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VPL - Books Just for You - Thoughtful Reads from World Literature and More

This list was created for a reader who enjoys Tahar Ben Jelloun, The Alchemist, Indigenous topics, classics, literary fiction, non-fiction, world fiction, and would also be comfortable reading books written in French.

User from Vancouver Public Library

20 items

  • 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.
    Book, 2016Rochester, NY : Open Letter, 2016.
  • 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.
    Book, 2016New York : Alfred A. Knopf, 2016.
  • The French language version of Coelho's The Spy.
    Book, 2016[Paris] : Flammarion, [2016]
  • Into the Silence

    the Great War, Mallory, and the Conquest of Everest

    Davis, Wade
    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…
    Book, 2011New York : Toronto : Alfred A. Knopf, 2011.
  • Fans of Michael Pollan's books may enjoy this look at the conspicuous consumption of food in the American gilded age.
    Book, 2016Lanham : Rowman & Littlefield, [2016]
  • 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.…
    Book, 2012New York : Europa Editions, 2012.
  • L'amie prodigieuse

    enfance, adolescence : roman

    Ferrante, Elena
    The French language version of Ferrante's My Brilliant Friend.
    Book, 2014[Paris] : Gallimard, c2014.
  • 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…
    Book, 2015New York : Picador, 2015.
  • 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…
    Book, 2009New York : First Second, 2009.
  • 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.
    Book, 1951New York : New Directions Books, 1951.
  • 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…
    Book, 2016New York : Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2016.
  • 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…
    Book, 2017New York : Riverhead Books, 2017.
  • 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…
    Book, 2014New York, NY : Harper, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers, [2014]
  • 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.
    Book, 1999New York : Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1999.
  • Fans of Michael Pollan may enjoy gastro-detective Fiona Ross' take on the tastes of the famous and the notorious.
    Book, 2016Lanham : Rowman & Littlefield, [2016]
  • 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.
    Book, 2004Toronto : Viking Canada, 2004.
  • 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…
    Book, 2016[Toronto] : House of Anansi Press Inc., 2016.