18 must-read contemporary books like Behind You Is the Sea by Susan Muaddi Darraj

Cover of Behind You Is the Sea by Susan Muaddi Darraj

Behind You Is the Sea

By: Susan Muaddi Darraj

4.14

Format: 256 pages, Hardcover

An exciting debut novel that gives voice to the diverse residents of a Palestinian American communi…

If you liked the contemporary plot in Behind You Is the Sea by Susan Muaddi Darraj , here is a list of 18 books like this:

1. Salt Houses

By: Hala Alyan

3.40

Format: 96 pages, Hardcover

On the eve of her daughter Alia's wedding, Salma reads the girl's future in a cup of coffee dregs. … read more

Similar categories in Hala Alyan's Salt Houses book and Susan Muaddi Darraj's Behind You Is the Sea

Cover of The Djinn Waits a Hundred Years by Shubnum Khan

2. The Djinn Waits a Hundred Years

By: Shubnum Khan

3.87

Format: 320 pages, Hardcover

A New York Times Book Review Editor's Choice Rebecca meets The House of Spirits in this sweeping, … read more

Similar categories in Shubnum Khan's The Djinn Waits a Hundred Years book and Susan Muaddi Darraj's Behind You Is the Sea

  • adult
  • fiction
"It walked to many places in the world and swam through many seas. It moved among men and watched how they lived and how they fought. Men were the same everywhere—power-hungry creatures always engaged…"

-Shubnum Khan, The Djinn Waits a Hundred Years

"The end always returns to the beginning; the circle always seeks to be whole, and so when the end comes for Meena Begum, she is remembering the river and the way it runs through the village like a pe…"

-Shubnum Khan, The Djinn Waits a Hundred Years

"There are things that never see light again. They scream and bang at their fate, hoping they will be discovered. A forgotten letter beneath a file, an ivory button in a couch, a handprint against a w…"

-Shubnum Khan, The Djinn Waits a Hundred Years

"She tries to lie still, but she's forgotten how. On the farm everything had been still. The silence was a complete thing. She could touch it with her fingers, taste it with her mouth, and sit in it l…"

-Shubnum Khan, The Djinn Waits a Hundred Years

Cover of James by Percival Everett

3. 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 Susan Muaddi Darraj's Behind You Is the Sea

  • audiobook
  • literary fiction
  • fiction
  • novels
Cover of Memory Piece by Lisa Ko

4. Memory Piece

By: Lisa Ko

3.22

Format: 304 pages, Hardcover

In the early 1980s, Giselle Chin, Jackie Ong, and Ellen Ng are three teenagers drawn together by th… read more

Similar categories in Lisa Ko's Memory Piece book and Susan Muaddi Darraj's Behind You Is the Sea

  • audiobook
  • literary fiction
  • fiction
  • contemporary
"The physicality of making things, the performance, temporarily displaced how stuck she felt, in this particular body, family, town, time."

-Lisa Ko, Memory Piece

Cover of Wandering Stars by Tommy Orange

5. 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 Susan Muaddi Darraj's Behind You Is the Sea

  • literary fiction
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • adult
  • 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 Real Americans by Rachel Khong

6. Real Americans

By: Rachel Khong

4.04

Format: 416 pages, Hardcover

From the award-winning author of Goodbye, Vitamin: How far would you go to shape your own destiny?… read more

Similar categories in Rachel Khong's Real Americans book and Susan Muaddi Darraj's Behind You Is the Sea

  • adult fiction
  • literary fiction
  • family
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • adult
  • audiobook
"She wasn't normal and so I wasn't either. I resented that part the most."

-Rachel Khong, Real Americans

"It was a habit, with my parents: omitting information, not wanting to worry them unnecessarily. Though they’d raised me so American, I could never manage the sorts of American relationships my friend…"

-Rachel Khong, Real Americans

"With each other they spoke loudly: Their voices periodically rose to excited shouts, and they laughed raucously. In English they were milder mannered, polite. My mother had always spoken English to m…"

-Rachel Khong, Real Americans

Cover of Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar

7. Martyr!

By: Kaveh Akbar

4.24

Format: 352 pages, Hardcover

Kaveh Akbar’s Martyr! is a paean to how we spend our lives seeking meaning—in faith, art, ourselves… read more

Similar categories in Kaveh Akbar's Martyr! book and Susan Muaddi Darraj's Behind You Is the Sea

  • literary fiction
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • novels
  • audiobook
Cover of Come and Get It by Kiley Reid

8. Come and Get It

By: Kiley Reid

3.38

Format: 400 pages, Hardcover

A fresh and provocative story about a residential assistant and her messy entanglement with a profe… read more

Similar categories in Kiley Reid's Come and Get It book and Susan Muaddi Darraj's Behind You Is the Sea

  • adult fiction
  • literary fiction
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • novels
  • adult
  • audiobook
"Kennedy hadn't considered it before, that to write something beautiful you just do it regular, and then you pull out a red pen."

