son through Washington's elite private school St. Euthanasius... -
Everything Changes by Jonathan Tropper
Rated: 3.92 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsJonathan Tropper’s novel The Book of Joe dazzled critics and readers alike with its heartfelt blend of humor and pathos. Now Tropper brings all that—and more—to an irresistible new novel. In Everything Changes , Tropper delivers a touching, wickedly funny new tale about love, loss, and the perils of a well-planned life. To all appearances, Zachary King is a man with luck on his side... -
The Marriage by K.L. Slater
Rated: 3.92 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsTen years ago he killed my son. Today I married him.Ten years ago my darling son Jesse was murdered and our perfect family was destroyed. My strong, handsome boy, so full of life, became a memory, a photo I carried with me everywhere.But today I’m finally close to finding happiness again. My ash-blonde hair has been curled into ringlets. Carefully placed white flowers frame my delicate features... -
Tortuga by Rudolfo Anaya
Rated: 3.88 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsRudolfo Anaya's personal journey to Tortuga began one desert-hot day when, as an adolescent, he and some friends were swimming in irrigation ditches. He dove in, sustaining an injury that put him in the hospital for an arduous period of time.Tortuga is set in a hospital for crippled children and is based on Anaya's swimming accident...Categorized as:
drama historical-fiction literary-fiction religion spirituality book contemporary fiction -
I Regret Everything: A Love Story by Seth Greenland
Rated: 3.88 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsA modern love story, I Regret Everything confronts the oceanic uncertainty of what it means to be alive, and in love. Jeremy Best, a Manhattan-based trusts and estates lawyer, leads a second life as published poet Jinx Bell. To his boss’s daughter, Spaulding Simonson, at 33 years old, Jeremy is already halfway to dead. When Spaulding, an aspiring 19-year-old writer, discovers Mr... -
The Clouds by Juan José Saer
Rated: 3.88 of 5 stars · 8 ratings"Saer is one of the best writers of today in any language."—Ricardo Piglia"What Saer presents marvelously is the experience of reality, and the characters' attempts to write their own narratives within its excess...
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