Books like 'Absence'
Readers who enjoyed Absence by Issa Quincy also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
contemporary sc-fi literary-fiction gothic family
-
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:
literary-fiction adult book contemporary fiction historical-fiction paranormal time-travel -
![If I Built a House by Chris Van Dusen]()
If I Built a House by Chris Van Dusen
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsThe much-anticipated follow-up to the E. B. White Award-winning picture book If I Built a CarIn If I Built a Car, imaginative Jack dreamed up a whimsical fantasy ride that could do just about anything. Now he's back and ready to build the house of his dreams, complete with a racetrack, flying room, and gigantic slide... -
![Logic Beach: Part I by Exurb1a]()
Logic Beach: Part I by Exurb1a
Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsMathematician Polly Hare is missing. She leaves behind: one cat, one scarf, and a hypergeometric theory of everything with the potential to end physics. Her husband Benjamin is determined to bring her home. Papers will be read. Cults will be infiltrated. Cats will be petted. Benjamin Hare cannot tie his shoes, but he may well steer the course of human history... -
![Protect by R.D. Brady]()
Protect by R.D. Brady
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsSURVIVOR, MOTHER, LEADER ...HUMANITY'S LAST CHANCE The pulse-pounding, action-packed dystopian novel from Amazon best selling author, R.D. Brady.Deep within the remnants of the United States, Lyla Richards oversees a camp of two hundred survivors...Categorized as:
family literary-fiction action-adventure audiobook book children-books colonization contemporary -
-
![天橋上的魔術師 by Wu Ming-Yi, 吳明益]()
-
![The Semplica-Girl Diaries (short story) by George Saunders]()
The Semplica-Girl Diaries (short story) by George Saunders
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsNovelette, Free online fiction.From newyorker.com“The Semplica-Girl Diaries” deals with a family in a not-too-distant future (or perhaps an alternate present or past?) that is struggling to keep up with the Joneses—which, in this society, means leasing some unusual garden ornaments... -
![Calling Major Tom by David M. Barnett, David Barnett]()
Calling Major Tom by David M. Barnett, David Barnett
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsCalling Major Tom is a heartwarming, quirky and ultimately life-affirming story of friendship, family and forgiveness - and the world's most unlikely astronaut. A man who has given up on the world. A family who show him how to live.Forty-something Thomas is very happy to be on his own, far away from other people and their problems... -
![Love in the Time of Bertie by Alexander McCall Smith]()
Love in the Time of Bertie by Alexander McCall Smith
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsThe latest installment in the delightful 44 Scotland Street series finds all our favorite residents up to their usual hilarious hijinks. In the microcosm of 44 Scotland Street, all of life's richness is found in the glorious goings-on of its residents... -
![Czarne oceany by Jacek Dukaj]()
Czarne oceany by Jacek Dukaj
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsDukaj od nowa skonfigurował klasyczną twardą fantastykę naukową.Mroczna, sugestywna, boleśnie realistyczna wizja społeczeństwa posthumanistycznego.Czarne oceany – przerażająca otchłań myśli ludzkiej.Nicolas Hunt kieruje tajnym projektem rządowym, badającym komercyjne zastosowania telepatii. Rezultaty tych badań zmienią nieodwracalnie nie tylko jego życie, ale także losy całego świata... -
![The After Wife by Cass Hunter]()
The After Wife by Cass Hunter
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 12 ratings'Grab a box of tissues because this beautiful story will make you cry' Amazon reviewer, 5 starsWhen Rachel and Aidan fell in love, they thought it was forever.She was a brilliant, high-flying scientist. He was her loving and supportive husband.Now she's gone, and Aidan must carry on and raise their daughter alone... -
![Jollof Rice and Other Revolutions: A Novel in Interlocking Stories by Omolola Ijeoma Ogunyemi]()
Jollof Rice and Other Revolutions: A Novel in Interlocking Stories by Omolola Ijeoma Ogunyemi
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 12 ratings6 hrs. 10 min.Nigerian author Omolola Ijeoma Ogunyemi makes her American debut with this dazzling novel which explores her homeland's past, present, and possible future through the interconnected stories of four fearless globe-trotting women...Categorized as:
literary-fiction family fiction historical-fiction contemporary audiobook female-author friendship -
