Petropolis vs Wild Swans: Which Should You Read?
Both live on shelves: Fiction
Petropolis
In her stunning debut novel, Anya Ulinich delivers a funny and unforgettable story of a Russian mail-order bride trying to find her place in America. After losing her father, her boyfriend, and her baby, Sasha Goldberg…
vs
Wild Swans
"Jung Chang vividly evokes China's sights, sounds, and smells to create what must be one of the grimmest, yet most perceptive accounts of growing up middle-class in the maelstrom that has swept China since the 1920s." -…
The verdict
- Readers rate Wild Swans highest: Wild Swans 4.3 · Petropolis 4.0.
- Petropolis is the quickest read — about 6 hours vs 13 for Wild Swans.
- Wild Swans has the widest readership — 128589 ratings behind its score.
- Wild Swans runs the darker storyline; Petropolis stays the lighter read.
How to choose
Scores by source
| Petropolis | Wild Swans | |
|---|---|---|
| Goodreads | — | 4.3 (128589) |
| Hardcover | 3.5 (2) | 4.3 (104) |
| Apple Books | 5.0 (5) | 4.5 (187) |
Reception
| Petropolis | Wild Swans | |
|---|---|---|
| Ratings | 5 | 128589 |
| Editions | 6 | 72 |
| Film adaptations | 1 | 1 |
| Want to read | — | 161756 |
| Reading it now | — | 9161 |
| Written reviews | — | 8970 |
| Wikipedia attention | 35 | 5578 |
| Pages | 336 | 729 |