Books like 'The Pretender'
Readers who enjoyed The Pretender by Jo Harkin also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
historical historical-fiction coming-of-age politics family literary-fiction
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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 historical-fiction literary-fiction politics book drama female-author fiction -
![Silva Rerum II by Kristina Sabaliauskaitė]()
Silva Rerum II by Kristina Sabaliauskaitė
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsRomāna darbība notiek no 1707. līdz 1710.gadam. Karš, mēris, bads, nesamērīga greznība un nāvīgs izsalkums, zviedru un krievu karavīri, jūdu ārsti, holandiešu kāršu spēlmaņi, turku konkubīnes, franču dāmas, spītīgi žemaiši un ironiski viļņieši, bezvārda mūks, kurš apglabājis vairāk nekā divdesmit tūkstošus mēra upuru, un, protams, vēl viena bajāru Norvaišu dzimtas paaudze... -
![Sarah and Solomon: Only A Stone Should Be Alone by Roberta Kagan]()
Sarah and Solomon: Only A Stone Should Be Alone by Roberta Kagan
Rated: 4.60 of 5 stars · 10 ratings“…Fathers and Give me your children!” – Chaim RumkowskiIt is September 1942, and the already battered occupants of the Lodz Ghetto have just been dealt another horrendous blow from Hitler’s iron fist. They must surrender their sick, elderly, and children for ‘deportation... -
![The Lanterns of the King of Galilee: A Novel of 18th-Century Palestine by Ibrahim Nasrallah]()
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 -
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![يسمعون حسيسها by أيمن العتوم]()
يسمعون حسيسها by أيمن العتوم
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsخلف الوادي انتشرت أشجار هرمة . إلا انها ظلت خضراء على طول عمرها الذي تجاوز مئات السنين . -
![My Name is Anton by Catherine Ryan Hyde]()
My Name is Anton by Catherine Ryan Hyde
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsNew York Times bestselling author Catherine Ryan Hyde returns with a hopeful novel of sacrifice, two lost souls, and enduring love.It’s 1965, and life has taken a turn for eighteen-year-old Anton Addison-Rice. Nearly a year after his brother died in a tragic accident, Anton is still wounded—physically and emotionally...Categorized as:
coming-of-age family historical-fiction literary-fiction adult audiobook book fiction -
![The Letter by Michelle Vernal]()
The Letter by Michelle Vernal
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsWORDS HAVE THE POWER TO HEAL, REUNITE AND TO HURT... Isabel opened her bag and pulled the letter out, glancing at the address one last time before she slid it through the slot, hearing it land with a plunk. It was gone. She’d done it, and now she’d have to wait to see what happened next... -
![Northern Borders: A Novel by Howard Frank Mosher]()
Northern Borders: A Novel by Howard Frank Mosher
Rated: 4.42 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsA New York Times Notable A novel about growing up in a remote corner of Vermont, from the author Richard Russo calls “one of our very best writers... -
![Kinfolk by Pearl S. Buck]()
Kinfolk by Pearl S. Buck
Rated: 4.36 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsKinfolk is the story of a Chinese family. Dr. Liang moves to America in search of a better life, but his children long to return to China. Each responds to their new life in China differently, providing rich insight into the struggles between Eastern and Western culture, and the differences between generations...Categorized as:
historical-fiction family politics literary-fiction fiction classics historical 20th-century -
![Home by Leila S. Chudori]()
Home by Leila S. Chudori
Rated: 4.28 of 5 stars · 18 ratings"An ambitious saga that intertwines narration from various generations and creates a wide-ranging picture of Indonesia... -
![Erin's Child by Sheelagh Kelly]()
Erin's Child by Sheelagh Kelly
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsFamily ties have united the Feeneys through famine and poverty, but can they withstand success? It is 1875 and the Feeneys have left the squalor of York’s slums behind them. Yet all is not well. Patrick remains a man of simple tastes, increasingly out of touch with Thomasin’s ambition to expand her business empire still further across Yorkshire... -
![The Granny by Brendan O'Carroll]()
The Granny by Brendan O'Carroll
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsThe New York Times Book Review praised Brendan O'Carroll's first novel, The Mammy, as "Cheerful...as unpretentious and satisfying as a home-cooked meal...with a delicious dessert of an ending... -