![The Marriage Act by John Marrs]()
The Marriage Act by John Marrs
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsWhat if marriage was the law? Dare you disobey?Britain. The near-future. A right-wing government believes it has the answer to society’s ills — the Sanctity of Marriage Act, which actively encourages marriage as the norm, punishing those who choose to remain single... -
![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:
family literary-fiction 20th-century 21st-century adult anthologies audiobook contemporary -
![The High House by Jessie Greengrass]()
The High House by Jessie Greengrass
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsIn this powerful, highly anticipated novel from an award-winning author, four people attempt to make a home in the midst of environmental disaster.Perched on a sloping hill, set away from a small town by the sea, the High House has a tide pool and a mill, a vegetable garden, and, most importantly, a barn full of supplies... -
-
![The Works of Rudyard Kipling (500+ works) by Rudyard Kipling]()
The Works of Rudyard Kipling (500+ works) by Rudyard Kipling
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsWith A to Z Classics, discover or rediscover all the classics of literature... -
![The Names by Florence Knapp]()
The Names by Florence Knapp
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsThe extraordinary debut that Can a name change the course of a life?In the wake of a catastrophic storm, Cora sets off with her nine-year-old daughter, Maia, to register her son's birth. Her husband, Gordon, a local doctor, respected in the community but a terrifying and controlling presence at home, intends for her to name the infant after him...Categorized as:
literary-fiction family fiction historical-fiction contemporary sci-fi female-author breakup -
![Shadows of Death by H.P. Lovecraft]()
Shadows of Death by H.P. Lovecraft
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsDescend into the nerve-shattering realm of America’s master of horror, H. P. Lovecraft–to a dank place where gloomy maelstroms await the unwary, where the unnatural is surpassed only by the unspeakable, and where all pleasure is perverse. Take a chance. . . . All you can lose is your sanity...Categorized as:
family gothic literary-fiction adult anthologies classics contemporary cosmic-horror -
![Portable Curiosities by Julie Koh]()
Portable Curiosities by Julie Koh
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsA biting collection of stories from a bold new voice. A young girl sees ghosts from her third eye, located where her belly button should be. A corporate lawyer feels increasingly disconnected from his job in a soulless 1200-storey skyscraper... -
![Through the Night Like a Snake: Latin American Horror Stories by Tomás Downey, Mariana Enríquez]()
Through the Night Like a Snake: Latin American Horror Stories by Tomás Downey, Mariana Enríquez
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsA boy explores the abandoned house of a dead fascist…A leaked sex tape pushes a woman to the brink…A sex worker discovers a dark secret among the nuns of the pampas…The mountain fog is not what it seems…Kermit the Frog dreams of murder…In ten chilling stories from an ensemble cast of contemporary Latin American writers, including Mariana Enriquez (tr. Megan McDowell), Camila Sosa Villlada (tr...Categorized as:
literary-fiction gothic horror fiction anthologies contemporary paranormal latinx-mc -
![Fortune Smiles by Adam Johnson, W Morgan Sheppard]()
Fortune Smiles by Adam Johnson, W Morgan Sheppard
Rated: 4.02 of 5 stars · 35 ratingsIn six masterly stories, Johnson delves deep into love and loss, natural disasters, the influence of technology, and how the political shapes the personal. “Nirvana" portrays a programmer, whose wife has a rare disease, finding solace in a digital simulacrum of the president of the United States... -
![Ten Little Words by Leah Mercer]()
Ten Little Words by Leah Mercer
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsI am always with you. I will always be here.This was the promise Ella’s mother betrayed thirty years ago when she walked into the sea, leaving her five-year-old daughter alone in the world. Ella’s been angry ever since, building up a wall to protect herself. But that all changes the day she opens a newspaper and finds those ten little words printed in a classified ad...Categorized as:
family literary-fiction romance fiction womens-fiction audiobook contemporary sci-fi -
![A Guardian and a Thief by Megha Majumdar]()
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 fiction sci-fi dystopia contemporary historical-fiction mystery book -
![This Time Tomorrow by Emma Straub]()
