Good Fiction is Like Real Life
Explore books where good fiction mirrors real life. Discover compelling stories that capture the essence of human experiences, emotions, and truths in our curated list.
Book
Saturday
by Ian McEwan
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • The Booker Prize winner and bestselling author of Atonement follows an ordinary man through a Saturday whose high promise gradually turns nightmarish …
Book
Goodnight Nobody
by Jennifer Weiner
A young mother moves to a postcard-perfect Connecticut town where she unravels crime while her children are in nursery school. Investigating a death, she discovers …
Book
The Secret River
by Kate Grenville
"London, 1806 - William Thornhill, happily wedded to his childhood sweetheart Sal, is a waterman on the River Thames. Life is tough but bearable until …
Book
Desperation Moon
by Ken Douglas
When racecar driver Sara Hackett arrives home from a desert road race, she finds her niece and another girl have been kidnapped and a dead …
Book
The Banquet Bug
by Geling Yan
"When factory worker Dan Dong accidentally discovers how easy it is to infiltrate state- and corporate-sponsored banquets by posing as a journalist, he quickly becomes …
Book
Water for Elephants
by Sara Gruen
Ninety-something-year-old Jacob Jankowski remembers his time in the circus as a young man during the Great Depression, and his friendship with Marlena, the star of …
Book
Silent In The Grave
by Deanna Raybourn
These ominous words, slashed from the pages of a book of Psalms, are the last threat that the darling of London society, Sir Edward Grey, …
Book
The Black Sun
by James Twining
The second book in Twinings thrilling Tom Kirk series is a high-wire act of fast-paced narrative and engaging mystery concerning the whereabouts of a train …
Book
Body Surfing
by Anita Shreve
Struggling to start over again after being divorced and widowed while still in her twenties, Sydney tutors the daughter of a wealthy couple during a …
Book
The Double Bind
by Chris Bohjalian
Working at a homeless shelter, student Laurel Estabrook encounters Bobbie Crocker, a man with a history of mental illness and a box of secret photos, …
Book
The Sea
by John Banville
Following the death of his wife, Max Morden retreats to the seaside town of his childhood summers, where his own life becomes inextricably entwined with …
Book
On Beauty
by Zadie Smith
Struggling with a stale marriage and the misguided passions of his three adult children, long-suffering art professor Howard Belsey finds his family life thrown into …
Book
Dream when You're Feeling Blue
by Elizabeth Berg
Through their letters, sisters Kitty and Louise tell their tales after watching the boys leave for battle during World War II and Kitty joining the …
Book
The Widow of the South
by Robert Hicks
A story based on the true experiences of a Civil War heroine finds Carrie McGavock witnessing the bloodshed of the Battle of Franklin, falling in …
Book
Still Summer
by Jacquelyn Mitchard
Twenty years after a shared childhood marked by their considerable popularity, Tracy, Olivia, and Holly reunite on a luxury Caribbean cruise during which a chance …
Book
My French Whore
by Gene Wilder
Recounts the tale of a midwestern World War I soldier whose capture by German forces prompts him to impersonate a famous German spy and pursue …
Book
The Swallows of Kabul
by Yasmina Khadra
Set in Afghanistan's capital city of Kabul, this extraordinary novel "puts a human face on the suffering inflicted by the Taliban" (San Francisco Chronicle), taking …
Book
Lost City Radio
by Daniel Alarcon
A powerful and searing novel of three lives fractured by a civil war For ten years, Norma has been the voice of consolation for a …
Book
For One More Day
by Mitch Albom
This is the story of Charley, a child of divorce who is always forced to choose between his mother and his father. He grows into …
Book
Zorro
by Isabel Allende
A child of two worlds -- the son of an aristocratic Spanish military man turned landowner and a Shoshone warrior woman -- young Diego de …
Book
History of Love
by Nicole Krauss
Sixty years after a book's publication, its author remembers his lost love and missing son, while a teenage girl named for one of the book's …
Book
Heyday
by Kurt Andersen
Englishman Benjamin Knowles heads for America to build a new life and joins up with three young Americans--journalist Timothy Skaggs, war veteran Duff Lucking, and …
Book
The Sunday List of Dreams
by Kris Radish
In an effort to shake up her life, a woman impulsively hops on a plane to New York in order to track down her estranged …
Book
I'll Steal You Away
by Niccolò Ammaniti
Ischiano Scalo. A place where even the main road out of town gives up after a couple of miles, where escape from a life of …
Book
The Five People You Meet in Heaven
by Mitch Albom
Eddie dies on his eighty-third birthday in a tragic accident - He awakens in the afterlife where he learns that heaven is where your earthly …
Book
Lily's Ghost
by Cheryl Drake Harris
Haunted by her horrific memories as a doctor in Vietnam, Lily has built a safe new life for herself in a small Maine town, until …
Book
Gilead
by Marilynne Robinson
In 1956, toward the end of his life, Reverend John Ames begins a letter to his young son, sharing the story of his life and …