Books like 'Work Song'
Readers who enjoyed Work Song by Ivan Doig also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
historical mystery 20th century action / adventure historical-fiction western literary-fiction realistic journey industrial-era
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Beneath a Scarlet Sky by Mark T. Sullivan
Rated: 4.41 of 5 stars · 43 ratingsBased on the true story of a forgotten hero, Beneath a Scarlet Sky is the triumphant, epic tale of one young man’s incredible courage and resilience during one of history’s darkest hours. Pino Lella wants nothing to do with the war or the Nazis. He’s a normal Italian teenager—obsessed with music, food, and girls—but his days of innocence are numbered... -
Daughters of the Dragon: A Comfort Woman's Story by William Andrews
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsDuring World War II, the Japanese forced 200,000 young Korean women to be sex slaves or “comfort women” for their soldiers. This is one woman’s riveting story of strength, courage and promises kept.In 1943, the Japanese tear young Jae-hee and her sister from their peaceful family farm to be comfort women for the Imperial Army...Categorized as:
historical-fiction journey literary-fiction realistic 20th-century abuse action-adventure adult -
The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles
Rated: 4.32 of 5 stars · 41 ratingsThe bestselling author of A Gentleman in Moscow and Rules of Civility and master of absorbing, sophisticated fiction returns with a stylish and propulsive novel set in 1950s AmericaIn June, 1954, eighteen-year-old Emmett Watson is driven home to Nebraska by the warden of the work farm where he has just served a year for involuntary manslaughter... -
Memed, My Hawk by Yaşar Kemal
Rated: 4.45 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsA tale of high adventure and lyrical celebration, tenderness and violence, generosity and ruthlessness, Memed, My Hawk is the defining achievement of one of the greatest and most beloved of living writers, Yashar Kemal. It is reissued here with a new introduction by the author on the fiftieth anniversary of its first publication...Categorized as:
historical-fiction journey literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook book -
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Sparks Like Stars by Nadia Hashimi
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsKabul, 1978: The daughter of a prominent family, Sitara Zamani lives a privileged life in Afghanistan’s thriving cosmopolitan capital. The 1970s are a time of remarkable promise under the leadership of people like Sardar Daoud, Afghanistan’s progressive president, and Sitara’s beloved father, his right-hand man... -
The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane by Lisa See
Rated: 4.26 of 5 stars · 38 ratingsIn their remote mountain village, Li-yan and her family align their lives around the seasons and the farming of tea. For the Akha people, ensconced in ritual and routine, life goes on as it has for generations—until a stranger appears at the village gate in a jeep, the first automobile any of the villagers has ever seen... -
The Winter Rose by Jennifer Donnelly
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 27 ratingsAnother strong, satisfying novel, full of rich storytelling, by the author of the favourite THE TEA ROSE.An epic tale of secret love and hidden passions. It is 1900 and the dangerous streets of East London are no place for a well-bred woman. But India Selwyn Jones is headstrong: she has trained as one of a new breed, a woman doctor, and is determined to practice where the need is greatest... -
The Frozen Hours: A Novel of the Korean War by Jeff Shaara
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsThe master of military historical fiction turns his discerning eye to the Korean War in this riveting new novel, which tells the dramatic story of the Americans and the Chinese who squared off in one of the deadliest campaigns in the annals of combat: the Battle of Chosin Reservoir, also known as Frozen Chosin. June 1950...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook book cold-war -
Centennial by James A. Michener
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 31 ratings"Michener is America's best writer, and he proves it once again in CENTENNIAL."THE PITTSBURGH PRESSA stunning panorama of the West, CENTENNIAL is an enthralling celebration of our country, brimming with the glory and the greatness of the American past that only bestselling author James Michener could bring to stunning life... -
The Forgotten Life of Arthur Pettinger by Suzanne Fortin
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsThe secrets of the past won't remain hidden forever...Arthur Pettinger's memory isn't what it used to be. He can't always remember the names of his grandchildren, where he lives or which way round his slippers go. He does remember Maryse though, a woman he hasn't seen for decades, but whose face he will never forget...Categorized as:
