VPL - Books Just for You - Thoughtful Reads from World Literature and MoreLike this list

20 items

• Chronicle of the Murdered House

  Cardoso, Lúcio, 1913-1968

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  This book is the 2017 winner of Best Translated Book Award for fiction. Set in Brazil’s southeastern state of Minas Gerais, the novel follows the decline of a prosperous family.

• The Spy

  a Novel

  Coelho, Paulo

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  Perhaps a departure from the style of The Alchemist, but Coelho's first person account of the final days of Margaretha Zelle, aka Mata Hari, should still appeal to fans of world literature.

• L'espionne

  Coelho, Paulo

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  The French language version of Coelho's The Spy.

• Into the Silence

  the Great War, Mallory, and the Conquest of Everest

  Davis, Wade

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  In Davis' penetrating portrait of a lost generation, he outlines the early expeditions to map and scale Mount Everest - largely by young men scarred by their experiences during WW I. Davis' focus on the career and death of George Mallory amply…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Food in the Gilded Age

  What Ordinary Americans Ate

  Dirks, Robert, 1942-

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  Fans of Michael Pollan's books may enjoy this look at the conspicuous consumption of food in the American gilded age.

• My Brilliant Friend

  Childhood, Adolescence

  Ferrante, Elena

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  Elena Ferrante, a pseudonym for one of Italy’s most acclaimed and important authors, has written the story of two friends, Elena and Lila and their lives in the 1950s Naples. This is the first offering in the much talked about Neapolitan Novels.…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• L'amie prodigieuse

  enfance, adolescence : roman

  Ferrante, Elena

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  The French language version of Ferrante's My Brilliant Friend.

• A Poet of the Invisible World

  Golding, Michael

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  This story of a 13th Century Persian boy whose life journey leads him to Sufism will satisfy fans of Paulo Coelho's The Alchemist. Other Arabic fiction of interest includes: The King by Kader Adbolah, An Unnecessary Woman by Rabih Alameddine, The…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Photographer

  Guibert, Emmanuel

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  Co-created with Didier Lefevre and Frederic Lemercier this work is stunning. Following the Russian-Afghan conflict, Doctors Without Borders entered Afghanistan in 1986 to offer medical aid to the remote and virtually inaccessible areas of the…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Siddhartha

  Hesse, Hermann, 1877-1962

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  Siddhartha leaves his home and becomes an ascetic in the quest for illumination. This popular, classic novel explores a young man's spiritual awakening. For fans of Paulo Coelho's spiritual and philosophical works.

• The Heart

  Kerangal, Maylis de

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  The Wellcome Book Prize which celebrates both fiction and non-fiction concerned with issues of medicine, health and illness, has just announced their 2017 winner. Maylis de Kerangal's The Heart (known as Mend the Living in the U.K) describes a 24…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Réparer les vivants

  roman

  Kerangal, Maylis de,

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  The French language version of de Kerangal's The Heart

• Priestdaddy

  Lockwood, Patricia

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  Poet Patricia Lockwood offers one of the quirkiest memoirs of recent years. Her central subject is her father Greg Lockwood a married Lutheran minister who converted to Catholicism and was granted a dispensation to become a priest – a married…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• A House for Mr. Biswas

  Naipaul, V. S. (Vidiadhar Surajprasad), 1932-2018

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  Fans of Tahar Ben Jelloun's A Palace in the Old Village may enjoy this classic novel by V. S. Naipaul.

• Us

  Nicholls, David, 1966-

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  As the Petersons are about to set off on a European vacation with their difficult 17-yera-old, Connie Peterson announces that she wants to divorce her husband at the end of the trip. Douglas is distraught and orchestrates a plan to use the vacation…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Last Things

  Offill, Jenny, 1968-

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  The rational world and the world of fantasy & myth vie for the attention of a young girl in Vermont. This would be an interesting book for fans of Paulo Coelho.

• Le livre des songes

  Offill, Jenny, 1968-

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  The French language edition of Jenny Offill's Last Things.

• Dining With the Famous and Infamous

  Ross, Fiona, 1966-

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  Fans of Michael Pollan may enjoy gastro-detective Fiona Ross' take on the tastes of the famous and the notorious.

• The Amateur Marriage

  Tyler, Anne

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  If you enjoyed Tahar Ben Jelloun's The Happy Marriage, you may enjoy Anne Tyler's story of a mis-matched couple and their marriage.

• The Break

  Vermette, Katherena, 1977-

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  The lives of the residents of Winnipeg’s North End are explored in this intergenerational novel that opens with a possible crime in progress. Through its shifting perspectives, the novel develops into a fine psychological study of its Métis…Read moreRead more of this annotation