6 best-selling contemporary books like Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson

Cover of Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson

Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit

By: Jeanette Winterson

3.94

Format: 456 pages, Paperback

This startling novel describes the adolescence of a ferociously bright and rebellious orphan adopte…

If you liked the contemporary plot in Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson , here is a list of 6 books like this:

Cover of Notes of a Crocodile by Qiu Miaojin, Bonnie Huie

1. Notes of a Crocodile

By: Qiu Miaojin , Bonnie Huie

3.83

Format: 242 pages, Paperback

Set in the post-martial-law era of late 1980s Taipei, Notes of a Crocodile depicts the coming-of-ag… read more

Similar categories in Qiu Miaojin's Notes of a Crocodile book and Jeanette Winterson's Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit

  • lesbian
  • classics
  • lgbt
  • fiction
  • queer
"Unhealthy love is two people stoking a shared fantasy of desperate beauty, weaponizing passion and desire."

-Qiu Miaojin, Notes of a Crocodile

"Secretly though, I did sort of enjoy being a fucked-up mess. Apart from that, I didn't have a whole lot going on."

-Qiu Miaojin, Notes of a Crocodile

"Like death, college serves as a kind of escape hatch. But while death takes you straight to the morgue, college is a single rope dangling loose from the inescapable net of society."

-Qiu Miaojin, Notes of a Crocodile

"Sweeping that other me into their arms, they led me in a dance within societal norms, along a trajectory based on a delusion. (Though I couldn't define what I was, I knew what I wasn't.)"

-Qiu Miaojin, Notes of a Crocodile

Cover of The Well of Loneliness by Radclyffe Hall

2. The Well of Loneliness

By: Radclyffe Hall

4.35

Format: None pages, Paperback

First published in 1928, this timeless portrayal of lesbian love is now a classic. The thinly disgu… read more

Similar categories in Radclyffe Hall's The Well of Loneliness book and Jeanette Winterson's Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit

  • lesbian
  • classics
  • lgbt
  • fiction
  • queer
Cover of Orlando by Virginia Woolf, Sandra M Gilbert

3. Orlando

By: Virginia Woolf , Sandra M Gilbert

3.87

Format: 336 pages, Paperback

Virginia Woolf's Orlando 'The longest and most charming love letter in literature', playfully const… read more

Similar categories in Virginia Woolf's Orlando book and Jeanette Winterson's Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit

  • classics
  • queer
  • fiction
  • lgbt
"Life and a lover"

-Virginia Woolf, Orlando

"Thoughts are divine."

-Virginia Woolf, Orlando

"All extremes of feeling are allied with madness."

-Virginia Woolf, Orlando

"Love, the poet said, is woman's whole existence."

-Virginia Woolf, Orlando

Cover of Stone Butch Blues by Leslie Feinberg

4. Stone Butch Blues

By: Leslie Feinberg

4.43

Format: 230 pages, Hardcover

Woman or man? This internationally acclaimed novel looks at the world through the eyes of Jess Gold… read more

Similar categories in Leslie Feinberg's Stone Butch Blues book and Jeanette Winterson's Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit

  • classics
  • queer
  • fiction
  • lgbt
Cover of Rubyfruit Jungle by Rita Mae Brown

5. Rubyfruit Jungle

By: Rita Mae Brown

3.68

Format: 191 pages, Mass Market Paperback

Bawdy and moving, the ultimate word-of-mouth bestseller, Rubyfruit Jungle is about growing up a les… read more

Similar categories in Rita Mae Brown's Rubyfruit Jungle book and Jeanette Winterson's Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit

  • lesbian
  • classics
  • lgbt
  • fiction
  • queer
Cover of Stuff Happens by David Hare

6. Stuff Happens

By: David Hare

3.57

Format: 384 pages, Paperback

"Stuff happens . . . And it's untidy, and freedom's untidy, and free people are free to make mistak… read more

Similar categories in David Hare's Stuff Happens book and Jeanette Winterson's Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit

Cover of Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson

7. Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit

By: Jeanette Winterson

3.94

Format: 456 pages, Paperback

This startling novel describes the adolescence of a ferociously bright and rebellious orphan adopte… read more

Similar categories in Jeanette Winterson's Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit book and Jeanette Winterson's Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit

  • lesbian
  • classics
  • lgbt
  • religion
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • queer
Cover of Fingersmith by Sarah Waters

8. Fingersmith

By: Sarah Waters

4.02

Format: 592 pages, ebook

Sue Trinder is an orphan, left as an infant in the care of Mrs. Sucksby, a "baby farmer," who raise… read more

Similar categories in Sarah Waters's Fingersmith book and Jeanette Winterson's Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit

  • lesbian
  • queer
  • fiction
  • lgbt
"You pearl!"

-Sarah Waters, Fingersmith

"PIGEON MY ARSE!"

-Sarah Waters, Fingersmith

"It's a curious, wanting thing."

-Sarah Waters, Fingersmith

"She said, 'It is filled with all the words for how I want you."

