My fiancee has been wanting to start reading, and we think this would be a fun segue into that.
Things we are looking for: Realistic Fiction, something with a believable twist, thought-provoking, digestible. Leans heavily into symbolism.
Things we are not looking for: actively cheesy/gimmicky writing and dialogue, Medieval or Renaissance vibes (GOT is a no), Hard sci-fi (aliens and robots are a no).
by qingrona
3 Comments
This sounds like Haruki Murakami to me. It’s believable fiction of a pre-1990s Japan for the most part, depending on the novel you get.
Wind/Pinball is a great place to start being his first two novels and both are just kind of…slice of life fiction about a guy dealing with the confusion of being alive. Hits a lot of existential elements and, at least, caused me to think about various events in my own life and my relationship to those events
It could be worth starting with short stories. I’ve just finished The Lottery and Other Stories by Shirley Jackson. It’s a bunch of short stories set in pre-1950s America, but it’s quite readable without investing loads of time.
*All the Light We Cannot See* is a wonderful book. One of my all-time favorites.