Books like 'The Memory Box'
Readers who enjoyed The Memory Box by Margaret Forster also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
contemporary literary-fiction historical-fiction season-autumn
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The Ones We Leave Behind by Deanna Lynn Sletten
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsDiane picked up her mother’s phone. “How do you feel about your mother being let out of prison today after sixty-five years?” the reporter asked. Diane stared at her mother. “My grandmother is alive?” That one phone call hurled shock waves throughout the entire family.1955 – Anna Bergman Craine’s life changes in an instant when she commits a crime of passion and is sentenced to life in prison... -
A Letter to the Last House Before the Sea: An absolutely stunning page-turner filled with family secrets (Heaven's Cove) by Liz Eeles
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsHigh on the clifftops, Lettie takes a deep breath of salty air and opens the letter. There is no signature, and the old-fashioned handwriting is faint against the yellowed paper...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction adult book contemporary female-author female-mc fiction -
A Page in Your Diary by Keith A. Pearson
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsTen insane days. One miraculous opportunity to re-write the past."If you lived through the 1980s and love time travel novels, you'll struggle to find a more addictive read than Pearson's latest gem." - Joanna JamesIn May 1987 Jackie Benton received a heartbreaking phone call from her boyfriend, Sean Hardy, bringing an end to their five-year relationship...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction adult book contemporary fiction paranormal time-travel -
Skallagrigg by William Horwood
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsSkallagrigg unites Arthur, a little boy abandoned many years ago in a grim hospital in northern England with Esther, a radiantly intelligent young girl who is suffering from cerebral palsy, and with Daniel, an American computer-games genius.Skallagrigg - whatever the name signifies, whoever he is - will come to transform all their lives...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction animals book contemporary disability fiction technology -
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All My Mothers by Joanna Glen
Rated: 4.42 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsFrom the author of the Costa shortlisted debut, The Other Half of Augusta Hope, comes the story of one girl’s journey to find her birth mother, and her realisation that mothers – and family – can be discovered in the most unexpected of places…London, 1980s. Though she has a comfortable, privileged life, Eva Martínez-Green is deeply unhappy...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction fiction contemporary audiobook coming-of-age family parenthood -
The Law of the Heart by Boris Starling
Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsTheir love is against the laws of a merciless state—but the heart has its own power.For rollercoaster designer Theo, living on the edge is just part of the job. He’s used to wandering the world perfecting thrills, his heart immune to commitment. But then a commission in repressive North Korea exposes him to emotions he’s never dared to feel...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction adult book contemporary female-mc fiction multi-pov -
Alte Sorten by Ewald Arenz
Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsSally und Liss: zwei Frauen, wie sie unterschiedlicher nicht sein könnten. Sally, kurz vor dem Abitur, will einfach in Ruhe gelassen werden. Sie ist wütend auf alles, hasst alles: Angebote, Vorschriften, Regeln, Erwachsene. Fragen hasst sie am meisten, vor allem nach ihrem Aussehen.Liss bewirtschaftet allein einen Hof zwischen Weinbergen und Feldern...Categorized as:
literary-fiction season-autumn adult audiobook book coming-of-age contemporary fiction -
Her First Palestinian by Saeed Teebi
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsElegant, surprising stories about Palestinian immigrants in Canada navigating their identities in circumstances that push them to the emotional brink.Saeed Teebi’s intense, engrossing stories plunge into the lives of characters grappling with their experiences as Palestinian immigrants to Canada...Categorized as:
literary-fiction historical-fiction fiction contemporary anthologies poc-mc realistic poc-author -
Everything is Illuminated & Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 12 ratings[NB: 2-in-1 edition]Everything Is Illuminated, Jonathan Safran Foer's stunning debut, tells the story of a young Jewish American's quixotic journey into an unexpected past... -
The Healers by Ayi Kwei Armah
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsFiction. African Studies. THE HEALERS tells a story of the conflict and regeneration focused on replacing toxic ignorance with the healing knowledge of African unity...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction fiction contemporary 20th-century romantic-love poc-mc medical -
No Honour by Awais Khan
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsA young woman defies convention in a small Pakistani village, with devastating results for her and her family. A stunning, immense beautiful novel about courage, family and the meaning of love, when everything seems lost… In sixteen-year-old Abida’s small Pakistani village, there are age-old rules to live by, and her family’s honour to protect...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction adult book contemporary family female-mc fiction -
The Heart Asks Pleasure First by Karuna Ezara Parikh
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsAn extraordinary tale of love in a world being torn asunder.It is 2001 and Daya and Aaftab have just met in a park in Cardiff. She is studying ballet and he is practising in a law firm. She falls madly in love. He does, but he also cannot, because he is Muslim and there are certain rules...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction romance fiction contemporary lgbtq feminism friendship -