historical-fiction industrial-era journey 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook book -
The Promise by Michelle Vernal
Rated: 4.42 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsA wonderfully heartwarming, touching and romantic story - Tammy Robinson Author of Differently Normal Two women from different generations brought together by another’s wrongdoing. When British backpacker, Isabel Stark happens across a car accident on a lonely stretch of road in the South Island of New Zealand her life changes forever...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction romance historical 20th-century fiction mystery ww2 -
The Home for Unwanted Girls by Joanna Goodman
Rated: 4.23 of 5 stars · 31 ratingsPhilomena meets Orphan Train in this suspenseful, provocative novel filled with love, secrets, and deceit - the story of a young unwed mother who is forcibly separated from her daughter at birth and the lengths to which they go to find each other.In 1950s Quebec, French and English tolerate each other with precarious civility - much like Maggie Hughes’ parents... -
The Last Restaurant in Paris by Lily Graham
Rated: 4.36 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsParis 1944. To save her people, she served the enemy.In enemy-occupied Paris, as the locals go to bed starving and defeated by the war, music and laughter spills through the door of a little restaurant, crowded with German soldiers. The owner Marianne moves on weary feet between its packed tables, carrying plates of steaming, wholesome food for the enemy officers...Categorized as:
historical-fiction journey literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure book female-mc fiction -
Blind Tiger by Sandra Brown
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsWith a “knack for romantic tension and page-turning suspense, this one is a winner.” The year 1920 comes in with a roar in this rousing and suspenseful New York Times bestselling novel by Sandra Brown. Prohibition is the new law of the land, but murder, mayhem, lust, and greed are already institutions in the Moonshine Capitol of Texas (Booklist, starred review)...Categorized as:
historical-fiction industrial-era western 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook book -
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Rosa's Gold - A Story of Holocaust Echoes by Ray Kingfisher
Rated: 4.31 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsNicole Sutton is a young girl with problems. A tragic car accident has taken away her brother, and ripped her parents' marriage apart. Together with her mother she moves to a new house, a new town, and a life she never wanted. In the dusty cellar of the house she stumbles upon a well-worn notebook – the scribbled war memoirs of Mac, an old soldier...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure adult book family fiction -
The Seventh Moon by Marius Gabriel
Rated: 4.31 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsFrom the international bestselling author of THE MASK OF TIME and THE ORIGINAL SIN. As World War II rages, Francine Lawrence and her small daughter, Ruth, wait in the fading splendor of Raffles Hotel in Singapore for Francine's British husband. But when he is delayed, Francine, half-Chinese and unwelcome there, is forced to begin a terrifying journey...Categorized as:
historical-fiction journey 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook book fiction -
Nothing More Dangerous by Allen Eskens, Kevin Stillwell
Rated: 4.28 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsThe summer of 1976 is a turning point for 15-year-old Boady Sanden. He's managed to outrun and outwit the bullying seniors throughout his freshman year at St. Ignatius High; he's working multiple jobs for Wally Schenicker's construction company; and he finally makes a friend his own age--Thomas Elgin, son of the only black family on Boady's side of town... -
Last of the Breed by Louis L'Amour
Rated: 4.28 of 5 stars · 37 ratingsHere is the kind of authentically detailed epic novel that has become Louis L’Amour’s hallmark. It is the compelling story of U.S. Air Force Major Joe Mack, a man born out of time. When his experimental aircraft is forced down in Russia and he escapes a Soviet prison camp, he must call upon the ancient skills of his Indian forebears to survive the vast Siberian wilderness...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction realistic western 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook -
Dances with Wolves by Michael Blake
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsOrdered to hold an abandoned army post, John Dunbar found himself alone, beyond the edge of civilization. Thievery and survival soon forced him into the Indian camp, where he began a dangerous adventure that changed his life forever. Relive the adventure and beauty of the incredible movie, Dances with Wolves... -
