18 must-read fiction books like For Thy Great Pain Have Mercy on My Little Pain by Victoria Mackenzie

Cover of For Thy Great Pain Have Mercy on My Little Pain by Victoria Mackenzie

For Thy Great Pain Have Mercy on My Little Pain

By: Victoria Mackenzie

3.85

Format: 166 pages, Hardcover

An astounding debut, both epic and intimate, about grief, trauma, revelation, and the hidden lives …

"Sometimes I reworked, with much crossing out and burning of papers; I had to sift through my thoughts for words that gleamed with truth. But other times the words came fast, and then I was an arrow, sprung from a bow in God's service."

-Victoria Mackenzie, For Thy Great Pain Have Mercy on My Little Pain

If you liked the fiction plot in For Thy Great Pain Have Mercy on My Little Pain by Victoria Mackenzie , here is a list of 18 books like this:

Cover of Thunderclap: A Memoir of Art and Life and Sudden Death by Laura Cumming

1. Thunderclap: A Memoir of Art and Life and Sudden Death

By: Laura Cumming

4.19

Format: 272 pages, Hardcover

New York Times bestselling author Laura Cumming “combines first-rate art history with deeply felt m… read more

Similar categories in Laura Cumming's Thunderclap: A Memoir of Art and Life and Sudden Death book and Victoria Mackenzie's For Thy Great Pain Have Mercy on My Little Pain

  • historical
"It is such a long journey out, this one, from where we came; this life, our life, the journey between the first and last shores."

-Laura Cumming, Thunderclap: A Memoir of Art and Life and Sudden Death

"We see pictures in time and place. We cannot see them otherwise. They are fragments of our lives, moments of existence that may be as unremarkable as rain or as startling as a clap of thunder. Whatev…"

-Laura Cumming, Thunderclap: A Memoir of Art and Life and Sudden Death

"I cannot get enough of Dutch art. You can turn to this other world -- and it is a picture world as no other, a whole society visualised through time and place, seasons and generations, moment by mome…"

-Laura Cumming, Thunderclap: A Memoir of Art and Life and Sudden Death

"Fabritius is thirty-two, and I was the same age when I first wrote about his self-portrait. He and I remain the same age whenever we meet. He is dead, I am still alive, so the existential maths [sic]…"

-Laura Cumming, Thunderclap: A Memoir of Art and Life and Sudden Death

Cover of The Wren, the Wren by Anne Enright

2. The Wren, the Wren

By: Anne Enright

3.55

Format: 278 pages, Hardcover

An incandescent novel about the inheritance of trauma, wonder, and love across three generations of… read more

Similar categories in Anne Enright's The Wren, the Wren book and Victoria Mackenzie's For Thy Great Pain Have Mercy on My Little Pain

  • literary fiction
  • fiction
  • novels
"It's not that I think about him constantly, he is my way of thinking. His mind is my compass, his eyes my only mirror."

-Anne Enright, The Wren, the Wren

"We don’t walk down the same street as the person walking beside us. All we can do is tell the other person what we see. We can point at things and try to name them. If we do this well, our friend can…"

-Anne Enright, The Wren, the Wren

"We don't walk down the same street as the person walking beside us. All we can do is tell the other person what we see. We can point at things and try to name them. If we do this well, our friend can…"

-Anne Enright, The Wren, the Wren

Cover of The Maiden by Kate   Foster

3. The Maiden

By: Kate Foster

4.05

Format: 384 pages, Hardcover

Inspired by a real-life case and winner of the Bloody Scotland Pitch Perfect Award, Kate Foster's T… read more

Similar categories in Kate Foster's The Maiden book and Victoria Mackenzie's For Thy Great Pain Have Mercy on My Little Pain

  • historical
  • literary fiction
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
Cover of Queen Macbeth by Val McDermid

4. Queen Macbeth

By: Val McDermid

3.77

Format: 122 pages, Kindle Edition

Shakespeare fed us the myth of the Macbeths as murderous conspirators. But now Val McDermid drags t… read more

Similar categories in Val McDermid's Queen Macbeth book and Victoria Mackenzie's For Thy Great Pain Have Mercy on My Little Pain

  • historical
  • historical fiction
  • fiction
  • novella
Cover of Cuddy by Benjamin Myers

5. Cuddy

By: Benjamin Myers

4.33

Format: 447 pages, Hardcover

Cuddy is a bold and experimental retelling of the story of the hermit St. Cuthbert, unofficial patr… read more

