Books like Must I Go by Yiyun Li

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.

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.

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.

In 19th‑century rural France, country doctor Charles Bovary marries the ambitious Emma, whose longing for romance and luxury drives her into affairs and reckless spending, spiraling her into ruin and social disgrace.

In the orderly suburb of Shaker Heights, a new family’s arrival and a custody dispute ignite tension, revealing secrets, art, and the complex pull of motherhood in a tightly knit community.

In 1970s Ohio, the Lee family’s fragile harmony shatters when their daughter Lydia is found dead in a lake, forcing them to confront hidden secrets and cultural expectations.

Two lovers flee a war-torn city through mysterious doors, carrying hopes and memories into a world of uncertainty.

Gary Shteyngart’s 2010 novel blends sharp satire with a poignant love story set in a near‑future America on the brink of fiscal collapse.

Gareth St. Clair inherits a family diary written in Italian and a fraught fate. When he meets the quick‑witted Hyacinth Bridgerton, she offers to translate, and together they discover that the greatest secrets—and the perfect kiss—lie in each other.

An epic tale of memory, intrigue, and betrayal set against a panoramic backdrop of twentieth-century history.

A whimsical collection of short stories where characters slip between tales, wandering through lost libraries, locked gardens, and a city of stopped clocks, all bound together by Helen Oyeyemi’s intricate prose and imaginative worldbuilding.

Mario Puzo traces the rise of the Borgia family, revealing the intertwined forces of ambition, faith, and power that shaped one of Italy’s most notorious dynasties.

Adeline Johnson will do anything to keep custody of her four‑year‑old niece, even face a frantic search for a husband. Yet the town matchmaker’s grandson, Sam Dawson, sabotages every date, complicating her quest.

Two college friends discover that love can span continents and a decade when they reunite after life‑changing choices thrust them apart.

A determined young woman's struggle to reconcile her life with her relationship and identity as a woman in a world that values traditional gender roles over individuality.

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.

Three sisters, adopted after a wartime romance, are reunited across Paris, New York, and Appalachia, where secrets and tragic truths challenge family bonds.

Set against the vibrant backdrop of New York City, Angie Cruz’s *Dominicana* follows a young Dominican woman’s coming‑of‑age journey and the immigrant experience, highlighting family, romance, and self‑discovery.

Three former college bandmates in their fifties navigate marriage, career, and parenthood in gentrified Brooklyn while confronting how their youthful identities evolve and how secrets from their past finally surface.

In the sequel to Naughty or Nice, the McBroom sisters face new dangers, broken expectations, and hidden desires—each battling personal secrets that threaten their tight bond.

The Book of Goose follows Agnès, a former boarding‑school friend, as she recounts her life after the death of Fabienne—a traumatic journey from war‑torn rural France to Paris, an English boarding school, and finally a quiet Pennsylvania home.

A former child survivor of incest and dissociative identity disorder recounts the terror of a childhood threat and the decades of silence that followed, culminating in the emergence of five distinct personalities speaking for the first time.

A generational saga traced through family inheritance, secrets, and the matriarch’s choices, showing how betrayals and memories shape relationships across time for a Caribbean‑American family.

In 1951, Wu Ningkun, who was educated in America, answered the call of his homeland, China, to serve as a professor for the new Communist government. Leaving behind a promising academic career in the States in order to put his training to work in his native country, Wu Ningkun returned home full of hope. A Single Tear is the story of what he found. It is a firsthand account of life in China from the early days of communism in the 1950s, through the cultural revolution of the late '60s and '70s, and into the '80s. Two short years after returning to China, Wu Ningkun was labeled a dangerous counter-revolutionary and an "ultrarightist" for his Western teaching methods and curriculum, which included such books as Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby. His colleagues denounced him, and within five years of his return Wu was sent to a government farm, where he was subjected to "thought reform" through hard labor. During his first prison term, which lasted over three years, he was nearly starved to death in the famine that resulted from Mao's political campaign known as the Great Leap Forward. Over the next two decades Wu Ningkun and his wife, Li Yikai, who has collaborated with him on this extraordinary memoir, were labeled enemies of their country and separated, reunited, and relocated at the whim of an often paranoid and ever-changing Communist regime. Their will to survive and keep their family together, as well as a determination to find happiness in their homeland, remained constant throughout these difficult years. In the words of the author, this memoir was written to answer one question: "Have I suffered and survived in vain?" His answer is this intensely personal and beautifully written story that succeeds in giving a comprehensive account of the first four turbulent decades of Communist rule and offers important insights into understanding life in contemporary China. A Single Tear not only foretells such tragedies as the Tiananmen Square massacre but persists as a protest against the mistreatment of a people by its government. It is a story of suffering, but also of endurance and love. A Single Tear is an important contribution to the literature of dissident voices all over the world.