Books like 'Decorations in a Ruined Cemetery'
Readers who enjoyed Decorations in a Ruined Cemetery by John Gregory Brown also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
contemporary 20th century literary-fiction family historical-fiction southern-gothic gothic drama
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The Suitcase by Sergei Dovlatov
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsSergei Dovlatov’s subtle, dark-edged humor and wry observations are in full force in The Suitcase as he examines eight objects—the items he brought with him in his luggage upon his emigration from the U.S.S.R...Categorized as:
drama historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century adult audiobook book classics -
![When I Last Saw You by Bette Lee Crosby]()
When I Last Saw You by Bette Lee Crosby
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsFrom USA Today Bestselling Author Bette Lee Crosby comes a powerful southern saga based on a true story... Betrayal and secrets tore her family apart decades ago, now a lonely widow must search for the pieces of her broken childhood. WHEN I LAST SAW YOUGeorgia, 1968 - Margaret Rose McCutcheon has just buried her husband and must now name a beneficiary for the estate upon her demise...Categorized as:
family historical-fiction 20th-century adult book contemporary fiction womens-fiction -
![The Short Novels of John Steinbeck by John Steinbeck]()
The Short Novels of John Steinbeck by John Steinbeck
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsCollected here for the first time in a deluxe paperback volume are six of John Steinbeck's most widely read and beloved novels...Categorized as:
drama historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century anthologies classics contemporary fiction -
![Gilded Girl by Pamela M. Kelley]()
Gilded Girl by Pamela M. Kelley
Rated: 4.31 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsA rags-to-riches saga set in the Gilded Age.When Eliza Chapman, a London ladies maid, learns that her real father is one of the richest men in New York City her whole world changes. He has sent a one-way ticket for her to join him, his mother and his two daughters at his palatial Manhattan mansion. Eliza suddenly has her own ladies maid and learns that she is expected to find a husband... -
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![Selected Stories by Alice Munro]()
Selected Stories by Alice Munro
Rated: 4.28 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsSpanning almost thirty years and settings that range from big cities to small towns and farmsteads of rural Canada, this magnificent collection brings together twenty-eight stories by a writer of unparalleled wit, generosity, and emotional power...Categorized as:
family historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century adult anthologies audiobook classics -
![I Hate to See That Evening Sun Go Down: Collected Stories by William Gay]()
I Hate to See That Evening Sun Go Down: Collected Stories by William Gay
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsWilliam Gay established himself as "the big new name to include in the storied annals of Southern Lit" (Esquire) with his debut novel, The Long Home, and his highly acclaimed follow-up, Provinces of Night. Like Faulkner's Mississippi and Cormac McCarthy's American West, Gay's Tennessee is redolent of broken souls...Categorized as:
gothic literary-fiction southern-gothic 20th-century adult anthologies audiobook contemporary -
![The Grapes of Wrath/The Moon is Down/Cannery Row/East of Eden/Of Mice & Men by John Steinbeck]()
The Grapes of Wrath/The Moon is Down/Cannery Row/East of Eden/Of Mice & Men by John Steinbeck
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsThe Grapes of Wrath / The Moon Is Down / Cannery Row / East of Eden / Of Mice and...Categorized as:
drama family historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century adult anthologies classics -
![Rose by Li-Young Lee, Gerald Stern]()
Rose by Li-Young Lee, Gerald Stern
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsIn this outstanding first book of poems, Lee is unafraid to show emotion, especially when writing about his father or his wife. "But there is wisdom/ in the hour in which a boy/ sits in his room listening," says the first poem, and Lee's silent willingness to step outside himself imbues Rose with a rare sensitivity... -
![The Sweet Cheat Gone by Marcel Proust]()
The Sweet Cheat Gone by Marcel Proust
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsLarge format paper back for easy reading...Categorized as:
drama historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century adult audiobook bildungsroman 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:
drama historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century audiobook bildungsroman book classics -
![Collected Stories by William Faulkner]()
Collected Stories by William Faulkner
Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars · 18 ratings“A Bear Hunt,” “A Rose for Emily,” “Two Soldiers,” “Victory,” “The Brooch,” “Beyond”—these are among the forty-two stories that make up this magisterial collection by the writer who stands at the pinnacle of modern American fiction...Categorized as:
drama gothic historical-fiction literary-fiction southern-gothic 20th-century adult anthologies -
![Suttree by Cormac McCarthy]()
Suttree by Cormac McCarthy
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsArguably the masterpiece of a novelist as highly praised and scarcely read as any living writer, the Vintage Contemporaries reprint of Suttree should help to bring McCarthy the readers to match his many awards and voluminous reviews... -
![Novecento by Alessandro Baricco]()
Novecento by Alessandro Baricco
Rated: 4.15 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsThe story was made into The Legend of 1900, a 1998 film starring Tim Roth. Told through the eyes of Novecento’s (the greatest pianist who ever played on the ocean) best friend, trumpeter Tim Tooney, Baricco’s virile text echoes heroic fables and great myths, whilst winking at the beautiful and terrible minutiae that makes up life... -
![Let the Dead Bury Their Dead by Randall Kenan]()
Let the Dead Bury Their Dead by Randall Kenan
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsSet in North Carolina, these are stories about blacks and whites, young and old, rural and sophisticated, the real and fantastical. Named a New York Times Notable Book of the Year, nominated for the 1992 National Book Critics Circle Award, and given the Lambda Award...Categorized as:
gothic literary-fiction southern-gothic 20th-century adult anthologies black-mc contemporary -
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![Everything is Illuminated & Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer]()
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... -
![Fool for Love and Other Plays by Sam Shepard]()
Fool for Love and Other Plays by Sam Shepard
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsHere are eight of Pulitzer-prizewinning Sam Shepard's most stunning plays. This brilliant American dramatist creates what The New Yorker dubbed "Shepard Country"--a landscape of the imagination, a unique theatrical experience that captures our culture and consciouness, our fears and fantasies... -
![Island: The Complete Stories by Alistair MacLeod]()
Island: The Complete Stories by Alistair MacLeod
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsThe sixteen exquisitely crafted stories in Island prove Alistair MacLeod to be a master. Quietly, precisely, he has created a body of work that is among the greatest to appear in English in the last fifty years.A book-besotted patriarch releases his only son from the obligations of the sea. A father provokes his young son to violence when he reluctantly sells the family horse...Categorized as:
family historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century adult anthologies classics contemporary -
![Seven Plays by Sam Shepard]()
Seven Plays by Sam Shepard
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsIncludes "Buried Child", "Curse of the Starving Class" , "The Tooth of Crime", "La Turista" , "Savage Loge", and "True West". Brilliant, prolific, uniquely American, Pulitzer prizewinning playwright Sam Separd is a major voice in contemporary theatre. And here are seven of his very best. "One of the most original, prolific and gifted dramatists at work today... -
![The Collected Stories by Eudora Welty]()
The Collected Stories by Eudora Welty
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsWith a preface written by the author especially for this edition, this is the complete collection of stories by Eudora Welty...Categorized as:
gothic historical-fiction literary-fiction southern-gothic 20th-century adult anthologies audiobook -
![The Brotherhood of the Grape by John Fante]()
The Brotherhood of the Grape by John Fante
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsHenry Molise, a 50 year old, successful writer, returns to the family home to help with the latest drama; his aging parents want to divorce. Henry's tyrannical, brick laying father, Nick, though weak and alcoholic, can still strike fear into the hearts of his sons. His mother, though ill and devout to her Catholicism, still has the power to comfort and confuse her children... -
![The Granddaughter by Bernhard Schlink, Charlotte Collins]()
The Granddaughter by Bernhard Schlink, Charlotte Collins
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratings"Anyone who wants to understand contemporary Germany must read The Granddaughter now" —Le Monde"The great novel of German reunification" —Le FigaroFrom the bestselling author of The Reader, a striking exploration of the wounds of the past, told through the story of a German bookseller’s attempt to connect with his radicalized granddaughter...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction drama family fiction contemporary audiobook 21st-century -