Similar categories in Benjamin Myers's Cuddy book and Victoria Mackenzie's For Thy Great Pain Have Mercy on My Little Pain

  • literary fiction
  • historical
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
  • novels
"Some say owls carry within them the souls of those who in life never had a name, a place or a purpose, and were cast out to wander alone. Some say their stained-glass eyes are windows into other worl…"

-Benjamin Myers, Cuddy

Cover of Absolutely and Forever by Rose Tremain

6. Absolutely and Forever

By: Rose Tremain

3.90

Format: 177 pages, Kindle Edition

A piercing short novel of thwarted love and true friendship from one of our greatest living writers… read more

Similar categories in Rose Tremain's Absolutely and Forever book and Victoria Mackenzie's For Thy Great Pain Have Mercy on My Little Pain

  • literary fiction
  • historical
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
  • novels
Cover of Soldier Sailor by Claire Kilroy

7. Soldier Sailor

By: Claire Kilroy

4.10

Format: 256 pages, ebook

Well, Sailor. Here we are once more, you and me in one another's arms. The Earth rotates beneath us… read more

Similar categories in Claire Kilroy's Soldier Sailor book and Victoria Mackenzie's For Thy Great Pain Have Mercy on My Little Pain

  • feminism
  • literary fiction
  • fiction
  • novels
"I laughed and then we were doing that thing again, our thing: laughing into one another's eyes. All that time I had thought I was jollying you along when all that time you were jollying along me."

-Claire Kilroy, Soldier Sailor

"I tell my husband about my childhood and he tells me about his but it isn't the same. We can never know each other as we were then. But I know you. I will see the child you were in the man you will b…"

-Claire Kilroy, Soldier Sailor

"Hated cling film. Hated it more than I hated kinetic sand. Defeated by something that lacked a third dimension. While I'd been off tinkering on the cerebral plane, the smart money has been mastering …"

-Claire Kilroy, Soldier Sailor

"I knelt down to pick up the hatchling to . . . . what? Give it back to its mother? Here is your dying chick? Just before I made contact with it, she dive-bombed me. The mother actually dive-bombed me…"

-Claire Kilroy, Soldier Sailor

Cover of Ordinary Human Failings by Megan Nolan

8. Ordinary Human Failings

By: Megan Nolan

3.78

Format: 224 pages, Hardcover

When a 10-year-old child is suspected of a violent crime, her family must face the truth about thei… read more

Similar categories in Megan Nolan's Ordinary Human Failings book and Victoria Mackenzie's For Thy Great Pain Have Mercy on My Little Pain

  • literary fiction
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
"She loved the feeling of doing something on her own, and doing it in a routine. It felt thrillingly adult and affirmed her most cherished hope, the hope that she might have an actual inner life of su…"

-Megan Nolan, Ordinary Human Failings

"He had the sort of bland, agreeable, rosy face which could disappear into whatever context he wished it to. He was blond but not provocatively so. The naturally dull Kent accent could be clipped and …"

-Megan Nolan, Ordinary Human Failings

Cover of In Defence of the Act by Effie Black

9. In Defence of the Act

By: Effie Black

4.12

Format: 182 pages, Paperback

Are we more like a coffee bean, a carrot or an egg? What happens to us when we are boiled in the tr… read more

Similar categories in Effie Black's In Defence of the Act book and Victoria Mackenzie's For Thy Great Pain Have Mercy on My Little Pain

  • literary fiction
  • fiction
"Sharing is the currency of friendship, perhaps everywhere, but especially at university."

-Effie Black, In Defence of the Act

"Anorexia is a secretive disease, it fed on Beth's stories of conquering her past demons."

-Effie Black, In Defence of the Act

"We speak until our mouths ache. I won't remember what we speak about, but I'll be certain it was deep. We are both terribly deep."

-Effie Black, In Defence of the Act

Cover of A Flat Place: Moving Through Empty Landscapes, Naming Complex Trauma by Noreen Masud

10. A Flat Place: Moving Through Empty Landscapes, Naming Complex Trauma

By: Noreen Masud

4.20

Format: 256 pages, Paperback

A surprising and lyrical journey—part memoir, part nature book—meditating on the meaning of "flatne… read more

Similar categories in Noreen Masud's A Flat Place: Moving Through Empty Landscapes, Naming Complex Trauma book and Victoria Mackenzie's For Thy Great Pain Have Mercy on My Little Pain

"We tell stories to make them visible. Or we tell stories so that we don’t have to look at them any longer."

