Books like 'Spinner'
Readers who enjoyed Spinner by Benedict Wells also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
contemporary coming-of-age literary-fiction classics
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The Five Wishes of Mr. Murray McBride: 1 by Joe Siple
Rated: 4.63 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsWith all his family and friends gone, one-hundred-year-old Murray McBride is looking for a reason to live. He finds it in Jason Cashman, a ten-year-old boy with a terminal heart defect and a list of five things he wants to do before he dies. Together, they race against the limited time each has left, ticking off wishes one by one... -
![The Collected Stories of Richard Yates by Richard Yates]()
The Collected Stories of Richard Yates by Richard Yates
Rated: 4.31 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsRichard Yates was acclaimed as one of the most powerful, compassionate and accomplished writers of America's post-war generation...Categorized as:
classics literary-fiction 20th-century adult anthologies contemporary fiction literary -
![The Collected Poems, 1957-1987 by Octavio Paz]()
The Collected Poems, 1957-1987 by Octavio Paz
Rated: 4.31 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsNobel Laureate Octavio Paz is incontestably Latin America's foremost poet. The Collected Poems of Octavio Paz is a landmark bilingual gathering of all the poetry he has published in book form since 1952, the year of his premier long poem, Sunstone (Piedra de Sol)―here translated anew by Eliot Weinberger―made its appearance...Categorized as:
classics literary-fiction fiction anthologies 20th-century poc-mc contemporary literary -
![The Stories of Raymond Carver by Raymond Carver]()
The Stories of Raymond Carver by Raymond Carver
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsWill You Please Be Quiet, Please? What We Talk About When We Talk About Love... -
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![Will You Please Be Quiet, Please? by Raymond Carver]()
Will You Please Be Quiet, Please? by Raymond Carver
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsWith this, his first collection, Carver breathed new life into the short story. In the pared-down style that has since become his hallmark, Carver showed us how humour and tragedy dwelt in the hearts of ordinary people, and won a readership that grew with every subsequent brilliant collection of stories, poems and essays that appeared in the last eleven years of his life...Categorized as:
classics coming-of-age literary-fiction 20th-century adult anthologies contemporary fiction -
![What Work Is by Philip Levine]()
What Work Is by Philip Levine
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsWinner of the National Book Award in 1991 “This collection amounts to a hymn of praise for all the workers of America. These proletarian heroes, with names like Lonnie, Loo, Sweet Pea, and Packy, work the furnaces, forges, slag heaps, assembly lines, and loading docks at places with unglamorous names like Brass Craft or Feinberg and Breslin’s First-Rate Plumbing and Plating...Categorized as:
classics literary-fiction 20th-century adult anthologies contemporary fiction literary -
![The Essential Tales of Chekhov by Anton Chekhov]()
The Essential Tales of Chekhov by Anton Chekhov
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsOf the two hundred stories that Anton Chekhov wrote, the twenty stories that appear in this extraordinary collection were personally chosen by Richard Ford--an accomplished storyteller in his own right. Included are the familiar masterpieces--"The Kiss," "The Darling," and "The Lady with the Dog"--as well as several brilliant lesser-known tales such as "A Blunder," "Hush!," and "Champagne...Categorized as:
classics literary-fiction fiction anthologies female-mc contemporary psychological literary -
![Dandelion Daughter: A Novel by Gabrielle Boulianne-Tremblay]()
Dandelion Daughter: A Novel by Gabrielle Boulianne-Tremblay
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsWinner 2022, Prix des Libraires Rights for TV adaptation purchased by Zone 3 A runaway bestseller in Québec, where it has captured the hearts of readers and pushed trans-identity into the mainstream conversation, Dandelion Daughter is an intimate, courageous portrait of what it’s like to grow up having been assigned the wrong sex at birth...Categorized as:
literary-fiction coming-of-age fiction lgbtq trans-mc contemporary female-author book -
![Han cantado bingo by Lana Corujo]()
Han cantado bingo by Lana Corujo
Rated: 4.44 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsTodo empieza con un algunas noches, en los diez minutos suspendidos antes de que Abuela regrese del bingo, dos hermanas salen a escondidas por la puerta de atrás hasta El Ahorcado —un volcán redondo como una panza bocarriba—, cuentan hasta tres y corren de vuelta sin mirar atrás...Categorized as:
coming-of-age literary-fiction fiction magical-realism contemporary female-author family book -
![Beatles by Lars Saabye Christensen]()
