Books like Cambridge by Caryl Phillips
"Cambridge" is a historical fiction novel that captures the uneasy era between the abolition of the slave trade and the emancipation of enslaved people. Through the experiences of Emily Cambridge, a young woman traveling from England to her father's West Indian plantation, and Cambridge, a slave who was educated and Christianised by his first master in England, the story explores themes of freedom and prejudice. The novel delves into the challenges of maintaining dignity in a slave society and the shifting dynamics of power and identity during this pivotal period.
First publish date: 1992
Genre: Historical Fiction/19th Century Historical Fiction
Authors: Caryl Phillips
★
★
★
★
★
3.0 (1 community ratings)
How are these books recommended?
The books recommended for Cambridge by Caryl Phillips are shaped by reader interaction. Votes on how closely books relate, user ratings, and community comments all help refine these recommendations and highlight books readers genuinely find similar in theme, ideas, and overall reading experience.
Have you read any of these books?
Your votes, ratings, and comments help improve recommendations and make it easier
for other readers to discover books they’ll enjoy.
Books similar to Cambridge (23 similar books)
Mark Twain’s classic novel follows the first-person narration of Huckleberry "Huck" Finn as he journeyes down the Mississippi River in 19th‑century America, exploring adventure, friendship and the era’s social issues.
Similar?
✓ Yes
0
✗ No
0
During World War II, a foster girl in Nazi Germany steals books to share with neighbors and a hidden Jewish man, proving literature’s power to nourish the soul amid darkness.
Similar?
✓ Yes
0
✗ No
0
Alice Walker's 1982 novel, The Color Purple, won the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award, exploring the lives of black women in the South and their experiences of abuse and struggle for independence.
Similar?
✓ Yes
0
✗ No
0
Chinua Achebe’s 1958 classic follows Okonkwo, an Igbo wrestling champion, as he navigates pre‑colonial traditions and the disruptive arrival of European missionaries in Nigeria’s southeastern region.
Similar?
✓ Yes
0
✗ No
0
In an elite New England college, a charismatic classics professor lures a group of eccentric students into obsessive study, leading them from intellectual curiosity to corruption, betrayal, and ultimately murder.
Similar?
✓ Yes
0
✗ No
0
Cora, a woman enslaved on a Georgia cotton plantation, partners with a new slave named Caesar to flee the South. Their daring escape follows a literal underground network of tunnels that mirrors the perilous journey of countless fugitive slaves toward freedom.
Similar?
✓ Yes
0
✗ No
0
A sweeping historical portrait of the American South during the Civil War and Reconstruction, centered on the life of Scarlett O'Hara.
Similar?
✓ Yes
0
✗ No
0
Homegoing is Yaa Gyasi’s debut historical novel that traces generations of an Asante family from 18th‑century Ghana to modern America, exploring the enduring impact of slavery and colonialism.
Similar?
✓ Yes
0
✗ No
0
Twelve-year‑old Nao in Tokyo wrestles with loneliness and bullying and, before she ends it all, writes a diary about her great‑grandmother, a Buddhist nun who has lived a century. Across the Pacific a novelist on a remote island discovers objects from Nao’s life and is drawn into her mystery.
Similar?
✓ Yes
0
✗ No
0
Craig of the Mohicans, a frontier scout turns away from civilization, forming a bond with a Mohican warrior as they escort two sisters across the perilous wilderness of America's frontier.
Similar?
✓ Yes
0
✗ No
0
A fugitive from an Australian maximum‑security prison finds himself in Bombay, where he learns Hindi, meets a smiling Hindu guide, and falls in love with a dangerous woman while discovering the heart of the city.
Similar?
✓ Yes
0
✗ No
0
A mysterious gun maker offers unlimited AK-47s to the Confederates during the American Civil War, altering the course of the battle and leading to a shocking revelation about the future of the United States.
Similar?
✓ Yes
0
✗ No
0
A Chilean woman embarks on a quest to find her lover in 1840s California's goldfields, facing numerous challenges and adventures along the way.
Similar?
✓ Yes
0
✗ No
0
Natty Bumppo's first journey into frontier life and the challenges of defending his freedom against dangerous Indians and the corrupting influence of a ruthless new lawman, setting the stage for the larger story of The Last of the Mohicans.
Similar?
✓ Yes
0
✗ No
0
A group of settlers encounters an old trapper on the prairie in 1805, as they push westward over the Great Plains for new land and opportunities in the United States of America, while the country is still being explored.
Similar?
✓ Yes
0
✗ No
0
Set in Mississippi during the Civil War and Reconstruction, The Unvanquished follows the Sartoris family, whose code of personal responsibility and courage embodies the best of Old South traditions.
Similar?
✓ Yes
0
✗ No
0
In the early 1800s, a Revolutionary War veteran faces ruin from debt and westward expansion, devising a controversial plan that places one of his male slaves at the center of his breeding strategy.
Similar?
✓ Yes
0
✗ No
0
A wealthy Alabama planter confesses his hidden past when he marries off his daughter to a husband who rejects their child, forcing his family into a web of secrets that threatens to unravel their prosperity.
Similar?
✓ Yes
0
✗ No
0
Set during World War II, this novel follows surgeon Dorrigo Evans as he struggles to protect his men on the Thailand‑Burma Death Railway, while an earlier love affair haunts his conscience.
Similar?
✓ Yes
0
✗ No
0
Bob Lee Swagger, a private investigator based in Mississippi, confronts a complex prison mystery that draws him deeper into a race‑related crime world, forcing him to test his judgment and resolve in a tense, suspenseful investigation.
Similar?
✓ Yes
0
✗ No
0
A quiet, powerful tale of Henry Townsend, a former slave who rises to become a plantation owner in antebellum Virginia, and the turbulent world of his estate and the wider South as slavery persists and challenges surface.
Similar?
✓ Yes
0
✗ No
0
Caryl Phillips' essays explore how global mobility reshapes concepts of home, identity, and belonging across Africa, the Caribbean, Britain, and the United States.
Similar?
✓ Yes
0
✗ No
0
A historical reimagining of Wuthering Heights, tracing the multigenerational forces that shape Heathcliff, the Brontë sisters and their brother.
Similar?
✓ Yes
0
✗ No
0
Have a similar book in mind? Let others know!
Please login to submit books!