Books like 'After Francesco'
Readers who enjoyed After Francesco by Brian Malloy also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
historical lgbtq historical-fiction literary-fiction romantic-love realistic mlm grief social-commentary family
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The Sea Speaks His Name by Leila S. Chudori
Rated: 4.63 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsThe tragic yet inspiring story of a group of friends, all young and idealistic political activists who faced the iron fist of power in the waning days of the Suharto regime, in the late 1990s.In the twilight hours of a day in March, Biru Laut was ambushed by four unknown men. Together with his friends, Daniel, Sunu and Alex, he was taken to an unknown location...Categorized as:
family friendship historical-fiction literary-fiction politics book drama female-author -
Let the Children March by Monica Clark-Robinson
Rated: 4.57 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsI couldn't play on the same playground as the white kids.I couldn't go to their schools.I couldn't drink from their water fountains.There were so many things I couldn't do. In 1963 Birmingham, Alabama, thousands of African American children volunteered to march for their civil rights after hearing Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. speak...Categorized as:
historical-fiction social-commentary family realistic friendship children-books historical fiction -
Boy Underground by Catherine Ryan Hyde
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsDuring WWII, a teenage boy finds his voice, the courage of his convictions, and friends for life in an emotional and uplifting novel by the New York Times and #1 Amazon Charts bestselling author.1941. Steven Katz is the son of prosperous landowners in rural California. Although his parents don’t approve, he’s found true friends in Nick, Suki, and Ollie, sons of field workers...Categorized as:
coming-of-age family friendship historical-fiction lgbtq literary-fiction mlm realistic -
The Prettiest Star by Carter Sickels
Rated: 4.44 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsSmall-town Appalachia doesn't have a lot going for it, but it’s where Brian is from, where his family is, and where he’s chosen to return to die.At eighteen, Brian, like so many other promising young gay men, arrived in New York City without much more than a love for the freedom and release from his past that it promised... -
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Boy Like Me by Simon James Green
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsIn the margins of a book's pages, sparks fly as a teenage romance begins. But in this time and place, sparks like these can only ignite trouble. It's 1994 and thanks to Section 28, there can be no mention of gay relationships in UK schools... -
Don't Cry for Me by Daniel Black
Rated: 4.35 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsA Black father makes amends with his gay son through letters written on his deathbed in this wise and penetrating novel of empathy and forgiveness, for fans of Ta-Nehisi Coates, Robert Jones Jr. and Alice Walker As Jacob lies dying, he begins to write a letter to his only son, Isaac. They have not met or spoken in many years, and there are things that Isaac must know...Categorized as:
coming-of-age family grief historical-fiction lgbtq literary-fiction realistic social-commentary -
The Lanterns of the King of Galilee: A Novel of 18th-Century Palestine by Ibrahim Nasrallah
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsIn eighteenth-century Palestine, on the shores of Galilee's Lake Tiberias, visionary political and military leader Daher al-Umar al-Zaydani undertakes a journey toward the greatest aim anyone could hope to achieve in his day: the establishment of an autonomous Arab state...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction politics adult audiobook book fiction historical -
A Daughter’s Return by Josephine Cox
Rated: 4.36 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsFlorence Stanville is a woman with a past. When she moves to Guisethorpe on the east coast of England, the townsfolk are intrigued by the glamorous and mysterious stranger. Florence doesn’t care about the gossips – she’s drawn to the peaceful seaside town by the pull of her childhood, when she lived for a brief but happy time with her beloved late mother... -
The Outside Boy by Jeanine Cummins
Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsIreland, 1959: Young Christy Hurley is a Pavee gypsy, traveling with his father and extended family from town to town, carrying all their worldly possessions in their wagons. Christy carries with him a burden of guilt as well, haunted by the story of his mother's death in childbirth. The peripatetic life is the only one Christy has ever known, but when his grandfather dies, everything changes... -