Beatles by Lars Saabye Christensen
Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsBeatles is the story of Kim Karlsen and his three buddies, Gunnar, Ola and Seb - and, yes, they occasionally like to think of themselves as the Fab Four. They were born in 1951, and the story starts with the first wave of Beatlemania in Norway, in the spring of 1965...Categorized as:
classics coming-of-age literary-fiction 20th-century audiobook bildungsroman book contemporary -
![Rost by Jakub Małecki]()
Rost by Jakub Małecki
Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars · 18 ratings2002 sterben die Eltern des siebenjährigen Szymek auf ihrem Rückweg in das kleine Dorf Cholny bei einem Autounfall. Sein Leben vor diesem Ereignis kippt in eine ihm scheinbar unerreichbare Vergangenheit...Categorized as:
coming-of-age literary-fiction 21st-century adult audiobook book contemporary fiction -
![My Struggle: Book Three by Karl Ove Knausgård]()
My Struggle: Book Three by Karl Ove Knausgård
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsA family of four--mother, father and two boys--move to the South Coast of Norway to a new house on a newly developed site. It is the early 1970s and the family's trajectory, upwardly mobile: the future seems limitless...Categorized as:
classics coming-of-age literary-fiction 21st-century adult anthologies audiobook contemporary -
![Los nombres propios by Marta Jiménez Serrano]()
Los nombres propios by Marta Jiménez Serrano
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 24 ratings¿Quién es Belaundia Fu? Es la mejor amiga de Marta a los siete años: la amiga invisible que, en esos momentos en que las cosas no salen como había planeado y ni siquiera la abuela es capaz de consolarla, se sienta con ella y espera hasta que se le pase... -
![Interpreter of Maladies / The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri]()
Interpreter of Maladies / The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsJhumpa Lahiri took the literary world by storm when her debut collection, Interpreter of Maladies, won the Pulitzer Prize in 2000. The collection was followed by her best-selling and critically acclaimed novel The Namesake—a finely wrought, deeply moving family drama. Presenting these works together here, this edition displays Lahiri’s enormous talent as a storyteller...Categorized as:
classics literary-fiction adult anthologies contemporary fiction literary poc-author -
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![The Dishwasher by Stéphane Larue]()
The Dishwasher by Stéphane Larue
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsIt’s winter in Montreal, 2002, when a graphic design student’s gambling addiction starts to drag him under... -
![Los ojos del perro siberiano by Antonio Santa Ana]()
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![In Youth Is Pleasure: & I Left My Grandfather's House by Denton Welch, William S. Burroughs]()
In Youth Is Pleasure: & I Left My Grandfather's House by Denton Welch, William S. Burroughs
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsKeenly observed autobiographical fiction and journal entries from acclaimed writer Denton Welch, featuring an introduction by William S. Burroughs “In Youth Is Pleasure” recounts the summer vacation of Orvil Pym—a sensitive, withdrawn, and deeply unhappy boy of fifteen. Following a trying year at public school, Orvil spends the summer with his father and two older brothers...Categorized as:
classics coming-of-age literary-fiction anthologies contemporary fiction lgbtq literary -
![From Afar by Frank Scozzari]()
From Afar by Frank Scozzari
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsFor centuries, poets have argued that unrequited love is love in its strongest form. From Afar is a timeless tale of Morgan Stanfield’s search for love in the far northern city of Saint Petersburg, Russia...Categorized as:
coming-of-age literary-fiction action-adventure adult book contemporary fiction journey -
![Selected Stories by William Trevor]()
Selected Stories by William Trevor
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 8 ratings"Trevor was our twentieth century Chekov.--Wall Street Journal Selected as one of The New York Times Book Review's 10 Best Books of the Year. Four-time winner of the O. Henry Prize, three-time winner of the Whitbread Award, and five-time nominee for the Booker Prize, William Trevor is one of the most acclaimed authors of our era... -
![The Rachel Incident by Caroline O'Donoghue]()
The Rachel Incident by Caroline O'Donoghue
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsWhere would I start, and how would it even make sense? How could you understand the year in Shandon Street unless you were there, with us, living it?Rachel Murray is twenty-one years old, platonically infatuated with her housemate James, and less-than-platonically infatuated with her enigmatic, married English professor Dr Byrne... -
![The Untethered by S.W. Southwick]()
The Untethered by S.W. Southwick