![The Chisellers by Brendan O'Carroll]()
The Chisellers by Brendan O'Carroll
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsThe Mrs. Browne trilogy became an instant bestselling success in author Brendan O'Carroll's native Ireland. Similarly, when Plume introduced The Mammy (the first book in the series, May 1999) in the United States, it was greeted with overwhelming enthusiasm from American readers. Fans of Agnes Browne craving further hilarious and heartwarming adventures will be delighted with The Chisellers...Categorized as:
coming-of-age family historical-fiction literary-fiction adult audiobook book comedy -
![Swansea Summer by Catrin Collier]()
Swansea Summer by Catrin Collier
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsNewly promoted DI Matt Pryor is disappointed when his first case seems to be a simple death from natural causes - that is, until the post-mortem shows something quite unexpected ... The elderly man who died on a Cardiff train was murdered - poisoned - by one of the other passengers... -
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![Refuge by Dot Jackson]()
Refuge by Dot Jackson
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 16 ratings“An intensely readable novel of the complexity of family ties . . . Dot Jackson is a true Southern voice, a master storyteller and an Appalachian treasure” (Dori Sanders, author of Clover and Her Own Place )... -
![The Outside Boy by Jeanine Cummins]()
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...Categorized as:
coming-of-age family historical-fiction literary-fiction audiobook book drama fiction -
![The Traveller's Daughter by Michelle Vernal]()
The Traveller's Daughter by Michelle Vernal
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsROSA’S PAST IS HER PANDORA’S BOX, AND THE LID IS ABOUT TO BE LIFTED … ‘If you lie down with dogs you’ll rise with fleas’ – Irish Proverb Rosa Sorenson’s conversation was often peppered with sayings from her homeland. It was these conversational clangers that gave her daughter Kitty the only clue as to a childhood her mother refused to speak of...Categorized as:
family historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century adult book female-mc fiction -
![The Bogside Boys by Eoin Dempsey]()
The Bogside Boys by Eoin Dempsey
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsFrom the Amazon Top Ten Overall Bestselling author of Finding RebeccaThe war will force him to choose between his community, his family, or the woman he loves. The city of Derry, Northern Ireland, 1972The Bogside is an area in open revolt, cordoned off from the rest of the city of Derry, patrolled by masked IRA men atop burnt out barricades...Categorized as:
family historical-fiction literary-fiction adult book fiction historical violent-conflict -
![Hardacre by C.L. Skelton]()
Hardacre by C.L. Skelton
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsHardacre is the sweeping rags to riches story of the Hardacre family. This dramatic family saga follows generations of the Hardacres from Victorian times to the 1950s. Set against the backdrop of major historical events, Hardacre traces the family's humble beginnings to their position of great wealth. Sam Hardacre makes a tough yet honest living as a fish gutter...Categorized as:
historical-fiction family literary-fiction coming-of-age historical audiobook marriage classics -
![Bata, Bata...Pa'No Ka Ginawa? by Lualhati Bautista]()
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... -
![Missing Soluch by Mahmoud Dowlatabadi]()
Missing Soluch by Mahmoud Dowlatabadi
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsPerhaps the most important work in modern Iranian literature, this starkly beautiful novel examines the trials of an impoverished woman and her children living in a remote village in Iran, after the unexplained disappearance of her husband, Soluch.Lyrical yet unsparing, the novel examines her life as she contends with the political corruption, authoritarianism, and poverty of the village...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction politics 20th-century adult audiobook book fiction -
![Call of the Kiwi by Sarah Lark, D.W. Lovett]()
Call of the Kiwi by Sarah Lark, D.W. Lovett
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsIn the exhilarating conclusion to the internationally bestselling In the Land of the Long White Cloud trilogy, the spirited Warden and McKenzie clan continues its trials—and triumphs—in New Zealand and beyond...Categorized as:
coming-of-age family historical-fiction literary-fiction audiobook book drama fiction -
