Books like 'A Distant Shore'
Readers who enjoyed A Distant Shore by Caryl Phillips also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
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A Thousand Tomorrows & Just Beyond The Clouds Omnibus by Karen Kingsbury
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsIn A Thousand Tomorrows, Cody Gunner, a talented but angry cowboy, meets Ali Daniels, a lovely and mysterious barrel-racer. The two are national champions, top of their game, alone and intent on staying that way. Cody has rejected everything about his past, and only has room for his little brother, Carl Joseph, born with Down Syndrome...Categorized as:
literary-fiction adult book christian contemporary fiction psychological spirituality -
![The Essential Tales of Chekhov by Anton Chekhov]()
The Essential Tales of Chekhov by Anton Chekhov
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsOf the two hundred stories that Anton Chekhov wrote, the twenty stories that appear in this extraordinary collection were personally chosen by Richard Ford--an accomplished storyteller in his own right. Included are the familiar masterpieces--"The Kiss," "The Darling," and "The Lady with the Dog"--as well as several brilliant lesser-known tales such as "A Blunder," "Hush!," and "Champagne...Categorized as:
literary-fiction fiction classics anthologies female-mc contemporary psychological literary -
![Fire by John Boyne]()
Fire by John Boyne
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsOn the face of it, Freya lives a gilded existence, dancing solely to her own tune. She has all the trappings of wealth and privilege, a responsible job as a surgeon specialising in skin grafts, a beautiful flat in a sought-after development, and a flash car. But it wasn’t always like this. Hers is a life founded on darkness... -
![Water by John Boyne]()
Water by John Boyne
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsThe first thing Vanessa Carvin does when she arrives on the island is change her name. To the locals, she is Willow Hale, a solitary outsider escaping Dublin to live a hermetic existence in a small cottage, not a notorious woman on the run from her past.But scandals follow like hunting dogs. And she has some questions of her own to answer...Categorized as:
literary-fiction fiction contemporary domestic-drama psychological thriller book adult -
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![The Mustachioed Woman of Shanghai by Isham Cook]()
The Mustachioed Woman of Shanghai by Isham Cook
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsWant to know what's really going on with relationships in China today? It is the Shanghai of courtesans and concubines, danger and decadence, updated to 2020. American expat author Isham Cook has disappeared... -
![The Night Nanny by Nelle Lamarr]()
The Night Nanny by Nelle Lamarr
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 10 ratings“Please don’t worry, Ava. Your baby is safe with me. I’m going to take care of her like she’s my own…”Ever since my daughter Isa was born, I’ve been struggling. I can’t remember anything, and my brain is in a fog. So when my husband Ned suggests we hire a night nanny, I leap at the chance.As soon as she walks into our home, I feel a wave of relief... -
![The House of Gazes by Daniele Mencarelli]()
The House of Gazes by Daniele Mencarelli
Rated: 4.31 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsWinner of the 2019 John Fante First Novel Prize The critically acclaimed novel from the author of Everything Calls for Salvation , adapted into a Netflix Original series, is a powerful coming-of-age story about loss, identity, and rebirth Daniele is a young poet plagued by an unknown darkness, “an invisible disease of the heart, or of the mind...Categorized as:
literary-fiction fiction contemporary audiobook drama coming-of-age psychological book -
![The Disoriented by Amin Maalouf]()
The Disoriented by Amin Maalouf
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsAfter 25 years in exile, Adam travels from France to his homeland in the Middle East to bid farewell to his dying childhood friend.One night, a phone rings in Paris. Adam learns that Mourad, once his closest friend, is dying. He quickly throws some clothes in a suitcase and takes the first flight out, to the homeland he fled twenty-five years ago... -
![Nonfiction by Julie Myerson]()
Nonfiction by Julie Myerson
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsThis is definitely not a ghost story. But for a while after you’re gone, I see you everywhere. Every ragged young person sitting huddled on a pavement, every stretched-out body under cardboard in a shop doorway.Two parents stand by powerlessly as their only child seems intent on destroying herself...Categorized as:
literary-fiction fiction contemporary mental-illness substance-abuse family psychological book -
![Invisible Love by Éric-Emmanuel Schmitt]()
Invisible Love by Éric-Emmanuel Schmitt