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsWhat Roble wants to create is illegal...if not impossible.And everyone seems determined to stop him from trying. But when a few unrepentant ladies join his fight to live free, the Las Vegas desert is going to light up like the 4th of July. ----------------------- "If you want a cross-breed between an Ayn Rand novel and a techno-thriller, this is the best you'll read...Categorized as:
classics coming-of-age literary-fiction action-adventure adult book contemporary fiction -
![At the Gates of the Animal Kingdom: Stories by Amy Hempel]()
At the Gates of the Animal Kingdom: Stories by Amy Hempel
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsAmy Hempel's collection of 16 stories seems to ask: "What if people could be just a little more like dogs - -forever loyal, ardent and loving in our... -
![The Brothers Silver by Marc Jampole]()
The Brothers Silver by Marc Jampole
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsJules and Leon Silver sit at a dusty Formica table in a cold kitchen, drinking warm sugar water. Downstairs in the basement, their mother is unconscious, having swallowed hundreds of Librium while the brothers were at Boy Scout camp, her latest suicide attempt. The food cupboards are empty. The phone doesn’t give a dial tone. As the sun goes down, the kitchen grows cold... -
![The Professional by W.C. Heinz, Elmore Leonard]()
The Professional by W.C. Heinz, Elmore Leonard
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsOriginally published in 1958, The Professional is the story of boxer Eddie Brown's quest for the middleweight championship of the world. But it is so much more. W. C... -
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![The House of Gazes by Daniele Mencarelli]()
The House of Gazes by Daniele Mencarelli
Rated: 4.31 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsWinner of the 2019 John Fante First Novel Prize The critically acclaimed novel from the author of Everything Calls for Salvation , adapted into a Netflix Original series, is a powerful coming-of-age story about loss, identity, and rebirth Daniele is a young poet plagued by an unknown darkness, “an invisible disease of the heart, or of the mind...Categorized as:
literary-fiction coming-of-age fiction contemporary audiobook drama psychological book -
![Reasons to Live by Amy Hempel]()
Reasons to Live by Amy Hempel
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsIt is always "earthquake weather" in Amy Hempel's California, a landscape where everything can change without warning. Traditional resources—home, parents, lovers, friends, even willpower—are not dependable. And so the characters in these short, compelling stories have learned to depend on small triumphs of wit, irony, and spirit...Categorized as:
classics literary-fiction 20th-century adult anthologies contemporary female-author fiction -
![Cómplices by Taibo]()
Cómplices by Taibo
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsJulián ha luchado contra el aburrimiento de todas las maneras posibles. Desde que le diagnosticaron hepatitis, ha recreado en su cabeza conversaciones imaginarias entre ostras que no tienen nada que hacer, ha buscado formas fantasiosas en las manchas de la pared, ha lanzado mocos al aire. Pero es feliz porque no tiene que ir a la escuela... -
![Padma River Boatman by Manik Bandopadhyay]()
Padma River Boatman by Manik Bandopadhyay
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsFishing life along the coastline of the Padma and its bitsy melancholic account of intense physical, helpless yet illusory tale. Kuber's struggles, Kapila's voluptuous youth like the rainfilled Padma and the presence of a mysterious man, Hasan Mia, make and break the narrative with tweaks that are deep, covert and sudden like hidden currents... -
![the truth about fragile things by Regina Sirois]()
the truth about fragile things by Regina Sirois
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsBryon died fifty years before his time. Charlotte grew up angry. I grew up scared. And Phillip- well, he never grew up. And now we are all bound together into one painful heap of humanity. Broken, but bound. And maybe it is only the fact that we are tangled in one terrible knot that will hold us together until we heal. This is unfortunately, and miraculously, my story...Categorized as:
coming-of-age literary-fiction book contemporary female-author fiction realistic young-adult -
![Unspoken Words by H.P. Davenport]()
Unspoken Words by H.P. Davenport
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsCamryn Townsend and Jamieson Banks have been the best of friends forever. Every important memory includes the other. From learning to play catch and first kisses, high school dances and college acceptances, they’ve always been there for one another. Without realizing it, the love they’ve always felt for one another evolves into something more... -
![Dear Marley by Danielle Keil]()
Dear Marley by Danielle Keil