-Sarah Waters, Fingersmith

Cover of Tipping the Velvet by Sarah Waters

9. Tipping the Velvet

By: Sarah Waters

4.05

Format: 472 pages, Paperback

Nan King, an oyster girl, is captivated by the music hall phenomenon Kitty Butler, a male impersona… read more

Similar categories in Sarah Waters's Tipping the Velvet book and Jeanette Winterson's Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit

  • lesbian
  • queer
  • fiction
  • lgbt
"clad not exactly as a boy but, rather confusingly, as the boy I would have been, had I been more of a girl"

-Sarah Waters, Tipping the Velvet

"I knew that Kitty and I felt just the same- only, of course, about different things. I should have remembered this, later."

-Sarah Waters, Tipping the Velvet

"Tricky was a plain-faced man with a very handsome voice - a voice like the sound of a clarinet, at once liquid and penetrating, and lovely to listen to."

-Sarah Waters, Tipping the Velvet

"With every step I took away from her, the movement at my heart and between my legs grew more defined: I felt like a ventriloquist, locking his protesting dolls in to a trunk."

-Sarah Waters, Tipping the Velvet

10. Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit, Jeanette Winterson: Note

By: None

3.99

Format: 512 pages, Paperback

'York Notes Advanced' offer an accessible approach to English Literature. This series has been comp… read more

Similar categories in None's Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit, Jeanette Winterson: Note book and Jeanette Winterson's Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit

Cover of Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin

11. Giovanni’s Room

By: James Baldwin

4.33

Format: 224 pages, Paperback

Set in the contemporary Paris of American  expatraites, liasons, and violence, a young man finds  h… read more

Similar categories in James Baldwin's Giovanni’s Room book and Jeanette Winterson's Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit

  • classics
  • queer
  • fiction
  • lgbt
"Nobody can stay in the Garden of Eden."

-James Baldwin, Giovanni’s Room

"Perhaps home is not a place but simply an irrevocable condition."

-James Baldwin, Giovanni’s Room

"...for nothing is more unbearable, once one has it, than freedom."

-James Baldwin, Giovanni’s Room

"I loved her as much as ever and I still did not know how much that was."

-James Baldwin, Giovanni’s Room

Cover of The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

12. The Bell Jar

By: Sylvia Plath

4.06

Format: 294 pages, Paperback

The Bell Jar chronicles the crack-up of Esther Greenwood: brilliant, beautiful, enormously talented… read more

Similar categories in Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar book and Jeanette Winterson's Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit

  • fiction
"I woke to the sound of rain."

-Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar

"I wanted to be where nobody I knew could ever come."

-Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar

"When they asked me what I wanted to be I said I didn't know."

-Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar

"I thought the most beautiful thing in the world must be shadow."

-Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar

13. The Book of Blood

By: Vicki Feaver

4.33

Format: 228 pages, Paperback

Split between dark and light, this book records the dichotomy of human experience with unflinching … read more

Similar categories in Vicki Feaver's The Book of Blood book and Jeanette Winterson's Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit

Cover of The Price of Salt, or Carol by Patricia Highsmith, Claire  Morgan

14. The Price of Salt, or Carol

By: Patricia Highsmith , Claire Morgan

4.02

Format: 292 pages, Paperback

Patricia Highsmith's story of sexual obsession may be one of the most important, but still largely … read more

Similar categories in Patricia Highsmith's The Price of Salt, or Carol book and Jeanette Winterson's Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit

  • lesbian
  • classics
  • lgbt
  • fiction
  • queer
"She hated cleaning up after making something."

-Patricia Highsmith, The Price of Salt, or Carol

"Love was supposed to be a kind of blissful insanity."

-Patricia Highsmith, The Price of Salt, or Carol

"It always gets late with you. - Is that a compliment?"

-Patricia Highsmith, The Price of Salt, or Carol

"What else mattered except being with Carol, anywhere, anyhow?"

-Patricia Highsmith, The Price of Salt, or Carol

Cover of I Who Have Never Known Men by Ros Schwartz, Jacqueline Harpman

15. I Who Have Never Known Men

By: Ros Schwartz , Jacqueline Harpman

4.22

Format: 208 pages, Paperback

"As far back as I can recall, I have been in the bunker." A young woman is kept in a cage underg… read more

Similar categories in Ros Schwartz's I Who Have Never Known Men book and Jeanette Winterson's Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit

  • classics
  • fiction
"Survival is never more than putting off the moment of death."

-Ros Schwartz, I Who Have Never Known Men

"I thought it was unfair, and then I understood that, alone and terrified, anger was my only weapon against the horror"

-Ros Schwartz, I Who Have Never Known Men

"Look at them. They’re pretending, they behave as though they still have some control over their lives and make momentous decisions about which vegetable to cook first."