They Knew Mr. Knight by Dorothy Whipple
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsThe Blakes are an ordinary family: Celia looks after the house and Thomas works at the family engineering business in Leicester. The book begins when he meets Mr Knight, a financier as crooked as any on the front pages of our newspapers nowadays; and tracks his and his family's swift climb and fall.Categorized as:
literary-fiction historical-fiction fiction classics female-author season-winter contemporary book -
Hangwoman: Everyone Loves A Good Hanging by K.R. Meera
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsAward winning novel Aarachaar(Executioner) is a story based on the Indian culture of caste and religion. Set in Bengal, it tells the story of a family of executioners with a long lineage, beginning in the fourth century BC. The protagonist of the novel, Chetna, is a strong and tenacious woman who struggles to inherit this profession.According to noted literary critic M... -
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The Last Supper Catering Company by Michaelene McElroy
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratings2013 Independent Publisher Book Awards Gold Medal, Readers' Favorite Five Star Review and winner of the Silver Medal for Women's Fiction, Amazon Kindle Bestseller - The Last Supper Catering Company is the humorous and heartwarming story of B. Thankful Childe-Lucknow. Turned out with red corkscrew hair, one eye brown, the other green, and gifted with the power to hear the voices of the departed, B...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction adult book christian contemporary culinary fiction -
Cent millions d'années et un jour by Jean-Baptiste Andrea
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratings‘On the mountain, the only monsters are the ones you take with you.’Summer 1954. Stan has been hunting for fossils since the age of six. Now, having made a career out of studying the remains of tiny lifeforms, he hears a story he cannot forget: the skeleton of a huge creature, a veritable dragon, lies deep in an Alpine glacier. And he is determined to find it...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction fiction drama action-adventure contemporary fantasy book -
Reader’s Block by David Markson
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsIn this spellbinding, utterly unconventional fiction, an aging author who is identified only as Reader contemplates the writing of a novel. As he does, other matters insistently crowd his mind - literary and cultural anecdotes, endless quotations attributed and not, scholarly curiosities - the residue of a lifetime's reading which is apparently all he has to show for his decades on earth...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century adult book contemporary fiction philosophy -
Zenzele: A Letter for My Daughter by J. Nozipo Maraire
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsWritten as a letter from a Zimbabwean mother to her daughter, a student at Harvard, J. Nozipo Maraire evokes the moving story of a mother reaching out to her daughter to share the lessons life has taught her and bring the two closer than ever before...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction fiction contemporary epistolary family 20th-century book -
Kokoschka's Doll by Afonso Cruz
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsAt the age of forty-two, Bonifaz Vogel begins to hear a voice.But it doesn't belong to the mice or the woodworm, as he first imagines. Nor is it the voice of God, as he comes to believe. It belongs to young Isaac Dresner, who takes refuge in the cellar of Vogel's bird shop on the run from the soldier who shot his best friend... -
Dawn: Stories by Selahattin Demirtaş, Maureen Freely
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsA new novel from Sarah Jessica Parker’s imprint, SJP for Hogarth: Written from behind bars, the unforgettable collection from one of Turkey’s leading politicians and most powerful storytellers.In this essential collection, Selahattin Demirtaş’s arresting stories capture the voices of ordinary people living through extraordinary times...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction 21st-century adult anthologies audiobook contemporary fiction -
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:
historical-fiction literary-fiction fiction audiobook contemporary family coming-of-age book -
Appropriate by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsEvery estranged member of the Lafayette clan has descended upon the crumbling Arkansas homestead to settle the accounts of the newly-dead patriarch. As his three adult children sort through a lifetime of hoarded mementos and junk, they collide over clutter, debt, and a contentious family history...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction drama fiction male-author contemporary black-mc poc-mc -
Delicate Edible Birds: And Other Stories by Lauren Groff, Susan Ericksen
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsFrom Lauren Groff, author of the critically acclaimed and bestselling novel The Monsters of Templeton, comes Delicate Edible Birds, one of the most striking short fiction debuts in recent years... -
In the Time of Our History by Susanne Pari
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsInspired by her own Iranian-American heritage, the acclaimed author weaves a beautifully crafted story of mothers and daughters, secrets and lies, and defying expectations—even when those choices come with an irrevocable cost...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction fiction contemporary family audiobook friendship female-mc -
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The Lover by A.B. Yehoshua, Philip Simpson
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 14 ratings“Elusive, haunting.”— New York Times Book Review A husband’s search for his wife’s lover, lost amid the turbulence of the Yom Kippur War, is the heart of this dreamlike novel. Through five different perspectives, Yehoshua explores the realities and consequences of the affair and the search, laying bare deep-rooted tensions within family, between generations, between Jews and Arabs...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century adult book contemporary family fiction -