This Time Tomorrow by Emma Straub
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 7 ratingsNamed a Most Anticipated Book of 2022 by Harper's Bazaar, Oprah Daily, Glamour, Entertainment Weekly, Good Housekeeping, Parade, Bustle, Marie Claire, PopSugar, Thrillist, Lit Hub and more! What if you could take a vacation to your past? With her celebrated humor, insight, and heart, beloved New York Times bestseller Emma Straub offers her own twist on traditional time travel tropes, and a... -
![Sky Full of Elephants by Cebo Campbell]()
Sky Full of Elephants by Cebo Campbell
Rated: 3.92 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsIn this exquisite speculative novel set in a world where white people no longer exist, college professor Charlie Brunton receives a call from his estranged daughter Sidney, setting off a chain of events as they journey across a truly “post-racial” America in search of answers.One day, a cataclysmic event occurs: all of the white people in America walk into the nearest body of water... -
-
![One of the Boys by Jayne Cowie]()
One of the Boys by Jayne Cowie
Rated: 3.90 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsIf you could test your son for a gene that predicts violence, would you do it?Antonia and Bea are sisters, and doting mothers to their sons. But that is where their similarities end.Antonia had her son tested to make sure he didn’t possess the "violent" M gene.Bea refuses to let her son take the test. His life should not be determined by a positive or negative result... -
![Mothers & Other Monsters: Stories by Maureen F. McHugh]()
Mothers & Other Monsters: Stories by Maureen F. McHugh
Rated: 3.88 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsIn her debut collection, Maureen F. McHugh examines the impacts of social and technological shifts on families. Using deceptively simple prose, she illuminates the relationship between parents and children and the expected and unexpected chasms that open between generations...Categorized as:
family literary-fiction adult anthologies contemporary dystopia female-author fiction -
![Neon Green by Margaret Wappler]()
Neon Green by Margaret Wappler
Rated: 3.88 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsIt's the summer of 1994 in suburban Chicago: Forrest Gump is still in theaters, teens are reeling from the recent death of Kurt Cobain, and you can enter a sweepstakes for a spaceship from Jupiter to land in your backyard. Welcome to Margaret Wappler's slightly altered alternative '90s. Everything's pretty much as you remember it, except for the aliens...Categorized as:
family literary-fiction adult alternate-history book contemporary dystopia female-author -
![And Yet They Were Happy by Helen Phillips]()
And Yet They Were Happy by Helen Phillips
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 6 ratings"Brilliant miniatures. . . . Like the fables of Calvino, Millhauser, or W.S. Merwin. . . . Beautifully blends short story and prose poem. . . . Mermaids, subways, floods, cucumbers, magicians. . . .The book is a gallery of marvels...Categorized as:
family literary-fiction adult anthologies classics contemporary female-author female-mc -
![Where the Sweet Bird Sings by Ella Joy Olsen]()
Where the Sweet Bird Sings by Ella Joy Olsen
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsIn this provocative new novel, the author of Root, Petal, Thorn offers a powerful story of resilience, hope, and the secrets that, no matter how deeply hidden, can shape and ultimately unite a family. What connects us to one another? Is it shared history? Is it ancestry? Is it blood? Or is it love? People respond to tragedy in different ways. Some try to move on. Some don’t move at all... -
![American Estrangement: Stories by Said Sayrafiezadeh]()
American Estrangement: Stories by Said Sayrafiezadeh
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsSaid Sayrafiezadeh has been hailed by Philip Gourevitch as "a masterful storyteller working from deep in the American grain." His new collection of stories—some of which have appeared in The New Yorker, the Paris Review, and the Best American Short Stories—is set in a contemporary America full of the kind of emotionally bruised characters familiar to readers of Denis Johnson and George Saunders... -
![Mania by Lionel Shriver]()
Mania by Lionel Shriver
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsSet in a parallel yet all too familiar near past, a brilliant subversive novel from the New York Times bestselling author about a lifelong friendship threatened by the Culture Wars. In an alternative 2011, the Mental Parity movement takes hold. Americans now embrace the sacred, universal truth that there is no such thing as variable human intelligence... -