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsEric-Emmanuel Schmitt is the author of three luminous collections of short stories published by Europa Editions, including the bestselling Most Beautiful Book in the World, and one novel, Three Women in a Mirror... -
![The Index of Self-Destructive Acts by Christopher R. Beha]()
The Index of Self-Destructive Acts by Christopher R. Beha
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratings“Beha tackles finance, faith, war, entitlement, and no end of self-destructive acts. I greatly admired both the writing and the ambition... -
![What We Owe by Golnaz Hashemzadeh Bonde]()
What We Owe by Golnaz Hashemzadeh Bonde
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsNahid has six months left to live. Or so the doctors say. But Nahid is not the type to trust anyone. She resents the cancer diagnosis she has been given and the doctor who has given it to her. Bubbling inside her is also resentment toward life as it turned out, and the fact that it will go on without her. She feels alone, alone with her illness and alone with her thoughts... -
![Emotional Geology by Linda Gillard]()
Emotional Geology by Linda Gillard
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsRose Leonard is on the run from her life. Taking refuge in a remote island community, she cocoons herself in work, silence and solitude in a house by the sea. But she is haunted by her past, by memories and desires she'd hoped were long dead. Life and love are offered by new friends, her lonely daughter, and most of all Calum, a fragile younger man who has his own demons to exorcise... -
![For a Little While by Rick Bass]()
For a Little While by Rick Bass
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsA "New York Times Book Review" Editors' Choice "A literary titan...Bass is, hands down, a master of the short form, creating in a few pages a natural world of mythic proportions." -- "New York Times Book Review" Long considered one of the most gifted practitioners of the short story, Rick Bass is unsurpassed in his ability to perceive and portray the enduring truths of the human heart...Categorized as:
literary-fiction adult anthologies audiobook contemporary fiction outdoors psychological -
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![The Understory by Pamela Erens]()
The Understory by Pamela Erens
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsWinner of the Ironweed Press Fiction Prize... -
![War Against the Animals by Paul Russell]()
War Against the Animals by Paul Russell
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsCameron Barnes, formerly of New York City, lives in a small town in upstate New York. After having nearly succumbed to AIDS, he's recently regained a measure of his health but his long-term lover has moved away, and Cameron faces the daunting prospect of learning how to live with the idea of a future in mind again... -
![My Mother's Daughter by Ann O'Loughlin]()
My Mother's Daughter by Ann O'Loughlin
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsCounty Wicklow, Ireland. Margo has just lost her husband Conor and is grieving his passing, unsure how she and her daughter Elsa will survive without him. Then she receives a letter that turns everything she thought she knew on its head. Not only has she lost her husband, but now Margo fears she could lose her daughter as well. Ohio, United States... -
![Dusk and Other Stories by James Salter]()
Dusk and Other Stories by James Salter
Rated: 3.93 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsVirtuosic and exquisitely compressed, these stories show Salter at his best.The collection received the 1989 PEN/Faulkner Award... -
![Honored Guest by Joy Williams]()
Honored Guest by Joy Williams
Rated: 3.92 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsWith her singular brand of gorgeous dark humor, Joy Williams explores the various ways–comic, tragic, and unnerving—we seek to accommodate diminishment and loss. A masseuse breaks her rich client's wrist bone, a friend visits at the hospital long after she is welcome, and a woman surrenders her husband to a creepily adoring student...Categorized as:
literary-fiction fiction contemporary 21st-century female-author psychological anthologies adult -
![Waking the Dead by Scott Spencer]()
Waking the Dead by Scott Spencer
Rated: 3.88 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsWhat wakes the dead in Scott Spencer’s extraordinary new novel—a novel whose core is an explosive amalgam of political ambition, moral passion, and passionate love—is the banked force of its protagonist’s deeply buried desire to be a “good man... -
![The Clouds by Juan José Saer]()
The Clouds by Juan José Saer
Rated: 3.88 of 5 stars · 8 ratings"Saer is one of the best writers of today in any language."—Ricardo Piglia"What Saer presents marvelously is the experience of reality, and the characters' attempts to write their own narratives within its excess... -