![The Burning Plain and Other Stories by Juan Rulfo]()
The Burning Plain and Other Stories by Juan Rulfo
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 35 ratingsA major figure in the history of post-Revolutionary literature in Mexico, Juan Rulfo received international acclaim for his brilliant short novel Pedro Paramo (1955) and his collection of short stories El llano en llamas (1953), translated as a collection here in English for the first time...Categorized as:
drama historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century adult anthologies classics contemporary -
![Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters & Seymour: An Introduction by J.D. Salinger]()
Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters & Seymour: An Introduction by J.D. Salinger
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 31 ratingsThe author writes: The two long pieces in this book originally came out in The New Yorker ? RAISE HIGH THE ROOF BEAM, CARPENTERS in 1955, SEYMOUR ? An Introduction in 1959. Whatever their differences in mood or effect, they are both very much concerned with Seymour Glass, who is the main character in my still-uncompleted series about the Glass family...Categorized as:
drama family historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century anthologies classics coming-of-age -
![Letter from an Unknown Woman: The Fowler Snared by Stefan Zweig]()
Letter from an Unknown Woman: The Fowler Snared by Stefan Zweig
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 28 ratingsThis story of distorted passion and behaviour reveals the unrequited love of a woman for a man who cares so little for her that he fails to recognize her as she obsessively pursues him. Also included is The Fowler Snared, sharing a similar theme, only it is the man whose passion is unrequited...Categorized as:
drama historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century adult audiobook book classics -
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![The Selected Stories Of Mavis Gallant by Mavis Gallant]()
The Selected Stories Of Mavis Gallant by Mavis Gallant
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsA collection of fifty-two short stories, written between 1953 and 1995, by Mavis Gallant...Categorized as:
family literary-fiction 20th-century adult anthologies contemporary female-author fiction -
![Angels and Men by Catherine Fox]()
Angels and Men by Catherine Fox
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsParson’s daughter Mara Johns arrives as a postgraduate student at a great northern cathedral city. Antagonistic to the church and fiercely independent, she repels all friendly overtures and seeks spiritual answers in her theological research. But when her past involvement in an extreme sect resurfaces, she finds her quest won’t stay academic... -
![The Corsican Woman by Madge Swindells]()
The Corsican Woman by Madge Swindells
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsSybilia turned as if sleepwalking and, trance-like, walked down the stone steps to the living room. She shuddered as she took the rifle from the peg on the wall, but after only a moment's hesitation, she loaded it and went outside. Sybilia Rocca is beautiful, gentle and intelligent... -
![Teresa Batista, Cansada de Guerra by Jorge Amado]()
Teresa Batista, Cansada de Guerra by Jorge Amado
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsAt thirteen Tereza is sold by her aunt to a ranch owner who treats her like a piece of property, and sexually abuses her. When caught in bed with her lover she defends herself against the ranch owner’s violence with a knife and ends up in jail. Freed by a long-time admirer, she eventually ends up in a brothel...Categorized as:
drama historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century adult book classics contemporary -
![A Borrowed Path by Imogen Clark]()
A Borrowed Path by Imogen Clark
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsHome is where the heartache is.Eve has always had a tricky relationship with her mother, Agatha, and returning to Fox House, the family home, hasn’t made it any easier. When Eve’s daughter, Lyra, and granddaughter, Skye, unexpectedly turn up, it becomes clear that four generations of women under one roof is a recipe for trouble. Not least because Lyra clearly needs help but refuses to say why...Categorized as:
family drama historical-fiction literary-fiction audiobook fiction suspense season-summer -
![Joe by Larry Brown, Tom Stechschulte]()
Joe by Larry Brown, Tom Stechschulte
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsNearing fifty, Joe Ransom won't slow down, not in his pickup, not with a gun-and certainly not with women. But all the fast living in Mississippi won't fill the hunger Joe can't name. At fifteen, Gary Jones is already slipping through the cracks. Part of a hopeless, homeless wandering family, he's desperate for a way out. He finds it in Joe... -