-Kiley Reid, Come and Get It

"Washing her sheets was another thing she'd failed to do. She washed her clothes—every weekend—but when it came to the bedsheets, she'd get stressed out or she'd forget. And then there was too much ti…"

-Kiley Reid, Come and Get It

"Okay, sometimes—just being honest— Millie can be . . . a little ghetto." On the word little, Tyler held two fingers an inch apart. "Nooo. Don't say that. Ah love Millie." "But I'm not saying it like …"

-Kiley Reid, Come and Get It

Cover of The Great Divide by Cristina Henríquez

9. The Great Divide

By: Cristina Henríquez

3.70

Format: 321 pages, Hardcover

An epic novel of the construction of the Panama Canal, casting light on the unsung people who lived… read more

Similar categories in Cristina Henríquez's The Great Divide book and Susan Muaddi Darraj's Behind You Is the Sea

  • adult fiction
  • literary fiction
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • novels
  • adult
  • audiobook
"Ada had always believed that her mother, in rebuilding the house only three miles from where it had once been, had kept her world piteously small, but maybe what mattered, Ada thought as she gazed at…"

-Cristina Henríquez, The Great Divide

Cover of Fire Exit by Morgan Talty

10. Fire Exit

By: Morgan Talty

3.79

Format: 243 pages, Hardcover

The blood that came out of me was blood that ran through her veins. It’s strange: all blood looks t… read more

Similar categories in Morgan Talty's Fire Exit book and Susan Muaddi Darraj's Behind You Is the Sea

  • literary fiction
  • family
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • novels
  • adult
  • audiobook
"...what's more sacred than laughter at the dinner table?"

-Morgan Talty, Fire Exit

"That's my life, though--not knowing, but wishing. [Charles Lamosway]"

-Morgan Talty, Fire Exit

"We are made of stories, and if we don't know them--the ones that make us--how can we ever be fully realized? How can we ever be who we really are?"

-Morgan Talty, Fire Exit

"...I was thinking and thinking about how, in just the past year, I had just started to know her, but then I began to unknow her, getting farther and farther away like watching a boat drift from the s…"

-Morgan Talty, Fire Exit

Cover of Evil Eye by Etaf Rum

11. Evil Eye

By: Etaf Rum

3.95

Format: 352 pages, Hardcover

The acclaimed New York Times bestselling author of A Woman Is No Man returns with a striking explor… read more

Similar categories in Etaf Rum's Evil Eye book and Susan Muaddi Darraj's Behind You Is the Sea

  • adult fiction
  • literary fiction
  • family
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • adult
  • audiobook
"(...) she shrugged to articulate her feelings, even to herself. Words diluted things, made them smaller."

-Etaf Rum, Evil Eye

"Her family had always been told to classify themselves as white because of their Middle Eastern origins. But Yara had never considered herself white or been viewed as white by anyone else, and markin…"

-Etaf Rum, Evil Eye

Cover of Acts of Forgiveness by Maura Cheeks

12. Acts of Forgiveness

By: Maura Cheeks

3.73

Format: 320 pages, Hardcover

In this stirring, tender-hearted debut about ambition and inheritance, a family grapples with how m… read more

Similar categories in Maura Cheeks's Acts of Forgiveness book and Susan Muaddi Darraj's Behind You Is the Sea

  • adult fiction
  • literary fiction
  • family
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • adult
  • audiobook
"You can't tour a plantation and come home to 512 Lewaro without understanding its significance. By walking through the front doors of their home, they were rewriting history."

-Maura Cheeks, Acts of Forgiveness

"During moments of national importance, it feels as though bills will be paid and mortgages covered, dreams no longer deferred. It feels as though, maybe, it can be less about money than about honor."

-Maura Cheeks, Acts of Forgiveness

Cover of Victim by Andrew Boryga

13. Victim

By: Andrew Boryga

3.92

Format: 288 pages, Hardcover

There’s a fine line between bending the truth and telling bald-faced lies, and Javier Perez is will… read more

Similar categories in Andrew Boryga's Victim book and Susan Muaddi Darraj's Behind You Is the Sea

  • adult fiction
  • literary fiction
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • novels
  • adult
  • audiobook
Cover of Behind You Is the Sea by Susan Muaddi Darraj

14. Behind You Is the Sea

By: Susan Muaddi Darraj

4.14

Format: 256 pages, Hardcover

An exciting debut novel that gives voice to the diverse residents of a Palestinian American communi… read more

Similar categories in Susan Muaddi Darraj's Behind You Is the Sea book and Susan Muaddi Darraj's Behind You Is the Sea

  • adult fiction
  • literary fiction
  • literature
  • short stories
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • family
  • novels
  • adult
  • audiobook
Cover of Anita de Monte Laughs Last by Xóchitl González

15. Anita de Monte Laughs Last

By: Xóchitl González

3.82

Format: 342 pages, Hardcover

New York Times bestselling author Xochitl Gonzalez delivers a mesmerizing novel about a first-gener… read more

Similar categories in Xóchitl González's Anita de Monte Laughs Last book and Susan Muaddi Darraj's Behind You Is the Sea

  • adult fiction
  • literary fiction
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • adult
  • audiobook
"we're all just here trying to get you to see your own light because it's strong enough to guide you."