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsEveryone at Ryder High knows what it means to have a teal envelope taped to their locker on the first day of the month.For Marley “Sunny” Sorenshine, a Secret Admirer might be just what she needs to put her recent, very public, break up behind her.Her optimism is dimmed when she reads the first note—her admirer was tricked into participating. He didn’t choose Marley, a dart did...Categorized as:
literary-fiction coming-of-age romance contemporary young-adult loner-mc fiction book -
![Letting Loose the Hounds by Brady Udall]()
Letting Loose the Hounds by Brady Udall
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsHere are eleven big-hearted tales by an inspired storyteller at the beginning of his career. Set in the small towns of Utah and Arizona, most of these stories deal with letting loose - or wanting to - in all its forms. For the family hero in "Buckeye the Elder, " this means reverting to a more raucous past...Categorized as:
coming-of-age literary-fiction adult anthologies contemporary fiction indigenous-mc poc-mc -
![Honeybees and Distant Thunder by Riku Onda]()
Honeybees and Distant Thunder by Riku Onda
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsTender and intense, Honeybees and Distant Thunder is the unflinching story of love, courage and rivalry as three young people come to understand what it means to truly be a friend.In a small coastal town just a stone's throw from Tokyo, a prestigious piano competition is underway...Categorized as:
literary-fiction coming-of-age fiction contemporary 21st-century realistic book adult -
![The Collected Stories by Deborah Eisenberg]()
The Collected Stories by Deborah Eisenberg
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsSince 1986 with the publication of her first story collection, Deborah Eisenberg has devoted herself to writing “exquisitely distilled stories” which “present an unusually distinctive portrait of contemporary American life” to quote the MacArthur Foundation...Categorized as:
literary-fiction classics fiction contemporary 21st-century anthologies female-author literary -
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![The Foreign Legion by Clarice Lispector]()
The Foreign Legion by Clarice Lispector
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsThe Foreign Legion is a collection in two parts, gathering both stories and chronicles, and it offers wonderful evidence of Clarice Lispector's unique sensibility and range as an exponent of experimental prose. It opens with thirteen stories and the second part of the book presents newspaper crônicas, which Lispector said she retrieved from a bottom drawer... -
![The Weight of a Moment by Michael Bowe]()
The Weight of a Moment by Michael Bowe
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsWinner for Literary Fiction at the American Fiction Awards 2020. On list of “10 Best Indie Books of 2019” at Shelf Unbound Magazine. Finalist for Best Novel at the Next Generation Book Awards 2020, (often referred to as the "Sundance of Books" in the media). Winner of a Bronze Medal at the Readers' Favorite Awards 2020... -
![Zenobia by Gellu Naum]()
Zenobia by Gellu Naum
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsOne of the best-known novels by prolific Romanian avant-garde writer Gelu Naum, Zenobia is the evocation of the singular quest of a Surrealist knight-errant who strives to be true to the gentle demands of his lady in a landscape of snares, desolation, incipient madness, and material poverty magically interrupted by moments of extreme beauty... -
![Enormous Changes at the Last Minute: Stories by Grace Paley]()
Enormous Changes at the Last Minute: Stories by Grace Paley
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsSeventeen stories written over the past fifteen years reveal the author's vision of human love and tragedy...Categorized as:
classics literary-fiction 20th-century adult anthologies contemporary female-author fiction -
![Selected Stories by Robert Walser, Susan Sontag]()
Selected Stories by Robert Walser, Susan Sontag
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsHow to place the mysterious Swiss writer Robert Walser, a humble genius who possessed one of the most elusive and surprising sensibilities in modern literature? Walser is many things: a Paul Klee in words, maker of droll, whimsical, tender, and heartbreaking verbal artifacts; an inspiration to such very different writers as Kafka and W.G...Categorized as:
classics literary-fiction 20th-century adult anthologies contemporary fiction literary -
![The People Look Like Flowers at Last by Charles Bukowski]()
The People Look Like Flowers at Last by Charles Bukowski
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsThe People Look like Flowers at Last is the last of five collections of never-before published poetry from the late great Dirty Old Man, Charles Bukowski.In it, he speaks on topics ranging from horse racing to military elephants, lost love to the fear of death. He writes extensively about writing, and about talking to people about writers such as Camus, Hemingway, and Stein... -