The Question of Bruno by Aleksandar Hemon
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsIn this stylistically adventurous, brilliantly funny tour de force-the most highly acclaimed debut since Nathan Englander's-Aleksander Hemon writes of love and war, Sarajevo and America, with a skill and imagination that are breathtaking.A love affair is experienced in the blink of an eye as the Archduke Ferdinand watches his wife succumb to an assassin's bullet...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction fiction contemporary 21st-century anthologies adult -
The First Stone by Carsten Jensen
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsFrom the award-winning author of We, the Drowned comes a brutal, unflinching, and bestselling epic novel of a platoon of soldiers descending into the insanity of the war in Afghanistan. Dispatched to fight the Taliban as part of the NATO forces, the soldiers of the Third Platoon arrive in a desert hell intent on testing their courage and endurance...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction fiction war military contemporary audiobook violent-conflict -
The Lightning Bottles by Marissa Stapley
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsThe author of New York Times bestseller and Reese’s Book Club pick Lucky returns with a love letter to rock ‘n’ roll and star-crossed love, following Jane Pyre’s road trip around Europe as she attempts to find out what really happened to her partner in love and music, who disappeared without a trace years earlier, leaving Jane to pick up the pieces...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction romance fiction mystery contemporary audiobook female-mc -
The Dork of Cork by Chet Raymo
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsWhen Frank, an Irish dwarf, writes a personal memoir, he moves from dark isolation into the public eye. This luminous journey is marked by memories of his lonely childhood, secrets of his doomed young mother, and his passion for a woman who is as unreachable as the stars... -
The Swell Season: A Text on the Most Important Things in Life by Josef Škvorecký
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsSix tales which trace the libidinous ardours of a young man in wartime Czechoslovakia. His fantasies obstinately refuse to become reality, and in a world of unyielding girls and ruthless Nazi invaders, jazz is his only solace. By the author of "The Bass Saxophone" and "The Engineer of Human Souls"...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century adult anthologies classics contemporary fiction -
Love and Hydrogen: New and Selected Stories by Jim Shepard
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsI’ve been a problem baby, a lousy son, a distant brother, an off-putting neighbor, a piss-poor student, a worrisome seatmate, an unreliable employee, a bewildering lover, a frustrating confidante and a crappy husband. Among the things I do pretty well at this point I’d have to list darts, re-closing Stay-Fresh boxes, and staying out of the way...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction adult anthologies contemporary fiction horror humor -
Abandoned Child by Kitty Neale
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsKitty Neale is back! Curl up with this heartrending new novel from the Sunday Times bestselling author of A BROKEN FAMILY and A FATHER’S REVENGEAll she wanted was a mother’s love …DESPISEDPenny’s childhood was spent in the shadows of her mother’s business schemes, feeling alone and unimportant... -
Melisande! What Are Dreams? by Hillel Halkin
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsAn inspiring novel; a philosophical love story; a moving ode to a woman, as joyful and celebratory as it is elegiac. The narrator is a man in his forties, a scholar of ancient Greek philosophy known as Hoo. He has been given the nickname by Mellie, the woman he addresses in this book while exploring his memories of their years together and apart...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction adult book contemporary drama fiction magical-realism -
The Collected Stories by Elizabeth Bowen
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsWidely known for her much-admired novels, including The Heat of the Day , The House in Paris , and The Death of the Heart , Elizabeth Bowen established herself in the front rank of the century's writers equally through her short fiction. This collection brings together seventy-nine magnificent stories written over the course of four decades... -
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The Island Dwellers: Stories by Jen Silverman
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsFor readers of Miranda July, Rebecca Lee, and Mary Gaitskill, a debut short-story collection that is a mesmerizing blend of wit, transgression, and heart. LONGLISTED FOR THE PEN/ROBERT W. BINGHAM PRIZE FOR DEBUT FICTION A passive-aggressive couple in the midst of a divorce compete over whose new fling is more exotic... -
Hôtel Splendid by Marie Redonnet
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsThese three short novels are the first works to appear in English by a remarkable contemporary French author, Marie Redonnet. Born in Paris in 1947, Redonnet taught for a number of years in a suburban lycée before deciding to pursue a writing career full time... -
Five Night Stand by Richard J. Alley
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsLegendary jazz pianist Oliver Pleasant finds himself alone at the end of his career, playing his last five shows, hoping the music will draw his estranged family back…Frank Severs, a middle-aged, out-of-work journalist, is at a crossroads as his longtime dreams and marriage grind to a standstill…And piano prodigy Agnes Cassady is desperately grasping for fulfillment before a debilitating disease... -
Honey by Isabel Banta