-Noreen Masud, A Flat Place: Moving Through Empty Landscapes, Naming Complex Trauma

"Supposedly trauma transcends language and time, and is therefore untellable. Perhaps sometimes it does and is. But I think traumatized people do know how to tell their stories. What’s difficult is th…"

-Noreen Masud, A Flat Place: Moving Through Empty Landscapes, Naming Complex Trauma

"Supposedly, trauma transcends language and time, and is therefore untellable. Perhaps sometimes it does, and is. But I think traumatized people do know how to tell their stories. What’s difficult is …"

-Noreen Masud, A Flat Place: Moving Through Empty Landscapes, Naming Complex Trauma

"I was held captive by this unyielding, silent space, and I began to understand two things. The flatness wasn’t an absence - not in the way we might assume it is - but something strong and original an…"

-Noreen Masud, A Flat Place: Moving Through Empty Landscapes, Naming Complex Trauma

Cover of Restless Dolly Maunder by Kate Grenville

11. Restless Dolly Maunder

By: Kate Grenville

3.88

Format: 256 pages, Kindle Edition

Dolly Maunder was born at the end of the nineteenth century, when society’s long-locked doors were … read more

Similar categories in Kate Grenville's Restless Dolly Maunder book and Victoria Mackenzie's For Thy Great Pain Have Mercy on My Little Pain

  • literary fiction
  • historical
  • feminism
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
Cover of For Thy Great Pain Have Mercy on My Little Pain by Victoria Mackenzie

12. For Thy Great Pain Have Mercy on My Little Pain

By: Victoria Mackenzie

3.85

Format: 166 pages, Hardcover

An astounding debut, both epic and intimate, about grief, trauma, revelation, and the hidden lives … read more

Similar categories in Victoria Mackenzie's For Thy Great Pain Have Mercy on My Little Pain book and Victoria Mackenzie's For Thy Great Pain Have Mercy on My Little Pain

  • literary fiction
  • novels
  • historical
  • feminism
  • novella
  • religion
  • short stories
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
  • medieval
"Sometimes I reworked, with much crossing out and burning of papers; I had to sift through my thoughts for words that gleamed with truth. But other times the words came fast, and then I was an arrow, …"

-Victoria Mackenzie, For Thy Great Pain Have Mercy on My Little Pain

Cover of Enlightenment by Sarah Perry

13. Enlightenment

By: Sarah Perry

3.70

Format: 384 pages, Hardcover

A dazzling new work of literary fiction from the author of The Essex Serpent, a story of love and a… read more

Similar categories in Sarah Perry's Enlightenment book and Victoria Mackenzie's For Thy Great Pain Have Mercy on My Little Pain

  • literary fiction
  • historical
  • religion
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
"Thomas [Hart] lived where he'd been born, and where (so he often thought without rancor) he'd very likely die; and if he lived alone he was not lonely, that being a condition not of solitude but of l…"

-Sarah Perry, Enlightenment

"So I told her this: that it's true I've only rarely been happy, and perhaps more often been sad. But I have been content. I have lived. I have felt everything available to me: I've been faithless, de…"

-Sarah Perry, Enlightenment

"I wish I could say, James, that we forgave each other in the end. I wish I could say: she put her head on my shoulder and I welcomed it and we laughed and said all was well. But in fact we were quiet…"

-Sarah Perry, Enlightenment

"...in the ordinary way we love because we're loved, and give more or less what we're given. But to love without return is more strange and more wonderful, and not the humiliating thing I'd once taken…"

-Sarah Perry, Enlightenment

Cover of Orbital by Samantha Harvey

14. Orbital

By: Samantha Harvey

3.73

Format: 207 pages, Hardcover

A slender novel of epic power, Orbital  deftly snapshots one day in the lives of six women and men … read more

Similar categories in Samantha Harvey's Orbital book and Victoria Mackenzie's For Thy Great Pain Have Mercy on My Little Pain

  • novella
  • literary fiction
  • fiction
  • novels
"Maybe we're the new dinosaurs and need to watch out."

-Samantha Harvey, Orbital

"The past comes, the future, the past, the future. It's always now, it's never now."

-Samantha Harvey, Orbital

"Raw space is a panther, feral and primal; they dream it stalking through their quarters."

