18 books like A Fine Balance

What to read after A Fine Balance — books similar to it, matched on shared themes.

Pan Michael An historical novel Henryk Sienkiewicz · 1893 · ★ 5.0 · 542p · ≈ 18h · Challenging The third and final book of Henryk Sienkiewicz’s Trilogy takes a closer and more intimate look at one of the series’ protagonists: Pan Michael Volodyovski. The Polish Commonwealth has been through intense periods of war, and the peace that follows leaves one of its greatest heroes, Pan Michael, finally free to marry his beloved Panna Anusia. But in a twist of fate, she falls ill and dies, leaving… Shares Historical Fiction, History

St. George and St. Michael George MacDonald · 1876 · 450p · ≈ 15h · Challenging It was the middle of autumn, and had rained all day. Through the lozenge-panes of the wide oriel window the world appeared in the slowly gathering dusk not a little dismal. The drops that clung trickling to the dim glass added rain and gloom to the landscape beyond, whither the eye passed, as if vaguely seeking that help in the distance, which the dripping hollyhocks and sodden sunflowers… Shares Historical Fiction, History

The Glass Palace Amitav Ghosh · 2000 · ★ 4.3 · 560p · ≈ 18h · Moderate Set in Burma during the British invasion of 1885, this masterly novel by Amitav Ghosh tells the story of Rajkumar, a poor boy lifted on the tides of political and social chaos, who goes on to create an empire in the Burmese teak forest. When soldiers force the royal family out of the Glass Palace and into exile, Rajkumar befriends Dolly, a young woman in the court of the Burmese Queen, whose… Shares Domestic fiction, Literature, Historical Fiction, History

A history of New York Washington Irving · 1800 · ★ 3.7 · 437p · ≈ 14h · Challenging A history of New York : from the beginning of the world to the end of the Dutch dynasty ; containing, among many surprising and curious matters, the unutterable ponderings of Walter the Doubter, the disastrous projects of William the Testy, and the chivalric achievements of Peter the Headstrong ; the three Dutch governors of New Amsterdam ; being the only authentic history of the times that ever… Shares City and town life, Literature, Historical Fiction, History

American Pastoral Philip Roth · 1997 · ★ 3.9 · 427p · ≈ 14h · Moderate American Pastoral is a Philip Roth novel published in 1997 concerning Seymour "Swede" Levov, a successful Jewish American businessman and former high school star athlete from Newark, New Jersey. Levov's happy and conventional upper middle class life is ruined by the domestic social and political turmoil of the 1960s during the presidency of Lyndon B. Johnson, which in the novel is described as a… Shares Literary Fiction, Domestic fiction, Historical Fiction, History

East of Eden John Steinbeck · 1952 · ★ 4.5 · 602p · ≈ 20h · Challenging Steinbeck considered East of Eden to be his masterpiece. In his journal, Journal of a Novel (often read as a companion to the novel) he notes that “this is the book I have always wanted and have worked and prayed to be able to write Set primarily in the Salinas Valley in the early twentieth century, the novel traces three generations of two families – the Trasks and the Hamiltons – as they… Shares Literary Fiction, Domestic fiction, Historical Fiction, History

The Lady of the Rivers

The Lady of the Rivers Philippa Gregory · 2011 · ★ 4.0 The Lady of the Rivers tells the story of Jacquetta, daughter of the Count of Luxembourg, and kinswoman to half the royalty of Europe, who was married to the great Englishman John, Duke of Bedford, uncle to Henry VI. Widowed at the age of nineteen she took the extraordinary risk of marrying a gentleman of her house­hold for love, and then carved out a life for herself as Queen Margaret of Anjou's… Shares History

Dead Men's Money Joseph Smith Fletcher · 1920 · ★ 3.7 · 212p · ≈ 7h · Moderate A mysterious one-eyed stranger, a midnight meeting at a lonely spot on the Scottish border, the secret password "Panama", and a corpse This is the situation Hugh Moneylaws, a young law clerk finds himself facing. Who murdered the man he was sent to meet, and why? With the only two men who knew the purpose of the meeting dead, it would seem a puzzle that would never be solved. Yet to save himself… Shares History

The Awful Secret

The Awful Secret Bernard Knight · 2006 · 356p · ≈ 11h · Moderate Shares History with this book.

Home as found James Fenimore Cooper · 1800 · ★ 5.0 · 432p · ≈ 14h · Challenging Shares Historical Fiction with this book.

London

London Edward Rutherfurd · 1997 · ★ 4.0 · 829p · ≈ 27h · Challenging “A TOUR DE FORCE . . . London tracks the history of the English capital from the days of the Celts until the present time. . . . Breathtaking.”—The Orlando SentinelA master of epic historical fiction, Edward Rutherford gives us a sweeping novel of London, a glorious pageant spanning two thousand years. He brings this vibrant city's long and noble history alive through his saga of ever-shifting… Shares Historical Fiction, History

The turmoil, a novel Booth Tarkington · 1914 · 139p · ≈ 4h · Moderate Booth Tarkington grew up in Indianapolis, and attended Princeton University. He set much of his fiction in Indiana. Tarkington was one of the more popular novelists of his time, and in 1921 booksellers rated him in a poll as the most significant contemporary American author. -Wikipedia entry for Tarkington Shares City and town life in fiction, City and town life, Domestic fiction

BLUE DIARY Alice Hoffman · 2001 · 303p · ≈ 10h · Moderate Includes discussion questions. Shares City and town life in fiction, City and town life

The Andromeda Strain Michael Crichton · 1969 · ★ 3.8 · 295p · ≈ 9h · Moderate The Andromeda Strain is a 1969 techno-thriller novel by Michael Crichton, his first novel under his own name and his sixth novel overall. It is written as a report documenting the efforts of a team of scientists investigating the outbreak of a deadly extraterrestrial microorganism in New Mexico. The Andromeda Strain appeared in the New York Times Best Seller list, establishing Michael Crichton as… Shares Suicide

Satanstoe ; or, The littlepage manuscripts, a tale of the colony James Fenimore Cooper · 1845 · 382p · ≈ 12h · Challenging Every chronicle of manners has a certain value. When customs are connected with principles, in their origin, development, or end, such records have a double importance; and it is because we think we see such a connection between the facts and incidents of the Littlepage Manuscripts, and certain important theories of our own time, that we give the former to the world. Shares Historical Fiction, History

The Help Kathryn Stockett · 2009 · ★ 4.5 · 476p · ≈ 15h · Moderate Three ordinary women are about to take one extraordinary step. Twenty-two-year-old Skeeter has just returned home after graduating from Ole Miss. She may have a degree, but it is 1962, Mississippi, and her mother will not be happy till Skeeter has a ring on her finger. Skeeter would normally find solace with her beloved maid Constantine, the woman who raised her, but Constantine has… Shares Literary Fiction, Domestic fiction, Literature, Historical Fiction

A Bitter Cut

A Bitter Cut Anna Lee Huber · 2026 Lady Kiera Darby plans to spend the summer reconnecting with friends and family in anticipation of the betrothal of her beloved brother. But when a future in-law is implicated in a murder, the party takes a deadly turn. . . .July 1833. Lady Darby and her dashing husband, Sebastian Gage, are settling into their newly renovated home at Bevington Park in Warkwickshire with their young daughter. With… Shares Historical Fiction

The Ravenscar Dynasty Barbara Taylor Bradford · 1867 · 496p · ≈ 16h · Challenging Devastated by the deaths of three family members in a suspicious fire, young Edward Deravenel battles his cousin for control of a business empire that was usurped from his branch of the family sixty years earlier. Shares Domestic fiction, Literature

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