Character-Driven Fiction

Updated April 27, 2023
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The brief wondrous life of Oscar Wao
Díaz, Junot
Paper Book
Winner of: The Pulitzer Prize The National Book Critics Circle Award The Anisfield-Wolf Book Award The Jon Sargent, Sr. First Novel Prize A Time Magazine #1 Fiction Book of the Year One of The New York Times's 100 Best Books of the...
A man called Ove : a novel
Backman, Fredrik
Paper Book
A New York Times Bestseller Meet Ove. Heâe(tm)s a curmudgeon âe" the kind of man who points at people he dislikes. He has staunch principlesâes strict routinesâes and a short fuse. People call him âeoethe bitter neighbor from hell.âe? But behind the cranky exterior there is a story and a sadness. So...
The Elegance of the Hedgehog
Barbery, Muriel
Paper Book
The phenomenal New York Times bestseller that "explores the upstairs-downstairs goings-on of a posh Parisian apartment building" (Publishers Weekly). In an elegant hôtel particulier in Paris, Renée, the concierge, is all but invisible--short, plump, middle...
To kill a mockingbird
Lee, Harper.
Paper Book
The unforgettable novel of a childhood in a sleepy Southern town and the crisis of conscience that rocked it, To Kill A Mockingbird became both an instant bestseller and a critical success when it was first published in 1960. It went on to win the Pulitzer Prize in 1961 and was later made...
Where'd you go, Bernadette : a novel
Semple, Maria.
Paper Book
A misanthropic matriarch leaves her eccentric family in crisis when she mysteriously disappears in this "whip-smart and divinely funny" novel that inspired the movie starring Cate Blanchett (New York Times). Bernadette Fox is notorious. To her Microsoft-guru husband, she's...
A gentleman in Moscow
Towles, Amor
Paper Book
The mega-bestseller with more than 2 million readers * A New York Times "Readers' Choice: Best Books of the 21st Century" Pick From the #1 New York Times-bestselling author of The Lincoln Highway and Table for Two, a beautifully transporting novel about a...
The immortalists
Benjamin, Chloe
Paper Book
A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: Washington Post * NPR * Entertainment Weekly * Real Simple * Marie Claire * New York Public Library * <...
Gilead
Robinson, Marilynne.
Paper Book
WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE * OPRAH'S BOOK CLUB PICK * NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD WINNER A hymn of praise and lamentation from a 1950s preacher man. A testament to the sacred bonds between fathers and sons. A psalm of celebration and acceptance of the best and the worst that the...
The Interestings
Wolitzer, Meg.
Paper Book
Named a best book of the year by Entertainment Weekly, Time, and The Chicago Tribune, and named a notable book by The New York Times Book Review and The Washington Post “Remarkable . . . With this book [Wolitzer] has surpassed herself.”...
Everything I never told you
Ng, Celeste.
Paper Book
A New York Times Book Review Notable Book of the Year * A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice * Winner of the Alex Award and the Massachusetts Book Award * Named a Best Book of the Year by NPR, San Francisco Chronicle, Entertainment Weekly,...
Lonesome Dove : a novel
McMurtry, Larry.
Paper Book
The 40th anniversary edition of the Pulitzer Prize-winning classic of the American West, with a new foreword by Yellowstone cocreator Taylor Sheridan. An epic of the frontier, Lonesome Dove is the grandest novel ever written about the last defiant wilderness. ...
The adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Twain, Mark
Paper Book
Mark Twain's brilliant 19th-century novel has long been recognized as one of the finest examples of American literature. It brings back the irrepressible and free-spirited Huck, first introduced in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, and puts him center stage. Rich in...
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
Shaffer, Mary Ann.
Paper Book
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * NOW A NETFLIX FILM * A remarkable tale of the island of Guernsey during the German Occupation, and of a society as extraordinary as its name. "Treat yourself to this book, please--I can't recommend it highly enough."--Elizabeth Gilbert,...
The corrections
Franzen, Jonathan.