-Xóchitl González, Anita de Monte Laughs Last

"You fall for someone, you get so into them your whole world shrinks, and suddenly barely have a life besides them."

-Xóchitl González, Anita de Monte Laughs Last

Cover of Same As It Ever Was by Claire Lombardo

16. Same As It Ever Was

By: Claire Lombardo

4.00

Format: 498 pages, Hardcover

Julia Ames, after a youth marked by upheaval and emotional turbulence, has found herself on the pla… read more

Similar categories in Claire Lombardo's Same As It Ever Was book and Susan Muaddi Darraj's Behind You Is the Sea

  • adult fiction
  • literary fiction
  • family
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • novels
  • adult
  • audiobook
"Parenthood was a persistent cruelty, a constant, simultaneous desire to be together and apart."

-Claire Lombardo, Same As It Ever Was

Cover of Oye by Melissa Mogollon

17. Oye

By: Melissa Mogollon

3.68

Format: 336 pages, Hardcover

A coming-of-age comedy. A telenovela-worthy drama. A moving family saga. All in a phone call you wo… read more

Similar categories in Melissa Mogollon's Oye book and Susan Muaddi Darraj's Behind You Is the Sea

  • adult fiction
  • literary fiction
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • adult
  • audiobook
Cover of The Moon That Turns You Back: Poems by Hala Alyan

18. The Moon That Turns You Back: Poems

By: Hala Alyan

4.22

Format: 112 pages, Paperback

From the author of The Arsonists’ City and The Twenty-Ninth Year, a new collection of poetry that t… read more

Similar categories in Hala Alyan's The Moon That Turns You Back: Poems book and Susan Muaddi Darraj's Behind You Is the Sea

  • audiobook
  • contemporary
"My favorite house is my mother."

-Hala Alyan, The Moon That Turns You Back: Poems

"I don’t have time to write about the soul. There are bodies to count. There’s a man wearing his wedding tuxedo to sleep in case I meet God and there’s a brick of light before each bombing."

-Hala Alyan, The Moon That Turns You Back: Poems

Cover of Like Happiness by Ursula Villarreal-Moura

19. Like Happiness

By: Ursula Villarreal-Moura

3.83

Format: 304 pages, Hardcover

A searing debut about the complexities of gender, power, and fame, told through the story of a youn… read more

Similar categories in Ursula Villarreal-Moura's Like Happiness book and Susan Muaddi Darraj's Behind You Is the Sea

  • adult fiction
  • literary fiction
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • adult
  • audiobook
Cover of Little Rot by Akwaeke Emezi

20. Little Rot

By: Akwaeke Emezi

3.67

Format: 288 pages, Hardcover

A thrilling new novel from the bestselling, award-winning Akwaeke Emezi, about five friends trying … read more

Similar categories in Akwaeke Emezi's Little Rot book and Susan Muaddi Darraj's Behind You Is the Sea

  • literary fiction
  • adult
  • fiction
  • contemporary
Cover of The Coin by Yasmin Zaher

21. The Coin

By: Yasmin Zaher

3.55

Format: 240 pages, Hardcover

A bold and unabashed novel about a young Palestinian woman's unraveling, far from home, as she gets… read more

Similar categories in Yasmin Zaher's The Coin book and Susan Muaddi Darraj's Behind You Is the Sea

  • adult fiction
  • literary fiction
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • novels
  • adult
"And the poet, he asked, who was it again? Aisha didn't know him, neither did Matthew. But, of course, Gregory did. He asked if he was the 9/11 denier. No, definitely not a denier, but very vocal when…"

-Yasmin Zaher, The Coin

19 must-read fiction books like Behind You Is the Sea by Susan Muaddi Darraj

Transform Your Habits

The Djinn Waits a Hundred Years

Shubnum Khan

3.87

Transform Your Habits

James

Percival Everett

4.54

Transform Your Habits

Memory Piece

Lisa Ko

3.22

Transform Your Habits

Wandering Stars

Tommy Orange

3.89

View all the books

21 Top fiction books like The Djinn Waits a Hundred Years by Shubnum Khan

Transform Your Habits

The Warm Hands of Ghosts

Katherine Arden

4.02

Transform Your Habits

The Familiar

Leigh Bardugo

3.84

Transform Your Habits

The Djinn Waits a Hundred Years

Shubnum Khan

3.87

Transform Your Habits

Diavola

Jennifer Marie Thorne

3.95

View all the books

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