The Chocolatier of Hideaway Bay by Michele Brouder
Rated: 4.70 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsAfter a series of poor choices and mistakes, Valerie decides she needs a fresh start in a new city. But first, she wants to check out the little town of Hideaway Bay that her grandmother spoke about often with fondness and hopefully solve the mystery why her grandmother left and abandoned her house on Star Shine Drive... -
The Lotus Shoes by Jane Yang
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsAn empowering, uplifting tale of two women from opposite sides of society, and their extraordinary journey of sisterhood, betrayal, love and triumph.1800s China. Tightly bound feet, or "golden lilies," are the mark of an honorable woman, eclipsing beauty, a rich dowry and even bloodline in the marriage stakes... -
The Cure for Drowning by Loghan Paylor
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 9 ratingsEvocative, magical and luminously written, The Cure for Drowning is not only a brilliant, boundary-pushing love story but a Canadian historical novel that boldly centres queer and non-binary characters in unprecedented ways...Categorized as:
lgbtq historical-fiction coming-of-age literary-fiction romantic-love fiction historical audiobook -
Destination Unknown by Bill Konigsberg
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsFrom Stonewall Award winner Bill Konigsberg, a remarkable, funny, sexy, heartbreaking story of two teen boys finding each other in New York City at the height of the AIDS epidemic.The first thing I noticed about C.J. Gorman was his plexiglass bra. So begins Destination Unknown. It's 1987 in New York City, and Micah is at a dance club, trying to pretend he's more out and outgoing than he really is... -
When You Call My Name by Tucker Shaw
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsTucker Shaw’s When You Call My Name is a heartrending novel about two gay teens coming of age in New York City in 1990 at the height of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Named "this summer's most powerful LGBTQ+ novel" by GAY TIMES, this book is perfect for fans of Adam Silvera and Mary H. K. Choi.Film fanatic Adam is seventeen and being asked out on his first date—and the guy is cute... -
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Blood Sisters by Barbara Keating, Stephanie Keating
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsKenya 1957. During their childhood years in the Kenya Highlands three girls from vastly different backgrounds become blood sisters, promising that nothing will ever destroy the bond between them. But the legacy of the Mau Mau rebellion, and the tensions and upheavals of newly independent Kenya, tear their childhood dreams apart... -
Bata, Bata...Pa'No Ka Ginawa? by Lualhati Bautista
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 16 ratings...Hanggang sa ang bata ay hindi na bata kundi ama, o ina. Ano ang ituuro niya ngayon sa kanyang mga anak? Lahat ng dapat niyang matutuhan ngayon pa lang, hindi pagkamasunurin at pagkakimi, kundi pagkibo pag may sasabihin at paglaban pag kailangan. Lahat ng panahon ay hindi panahon ng mga takot at pagtitmpi; lahat ng panahon ay panahon ng pagpapasiya... -
Where the Rivers Merge by Mary Alice Monroe
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 16 ratings"This is book club fiction at its finest!" —Lisa Wingate, #1 New York Times bestselling author From New York Times bestselling author Mary Alice Monroe comes her highly anticipated Where the Rivers Merge, the first of two epic and triumphant novels celebrating one intrepid woman's life across multiple generations in the American South...Categorized as:
historical-fiction coming-of-age family friendship literary-fiction romantic-love fiction audiobook -
The History of Sound by Ben Shattuck
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsA stunning collection of interconnected stories set in New England, exploring how the past is often misunderstood and how history, family, heartache, and desire can echo over centuriesIn twelve luminous stories set across three centuries, The History of Sound examines the unexpected ways the past returns to us and how love and loss are entwined and transformed over generations...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction lgbtq romantic-love fiction audiobook historical anthologies -
Outbound Train by Renea Winchester
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsIn 1976, memories from a night near the railroad tracks sixteen years earlier haunt Barbara Parker. She wrestles with past demons every night, then wakes to the train’s five-thirty whistle. Exhausted and dreading the day, she keeps her hands busy working in Bryson City’s textile plant, known as the “blue jean plant,” all the while worrying about her teenage daughter, Carole Anne... -