![The Half Brother by Lars Saabye Christensen]()
The Half Brother by Lars Saabye Christensen
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsThis Nordic Prize-winning novel, a truly gripping epic, relates the lives of four generations of a unique and strange family with touching intimacy and surreal comedy.Traces four generations of a family marked by the untimely birth of Fred, a misfit and boxer conceived during a devastating rape who forges an unusual friendship with his younger half-brother, Barnum... -
![Short Cuts: Selected Stories by Raymond Carver]()
Short Cuts: Selected Stories by Raymond Carver
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsThe nine stories and one poem collected in this volume formed the basis for the astonishingly original film “Short Cuts” directed by Robert Altman. Collected altogether in this volume, these stories form a searing and indelible portrait of American innocence and loss...Categorized as:
classics literary-fiction 20th-century adult anthologies contemporary fiction literary -
![The Few: A Novel by Hakan Günday]()
The Few: A Novel by Hakan Günday
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 18 ratings“I am here. Where are you?” These desperate words link the two protagonists of Hakan Günday’s raw and fearless novel The Few. Derdâ is an eleven-year-old girl pulled out of boarding school by her mother who, without telling her, plans to sell her as a wife to a conservative tribesman. She goes with her new husband to London, where for five years he abuses and all but imprisons her... -
![Lessons by Ian McEwan]()
Lessons by Ian McEwan
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsWhen the world is still counting the cost of the Second World War and the Iron Curtain has closed, eleven-year-old Roland Baines's life is turned upside down. Two thousand miles from his mother's protective love, stranded at an unusual boarding school, his vulnerability attracts piano teacher Miss Miriam Cornell, leaving scars as well as a memory of love that will never fade...Categorized as:
literary-fiction coming-of-age fiction historical-fiction audiobook contemporary family book -
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![Misophonia by Dana Vowinckel]()
Misophonia by Dana Vowinckel
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsPart coming-of-age tale, part family saga, an extraordinary debut novel set between Berlin, Chicago, and Jerusalem “about being Jewish and German, and all the awkwardness that entails” (The Guardian).It’s the hottest of summers in Chicago, and fifteen-year-old Margarita is spending her vacation as usual, under the not-so-watchful eyes of her aging maternal grandparents... -
![Rabbit Novels: Rabbit is Rich and Rabbit at Rest by John Updike]()
Rabbit Novels: Rabbit is Rich and Rabbit at Rest by John Updike
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsThe third and fourth novel in John Updike's acclaimed quartet of Rabbit books -- now in one marvelous volume. RABBIT IS RICHWinner of the American Book Award andthe National Book Critics Circle Award"Dazzlingly reaffirms Updike's place as master chronicler of the spiritual maladies and very earthly pleasure of the Middle-American male... -
![Donde da la vuelta el aire by Gonzalo Torrente Ballester]()
Donde da la vuelta el aire by Gonzalo Torrente Ballester
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsEl enfrentamiento entre la Galicia feudal, atenazada por la decadencia y representada por la familia de los Churruchaos, y la sociedad moderna que comienza su irresistible ascenso, encarnada en el arrogante y decidido Cayetano Salgado, dueño de los astilleros de Pueblanueva del Conde, prosigue por sus pasos contados en «Donde da la vuelta el aire», segunda parte de las trilogía Los gozos y las... -
![The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber & Other Stories by Ernest Hemingway]()
The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber & Other Stories by Ernest Hemingway
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 16 ratings"The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber" is a short story set in Africa. It was published in the September 1936 issue of Cosmopolitan magazine concurrently with "The Snows of Kilimanjaro... -
![West of Rome by John Fante]()
West of Rome by John Fante
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsWest of Rome's two novellas, "My Dog Stupid" and "The Orgy," fulfill the promise of their rousing titles. The latter novella opens with virtuoso description: "His name was Frank Gagliano, and he did not believe in God. He was that most singular and startling craftsman of the building trade-a left-handed bricklayer... -
![Barndommens gate by Tove Ditlevsen]()
Barndommens gate by Tove Ditlevsen
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsRomanen handler om ungjenta Esters oppvekst i en arbeiderfamilie i København, om hennes forhold til familien, omgivelsene og en gryende seksualitet. Romanen er sterkt selvbiografisk...
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