Some books I've really enjoyed along these lines are Anna Karenina, The Neapolitan Novels, A Gentleman in Moscow, and Convenience Store Woman. I'd like the setting to be totally ordinary- no sci-fi or fantasy. Could be contemporary or historical fiction
by EveryExponential
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Pachinko
The Pull of The Stars by Emma Donoghue fits the bill so well. It’s a very sad but beautifully told ‘slice of life’ about three days in the life of an Irish nurse working in a Spanish flu ward at the very end of WW1 and during the beginnings of the Irish civil war. It incorporates the real historical figure Dr Kathleen Lynn as a character, and Donoghue has clearly done her research to create such a realistic portrayal and setting ( I’ve read Lynn’s real journals and this book gets the atmosphere of the period across so well).
Tell the Wolves I’m home by Carol Rifka Brunt
Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann
Ordinary Grace and This Tender Land by William Kent Kruger
The Book of Gold Leaves by Mirza Waheed.
*The Heart is a Lonely Hunter* by Carson McCullers. From Goodreads: “Set in a small town in the middle of the deep South, it is the story of John Singer, a lonely deaf-mute, and a disparate group of people who are drawn towards his kind, sympathetic nature. The owner of the café where Singer eats every day, a young girl desperate to grow up, an angry drunkard, a frustrated black doctor: each pours their heart out to Singer, their silent confidant, and he in turn changes their disenchanted lives in ways they could never imagine.”