The Secret Years: An emotional drama of love and survival by Judith Lennox
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsA moving story about life in the East Anglian Fens after the First World War, evoking the emotions of the men who came through their ordeals and the women who survived the trauma of separation.During the golden summer of 1914, four young people played in the gardens of Drakesden Abbey... -
When I First Held You by Anstey Harris
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsSilence tore them apart. Can the truth bring them back together?In 1960s Glasgow, anti-nuclear activists Judith and Jimmy fall in love. But their future hopes are dashed when their protestors’ squat is raided and many, including Jimmy, are sent to prison. Pregnant and with no word from Jimmy, Judith is forced to enter an unmarried mothers’ home, give up their baby and learn to live with her grief...Categorized as:
historical-fiction lgbtq literary-fiction family coming-of-age romance fiction historical -
Cairo Circles by Doma Mahmoud
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsWriting instructor at American University in Cairo and NYU MFA graduate Doma Mahmoud's THE DISBELIEVERS, set between Cairo and New York, exploring the stories of three families from different social classes, whose lives are closely intertwined throughout, meditating on the boundaries of free will and questions about class, hedonism, faith, and violence, to Olivia Taylor Smith at Unnamed Press... -
The Kudzu Queen by Mimi Herman
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 7 ratings“Funny, sad, and tender… Mimi Herman has written a novel that possesses a true and hard won understanding of the South.” —David Sedaris, author of Happy-Go-Lucky Fifteen-year-old Mattie Lee Watson dreams of men, not boys. So when James T...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction realistic family coming-of-age fiction historical audiobook -
Almonds and Raisins by Maisie Mosco
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsThe first in a trilogy about a Jewish family who flee Eastern Europe in the early 20th century and settle in Manchester, England. In the cold world of Manchester in 1905 the family Sandberg found the good things of life scarce and the hardships bitter as the chill northern winds. Sarah, the mother. A born survivor stranded in a land of strangers by the vicious tides of persecution... -
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This Is How It Begins by Joan Dempsey
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 8 ratings“In a time when religious liberty is on trial, This Is How It Begins is an extraordinarily pertinent novel dripping in suspense and powerful scenes of political discourse . . . a must read . . .” —Foreword (starred review)A woman bearing a thorny secret. A man fighting for religious freedom. A battle neither saw coming. Massachusetts, 2009. Ludka Zeilonka is relishing her emeritus status... -
Signed, A Paddy by Lisa Boyle
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsThe gruesome truth hung in the air, and none of us wanted to go near it. Not yet.Ireland, 1848. Fourteen-year-old Rosaleen watches her mother die. Her country is reeling from the great potato famine, which will ultimately kill more than one million people. Driven by a promise and her will to survive, Rosaleen flees her small coastal town...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction coming-of-age friendship fiction drama historical female-mc -
The Promise of Rain by Vasundra Tailor
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsA treasured necklace that could unlock a family mystery. But why has it been hidden away for sixty years?With her thirtieth birthday on the horizon, Anna Kotze has accepted that there are some family secrets she’ll never know. While her mother’s Zimbabwean roots are woven into her life, all her father will say is that he was adopted...Categorized as:
family coming-of-age historical-fiction friendship literary-fiction fiction audiobook mystery -
Kamala and Maya’s Big Idea by Meena Harris
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsOne day, Kamala and Maya had an idea. A big idea: they would turn their empty apartment courtyard into a playground!This is the uplifting tale of how the author’s aunt and mother first learned to persevere in the face of disappointment and turned a dream into reality. This is a story of children’s ability to make a difference and of a community coming together to transform their neighborhood...Categorized as:
family friendship historical-fiction politics realistic book children children-books -
The Trench by عبد الرحمن منيف
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsMunif sets this second volume of his critically acclaimed Cities of Salt trilogy in a Middle Eastern kingdom during the 1950s... -
