Books like Pasadena by David Ebershoff

A Little Life follows four college friends in New York as they confront trauma, love and the enduring scars of their pasts, weaving themes of friendship, family, and identity into a profound coming‑of‑age story.

After being murdered at fourteen, Susie Salmon watches from heaven as her family, friends, and killer grapple with grief and justice, revealing how love and forgiveness shape a family's future.

The Goldfinch chronicles the life of thirteen‑year‑old Theo Decker, who survives a museum attack that kills his mother and carries an art piece that becomes a lifelong obsession, exploring loss, identity, and art in contemporary America.

Sisters Vianne and Isabelle are pulled into the turmoil of World War II, each forging a path of courage and resistance against the Nazi occupation of France.

In the Glacial epoch, Cro-Magnon woman Ayla, raised by Neanderthals, seeks belonging and love after leaving her clan, only to discover a new community that embraces her heritage.

A devoted dog reflects on life, love, and racing while watching his owner, a race car driver, navigate family trials and professional ambition.

A love story set against the backdrop of World War II in Greece.

Thomas Hardy’s bleak final novel follows Jude Fawley, a stonemason from rural Wessex, whose search for faith, love and independence collides with society’s harsh conventions and leads to tragedy.

Richard, Duke of Cleybourne, returns to his country estate to deal with the tragic loss he had suffered four years earlier. But the arrival of Miss Jessica Maitland and Gabriella, his new ward, throws a wrench into his plans. The governess, feisty and flame-haired, reveals that the girl is in danger, and the mysterious events escalate into a murder mystery at Cleybourne Castle.

A Chilean woman embarks on a quest to find her lover in 1840s California's goldfields, facing numerous challenges and adventures along the way.

After being adopted by a quirky Dublin couple who treat him only as a house‑guest, Cyril embarks on a life‑spanning quest to discover his origins, his place in Ireland, and the meaning of true belonging.

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.

David Ebershoff’s debut novel follows Danish painter Einar Wegener as he navigates love, identity, and gender transition during the early twentieth century.

A young woman's passion for T. S. Eliot's letters becomes a central plot in this heart-wrenching novel of marriage, desire, and the Holocaust.

A novel of courage, violence, and passions set against the backdrop of World War II, focusing on soldiers and their bonds within the military setting.

Nobel laureate Sigrid Undset’s historical epic follows 14th‑century Norwegian woman Kristin Lavransdatter through devotion, love, family, and societal upheaval, set against a richly detailed backdrop of medieval Norway.

When a global apocalypse wipes out humanity, a lone wildlife researcher in Antarctica grapples with isolation and the strange persistence of the dead in a surreal “City,” where their continued existence relies on her memory.

Three strong-minded women live their lives on the fringe of romance and relationship. Rebecca, a bereaved widow, must deal with her attraction to a man whose body and soul have been ravaged by war-time violence. Daisy has silently borne her deep love for her older brother's best friend since they were children, wondering if her beloved will ever see her for the woman she has become. Finally, there is Claire, who rejects her fiancé after he refuses to go to war in the aftermath of the bombing of Pearl Harbor.

A lively western adventure following a young traveler through California’s gold camps, where action, camaraderie, and the quest for fortune drive the story.

See https://openlibrary.org/works/OL19781733W/Eleanor_Oliphant_Is_Completely_Fine