![In The Garden Of The North American Martyrs by Tobias Wolff]()
In The Garden Of The North American Martyrs by Tobias Wolff
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsAmong the characters you'll find in this collection of twelve stories by Tobias Wolff are a teenage boy who tells morbid lies about his home life, a timid professor who, in the first genuine outburst of her life, pours out her opinions in spite of a protesting audience, a prudish loner who gives an obnoxious hitchhiker a ride, and an elderly couple on a golden anniversary cruise who endure the... -
![Sweet Liar by Jude Deveraux]()
Sweet Liar by Jude Deveraux
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsIt was her father's dying wish that Samantha Elliot search for her grandmother, who'd disappeared from Louisville when she was a baby. So here she was, in big, dirty New York City...her parents were dead, her divorce was final, and she was all alone.... Michael Taggert was Samantha's landlord, and he was easily the most beautiful man she'd ever seen... -
![Cat on a Hot Tin Roof by Tennessee Williams]()
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof by Tennessee Williams
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 33 ratingsThe members of a well-to-do Southern family gather to await the impending death of their domineering father, "Big Daddy," and are forced to face the truth about themselves as well...Categorized as:
drama family gothic historical-fiction literary-fiction southern-gothic 20th-century adult -
![Clover's Child by Amanda Prowse]()
Clover's Child by Amanda Prowse
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsFrom the million-copy bestseller Amanda Prowse, the queen of heartbreak fiction. Amanda Prowse is the author of The Coordinates Of Loss and the no.1 bestsellers Perfect Daughter, My Husband's Wife and What Have I Done? When eighteen-year-old Dot meets Sol, she feels that love has arrived at last...Categorized as:
drama historical-fiction literary-fiction family europe british-isles united-kingdom england -
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![The Butterfly Garden by Rachel Burton]()
The Butterfly Garden by Rachel Burton
Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsA gripping and beautiful tale of love, loss and secrets. 1963: When Clara Samuels buys Butterfly Cottage, she knows the scandal she’ll cause. A single woman buying property is not the ‘done thing’, especially not in a village like Carybrook. But Clara has been in love with Butterfly Cottage, and its garden, since she used to play there before the War...Categorized as:
historical-fiction drama family romance fiction audiobook contemporary womens-fiction -
![Reader’s Block by David Markson]()
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]()
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 family fiction contemporary epistolary 20th-century book -
![Ugly Ways by Tina McElroy Ansa]()
Ugly Ways by Tina McElroy Ansa
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsThe bestselling tale-powerful, compassionate, humorous-of the three Lovejoy sisters reunited in their hometown of Mulberry, Georgia, on the occasion of their mother’s death. As the emotionally scarred Lovejoys prepare for their mother’s funeral, the spirit of the selfish and manipulative Mudear hovers above them, complaining about her daughters’ “ugly ways” in death as she did in life... -
![Medea and Her Children by Lyudmila Ulitskaya, Ludmila Ulitskaya]()
Medea and Her Children by Lyudmila Ulitskaya, Ludmila Ulitskaya
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsMedea Georgievna Sinoply Mendez is an iconic figure in her Crimean village, the last remaining pure-blooded Greek in a family that has lived on that coast for centuries. Childless Medea is the touchstone of a large family, which gathers each spring and summer at her home...Categorized as:
family historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century adult audiobook book contemporary -
![Big Bad Love: Stories by Larry Brown]()
Big Bad Love: Stories by Larry Brown
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsLarry Brown caught the rapt attention of readers and critics with the 1988 publication of Facing the Music, his prize-winning first collection of stories. The following year, his first novel, Dirty Work, won national acclaim as a work of uncompromising power and honesty. Big Bad Love, his third book, collects ten new stories... -
![A Streetcar Named Desire and Other Plays by Tennessee Williams]()
A Streetcar Named Desire and Other Plays by Tennessee Williams
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsTennessee Williams’s sensuous, atmospheric plays transformed the American stage with their passion, exoticism and vibrant characters who rage against their personal demons and the modern world... -
![Memory Wall by Anthony Doerr]()
Memory Wall by Anthony Doerr