I Saw Her That Night by Drago Jančar
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsI Saw Her That Night, a love story in time of war, is a novel about a few years in the life and mysterious disappearance of Veronika Zarnik, a young bourgeois woman from Ljubljana, sucked into the whirlwind of a turbulent period in history... -
His Last Bow by Arthur Conan Doyle
Rated: 4.23 of 5 stars · 46 ratings'His Last Bow', the title story of this collection, tells how Sherlock Holmes is brought out of retirement to help the Government fight the German threat at the approach of the First World War. The Prime Minister himself requests Holmes's services to hunt down the remarkable German agent, Von Bork... -
The Seven Sisters by Lucinda Riley
Rated: 4.18 of 5 stars · 65 ratingsMaia D’Apliese and her five sisters gather together at their childhood home, “Atlantis”—a fabulous, secluded castle situated on the shores of Lake Geneva—having been told that their beloved father, who adopted them all as babies, has died. Each of them is handed a tantalizing clue to her true heritage—a clue which takes Maia across the world to a crumbling mansion in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil...Categorized as:
historical-fiction journey literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook book -
Sackett by Louis L'Amour
Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsA drifter by circumstance, William Tell Sackett hungered for a place he couldn’t name but knew he had to find. South of the Tetons, through a keyhole pass, he found it: a lonely yet beautiful valley—with a fortune in gold. Then he found an even greater treasure: Ange Kerry, a courageous and resourceful woman... -
Sackett's Land by Louis L'Amour, John Curless
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsAfter discovering six gold Roman coins buried in the mud of the Devil’s Dyke, Barnabas Sackett enthusiastically invests in goods that he will offer for trade in America. But Sackett has a powerful enemy: Rupert Genester, nephew of an earl, wants him dead. A battlefield promise made to Sackett’s father threatens Genester’s inheritance... -
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The Great Brain by John D. Fitzgerald, Mercer Mayer
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsThe best con man in the Midwest is only ten years old. Tom, a.k.a., the Great Brain, is a silver-tongued genius with a knack for turning a profit. When the Jenkins boys get lost in Skeleton Cave, the Great Brain saves the day...Categorized as:
historical-fiction industrial-era realistic western 20th-century action-adventure audiobook book -
True Grit by Charles Portis
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 31 ratingsFourteen-year-old Mattie Ross' father was shot and killed. Told through her eyes, True Grit is the story of how she and hard-drinking Marshal Rooster Cogburn set out to find and prosecute his murderer. "An epic and a legend".--Washington Post... -
The Secret Keeper of Jaipur by Alka Joshi
Rated: 4.15 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsIn New York Times bestselling author Alka Joshi’s intriguing new novel, henna artist Lakshmi arranges for her protégé, Malik, to intern at the Jaipur Palace in this tale rich in character, atmosphere, and lavish storytelling.It’s the spring of 1969, and Lakshmi, now married to Dr. Jay Kumar, directs the Healing Garden in Shimla. Malik has finished his private school education...Categorized as:
historical-fiction journey literary-fiction realistic 20th-century action-adventure adult asian-mc -
The Velvet Room by Zilpha Keatley Snyder
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsRobin was always wandering off (her mother's words) to get away from the confusion she felt inside her. It was not until Robin's father found a permanent job at the McCurdy ranch, after three years as a migrant worker, that Robin had a place to wander to... -
Jubal Sackett: The Sacketts by Louis L'Amour
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsIn Jubal Sackett, the second generation of Louis L’Amour’s great American family pursues a destiny in the wilderness of a sprawling new land. Jubal Sackett’s urge to explore drove him westward, and when a Natchez priest asks him to undertake a nearly impossible quest, Sackett ventures into the endless grassy plains the Indians call the Far Seeing Lands...Categorized as:
historical-fiction industrial-era western 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook book -
The Daybreakers by Louis L'Amour
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsOrrin Sackett had to be pushed into a fight. But Tyrel Sackett was born to trouble. The night Tye stepped between his brother and a bullet changed them both forever. Now their trail pointed west, to a lawless frontier town called Sante Fe. Orrin took the job of marshal, while Tye commanded respect without a badge... -
Butcher's Crossing by John Williams