Entrok by Okky Madasari
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 16 ratings'Entrok' merupakan kisah perempuan daripada dua generasi yang berdepan dengan segala penindasan dan ketidakadilan daripada masyarakat, negara dan bahkan orang agama. Namun 'Entrok' bukan tentang kepasrahan dan ketidakupayaan perempuan, melainkan rakaman kesungguhan si ibu dan anak untuk memahami persekitarannya dan bangkit menguasai serta menentukan hidup mereka... -
Where The Winds Dwell by Böðvar Guðmundsson, Bovar Gumundsson
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsWritten as a letter from a father to a daughter, Where the Winds Dwell is compassionate and real. Guðmundsson brings together past and present in this tragic story of the historic journey to Nýja Ísland, the world's largest Icelandic community outside of Iceland... -
Laura's Luck by Marilyn Sachs
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsLaura knows she won't be happy at camp...but could she be wrong? In the second of three books about a poor family living in the Bronx in the 1940s, Laura, the older sister, has to cope with the pleasures and pains of going off to camp...Categorized as:
coming-of-age family friendship historical-fiction realistic book children children-books -
Isabel by Javier Olivares Zurilla
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsIsabel, una mujer que decidió ser la dueña de su propio destino.Hija menor de Juan II de Castilla e Isabel de Portugal, la pequeña Isabel contaba con escasas posibilidades de llegar al trono, destinado a sus hermanos varones... -
The Last Carolina Girl by Meagan Church
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsA searing book club novel for fans of Where the Crawdad's Sing and The Girls in the Stilt House following one girl fighting for her family, her body, and her right to create a future all her ownSome folks will do anything to control the wild spirit of a Carolina girl...For fourteen-year-old Leah Payne, life in her beloved coastal Carolina town is as simple as it is free...Categorized as:
coming-of-age family historical-fiction literary-fiction adult audiobook book female-mc -
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Royaume de vent et de colères by Jean-Laurent Del Socorro
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratings1596. Deux ans avant l'édit de Nantes qui met fin aux guerres de Religion, Marseille la catholique s'oppose à Henri IV, l'ancien protestant. Une rébellion, une indépendance que ne peut tolérer le roi... -
A Rose by Any Name by K.J. Charles
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsAn epilogue to The Gentle Art of Fortune Hunting and A Thief in the Night... -
In Revere, In Those Days by Roland Merullo
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsIn this richly evocative novel--the moving story of one boy's coming of age--acclaimed author Roland Merullo will make you nostalgic for a small Massachusetts city called Revere even if you've never been there. Providing a window into an unspoiled America of forty years ago, In Revere welcomes you to the fiercely loyal and devoted Italian-American family of the Benedettos...Categorized as:
coming-of-age historical-fiction literary-fiction realistic adult boarding-school book fiction -
How Long Has This Been Going On? by Ethan Mordden
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsHow Long Has This Been Going On? brings together a rich and varied cast of characters to tell the tale of modern gay America in this remarkable epic novel. Beginning in 1949 and moving to the present day, Mordden puts a unique and innovating spin on modern history. An adventurous, adroit, and fascinating novel by one of the finest gay writers of our time... -
Four Meals by Meir Shalev
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsFrom the author of the critically acclaimed A Pigeon and a Boy, the extraordinary story of Zayde, his enigmatic mother Judith, and her three loversWhen Judith arrives in a small, rural village in Palestine in the early 1930s, three men compete for her attention: Globerman, the cunning, coarse cattle-dealer who loves women, money, and flesh; Jacob, owner of hundreds of canaries and host to the...Categorized as:
family historical-fiction literary-fiction mlm romantic-love 20th-century adult audiobook -
Our Evenings by Alan Hollinghurst
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsFrom the internationally acclaimed winner of the Booker Prize, a piercing novel that envisions modern England through the lens of one man’s acutely observed and often unnerving experience, as he struggles with class and race, art and sexuality, love and violence...Categorized as:
historical-fiction lgbtq literary-fiction coming-of-age romantic-love family fiction audiobook -
ಮಲೆಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ಮದುಮಗಳು by Kuvempu
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsThe author discusses social and economic conditions prevailed in the late 19th Century Malenadu. The story revolves around characters of the then prevailing feudal system- Heggades/Gowdas (the landlords) and their serfs belonging to different castes at multiple locations with interlinking characters and their stories... -
Zayni Barakat by Gamal al-Ghitani, جمال الغيطاني
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 16 ratings"In the course of my long travels I have never seen a city so devastated. After a long time I ventured out into the streets. Death, cold and heavy, hung in the air. Walls have no value here, doors have been eliminated. No one is certain that they will see another day...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction politics 20th-century adult book fiction historical -
Take Nothing With You by Patrick Gale
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsFrom the bestselling author of A PLACE CALLED WINTER comes a new novel of boyhood, coming of age, and the confusions of desire and reality. For all readers of Ian McEwan's ATONEMENT or L P Hartley's THE GO-BETWEEN.1970s Western-Super-Mare and ten-year-old oddball Eustace, an only child, has life transformed by his mother's quixotic decision to sign him up for cello lessons...Categorized as:
coming-of-age family friendship historical-fiction lgbtq literary-fiction audiobook bildungsroman -
The Hungry Road by Marita Conlon-McKenna
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsIn its brilliant recreation of the Great Irish Famine, the children's historical novel Under the Hawthorn Tree is beloved by millions and is considered a classic. Now, the Number One Irish bestseller and award-winning author is turning her hand to the definitive adult novel of those hard times, with The Hungry Road...Categorized as:
coming-of-age family historical-fiction literary-fiction adult audiobook book female-author -
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Random Passage by Bernice Morgan, Marie McCarthy
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsThe chill Atlantic lies between Lavinia Andrews and the home she loves after a shattering incident topples her family fortunes. Shocked, she can barely comprehend that Cape Random is home from now on - this tiny Newfoundland settlement perched on rock between dense forest and the ocean... -
Whistling Woman by C.C. Tillery
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsIn the waning years of the 19th century, Bessie Daniels grows up in the small town of Hot Springs in western North Carolina. Secure in the love of her father, yet troubled with her mother's desire that she be a proper Southern belle, Bessie is determined to forge her own way in life. Or, as her Cherokee great- grandmother, Elisi, puts it, to be a whistling woman...Categorized as:
coming-of-age historical-fiction literary-fiction adult book fiction historical rural -
Where the Heart Should Be by Sarah Crossan
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsIt is 1846 and Ireland is starving.The potatoes are black, people are dying and in the midst of it all Nell must do everything she can to keep her family together, and everyone she loves alive. Even if it means giving up her every want, dream and desire...Categorized as:
historical-fiction family coming-of-age grief friendship literary-fiction romance young-adult -
Sacred Country by Rose Tremain
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsAt the age of six, Mary Ward, the child of a poor farming family in Suffolk, has a revelation: she isn't Mary, she's a boy. So begins Mary's heroic struggle to change gender, while around her others also strive to find a place of safety and fulfilment in a savage and confusing world...Categorized as:
coming-of-age family friendship historical-fiction lgbtq literary-fiction 20th-century adult -
Naked by Kevin Brooks
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsLondon, 1976: a summer of chaos, punk, love . . . and the boy they called Billy the Kid. It was the summer of so many things. Heat and violence, love and hate, heaven and hell. It was the time I met William Bonney - the boy from Belfast known as Billy the Kid. I've kept William's secrets for a long time, but now things have changed and I have to tell the truth... -
Tempest at Dawn by James D. Best
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsAs featured on The Glenn Beck Show . Tempest at Dawn is on the Glenn Beck Reading List. The United States is on the brink of total collapse. The military has been reduced to near extinction, economic turmoil saps hope, and anarchy threatens as world powers hover like vultures, eager to devour the remains...
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