![The Neighbors by Ahmad Mahmoud]()
The Neighbors by Ahmad Mahmoud
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsAhmad Mahmoud sets The Neighbors against the backdrop of the oil nationalization crisis that gripped Iran in the early 1950s...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction politics adult audiobook book fiction historical -
![Earl, Honey by D.S. Getson, Denise Getson]()
Earl, Honey by D.S. Getson, Denise Getson
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsEARL HAHN is slow, the last one to catch on to things. Since the day his father hit him in the head with a two-by-four of loblolly pine, he’s struggled with a “thickness in his brain.” It takes him longer to make the connections others arrive at easily. When his father is prosecuted for the crime of incest, it feels like deliverance for Earl, his mother Lizzie Belle and the entire Hahn family... -
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![Born in a Treacherous time by Jacqui Murray]()
Born in a Treacherous time by Jacqui Murray
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsBorn in the harsh world of East Africa 1.8 million years ago, where hunger, death, and predation are a normal part of daily life, Lucy and her band of early humans struggle to survive. It is a time in history when they are relentlessly annihilated by predators, nature, their own people, and the next iteration of man. To make it worse, Lucy’s band hates her... -
![The Secret Years: An emotional drama of love and survival by Judith Lennox]()
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... -
![A Whisper To The Living by Ruth Hamilton]()
A Whisper To The Living by Ruth Hamilton
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsAnnie Byrne was born during one of the worst winters Lancashire ever remembered. When the doctor finally got through the nine-foot drifts of snow, mother and daughter were in a pretty bad way, but both the new-born Annie and her exhausted mother - a spinner in the cotton mill - were fighters, tough and determined not to let the world knock them down... -
![Saddle The Wind by Jess Foley]()
Saddle The Wind by Jess Foley
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsLet much loved author Jess Foley sweep you away with this beautifully breathtaking saga of one woman's search for love and fulfilment. Fans of Catherine Cookson, Dilly Court and Katie Flynn will absolutely love this... -
![When I First Held You by Anstey Harris]()
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 literary-fiction family coming-of-age romance fiction historical lgbtq -
![The Kudzu Queen by Mimi Herman]()
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 family coming-of-age fiction historical audiobook 21st-century -
![Almonds and Raisins by Maisie Mosco]()
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... -
![This Is How It Begins by Joan Dempsey]()
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... -
![In Borrowed Light by Barbara Keating, Stephanie Keating]()
In Borrowed Light by Barbara Keating, Stephanie Keating
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsA breathtaking story of friendship and love set against the backdrop of twentieth-century Kenya Fourteen years after independence, the enduring childhood friendship of three women has carried them through times of violence and loss in Kenya, their chosen homeland... -
![The Promise of Rain by Vasundra Tailor]()
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 literary-fiction fiction audiobook mystery female-mc -
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![The Trench by عبد الرحمن منيف]()
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... -
![حديث الجنود by أيمن العتوم]()
حديث الجنود by أيمن العتوم
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsمفتاح الثورة كلمة، وتصنع الثورة كلمة: (العدو من أماكم والبحر من ورائكم)، وأول الرسالة كلمة:(اقرأ)، وأول الرحمة كلمة: (كوني برداً وسلاما)، واعظم العذاب كلمة: (اخسؤوا فيها ولا تكلمون)، وأشد الحسرة كلمة: (سلام عليكِ .. -
![Homeseeking by Karissa Chen]()
Homeseeking by Karissa Chen
Rated: 4.28 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsAlternate cover edition of ISBN 9780593712993.An epic and intimate tale of one couple across sixty years as world events pull them together and apart, illuminating the Chinese diaspora and exploring what it means to find home far from your homeland.A single choice can define an entire life...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction family coming-of-age romance fiction historical audiobook -