![Aliens & Anorexia by Chris Kraus]()
Aliens & Anorexia by Chris Kraus
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsAs the rope was tightening around my neck, an Alien made love to me. Belief is a technology for softening the landscape. The world becomes more beautiful when God is in it. Here is what happens inside a person's body when they starve...Categorized as:
literary-fiction politics fiction feminism philosophy contemporary 21st-century mental-illness -
![All the Little Animals by Walker Hamilton]()
All the Little Animals by Walker Hamilton
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsA beguiling, unsettling and ultimately moving modern fable set on the byways of rural Cornwall; a story about running away, the search for acceptance and burying road-kill.Bobby is a 31 year old man with the mind of a small, frightened boy. He has run away from his privileged but abusive London home to rural Cornwall...Categorized as:
literary-fiction action-adventure adult book coming-of-age contemporary drama fiction -
![Museums & Women and Other Stories by John Updike]()
Museums & Women and Other Stories by John Updike
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsThis is John Updike’s largest and most various collection of short stories. Some, such as the title story, have the tone and personality of essays; others objectify the chimeras of middle-class existence; a number of vignettes reflect the face of America in the fictional microcosm of Tarbox; the longest story, a hallucinatory trip up the Nile, allegorizes our foreign policy... -
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![My Only Wife by Jac Jemc]()
My Only Wife by Jac Jemc
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsTen years ago the narrator unlocked the door of a wrecked apartment, empty of any trace of his wife. As stunning as her disappearance is his response. He freezes on the facts of her, haunting his recollections. This is the story of a man unable to free himself enough from the idea of a woman to try to find her... -
![Now You See Me by Lesley Glaister]()
Now You See Me by Lesley Glaister
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsTwo strangers who should never have met make an unusual connection in this dazzling novel by Lesley Glaister At sixteen, Lamb walked out on her life. It wasn’t much to walk away from: Her parents were dead and she had no brothers or sisters—no one in the world who cared if she lived or died... -
![The Octopus Man by Jasper Gibson]()
The Octopus Man by Jasper Gibson
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsOnce an outstanding law student Tom is now lost in the machinery of the British mental health system, talking to a voice no one else can the voice of Malamock, the Octopus God - sometimes cruel, sometimes loving, but always there to guide him.After a florid psychotic break, the pressure builds for Tom to take part in an experimental drugs trial that promises to silence the voice forever...Categorized as:
literary-fiction fiction mental-illness contemporary psychological family fantasy book -
![A Terrible Country by Keith Gessen]()
A Terrible Country by Keith Gessen
Rated: 3.89 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsA New York Times Editors' Choice Named a Best Book of 2018 by Bookforum, Nylon, Esquire, and Vulture"This artful and autumnal novel, published in high summer, is a gift to those who wish to receive it."--Dwight Garner, The New York Times"Hilarious, heartbreaking . . . A Terrible Country may be one of the best books you'll read this year... -
![Concerto to the Memory of an Angel by Éric-Emmanuel Schmitt]()
Concerto to the Memory of an Angel by Éric-Emmanuel Schmitt
Rated: 3.88 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsThe title story is the tale of two friends with very different personalities—one competitive and aggressive, the other kind and disinterested. They are confronted with circumstances that lead to a catharsis in which both men will move beyond their predetermined roles. Another story, “The Return,” introduces a father whose work takes him far from home for months at a time...Categorized as:
literary-fiction 21st-century adult anthologies contemporary family fiction psychological -
![The Lover: A Novel by Rebecca Sacks, Gabi Epstein]()
The Lover: A Novel by Rebecca Sacks, Gabi Epstein
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsThe author of the acclaimed City of a Thousand Gates returns with an intense, page-turning love story between a twenty-seven year old Canadian woman and a nineteen-year old Israeli soldier, set in contemporary Israel...Categorized as:
literary-fiction politics romance fiction contemporary audiobook female-author 21st-century -
![The Big Law by Chuck Logan]()
The Big Law by Chuck Logan