Paper Book
Enid, long-time matriarch of the Lambert family, sets her heart on an elusive goal: bringing her family together for one last Christmas at home. Published to universal acclaim, Jonathan Franzen's novel about a post-modern family breaking down in late-twentieth-century America is a comic, tragic...
The Joy Luck Club
Tan, Amy.
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * Amy Tan's modern classic that examines the sometimes painful, often tender, and always deep connection between mothers and daughters "For me, [The Joy Luck Club] was one of those once-in-a-lifetime reading experiences that you cherish...
The color purple
Walker, Alice
Paper Book
Now a Broadway musical featuring Jennifer Hudson Winner of the Pulitzer Prize Winner of the National Book Award   Published to unprecedented acclaim, The Color Purple established Alice...
Americanah
Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi
Paper Book
NATIONAL BESTSELLER * A modern classic about star-crossed lovers that explores questions of race and being Black in America--and the search for what it means to call a place home. * From the award-winning author of We Should All Be Feminists and Half of a Yellow Sun * WITH A NEW...
The Absolutely True Diary Of A Part-Time Indian
Alexie, Sherman
Paper Book
A New York Times bestseller--over one million copies sold!   A National Book Award winner A Boston Globe-Horn Book Award winner Bestselling and award winning author Sherman Alexie tells the hearbreaking yet funny story about a boy...
Eleanor Oliphant is completely fine
Honeyman, Gail.
Paper Book
Meet Eleanor Oliphant: She struggles with appropriate social skills and tends to say exactly what she's thinking. Nothing is missing in her carefully timetabled life of avoiding social interactions, where weekends are punctuated by frozen pizza, vodka, and phone chats with Mummy.But everything...
Major Pettigrew's last stand : a novel
Simonson, Helen.
Paper Book
A New York Times Bestseller, A #1 Indie Next Pick -- Welcome to Edgecombe St. Mary, a small village in the English countryside filled with rolling hills and thatched cottages. There Major Ernest Pettigrew (retired) leads a quiet life valuing the things that Englishmen have lived by for generations:...
Eleanor & Park
Rowell, Rainbow.
Paper Book
#1 New York Times Best Seller! "Eleanor & Park reminded me not just what it's like to be young and in love with a girl, but also what it's like to be young and in love with a book."-John Green, The New York Times Book Review Bono met his...
Wonder
Palacio, R. J.
Paper Book
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * A PARADE BEST KIDS BOOK OF ALL TIME * Millions of people have fallen in love with Auggie Pullman, an ordinary boy with an extraordinary face--who shows us that kindness brings us together no matter how far apart we are. Read the book that...
The storied life of A.J. Fikry : a novel
Zevin, Gabrielle.
Paper Book
A. J. Fikry's life is not at all what he expected it to be. His wife has died, his bookstore is experiencing the worst sales in its history, and now his prized possession, a rare collection of Poe poems, has been stolen. Slowly but surely, he is isolating himself from all the people of Alice Island....
The nest
Sweeney, Cynthia D'Aprix
Paper Book
A warm, funny and acutely perceptive debut novel about four adult siblings and the fate of the shared inheritance that has shaped their choices and their lives. Every family has its problems. But even among the most troubled, the Plumb family stands out as spectacularly dysfunctional....
The secret life of bees
Kidd, Sue Monk.
Paper Book
Sue Monk Kidd's The Secret Life of Bees, a heartwarming coming of age tale set in 1960s South Carolina, a multi-million copy New York Times bestseller, now an award-winning film starring Dakota Fanning, Queen Latifah, Jennifer Hudson and Alicia Keys Fans of  ...
An American marriage : a novel
Jones, Tayari
Paper Book
A NEW YORK TIMES AND WASHINGTON POST NOTABLE BOOK A 2018 BEST OF THE YEAR SELECTION OF NPR  * TIME  * BUSTLE  * O, THE OPRAH MAGAZINE  * THE DALLAS MORNING NEWS  * AMAZON.COM

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