![Gliff by Ali Smith]()
Gliff by Ali Smith
Rated: 3.94 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsFrom a literary master, a moving and genre-bending story about our era-spanning search for meaning and knowing.An uncertain near-future. A story of new boundaries drawn between people daily. A not-very brave new world. Add two children. And a horse.From a Scottish word meaning a transient moment, a shock, a faint glimpse, Gliff explores how and why we endeavour to make a mark on the world... -
![The Displacements by Bruce Holsinger]()
The Displacements by Bruce Holsinger
Rated: 3.94 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsTo all appearances, the Larsen-Hall family has everything: healthy children, a stable marriage, a lucrative career for Brantley, and the means for Daphne to pursue her art full-time. Their deluxe new Miami life has just clicked into place when Luna—the world’s first category 6 hurricane—upends everything they have taken for granted...Categorized as:
literary-fiction family fiction audiobook contemporary dystopia pollution-climate-change suspense -
![The Monkey's Paw by Diane Mowat, W.W. Jacobs]()
The Monkey's Paw by Diane Mowat, W.W. Jacobs
Rated: 3.88 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsWithout, the night was cold and wet, but in the small parlour of Laburnam Villa the blinds were drawn and the fire burned brightly. Father and son were at chess, the former, who possessed ideas about the game involving radical changes, putting his king into such sharp and unnecessary perils that it even provoked comment from the white-haired old lady knitting placidly by the fire... -
-
![Do You Remember Being Born? by Sean Michaels]()
Do You Remember Being Born? by Sean Michaels
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsFINALIST FOR THE 2023 PARAGRAPHE HUGH MACLENNAN AWARD FOR FICTIONScotiabank Giller Prize-winner Sean Michaels' luminous new novel takes readers on a lyrical joy ride—seven, epic days in Silicon Valley with a tall, formidable poet (inspired by the real-life Marianne Moore) and her unusual new collaborator, a digital mind just one month old... -
![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... -
![The World Goes On by László Krasznahorkai]()
The World Goes On by László Krasznahorkai
Rated: 3.80 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsA Hungarian interpreter obsessed with waterfalls, at the edge of the abyss in his own mind, wanders the chaotic streets of Shanghai. A traveller, reeling from the sights and sounds of Varanasi, encounters a giant of a man on the banks of the Ganges ranting on the nature of a single drop of water... -
![Sunstroke and Other Stories by Tessa Hadley]()
Sunstroke and Other Stories by Tessa Hadley
Rated: 3.80 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsA Picador Paperback OriginalTessa Hadley's stories trace the currents of desire, desperation, and mischief that that lie hidden inside domestic relationships.A mother hears her son's confession that he's cheating on his girlfriend; a student falls in love with a professor and initiates an affair with a man who looks just like him...Categorized as:
literary-fiction fiction anthologies 21st-century female-author sci-fi feminism contemporary -
![Bombardiers by Po Bronson]()
Bombardiers by Po Bronson
Rated: 3.75 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsFrom the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller What Should I Do with My Life?, Bombardiers is Po Bronson’s first novel, a devastating satire of the business world told through the lens of a crazed and colorful group of salespeople forced to push increasingly absurd financial products... -
![OKPsyche by Anya Johanna DeNiro]()
OKPsyche by Anya Johanna DeNiro
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsAn unnamed trans woman is looking for a sense of belonging, a better relationship with her son, and friends that aren’t imaginary in this playful and aching short novel. As she navigates the many worlds she belongs to she wrestles with her many anxieties and fears about the world around her. Her son and ex live in another state. Companion robots are popping up... -
![They Know Not What They Do by Jussi Valtonen]()
They Know Not What They Do by Jussi Valtonen
Rated: 3.81 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsA young man's decision to put career before family leads to chilling consequences.Joe Chayefski has got what he always wanted: a reputation as one of America's top neuroscientists, a beautiful wife and two perfect daughters. But when his lab is attacked by animal rights activists, Joe is forced to face the past and reconnect with the son he abandoned twenty years earlier... -