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsAn emerging master of the thriller pits brooding hero Phil Broker against the legendary Witness Protection Program, which has unwittingly hidden his ex-wife's killer. In The Big Law , Logan unfurls a sublime premise-- The Fugitive in reverse--and graces it with ingenious plotting and fascinating explorations of the forces that drive men both to selfless heroism and murderous greed...Categorized as:
literary-fiction politics mystery action-adventure fiction law-enforcement crime suspense -
![The Isle of Youth by Laura van den Berg]()
The Isle of Youth by Laura van den Berg
Rated: 3.86 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsBeautiful, strange, and compulsively readable stories from an already celebrated young writerIn Laura van den Berg’s gorgeous new book, The Isle of Youth, she explores the lives of women who are mired in secrecy and deception... -
![The Angel of History by Rabih Alameddine]()
The Angel of History by Rabih Alameddine
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsFollowing the critical and commercial success of An Unnecessary Woman, Alameddine delivers a spectacular portrait of a man and an era of profound political and social upheaval... -
![Cove by Cynan Jones]()
Cove by Cynan Jones
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsOut at sea, in a sudden storm, a man is struck by lightning. When he wakes, injured and adrift on a kayak, his memory of who he is and how he came to be there is all but shattered. Now he must pit himself against the pain and rely on his instincts to get back to shore, and to the woman he dimly senses waiting for his return...Categorized as:
literary-fiction 21st-century adult book contemporary fiction male-author psychological -
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![Blue Notes by Anne Cathrine Bomann]()
Blue Notes by Anne Cathrine Bomann
Rated: 3.90 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsHow much grief is too much? How far should we go to avoid pain? From the author of the international bestselling novel Agatha comes a literary thriller about grief, love, science, and societal norms. A Danish university research group is finishing its study of a new medicine, the world’s first pill for grief... -
![Gryphon: New and Selected Stories by Charles Baxter]()
Gryphon: New and Selected Stories by Charles Baxter
Rated: 3.80 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsEver since the publication of The Harmony of the World in 1984, Charles Baxter has slowly gained a reputation as one of America’s finest short-story writers...Categorized as:
literary-fiction adult anthologies contemporary fiction low-fantasy magical-realism psychological -
![Tom at the Farm by Michel Marc Bouchard]()
Tom at the Farm by Michel Marc Bouchard
Rated: 3.88 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsAs an unexpected guest at his recently deceased lover's funeral, Tom is blindsided by the man's legacy of untruth. With the mother expecting a chain-smoking girlfriend, and the older brother hell-bent on preserving a facade of normalcy, Tom is coerced into participating in the dishonesty until, at last, he confronts the torment that drove his lover to live in the shadows of deceit... -
![Both Ways is the Only Way I Want It by Maile Meloy]()
Both Ways is the Only Way I Want It by Maile Meloy
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsOne of the New York Times 10 Best Books of 2009, award-winning writer Maile Meloy's return to short stories explores complex lives in an austere landscape with the clear-sightedness that first endeared her to readers...Categorized as:
literary-fiction adult anthologies audiobook contemporary family female-author fiction -
![Age of Iron by J.M. Coetzee]()
Age of Iron by J.M. Coetzee
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsIn Cape Town, South Africa, an old woman is dying of cancer. A classics professor, Mrs. Curren has been opposed to the lies and brutality of apartheid all her life, but has lived insulated from its true horrors. Now she is suddenly forced to come to terms with the iron-hearted rage that the system has wrought...Categorized as:
literary-fiction politics 20th-century adult book classics colonization contemporary -
![My Purple Scented Novel by Ian McEwan]()
My Purple Scented Novel by Ian McEwan
Rated: 3.81 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsA jewel of a short story from the author of Atonement and Nutshell—“My Purple Scented Novel” follows the perfect crime of literary betrayal, scrupulously wrought yet unscrupulously executed. Published to celebrate Ian McEwan’s 70th birthday. “You will have heard of my friend the once celebrated novelist Jocelyn Tarbet, but I suspect his memory is beginning to fade. . .Categorized as:
literary-fiction 21st-century adult anthologies audiobook contemporary fiction male-author -
![Uit het leven van een hond by Sander Kollaard]()
Uit het leven van een hond by Sander Kollaard
