15 Best historical books like Deacon King Kong by James McBride

Cover of Deacon King Kong by James   McBride

Deacon King Kong

By: James McBride

4.17

Format: 370 pages, Hardcover

The funny, sharp, and surprising story of the shooting of a Brooklyn drug dealer and the people who…

"You’ve got to be strong to get old."

-James McBride, Deacon King Kong

"Friendship was trouble in business."

-James McBride, Deacon King Kong

"You’ve got to be strong to get old."

-James McBride, Deacon King Kong

"Friendship was trouble in business."

-James McBride, Deacon King Kong

If you liked the historical plot in Deacon King Kong by James McBride , here is a list of 15 books like this:

1. Erasure

By: Percival Everett

3.62

Format: 280 pages, Paperback

"Thelonious (Monk) Ellison has never allowed race to define his identity. But as both a writer and … read more

Similar categories in Percival Everett's Erasure book and James McBride's Deacon King Kong

Cover of The Women by Kristin Hannah

2. The Women

By: Kristin Hannah

4.64

Format: 471 pages, Hardcover

Women can be heroes. When twenty-year-old nursing student Frances “Frankie” McGrath hears these wor… read more

Similar categories in Kristin Hannah's The Women book and James McBride's Deacon King Kong

  • historical
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
  • book club
  • audiobook
"Words were creators of worlds; you had to be careful with them."

-Kristin Hannah, The Women

"Love mattered in this ruined world, but so did honor. What was one without the other?"

-Kristin Hannah, The Women

"Love. A thing to be shouted from the rooftops, celebrated, not cultivated in secret and clipped into shape in the dark."

-Kristin Hannah, The Women

Cover of Trust by Hernan Diaz

3. Trust

By: Hernan Diaz

3.83

Format: 402 pages, Hardcover

10 hours, 21 minutes From an award-winning chronicler of our nation's history and its legends co… read more

Similar categories in Hernan Diaz's Trust book and James McBride's Deacon King Kong

  • new york
  • literary fiction
  • historical
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
  • mystery
  • book club
  • audiobook
"Where there's a ventriloquist, there's a dummy."

-Hernan Diaz, Trust

"Chaos is a vortex that spins faster with each thing it swallows."

-Hernan Diaz, Trust

"Silence between 2 is always shared. But 1 of the 2 owns it and shares it with the other."

-Hernan Diaz, Trust

"I’ve come to think one is truly married only when one is more committed to one’s vows than the person they refer to."

-Hernan Diaz, Trust

Cover of The Berry Pickers by Amanda    Peters

4. The Berry Pickers

By: Amanda Peters

4.14

Format: 307 pages, Hardcover

A four-year-old Mi’kmaq girl goes missing from the blueberry fields of Maine, sparking a tragic mys… read more

Similar categories in Amanda Peters's The Berry Pickers book and James McBride's Deacon King Kong

  • literary fiction
  • historical
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
  • mystery
  • audiobook
Cover of The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon

5. The Frozen River

By: Ariel Lawhon

4.43

Format: 432 pages, Hardcover

A gripping historical mystery inspired by the life and diary of Martha Ballard, a renowned 18th-cen… read more

Similar categories in Ariel Lawhon's The Frozen River book and James McBride's Deacon King Kong

  • historical
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
  • mystery
  • book club
  • audiobook
Cover of Tom Lake by Ann Patchett

6. Tom Lake

By: Ann Patchett

3.99

Format: 309 pages, Hardcover

In this beautiful and moving novel about family, love, and growing up, Ann Patchett once again prov… read more

Similar categories in Ann Patchett's Tom Lake book and James McBride's Deacon King Kong

  • literary fiction
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
  • book club
  • audiobook
"You can’t pretend this [Covid] isn’t happening,"

-Ann Patchett, Tom Lake

"In the summer the pear trees were fine. In the summer, all that is hideous about a pear tree is hidden by leaves and pears. But once those disguises were removed they were nothing but acres of murder…"

-Ann Patchett, Tom Lake

"Hazel, listen to me. I'm going to tell you something important, you need to be brave.' I then explained to the dog how I have told myself for so many years that my career fell apart because I wasn't …"

