Books like The Street by Mordecai Richler

In post‑war New York, Newland Archer faces a dilemma when his fiancée’s cousin, the rebellious Ellen Olenska, challenges his elite society’s expectations and his own loyalty.

Stephen Dedalus’s coming‑of‑age journey in Dublin frames his transformation from bullied youth to aspiring artist, as he distances himself from conventional life.

Set in Monterey’s sardine-packed Cannery Row during the Great Depression, John Steinbeck’s 1945 novel captures the quirky community’s bonds and subtle social marginalities that shape their everyday lives.

Frank McCourt's memoir recounts a harsh childhood in Depression‑era Brooklyn and Limerick, where poverty, a neglectful father, and a mother named Angela shape his survival through storytelling.

Anne Brontë’s second novel follows Helen Huntingdon as she escapes an abusive marriage, takes on a new life, and seeks to protect her son from her husband’s harmful influence.

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

Follow Aminata Diallo, a child sold into slavery in South Carolina, as she escapes to Canada after the Revolutionary War and seeks a new life of freedom.

Melville's adventure tale of an American sailor's journey to a Polynesian paradise, revealing its flawed aspects.

Sylvia Fraser's memoir chronicles her journey from amnesia to the harrowing revelation of a childhood of sexual abuse by her father.

The story of a young Jewish man from Montreal who learns lessons in life from a series of mentors, including his father and a man from his workplace.

Wallace Stegner reflects on his boyhood in Saskatchewan’s Cypress Hills, weaving childhood memories with regional history into a nuanced portrait of a frontier pioneer community on the brink of modernity.

Barney Panofsky smokes too many cigars, drinks too much whiskey, and is obsessed with two things: the Montreal Canadiens hockey team and his ex-wife Miriam. An acquaintance from his youthful years in Paris, Terry McIver, is about to publish his autobiography. In its pages he accuses Barney of an assortment of sins, including murder. It's time, Barney decides, to present the world with his own version of events. Barney's Version is his memoir, a rambling, digressive rant, full of revisions and factual errors (corrected in footnotes written by his son) and enough insults for everyone, particularly vegetarians and Quebec separatists. But Barney does get around to telling his life story, a desperately funny but sad series of bungled relationships. His first wife, an artist and poet, commits suicide and becomes--a la Sylvia Plath--a feminist icon, and Barney is widely reviled for goading her toward death, if not actually murdering her. He marries the second Mrs. Panofsky, whom he calls a "Jewish-Canadian Princess," as an antidote to the first; it turns out to be a horrible mistake. The third, "Miriam, my heart's desire," is quite possibly his soul mate, but Barney botches this one, too. It's painful to watch him ruin everything, and even more painful to bear witness to his deteriorating memory. The mystery at the heart of Barney's story--did he or did he not kill his friend Boogie?

Louisa May Alcott's early writings, based on diary entries from the ages of eleven and thirteen, offer insights into her thoughts, feelings, and early poetic efforts.