![An Apartment Called Freedom by Ghazi A. Algosaibi]()
An Apartment Called Freedom by Ghazi A. Algosaibi
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsFirst published in 1996. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company... -
![Where The Winds Dwell by Böðvar Guðmundsson, Bovar Gumundsson]()
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... -
![The Edge of Nowhere by C.H. Armstrong]()
The Edge of Nowhere by C.H. Armstrong
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsThe year is 1992 and Victoria Hastings Harrison Greene—reviled matriarch of a sprawling family—is dying. After surviving the Oklahoma Dust Bowl and the Great Depression, Victoria refuses to leave this earth before revealing the secrets she’s carried for decades.Once the child of a loving family during peaceful times, a shocking death shattered her life... -
![Nelly Kelly: An uplifting tale of grit and determination in the most desperate of circumstances by Lena Kennedy]()
Nelly Kelly: An uplifting tale of grit and determination in the most desperate of circumstances by Lena Kennedy
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsIn the turmoil and confusion of London's East End between the wars, young Nelly Kelly soon learns that life may never match her expectations. Forced to keep house for her autocratic, charming father, Nelly toils in a sweatshop to keep her family fed and clothed. But when life is hard, Nelly has friendship, dancing and her early dreams to cling to... -
![The Last Carolina Girl by Meagan Church]()
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 -
![Leah's Journey by Gloria Goldreich]()
Leah's Journey by Gloria Goldreich
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsWinner of the National Jewish Book Award of 1979, this classic novel of love and war is now available in paperback! Violence shattered her golden world, and Leah's journey began... It swept her from the burning villages of old Russia to the tenements of New York, from the glittering showrooms of Paris to the settlements of war-torn Israel... -
![The Less You Know The Sounder You Sleep by Juliet Butler]()
The Less You Know The Sounder You Sleep by Juliet Butler
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsBased on a true story, The Less You Know the Sounder You Sleep is a tale of survival and self-determination, innocence and lies.‘We’re waiting. I squeeze my eyes shut and dig my fingers into Masha’s neck where I’m holding her. She digs hers into mine. The curtains slowly open. I can’t see anything because the spotlight is on us, bright as anything and blinding me, but I can hear the gasp go up...Categorized as:
coming-of-age family historical-fiction literary-fiction politics 20th-century adult book -
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![Maggie's Market by Dee Williams]()
Maggie's Market by Dee Williams
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsIt's 1935 and Maggie Ross loves her life amongst the stallholders in Kelvin Market where her husband Tony has a bric-a-brac stall and where she lives, with her young family, above Mr Goldman's bespoke tailors. But when one fine Spring day her husband disappears into thin air her world collapses... -
![Tales of Protection by Erik Fosnes Hansen]()
Tales of Protection by Erik Fosnes Hansen
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsAn eccentric scientist lies dead in his coffin reflecting on the past and his last experiment--collecting random incidents from human history and finding the underlying pattern that connects them... -
![The Camerons by Robert Crichton]()
The Camerons by Robert Crichton
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsA Scottish girl living in the coal-mining town of Pitmungo, sets out on her sixteenth birthday to find a husband who will help her achieve social... -
![Misteriosa Buenos Aires by Manuel Mujica Lainez]()
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![Our Evenings by Alan Hollinghurst]()
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 literary-fiction coming-of-age family fiction lgbtq audiobook historical -
![Brothers by Yu Hua]()
Brothers by Yu Hua
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsA bestseller in China, recently short-listed for the Man Asian Literary Prize, and a winner of France’s Prix Courrier International, Brothers is an epic and wildly unhinged black comedy of modern Chinese society running amok...Categorized as:
family historical-fiction literary-fiction politics 21st-century adult audiobook book
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