-Ann Patchett, Tom Lake

"It's as if someone bought all the diamonds at Tiffany's, and crushed them into dust, then spread that dust across the water so that it sifts down evenly, filtering through the shards of light that cu…"

-Ann Patchett, Tom Lake

Cover of The Covenant of Water by Abraham   Verghese

7. The Covenant of Water

By: Abraham Verghese

4.45

Format: 724 pages, Hardcover

From the New York Times-bestselling author of Cutting for Stone comes a stunning and magisterial ep… read more

Similar categories in Abraham Verghese's The Covenant of Water book and James McBride's Deacon King Kong

  • literary fiction
  • historical
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
  • book club
  • audiobook
Cover of Let Us Descend by Jesmyn Ward

8. Let Us Descend

By: Jesmyn Ward

3.70

Format: 320 pages, Hardcover

From Jesmyn Ward—the two-time National Book Award winner, youngest winner of the Library of Congres… read more

Similar categories in Jesmyn Ward's Let Us Descend book and James McBride's Deacon King Kong

  • literary fiction
  • race
  • historical
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
  • african american
  • audiobook
"You must leap. You must do as your people did. You must sink in order to rise."

-Jesmyn Ward, Let Us Descend

Cover of James by Percival Everett

9. James

By: Percival Everett

4.54

Format: 303 pages, Hardcover

A brilliant, action-packed reimagining of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn , both harrowing and f… read more

Similar categories in Percival Everett's James book and James McBride's Deacon King Kong

  • literary fiction
  • race
  • historical
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
  • african american
  • audiobook
Cover of Harlem Shuffle (Ray Carney, #1) by Colson Whitehead

10. Harlem Shuffle (Ray Carney, #1)

By: Colson Whitehead

3.74

Format: 318 pages, Hardcover

From the two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Underground Railroad and The Nickel Boys, a … read more

Similar categories in Colson Whitehead's Harlem Shuffle (Ray Carney, #1) book and James McBride's Deacon King Kong

  • new york
  • literary fiction
  • historical
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
  • mystery
  • african american
  • audiobook
"Step back and the world is a classroom if need be."

-Colson Whitehead, Harlem Shuffle (Ray Carney, #1)

"Crooked world, straight world, same rules - everybody had a hand out for the envelope."

-Colson Whitehead, Harlem Shuffle (Ray Carney, #1)

"He was a strange mix--congenial but reserved in a way that told you being friendly was an act of will."

-Colson Whitehead, Harlem Shuffle (Ray Carney, #1)

"I'm an entrepreneur." "Entrepreneur?" Pepper said the last part like manure. "That's just a hustler who pays taxes."

-Colson Whitehead, Harlem Shuffle (Ray Carney, #1)

Cover of North Woods by Daniel       Mason

11. North Woods

By: Daniel Mason

4.15

Format: 372 pages, Hardcover

A sweeping novel about a single house in the woods of New England, told through the lives of those … read more

Similar categories in Daniel Mason's North Woods book and James McBride's Deacon King Kong

  • literary fiction
  • historical
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
  • audiobook
Cover of Wandering Stars by Tommy Orange

12. Wandering Stars

By: Tommy Orange

3.89

Format: 315 pages, Hardcover

The eagerly awaited follow-up to Pulitzer Prize-finalist Tommy Orange’s breakout best seller There … read more

Similar categories in Tommy Orange's Wandering Stars book and James McBride's Deacon King Kong

  • literary fiction
  • historical
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
  • audiobook
"And in the year 1924 Indian citizenship will have been granted, even though they will mean to dissolve tribes by giving citizenship, dissolve being another word for disappearance, a kind of chemical …"

-Tommy Orange, Wandering Stars

Cover of Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano

13. Hello Beautiful

By: Ann Napolitano

4.16

Format: 416 pages, Kindle Edition

An emotionally layered and engrossing story of a family that asks: Can love make a broken person wh… read more

Similar categories in Ann Napolitano's Hello Beautiful book and James McBride's Deacon King Kong

  • literary fiction
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
  • book club
  • audiobook
"The child inside Julia lay wide-eyed in the dark, knowing that she was Jo, but only because Sylvie was Beth."