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsThis is a previously-published edition of ISBN 9781439182840.In the luminous and beautiful title story, winner of a 2010 National Magazine Award, a young boy in South Africa comes to possess an old woman's secret, a piece of the past with the power to redeem a life...Categorized as:
drama family historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century 21st-century adult anthologies -
![Friend of My Youth by Alice Munro]()
Friend of My Youth by Alice Munro
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 18 ratings**Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature**A woman haunted by dreams of her dead mother. An adulterous couple stepping over the line where the initial excitement ends and the pain begins. A widow visiting a Scottish village in search of her husband's past - and instead discovering unsettling truths about a total stranger...Categorized as:
drama family historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century adult anthologies audiobook -
![Către frumusețe by David Foenkinos, Daniel Nicolescu]()
Către frumusețe by David Foenkinos, Daniel Nicolescu
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 18 ratings„Dacă nu ar părea tocit de atâta folosire, aș fi ales drept motto al romanului meu acest adagiu al lui Dostoievski: «Frumusețea va salva lumea»“, mărturisea David Foenkinos într-un interviu... -
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![Forbidden Notebook by Alba de Céspedes]()
Forbidden Notebook by Alba de Céspedes
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsOut running an errand, Valeria Cossati gives in to a sudden impulse - she buys a shiny black notebook. She starts keeping a diary in secret, recording her concerns about her daughter, fears her husband will discover her new habit and the constant churn of the domestic routine. With each entry Valeria plunges deeper into her interior life, uncovering profound dissatisfaction and restlessness...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction family fiction feminism classics audiobook contemporary -
![The Loser by Thomas Bernhard]()
The Loser by Thomas Bernhard
Rated: 4.05 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsThomas Bernhard was one of the most original writers of the twentieth century. His formal innovation ranks with Beckett and Kafka, his outrageously cantankerous voice recalls Dostoevsky, but his gift for lacerating, lyrical, provocative prose is incomparably his own...Categorized as:
drama historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century adult book classics contemporary -
![The Easter Parade by Richard Yates]()
The Easter Parade by Richard Yates
Rated: 4.05 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsIn The Easter Parade, first published in 1976, we meet sisters Sarah and Emily Grimes when they are still the children of divorced parents. We observe the sisters over four decades, watching them grow into two very different women. Sarah is stable and stalwart, settling into an unhappy marriage. Emily is precocious and independent, struggling with one unsatisfactory love affair after another... -
![Schoolgirl by Osamu Dazai]()
Schoolgirl by Osamu Dazai
Rated: 4.05 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsThe novella that first propelled Dazai into the literary elite of post-war Japan. Essentially the start of Dazai's career, Schoolgirl gained notoriety for its ironic and inventive use of language. Now it illuminates the prevalent social structures of a lost time, as well as the struggle of the individual against them--a theme that occupied Dazai's life both personally and professionally...Categorized as:
drama family historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century book classics contemporary -
![The Violent Bear It Away by Flannery O'Connor]()
The Violent Bear It Away by Flannery O'Connor
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsFirst published in 1960, The Violent Bear It Away is now a landmark in American literature. It is a dark and absorbing example of the Gothic sensibility and bracing satirical voice that are united in Flannery O'Conner's work...Categorized as:
drama family gothic historical-fiction literary-fiction southern-gothic 20th-century adult -
![In a Single Moment by Imogen Clark]()
In a Single Moment by Imogen Clark
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsFrom million-copy bestselling author Imogen Clark comes a story of two families, two babies and one maddeningly hot day that will change their lives forever.It’s the hottest day of the 1976 heatwave and there’s not a breath of fresh air in the labour ward at Lincoln County Hospital. Michelle is having her fourth child, a girl, while beloved husband Dean is sipping a cold pint in the pub...Categorized as:
historical-fiction family literary-fiction fiction audiobook contemporary womens-fiction female-mc
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