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsIn his National Book Award–winning novel Augustus, John Williams uncovered the secrets of ancient Rome. With Butcher’s Crossing, his fiercely intelligent, beautifully written western, Williams dismantles the myths of modern America.It is the 1870s, and Will Andrews, fired up by Emerson to seek “an original relation to nature,” drops out of Harvard and heads west... -
The Last Days of Night by Graham Moore
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 28 ratingsNew York, 1888. Gas lamps still flicker in the city streets, but the miracle of electric light is in its infancy. The person who controls the means to turn night into day will make history--and a vast fortune. A young untested lawyer named Paul Cravath, fresh out of Columbia Law School, takes a case that seems impossible to win... -
Hollow Out the Dark by James Wade
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsAward-winning author James Wade blends atmospheric prose with soul-stirring themes in Hollow Out the Dark, a gothic adventure set against a Depression-era landscape where a whiskey war threatens to decimate a small Texas town.A veteran of the Great War, Jesse Cole is grateful for the quiet life he now leads...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction western industrial-era romance fiction historical mystery -
Dreams of Joy by Lisa See
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 35 ratings#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER In her most powerful novel yet, acclaimed author Lisa See returns to the story of sisters Pearl and May from Shanghai Girls, and Pearl’s strong-willed nineteen-year-old daughter, Joy. Reeling from newly uncovered family secrets, Joy runs away to Shanghai in early 1957 to find her birth father—the artist Z. G. Li, with whom both May and Pearl were once in love... -
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Knight's Cross by Christine Kling
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsShipwreck hunters Maggie Riley and Cole Thatcher are no strangers to the mysteries hidden beneath the seas. They’ve uncovered artifacts with secrets that powerful interests would do anything to control—and they’re about to do it again. As the newly engaged couple prepares to set sail, Cole suspects they are being followed...Categorized as:
historical-fiction realistic 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook book crime -
The Paris Library by Janet Skeslien Charles
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 34 ratingsBased on the true World War II story of the heroic librarians at the American Library in Paris, this is an unforgettable story of romance, friendship, family, and the power of literature to bring us together, perfect for fans of The Lilac Girls and The Paris Wife...Categorized as:
historical-fiction journey literary-fiction realistic 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook -
China Blues by Ki Longfellow
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsThe Roaring Twenties, Chinatown, San Francisco: back-street blues and bathtub gin… hardball mobsters and hardheaded cops… seductive speakeasies and sizzling scandals. As the young Louis Armstrong blows his horn in the infamous Blue Canary, impetuous Nob Hill Socialite Elizabeth Stafford Hamilton plunges into a reckless affair with mysterious Li Kwan Won...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure adult book crime female-author -
The Island by Victoria Hislop
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 30 ratingsOn the brink of a life-changing decision, Alexis Fielding longs to find out about her mother's past. But Sofia has never spoken of it. All she admits to is growing up in a small Cretan village before moving to London. When Alexis decides to visit Crete, however, Sofia gives her daughter a letter to take to an old friend, and promises that through her she will learn more... -
The Complete Western Stories of Elmore Leonard by Elmore Leonard
Rated: 4.12 of 5 stars · 17 ratingsNo one is more evocative of the dusty, gutsy hey-day of the American West than Elmore Leonard. And no story about a young writer struggling to launch his career ever matched its subject matter better than the tale behind Leonard's Western oeuvre...Categorized as:
historical-fiction industrial-era western 20th-century action-adventure adult anthologies audiobook -
The Warrior's Path by Louis L'Amour
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsFilled with exciting tales of the frontier, the chronicle of the Sackett family is perhaps the crowning achievement of one of our greatest storytellers.In The Warrior’s Path, Louis L’Amour tells the story of Yance and Kin Sackett, two brothers who are the last hope of a young woman who faces a fate worse than death...Categorized as:
historical-fiction industrial-era western 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook book -
The Italian Villa by Daniela Sacerdoti