-Ann Napolitano, Hello Beautiful

"You and your sisters have so many reference points, such a dense history," William said. "I never get used to it."

-Ann Napolitano, Hello Beautiful

"She was Julia's wild hair, she was the lake her husband had once been carried out of, and no matter what happened next, she was love."

-Ann Napolitano, Hello Beautiful

"You’re depressed, not crazy. It’s not insane to be depressed in this world. It’s more sane than being happy. I never trust those upbeat individuals who grin no matter what’s going on. Those are the o…"

-Ann Napolitano, Hello Beautiful

Cover of Chain-Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah

14. Chain-Gang All-Stars

By: Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah

4.14

Format: 367 pages, Hardcover

Two top women gladiators fight for their freedom within a depraved private prison system not so far… read more

Similar categories in Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah's Chain-Gang All-Stars book and James McBride's Deacon King Kong

  • literary fiction
  • fiction
  • audiobook
"They were all humans, and yet they had completely different ideas about what humanity meant."

-Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, Chain-Gang All-Stars

"My brother-in-law is an alien. I have a bunch of alien friends. I can't be racist," Randy Mac continued."

-Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, Chain-Gang All-Stars

"An absurd thing for the murderous state to plead for, but, as always, the massive violence of the state was “justice,"

-Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, Chain-Gang All-Stars

"...despite how hard it was, she wasn't afraid with love. She knew how to wield it, how to grow it, and how to receive it."

-Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, Chain-Gang All-Stars

Cover of The Bee Sting by Paul Murray

15. The Bee Sting

By: Paul Murray

3.96

Format: 656 pages, Hardcover

From the author of Skippy Dies comes Paul Murray's The Bee Sting, an irresistibly funny, wise, and … read more

Similar categories in Paul Murray's The Bee Sting book and James McBride's Deacon King Kong

  • literary fiction
  • book club
  • fiction
  • audiobook
"It is for love. You are doing this for love."

-Paul Murray, The Bee Sting

"We all have problems. But often instead of accepting the truth about ourselves, we cover it up. We try to make ourselves the way we think we’re expected to be."

-Paul Murray, The Bee Sting

"Maybe every era has an atrocity woven into its fabric. Maybe every society is complicit in terrible things and only afterwards gets around to pretending they didn’t know. When the kids ask, tell them…"

-Paul Murray, The Bee Sting

"Maybe that’s how it will go – instead of one definitive cataclysm, a series of ‘anomalies’, each time lasting longer, with the stretches of what you call normal life becoming further and further apar…"

-Paul Murray, The Bee Sting

Cover of Absolution by Alice McDermott

16. Absolution

By: Alice McDermott

3.81

Format: 324 pages, Hardcover

A riveting account of women’s lives on the margins of the Vietnam War. In Saigon in 1963, two yo… read more

Similar categories in Alice McDermott's Absolution book and James McBride's Deacon King Kong

  • literary fiction
  • historical
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
  • audiobook
Cover of Table for Two by Amor Towles

17. Table for Two

By: Amor Towles

4.26

Format: 464 pages, Hardcover

From the bestselling author of The Lincoln Highway, A Gentleman in Moscow, and Rules of Civility, a… read more

Similar categories in Amor Towles's Table for Two book and James McBride's Deacon King Kong

  • new york
  • literary fiction
  • historical
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
  • audiobook
"And though she couldn’t remember the exact reference and whether it was from mythology or the Bible, she knew instinctively as they approached the pier’s limit she mustn’t look back."

-Amor Towles, Table for Two

"It is a funny aspect of life, thought Charlie, how a group of grown people can convince themselves to do something that none of them really want to do. They start by talking an idea into existence. O…"

-Amor Towles, Table for Two

Cover of The Fraud by Zadie Smith

18. The Fraud

By: Zadie Smith

3.30

Format: 464 pages, Hardcover

The extraordinary first historical novel from bestselling author of White Teeth Zadie Smith It i… read more

Similar categories in Zadie Smith's The Fraud book and James McBride's Deacon King Kong

  • literary fiction
  • historical
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
  • mystery
  • audiobook
"Eliza had long understood her cousin to be beyond the reach of editorial intervention."