-Samantha Harvey, Orbital

"That's all this great human endeavor of space exploration really is, he thinks, an animal migration, a bid for survival. A looping song sent into the open, a territorial animal song."

-Samantha Harvey, Orbital

Cover of Murder at the Monastery (Canon Clement Mystery #3) by Richard  Coles

15. Murder at the Monastery (Canon Clement Mystery #3)

By: Richard Coles

3.87

Format: 399 pages, Kindle Edition

Daniel Clement has suffered a secret humiliation and to recover, takes respite at the monastery whe… read more

Similar categories in Richard Coles's Murder at the Monastery (Canon Clement Mystery #3) book and Victoria Mackenzie's For Thy Great Pain Have Mercy on My Little Pain

  • fiction
  • historical fiction
Cover of Music in the Dark by Sally Magnusson

16. Music in the Dark

By: Sally Magnusson

4.18

Format: None pages, Kindle Edition

1884. In a tenement room and kitchen in the town of Rutherglen, near Glasgow, a woman with stark in… read more

Similar categories in Sally Magnusson's Music in the Dark book and Victoria Mackenzie's For Thy Great Pain Have Mercy on My Little Pain

  • historical
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
Cover of Fifteen Wild Decembers by Karen  Powell

17. Fifteen Wild Decembers

By: Karen Powell

4.20

Format: 288 pages, Paperback

A creative re-imagining of the short life of Emily Brontë, one of England’s greatest writers Pra… read more

Similar categories in Karen Powell's Fifteen Wild Decembers book and Victoria Mackenzie's For Thy Great Pain Have Mercy on My Little Pain

  • historical
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
Cover of Bright Fear by Mary Jean Chan

18. Bright Fear

By: Mary Jean Chan

4.17

Format: None pages, Paperback

Following their award-winning debut, Flèche (2019), comes Mary Jean Chan's gleaming second collecti… read more

Similar categories in Mary Jean Chan's Bright Fear book and Victoria Mackenzie's For Thy Great Pain Have Mercy on My Little Pain

Cover of Columba's Bones by David Greig

19. Columba's Bones

By: David Greig

4.30

Format: 175 pages, Kindle Edition

In a bloody, brutal raid, Abbot Blathmac is slain on the steps of his monastery for refusing to giv… read more

Similar categories in David Greig's Columba's Bones book and Victoria Mackenzie's For Thy Great Pain Have Mercy on My Little Pain

  • novella
  • short stories
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
Cover of I, Julian by Claire Gilbert

20. I, Julian

By: Claire Gilbert

4.27

Format: 208 pages, Hardcover

'So I will write in English, pressing new words from this beautiful plain language spoken by all. N… read more

Similar categories in Claire Gilbert's I, Julian book and Victoria Mackenzie's For Thy Great Pain Have Mercy on My Little Pain

  • literary fiction
  • historical
  • religion
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
  • medieval
Cover of Private Rites by Julia Armfield

21. Private Rites

By: Julia Armfield

3.92

Format: 304 pages, Hardcover

From the award-winning author of Our Wives Under the Sea, a speculative reimagining of King Lear, c… read more

Similar categories in Julia Armfield's Private Rites book and Victoria Mackenzie's For Thy Great Pain Have Mercy on My Little Pain

  • literary fiction
  • fiction
"To be misunderstood is one thing, but the curious hostility of a sibling's approach lies less in what they miss than in the strange backdated nature of the things they choose to know. A person can be…"

-Julia Armfield, Private Rites

6 Best novels books like For Thy Great Pain Have Mercy on My Little Pain by Victoria Mackenzie

Transform Your Habits

The Wren, the Wren

Anne Enright

3.55

Transform Your Habits

Cuddy

Benjamin Myers

4.33

Transform Your Habits

Absolutely and Forever

Rose Tremain

3.90

Transform Your Habits

Soldier Sailor

Claire Kilroy

4.10

View all the books

18 Top audiobook books like A Flat Place: Moving Through Empty Landscapes, Naming Complex Trauma by Noreen Masud

Transform Your Habits

Thunderclap: A Memoir of Art and Life and Sudden Death

Laura Cumming

4.19

Transform Your Habits

The Wren, the Wren

Anne Enright

3.55

Transform Your Habits

Doppelganger: A Trip into the Mirror World

Naomi Klein

4.22

Transform Your Habits

Matrescence: On the Metamorphosis of Pregnancy, Childbirth, and Motherhood

Lucy Jones

4.54

View all the books

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