![The O. Henry Prize Stories 2007 by Laura Furman, Charles D'Ambrosio]()
The O. Henry Prize Stories 2007 by Laura Furman, Charles D'Ambrosio
Rated: 3.67 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsAn arresting collection of contemporary fiction at its best, these stories explore a vast range of subjects, from love and deception to war and the insidious power of class distinctions. However clearly spoken, in voices sophisticated, cunning, or na-ve, here is fiction that consistently defies our expectations... -
![The Bee-Loud Glade by Steve Himmer]()
The Bee-Loud Glade by Steve Himmer
Rated: 3.67 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsMeet Finch, a corporate drone and blogger who invents words and imaginary lives, but none as surreal as the life he's about to lead as a decorative hermit. Meet Mr. Crane, an eccentric billionaire whose whims and moods change as often as the landscape outside his employee's cave. Join them both as they search for naturalistic serenity in a land of postmodern complexity. Like Mr... -
![The Cranes That Build The Cranes by Jeremy Dyson]()
The Cranes That Build The Cranes by Jeremy Dyson
Rated: 3.67 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsJeremy Dyson is a master of the macabre, of stories brimming with black humour and the promise of something sinister just around the corner. In this collection he explores the dark depths of the human condition, offering tales of death, disaster and - just occasionally - redemption... -
-
![The Falsifiers by Antoine Bello]()
The Falsifiers by Antoine Bello
Rated: 3.79 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsFresh out of college, Sliv, a young Icelander, joins an environmental consulting firm. Soon his superior reveals that the firm houses the activities of a secret organization, the Consortium for the Falsification of Reality, which rewrites history and falsifies the world as we know it...Categorized as:
literary-fiction adult alternate-history book contemporary espionage fiction political-intrigue -
![The Lake by Bianca Bellová]()
The Lake by Bianca Bellová
Rated: 3.79 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsA dystopian page-turner about the coming of age of a younghero, which won the 2017 EU Prize for Literature.A fishing village at the end of the world. A lake that is dryingup and, ominously, pushing out its banks. The men have vodka,the women troubles, the children eczema to scratch at...Categorized as:
literary-fiction book coming-of-age contemporary dystopia fiction young-adult sci-fi -
![The Martian Child: A Novel About a Single Father Adopting a Son by David Gerrold]()
The Martian Child: A Novel About a Single Father Adopting a Son by David Gerrold
Rated: 3.75 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsBasis for the major motion picture from New Line Cinema —starring John Cusack, Amanda Peet, and Joan Cusack—in theaters November 2007When David Gerrold decided he wanted to adopt a son, he thought he had prepared himself for fatherhood. But eight-year-old Dennis turned out to be more than he expected—a lot more... -
![A Fairy Tale of New York by J.P. Donleavy]()
A Fairy Tale of New York by J.P. Donleavy
Rated: 3.75 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsA Fairy Tale of New York is a funny, lusty, and sad novel of comic genius. Returning from study abroad, Cornelius Christian enters customs with his luggage and his dead wife. His first encounter in New York is with a funeral director, with whom he reluctantly takes employment to pay for the burial expenses... -
![Small Mercies: A Novel by Eddie Joyce, Scott Aiello]()
Small Mercies: A Novel by Eddie Joyce, Scott Aiello
Rated: 3.75 of 5 stars · 12 ratings“An intimate family portrait.”—The New York Times “Eddie Joyce’s terrific first novel is so American that the story might as well have taken place at the base of the Statue of Liberty.”—Richard Russo “An inside look at one Staten Island family’s struggle with grief . . . [A] poignant, deeply affecting tale.” —Martha Stewart Living, a Book Club selection “[A] terrific debut novel. . . -
![Electric Shamans at the Festival of the Sun by Mónica Ojeda]()
Electric Shamans at the Festival of the Sun by Mónica Ojeda
Rated: 3.81 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsThe ear is the organ of fear. It is a door to that which is not of this world.Leaving behind the dread and decay of the city, Noa and her best friend, Nicole, travel up into the Andes, headed for Solar Noise: an eight-day festival that takes place in the infinite expanse of the páramo...
Or - use our amazing romance book finder to get recommendations based on your favorite content tropes and themes. Mix and match at will.