Rated: 3.81 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsUit het leven van een hond beslaat een zaterdag uit het leven van Henk van Doorn, 56, IC-verpleegkundige, alleenstaand. Hij wordt wakker, ontbijt, laat de hond uit, doet boodschappen. Het wordt allesbehalve een doodgewone zaterdag als Henks hond ziek blijkt. Het dier zal sterven, niet vandaag of morgen, maar binnen afzienbare tijd... -
![The Family Clause by Jonas Hassen Khemiri]()
The Family Clause by Jonas Hassen Khemiri
Rated: 3.81 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsThe Family Clause is a novel about a family on the verge of collapse, by the critically acclaimed Swedish author of Montecore “The son did as he was told. All his bloody life, he has done as he has been told. Time to change that, he thinks, grabbing a pen. He doesn’t write that this will be the last time his father stays here. He doesn’t write that he wants to break the father clause... -
![Stillwater Rising by Steena Holmes]()
Stillwater Rising by Steena Holmes
Rated: 3.86 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsAfter losing her son in an elementary school shooting that devastates the tight-knit community of Stillwater Bay, Jennifer Crowne finds herself unable to settle back into her role of perfect stay-at-home mom and committee organizer...Categorized as:
politics literary-fiction fiction contemporary womens-fiction drama audiobook realistic -
![King: A Street Story by John Berger]()
King: A Street Story by John Berger
Rated: 3.67 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsWith the poetic acuity that renders his work timeless, Booker Prize-winning author John Berger brings us a 24-hour chronicle of homelessness. Beside a highway, in a wasteland furnished with smashed trucks and broken washing machines, lives a vagrant community of once-hopeful individuals, now abandoned by the twentieth century... -
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![The Guest by Emma Cline]()
The Guest by Emma Cline
Rated: 3.67 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsA young woman pretends to be someone she isn't in this stunning novel by the New York Times bestselling author of The Girls.Summer is coming to a close on the East End of Long Island, and Alex is no longer welcome.A misstep at a dinner party, and the older man she's been staying with dismisses her with a ride to the train station and a ticket back to the city... -
![The Ministry of Pain by Dubravka Ugrešić]()
The Ministry of Pain by Dubravka Ugrešić
Rated: 3.79 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsHaving fled the violent breakup of Yugoslavia, Tanja Lucic is now a professor of literature at the University of Amsterdam, where she teaches a class filled with other young Yugoslav exiles, most of whom earn meager wages assembling leather and rubber S&M clothing at a sweatshop they call the "Ministry...Categorized as:
literary-fiction politics 21st-century adult book contemporary female-author fiction -
![Learning to Lose: A Novel by David Trueba]()
Learning to Lose: A Novel by David Trueba
Rated: 3.79 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsIt is Sylvia’s sixteenth birthday, and her life as an adult is about to begin—not with the party she had been planning, but with a car accident and a broken leg. Behind the wheel is a talented young soccer player, just arrived from Buenos Aires and set for stardom on and off the field... -
![After the Funeral and Other Stories by Tessa Hadley]()
After the Funeral and Other Stories by Tessa Hadley
Rated: 3.79 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsA masterful collection of stories that plumb the depths of everyday life to reveal the shifting tides and hidden undercurrents of ordinary relationships -- Tessa Hadley is "one of the greatest stylists alive" (Ron Charles, Washington Post). "Like Alice Munro, to whom she has more than once been compared, Hadley . . . sees us all: our travails, our fantasies and our small joys...Categorized as:
literary-fiction romance fiction contemporary audiobook realistic anthologies psychological -
![The Other Side of You by Salley Vickers]()
The Other Side of You by Salley Vickers
Rated: 3.75 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsFor psychiatrist and psychoanalyst Dr. David McBride, death exerts an unusual draw. Despite his profession, he has never come to terms with the violent accident that took his brother's life, a trauma that has shaped his personality and subsequent choice of career...Categorized as:
literary-fiction adult book contemporary fiction historical-fiction psychological womens-fiction -
![Landscapes by Christine Lai]()
Landscapes by Christine Lai
Rated: 3.75 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsA darkly absorbing, prismatic debut novel from Christine Lai, set in a near future that is fraught with ecological collapse and geopolitical upheaval, Landscapes explores memory, empathy, and art as an instrument for recollection and renewal...Categorized as:
literary-fiction politics fiction sci-fi dystopia contemporary outdoors pollution-climate-change
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