16 books like Mister Pip
Annie John
Since her first, prize-winning collection of stories, At the Bottom of the River, Jamaica Kincaid's work has been met with nothing short of amazement. The New York Times hailed her "prophetic power" and the Los Angeles Times Book Review said: "No one else seems to be writing quite this way right now." With Annie John, the story of a young girl coming of age in Antigua, Kincaid tore open the theme…
Shares: Mothers and daughters, Coming-of-age
The Book Thief
The extraordinary, beloved novel about the ability of books to feed the soul even in the darkest of times.
When Death has a story to tell, you listen.
It is 1939. Nazi Germany. The country is holding its breath. Death has never been busier, and will become busier still.
Liesel Meminger is a foster girl living outside of Munich, who scratches out a meager existence for herself by stealing when…
Shares: Storytelling, Books and Reading
The chocolate money
An innocent little girl, A phenomenal fortune, A mother like no other. Ten-year old Bettina and her mother, Babs, are heiresses to one of America's biggest fortunes. But Bettina's whole life is overshadowed by that of her beautiful, hedonistic mother, the glamorous but domineering Babs. At fifteen, Bettina escapes to New England and an exclusive, preppy boarding school called Cardiss, where she…
Shares: Mothers and daughters, Coming-of-age
Among Others
Seeking refuge in fantasy novel worlds throughout a youth under the shadow of a dubiously sane half-brother who dabbled in magic, Mori Phelps is forced to confront her mother in a tragic battle and gains unwanted attention when she attempts to perform spells herself.
Shares: Books and Reading, Mothers and daughters, Coming-of-age
All Day Is a Long Time
One of The Millions' "Most Anticipated Books of 2022" One of PureWow’s "10 Books We Can’t Wait to Read in January" One of BookShop.org's "Notable New Releases" One of The New York Times Book Review’s "16 New Books Coming in January" One of Poets & Writers' "New and Noteworthy Books” "David Sanchez's first novel—brilliant, lyrical, hilarious, heartbreaking—is the definitive handbook to…
Shares: Books and Reading, Coming-of-age
The Magicians
A thrilling and original coming-of- age novel about a young man practicing magic in the real worldQuentin Coldwater is brilliant but miserable. A senior in high school, he’s still secretly preoccupied with a series of fantasy novels he read as a child, set in a magical land called Fillory. Imagine his surprise when he finds himself unexpectedly admitted to a very secret, very exclusive college of…
Shares: Books and Reading, Coming-of-age
The visitors
"Built around Lord Carnarvon and Howard Carter's discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb in the Valley of the Kings, this evocative novel from New York Times-bestselling author Sally Beauman blends fact and fiction to recreate a lost world that's still fiercely enthralling and relevant today"--
Shares: Mothers and daughters, Coming-of-age
Olivia
“Considered one of the most subtle and beautifully written lesbian novels of the century, this 1949 classic returns to print in a Cleis Press edition. Dorothy Strachey’s classic Olivia captures the awakening passions of an English adolescent sent away for a year to a small finishing school outside Paris. The innocent but watchful Olivia develops an infatuation for her headmistress, Mlle. Julie,…
Shares: Teachers, Coming-of-age
The Water Cure
"An extraordinary otherworldly debut... [Mackintosh] is writing the way that Sofia Coppola would shoot the end of the world: everything is luminous, precise, slow to the point of dread." --The Guardian The Handmaid's Tale meets The Virgin Suicides in this dystopic feminist revenge fantasy about three sisters on an isolated island, raised to fear men King has tenderly staked out a territory for…
Shares: Mothers and daughters, Coming-of-age
When the Moon Is Low
Mahmoud's passion for his wife Fereiba, a schoolteacher, is greater than any love she's ever known. But their happy, middle-class world—a life of education, work, and comfort—implodes when their country is engulfed in war, and the Taliban rises to power.
Mahmoud, a civil engineer, becomes a target of the new fundamentalist regime and is murdered. Forced to flee Kabul with her three children,…
Shares: Teachers, Coming-of-age
The Girl with All the Gifts
Melanie is a very special girl. Dr Caldwell calls her "our little genius."
Every morning, Melanie waits in her cell to be collected for class. When they come for her, Sergeant keeps his gun pointing at her while two of his people strap her into the wheelchair. She thinks they don't like her. She jokes that she won't bite, but they don't laugh.
Melanie loves school. She loves learning about…
Shares: Teachers, Coming-of-age
REST OF HER LIFE, THE
This incredibly nuanced, beautifully written novel treats moral dilemma with the riveting, character-driven plot of a Jane Hamilton or a Jodi Picoult. This novel looks at one incident and how it changes everything for Leigh, the mother of a pretty, popular high school senior, and their entire family. It’s a novel about mothers, daughters, sisters, and female friends, and the ripple effect that an…
Shares: Mothers and daughters, Coming-of-age
God Help the Child
Spare and unsparing, God Help the Child--the first novel by Toni Morrison to be set in our current moment--weaves a tale about the way the sufferings of childhood can shape, and misshape, the life of the adult. At the center: a young woman who calls herself Bride, whose stunning blue-black skin is only one element of her beauty, her boldness and confidence, her success in life, but which caused…
Shares: Mothers and daughters, Coming-of-age
Life
In 1960s Norfolk, England, seventeen-year-old Clem Ackroyd lives with his mother and grandmother in a tiny cottage, but his life is transformed when he falls in love with the daughter of a wealthy farmer in this tale that flashes back through the stories of three generations.
Shares: Coming-of-age, War
General Winston's daughter
When seventeen-year-old heiress Averie Winston travels with her guardian to faraway Chiarrin, she looks forward to a reunion with her father, who is a commanding general, seeing her handsome fiance Morgan once more, and exploring the strange new country. What she finds is entirely different. Although the Chiarizzi appear to tolerate the invading army, rebels have already tried to destroy them;…
Shares: Coming-of-age, War
Il corpo umano
"From the bestselling author of The Solitude of Prime Numbers, a searing novel of war and the journey from youth into manhood. In Paolo Giordano's highly awaited new novel, a platoon of young men and one woman soldier leaves Italy for one of the most dangerous places on earth. Forward Operating Base (FOB) in the Gulistan district of Afghanistan is nothing but an exposed sandpit scorched by…
Shares: Coming-of-age, War