My library's Reading Challenge Prompt this month is 'A book set in the past'. I am looking for novels that are NOT war related, romance or YA. I like anything that's a bit weird or strange. Any suggestions?
Edit: Generally not looking for classics here. I prefer horror, thriller and anything a bit odd or different.
by snowmanseeker
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Lady Tan’s Circle of Women by Lisa See (it’s set in 1500’s China).
The Lincoln Highway – Amor Towles
This is like 90% of books ever written, isn’t it? Do you have any other qualifications you’re looking for? Classics vs poppy? Mood? Genres you do like?
Otherwise… anything by Fitzgerald, Woolf, Joyce, Nabokov, Melville, Milton, Shakespeare, classic Greek plays?
More recently released books set in the past would include *Remains of the Day*, *Trust* by Hernan Diaz, *Pachinko* if having *a* war at some point but not being centered around it counts, *My Dark Vanessa* if something set mostly in the past of the narrator’s life counts, *James*.
Geek Love
The Round House
The Summer That Melted Everything
Year of Wonders
The Red Tent
Train Dreams by Denis Johnson (19th century westward expansion America)
The Man Who Fell In Love With The Moon, Tom Spanbauer. An elderly queer Native recalls his younger years in an Idaho boomtown. I would call it mostly a coming-of-age/journey if send-discovery (very literally) story. There is a healthy dose of functional superstition and a kind of charming through-line of how Shed fulfills a Native prophecy. This book has a lot of sex in it. (1880s? – 1930s)
A Prayer For Owen Meany, John Irving, has the Vietnam war as a backdrop but it’s not about the war; it’s two young men growing up in a small town, one of whom is burdened with the gift of foresight. (1950s – 1960s)
The Brothers K, by David James Duncan, is one of my favorite books. It’s mostly a family story, with the majority of the ficus on four brothers. One of the brothers does get drafted and fight in Vietnam; no actual scenes are set there, but an incident there, recounted in a letter, is very key to that brother’s story. Another brother evades the draft by going to Canada. It’s the least strange of the 3 books, with nothing more than the occasional might-be-mystical-might-just-be-good-luck (plus one symbolic, prophetic dream) but it’s really a good story. (1920s -1980)
The wall
Buddenbrooks by Thomas Mann
The Last Deaf Club in America by Raymond Luczak. It’s got like 70 pages and it has ghosts in it.
When Women Were Dragons by Kelly Barnhill is the 1950s/1960s, but dealing with the before and after of a dragon related incident.
How Much of These Hills Is Gold by C Pam Zhang. Chinese-American siblings have to survive in Gold Rush era western United States after their parents die.
11/22/63 or All the Little Hopes
*Moby-Dick* by Herman Melville.
*Don Quixote* by Miguel de Cervantes.
*Gulliver’s Travels* by Jonathan Swift.
*Candide* by Voltaire.
*The Prince and the Pauper* by Mark Twain.
*A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court* by Mark Twain.
*The Adventures of Tom Sawyer* by Mark Twain.
*Adventures of Huckleberry Finn* by Mark Twain.
*Oliver Twist* by Charles Dickens,
*A Christmas Carol* by Charles Dickens,
*Hard Times* by Charles Dickens,
*Great Expectations* by Charles Dickens,
Pachinko! It has some war as it takes place around WW2 but it doesn’t dominate the plot by any means.
Sparrow by James Hynes
James by Percival Everett
The Colour of Milk by Nell Leyshon
To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee
The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco
Narcissus and Goldmund by Hermann Hesse
Beloved – Toni Morrison
The Lost Apothecary. Half the storyline is from the past, half from the present. Don’t know if that’s good enough
*My Best Friend’s Exorcism* by Grady Hendrix – mix of horror and black comedy, set in the 1980s in the U.S. The main characters are two teen best friends, one of them gets possesses by a demon and the other undertakes the task of saving her. It’s fun, scary and surprisingly touching at times.
*First Comes Summer* by Maria Hesselager – eerie story set during the Viking Age, Goodreads classifies is as historical fiction and thriller. There are some fantasy and erotic elements, but it’s generally focused on the relationship between the main characters. Just a head’s up, they are brother and sister who enter an incestuous relationship at some point, if you’re sensitive to that I’d recommend avoiding this book.
*Rosemary’s Baby* by Ira Levin – classic horror about a young woman who falls victim to a satanic cult. It’s set in the 1960s. It aged really well and still manages to evoke that feeling of overwhelming anxiety.
*Perfume* by Patrick Süskind – set in the 18th century in France, follows a serial killer who kills beautiful young women and tries to capture their scent and create the perfect perfume. Definitely original and chilling story.
*Little* by Edward Carey. Very weird, mostly fictional story about Marie Tussaud (Madame Tussaud)
Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno Garcia is a great thriller set in 1950s Mexico City
The Buried Giant by Ishiguro is in Saxon era UK so deep in the past! It’s odd but interesting but also I think slightly fantasy setting so like an alt past…
The Magus by John Fowles, set in Greece in the 1950s. Impossible to describe, has to be experienced. I’ve read thousands of novels, this is my all time favourite.
A couple of time travel ones are Doomsday Book by Connie Willis (middle ages during the Black Plague), and Up the Line by Robert Silverberg (includes Constantinople during the reign of Justinian).
Perhaps books by Laura Joh Rowland. She “is an American detective/mystery author best known for her series of historical mystery novels featuring protagonist Sano Ichirō set in feudal Japan, mostly in Edo during the late 17th century”