Books like Brooklyn by Colm Tóibín

Candide: A Tale of Conviviality and Optimism in a Wretched World

Oliver Twist, Charles Dickens’s 1837-39 social novel, follows an orphan raised in a workhouse who flees to London, joins a gang of pickpockets, and uncovers family secrets while exposing child labour and exploitation.

The Brothers Karamazov follows a Russian family torn by betrayal, faith, and violence, exploring deep moral questions within 19th‑century Russian society.

A love story set in the aftermath of the Napoleonic Wars, where Anne Elliot finds herself amidst the Regency era as her sister rents Miss Elliot's father's house, leading to an unexpected reunion with Captain Frederick Wentworth and the return of her beloved.

Jennifer Egan’s interlocking narratives weave the lives of Bennie Salazar, a former punk rocker turned record executive, and Sasha, a restless young woman, across decades and continents, exploring music, memory and the fragile threads that bind us.

A Fine Balance is Rohinton Mistry's critically acclaimed second novel, set in India in the mid-1970s and focusing on four unlikely individuals who come together in a city apartment during a state of emergency.

Set in July 1962, 'On Chesil Beach' follows newlyweds Florence, a budding musician, and Edward, a history student, as they confront anxieties and unmet expectations during their honeymoon on the Dorset coast.

A coming‑of‑age narrative set in 19th‑century England, following young David Copperfield as he navigates orphanhood, hardship and society’s social hierarchies.

Detective Cassie Maddox transfers out of Dublin Murder Squad but is called back to solve a murder that looks almost identical to her past self.

Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Lowland traces two brothers—Subhash, who settles in America, and Udayan, who joins a political uprising in Calcutta—and their divergent paths until a tragic event forces a return to India and a quest to mend family bonds.

180 p. ; 21 cm.1010L Lexile

August Bowen returns to 1970s Brooklyn after reconnecting with a childhood friend, reliving the joy and peril of growing up with Sylvia, Angela, and Gigi amid a community that celebrates friendship yet hides darker realities.

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.

James Salter's 'All that is' is a captivating and sometimes devastating labyrinth of love and ambition. A deeply intimate portrait of the emotional and physical experiences of being alive. Set during the golden decades following World War II, the book captures Salter's lifelong obsession with capturing the intimate, ephemeral spaces that all of us hold and leave behind on paper. After serving as a young officer in Okinawa during the war, Philip Bowman returns home to a small publishing house in New York. The frenetic social scene of New York in the post-war era is a backdrop for the story, where Bowman feels at home. However, his enduring love seems to elude him. When he meets a woman who captivates him, Bowman embarks on a journey that he never intended to take. The book is celebrated for its lyrical evocation of a post-war world imaginatively rendered and beautifully written.

Olive Kitteridge follows a retired teacher in a small Maine coastal town as she navigates love, loss and the quiet complexities of middle‑age life.

"Spanning thirty years, The Green Road tells the story of Rosaleen, matriarch of the Madigans, a family on the cusp of either coming together or falling irreparably apart."--Dust jacket flap. Rosaleen is matriarch of the Madigans, a family on the cusp of either coming together or falling irreparably apart. As they grew up, Rosaleen's four children left the west of Ireland for lives they could have never imagined in Dublin, New York, and Mali, West Africa. In her early old age their difficult, wonderful mother announces that she's decided to sell the house and divide the proceeds. Her adult children come back for a last Christmas, with the feeling that their childhoods are being erased, their personal history bought and sold.

Elizabeth Regan, after years of freedom and loneliness, marries into the closed Irish village of her childhood, where her children are not her own and her husband struggles with his police duties.

A novel exploring life, love, and the aftermath of 9/11.

Set on Easter Monday 1916 in Dublin, this historical fiction follows a divided family caught in the turmoil of the Irish Easter Rising, where two generations clash over contrasting hopes and loyalties.