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsA coming-of-age story that follows the meteoric rise of singer Amber Young as she navigates fame in the late-1990s and early-2000s era of pop music superstardomIt is 1997, and Amber Young has received a life-changing call. It is a chance thousands of girls would die for: the opportunity to join girl group Cloud9 in Los Angeles and escape her small town...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction fiction contemporary young-adult coming-of-age friendship book -
Small Boat by Vincent Delecroix
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsIn November 2021, an inflatable dinghy carrying migrants from France to the United Kingdom capsized in the Channel causing the death of 27 people on board. Despite receiving numerous calls for help, the French authorities wrongly told the migrants they were in British waters and had to call the British authorities for help...Categorized as:
literary-fiction historical-fiction fiction contemporary politics philosophy season-summer journey -
Black Swans by Eve Babitz
Rated: 3.94 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsBlack Swans is a collection of nine stories that look back on the 1980s and early 1990s—decades of dreams, drink, and stoned youth turning Republican. Babitz prowls California, telling tales of a changing world...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction season-autumn 20th-century adult anthologies audiobook classics -
Winterkill by Craig Lesley
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsWinner of the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association Book AwardFrom the two-time winner of the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association a deeply moving and evocative novel of fathers and sons. Danny Kachiah is a Native American fighting not to become a casualty. His father, Red Shirt, is dead; his wife, Loxie, has left him, and his career as a rodeo cowboy is flagging...Categorized as:
literary-fiction historical-fiction fiction indigenous-mc contemporary western poc-mc book -
A Guardian and a Thief by Megha Majumdar
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsOPRAH'S BOOK CLUB PICK • FINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD“Wondering if there’s a novel out there that gives Cormac McCarthy’s The Road a run for its money? Here you go. [A Guardian and a Thief is] an indelible piece of writing, in equal parts dazzling and devastating...Categorized as:
literary-fiction historical-fiction fiction sci-fi dystopia contemporary mystery book -
The Halfway House by Guillermo Rosales
Rated: 3.93 of 5 stars · 14 ratings“This posthumous translation of Rosales, a Cuban-American writer who committed suicide in 1993, delivers a raw, powerful story set in a Miami home for the mentally ill… It’s a frightening, nihilistic cousin of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest .”― Publishers Weekly Never before available in English, The Halfway House is a trip to the darkest corners of the human condition...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction fiction 20th-century poc-mc contemporary book adult -
I Could Read The Sky by Timothy O'Grady, Steve Pyke
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsWith a foreword by John Berger I Could Read the Sky is a collaboration, in the shape of a lyrical novel, between writer Timothy O'Grady and photographer Steve Pyke. It tells the story of a man coming of age in the middle of this century. Now at its end, he finds himself alone, struggling to make sense of a life of dislocation and loss... -
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The Incredible Life of Jonathan Doe by Carol Coffey
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsBrendan Martin is an American-born loner raised in Ireland by his silent, embittered mother before escaping back to New York, where he lives and works each day in blissful isolation in the crowded city. Brendan spends his days happily labouring on building sites and his evenings drinking alone in bars and hooking up with a constant stream of one-night stands...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction mystery fiction family coming-of-age contemporary female-mc -
Lost Empires by J.B. Priestley
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsRichard Herncastle's account of his life on the music hall, alongside his Uncle Nick, in the period immediately before the outbreak of the first World War in 1914...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction fiction coming-of-age contemporary classics book literary -
You Think That's Bad by Jim Shepard
Rated: 3.90 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsFollowing Like You’d Understand, Anyway—awarded the Story Prize and a finalist for the National Book Award—Jim Shepard returns with an even more wildly diverse collection of astonishingly observant stories... -
Three Letters by Josephine Cox
Rated: 3.90 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsThe brand new dramatic novel about the power of a father's love, a little boy's journey,and the desperate search for a place to call home, from Number 1 best-selling author Josephine Cox.Eight-year-old Casey's mother Ruth is a cruel woman, with a weakness for other women's husbands...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction adult audiobook book contemporary family fiction -
The Never-Ending Summer by Emma Kennedy
Rated: 3.90 of 5 stars · 10 ratings'Emma Kennedy's books are as funny, warm and life-inspiring as she is' Jenny Colgan'An excellent read. I loved all the characters' Claudia Winkleman'A warm, funny and truly life-affirming read. ****' Heat ________________ Three women. Two unforgettable road trips. Wherever you are in life, it's never too late to find yourself...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction fiction contemporary humor audiobook romance friendship -
Friendly Fire by Patrick Gale
Rated: 3.90 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsYouthful beauty, intellectual brilliance, physical passion, tragedy, and disgrace are all in this wonderful novel, as told through the eyes of a 14-year-old girl.Sophie is a self-contained, exceptionally bright child who has no known parents and has spent all of her life in a children's home...
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