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsCallie, a lonely small-town waitress, is still reeling from the discovery that she’s adopted when she arrives in Montevino, Italy in search of answers – the keys to the stunning hillside villa she has just inherited clutched tightly in her hand...Categorized as:
historical-fiction journey literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure adult book family -
The Girl They Left Behind by Roxanne Veletzos, Cassandra Campbell
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsA sweeping family saga and love story that offers a vivid and unique portrayal of life in war-torn 1941 Bucharest and life behind the Iron Curtain during the Soviet Union occupation—perfect for fans of Lilac Girls and Sarah’s Key.On a freezing night in January 1941, a little Jewish girl is found on the steps of an apartment building in Bucharest...Categorized as:
historical-fiction journey literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook book -
The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle
Rated: 4.12 of 5 stars · 41 ratings'When you have eliminated all which is impossible, then whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.'In this, the final collection of Sherlock Holmes adventures, the intrepid detective and his faithful companion Dr Watson examine and solve twelve cases that puzzle clients, baffle the police and provide readers with the thrill of the chase... -
Maid of Baikal by Preston Fleming
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsWhat if a Siberian Joan of Arc had rescued the White Armies at a critical point of the Russian Civil War in 1919? MAID OF BAIKAL offers an alternative outcome to that war through the intervention of Zhanna Dorokhina, a young woman from the shores of Siberia’s Lake Baikal... -
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Mollie Peer: or, The Underground Adventure of the Moosepath League by Van Reid
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsIn the second hilarious adventure of the Moosepath League, Mollie Peer, the feisty society columnist for the Eastern Argus, follows up on a lead she hopes will win her that elusive promotion to reporter... -
Stranger at Wildings by Madeleine Brent
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsHere is a tale of charm and adventure-set in Europe around the turn of the century-whose colorful action ranges from a touring circus in Hungary to the fox-hunting society of the English countryside to the elegant circles of wealth and fashion in London...Categorized as:
historical-fiction industrial-era 20th-century action-adventure book fiction gothic historical -
Little Boy Lost by Marghanita Laski, Anne Sebba
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsHilary Wainwright, an English soldier, returns to a blasted and impoverished France during World War Two in order to trace a child lost five years before. But is this small, quiet boy in a grim orphanage really his son? And what if he is not? In this exquisitely crafted novel, we follow Hilary’s struggle to love in the midst of a devastating war...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction journey europe western-central-europe france fiction classics -
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre by B. Traven
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsA CULT MASTERPIECE—THE ADVENTURE NOVEL THAT INSPIRED JOHN HUSTON'S CLASSIC FILM, BY THE ELUSIVE AUTHOR WHO WAS A MODEL FOR THE HERO OF ROBERTO BOLAÑO'S 2666 Little is known for certain about B. Traven. Evidence suggests that he was born Otto Feige in Schlewsig-Holstein and that he escaped a death sentence for his involvement with the anarchist underground in Bavaria...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction western 20th-century action-adventure adult book classics -
The Shootist by Glendon Swarthout
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsBy the author of The Homesman, now a major motion picture The Shootist is John Bernard Books, a gunfighter at the turn of the twentieth century who must confront the greatest Shootist of all: Death. Most men would end their days in bed or take their own lives, but a gunfighter has a third option, one that Books decides to exercise. He may choose his own executioner...Categorized as:
historical-fiction industrial-era western 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook book -
Tuscan Rose by Belinda Alexandra
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsFrom an international bestselling author comes a richly woven tale of passion, longing, witchcraft, and magic set in Italy during World War II.A magical, richly woven World War II– era saga filled with passion, secrets, beauty, and horror from internationally acclaimed bestselling author Belinda Alexandra. FLORENCE, 1914...Categorized as:
historical-fiction journey literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook book
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