-Zadie Smith, The Fraud

"What possesses people? Unhappiness, always. Happiness is otherwise occupied. It has an object on which to focus. It has daisies, it has snowdrifts. Unhappiness opens up the void, which then requires …"

-Zadie Smith, The Fraud

"I know this country well. Well enough to understand that justice takes time, and that the freedoms of a minority are rarely self-evident to the majority. What is perfectly selfevident to God is – unf…"

-Zadie Smith, The Fraud

"God preserve me from novel-writing, thought Mrs Touchet. God preserve me from that tragic indulgence, that useless vanity, that blindness! In a cold dormitory, two hundred miles away, three heartbrok…"

-Zadie Smith, The Fraud

Cover of Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver

19. Demon Copperhead

By: Barbara Kingsolver

4.50

Format: 560 pages, Hardcover

"Anyone will tell you the born of this world are marked from the get-out, win or lose." Set in t… read more

Similar categories in Barbara Kingsolver's Demon Copperhead book and James McBride's Deacon King Kong

  • literary fiction
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
  • book club
  • audiobook
"A kid is a terrible thing to be, in charge of nothing."

-Barbara Kingsolver, Demon Copperhead

"I can still feel in my bones how being mad was the one thing holding me together."

-Barbara Kingsolver, Demon Copperhead

"Counting on Jesus to save the day is no more real than sending up the Batman signal."

-Barbara Kingsolver, Demon Copperhead

"life is a wild, impetuous ride. There could be good shit up ahead, don’t rule it out."

-Barbara Kingsolver, Demon Copperhead

Cover of Crook Manifesto (Ray Carney, #2) by Colson Whitehead

20. Crook Manifesto (Ray Carney, #2)

By: Colson Whitehead

3.88

Format: 336 pages, Hardcover

Colson Whitehead continues his Harlem saga in a novel that summons 1970s New York in all its seedy … read more

Similar categories in Colson Whitehead's Crook Manifesto (Ray Carney, #2) book and James McBride's Deacon King Kong

  • new york
  • literary fiction
  • historical
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
  • mystery
  • african american
  • audiobook
"Misery is a money pit."

-Colson Whitehead, Crook Manifesto (Ray Carney, #2)

"Step away entirely or you haven't stepped away at all."

-Colson Whitehead, Crook Manifesto (Ray Carney, #2)

"White cops did as they pleased. Crooked white cops? Untouchable."

-Colson Whitehead, Crook Manifesto (Ray Carney, #2)

"Simpler than conspiracy was Carney's take: In general, people were terrible."

-Colson Whitehead, Crook Manifesto (Ray Carney, #2)

Cover of Deacon King Kong by James   McBride

21. Deacon King Kong

By: James McBride

4.17

Format: 370 pages, Hardcover

The funny, sharp, and surprising story of the shooting of a Brooklyn drug dealer and the people who… read more

Similar categories in James McBride's Deacon King Kong book and James McBride's Deacon King Kong

  • new york
  • literary fiction
  • race
  • historical
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
  • mystery
  • african american
  • book club
  • audiobook
"You’ve got to be strong to get old."

-James McBride, Deacon King Kong

"Friendship was trouble in business."

-James McBride, Deacon King Kong

"A man ain’t got to stand in church every Sunday to do God’s work."

-James McBride, Deacon King Kong

"Is your cheese this good? This wasn’t plain old housing projects “cheese food"

-James McBride, Deacon King Kong

20 Best fiction books like Deacon King Kong by James McBride

Transform Your Habits

The Women

Kristin Hannah

4.64

Transform Your Habits

Trust

Hernan Diaz

3.83

Transform Your Habits

The Berry Pickers

Amanda Peters

4.14

Transform Your Habits

The Frozen River

Ariel Lawhon

4.43

View all the books

21 best-selling fiction books like Wandering Stars by Tommy Orange

Transform Your Habits

James

Percival Everett

4.54

Transform Your Habits

North Woods

Daniel Mason

4.15

Transform Your Habits

Wandering Stars

Tommy Orange

3.89

Transform Your Habits

Real Americans

Rachel Khong

4.04

View all the books

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