-Ros Schwartz, I Who Have Never Known Men

"Only now, I tell myself that what I'd felt for her, the trust that slowly built up, the constant preference for her company and the joy each time I was reunited with her after an expedition were prob…"

-Ros Schwartz, I Who Have Never Known Men

Cover of Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield

16. Our Wives Under the Sea

By: Julia Armfield

3.78

Format: 240 pages, Paperback

Miri thinks she has got her wife back, when Leah finally returns after a deep-sea mission that ende… read more

Similar categories in Julia Armfield's Our Wives Under the Sea book and Jeanette Winterson's Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit

  • lesbian
  • lgbt
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • queer
"El océano profundo es una casa embrujada: un lugar donde se mueven en la oscuridad cosas que no deberían existir."

-Julia Armfield, Our Wives Under the Sea

"She refused almost every aspect of my help, the way women will when they've been bred to accept little more than the baset civility."

-Julia Armfield, Our Wives Under the Sea

"I don't know why I expected you to read my mind,' I say, when I call back to leave her a message, 'I was just doing what I always do, assuming the world revolves around me."

-Julia Armfield, Our Wives Under the Sea

"The space around us is a claw half grasped, holding tight without quite crushing, and I wish, in the idle way I always wish these days, that I felt more confident in my ability to breathe."

-Julia Armfield, Our Wives Under the Sea

Cover of Good Morning, Midnight by Jean Rhys

17. Good Morning, Midnight

By: Jean Rhys

3.87

Format: 208 pages, Paperback

“As sharp and lucent and alarming as a piece of broken crystal.”― Deborah Eisenberg, author of Your… read more

Similar categories in Jean Rhys's Good Morning, Midnight book and Jeanette Winterson's Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit

  • classics
  • fiction
"Quite like old times,' the room says."

-Jean Rhys, Good Morning, Midnight

"And then the days came when I was alone."

-Jean Rhys, Good Morning, Midnight

"I want more of this feeling - fire and wings."

-Jean Rhys, Good Morning, Midnight

"Saved, rescued, but not quite so good as new..."

-Jean Rhys, Good Morning, Midnight

Cover of Paradise Rot by Jenny Hval

18. Paradise Rot

By: Jenny Hval

3.55

Format: 160 pages, Paperback

A lyrical debut novel from a musician and artist renowned for her sharp sexual and political imager… read more

Similar categories in Jenny Hval's Paradise Rot book and Jeanette Winterson's Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit

  • lesbian
  • lgbt
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • queer
"I took a bite of a Bloody Ploughman. Even the flesh was red. 'Bloody,' Carral said. 'Nice colour,' I answered. 'It looks sinful. I bet that was the apple Eve ate, you know, in the Bible, the forbidde…"

-Jenny Hval, Paradise Rot

"I'll tell you the fairy tale of the apple. Eve ate the apple, and then Adam came and did so too. Afterwards the apple was forgotten, and it was assumed that it rolled away in the grass while Adam and…"

-Jenny Hval, Paradise Rot

Cover of Sunburn by Chloe Michelle Howarth

19. Sunburn

By: Chloe Michelle Howarth

4.33

Format: 288 pages, Paperback

Selected as an Evening Standard 'one to watch in 2023' It's the early 1990s, and in the Irish vi… read more

Similar categories in Chloe Michelle Howarth's Sunburn book and Jeanette Winterson's Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit

  • lesbian
  • lgbt
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • queer
"It's a shame that you can't even come out to me."

-Chloe Michelle Howarth, Sunburn

"People say 'lesbian' sometimes, they say 'dyke' more."

-Chloe Michelle Howarth, Sunburn

"I hope your bed is warm and you sleep well. See you tomorrow, Lucy x"

-Chloe Michelle Howarth, Sunburn

"All I'm doing is trying to love people. All I need is the right kind of love back."

-Chloe Michelle Howarth, Sunburn

Cover of Big Swiss by Jen Beagin

20. Big Swiss

By: Jen Beagin

3.68

Format: 336 pages, Hardcover

Greta lives with her friend Sabine in an ancient Dutch farmhouse in Hudson, New York. The house is … read more

Similar categories in Jen Beagin's Big Swiss book and Jeanette Winterson's Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit

  • lesbian
  • lgbt
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • queer
"¿Habla más de un idioma?"

-Jen Beagin, Big Swiss

"You bullied other bullies,"

-Jen Beagin, Big Swiss

"she’d always been less of a shit-talker and more of a shit-thinker"

-Jen Beagin, Big Swiss

"At least I know where the hell I am and what’s happening. Which way is north?"

-Jen Beagin, Big Swiss

Cover of Mrs. S by K.    Patrick

21. Mrs. S

By: K. Patrick

3.63

Format: 240 pages, Kindle Edition

A sublime and sensual debut novel exploring the nature of queer love and attraction, the transforma… read more

Similar categories in K. Patrick's Mrs. S book and Jeanette Winterson's Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit

  • lesbian
  • lgbt
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • queer
"I live in hope it is her, I live in fear it is her, it is never her."

-K. Patrick, Mrs. S

18 Best fiction books like Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson

Transform Your Habits

Notes of a Crocodile

Qiu Miaojin , Bonnie Huie

3.83

Transform Your Habits

The Well of Loneliness

Radclyffe Hall

4.35

Transform Your Habits

Orlando

Virginia Woolf , Sandra M Gilbert

3.87

Transform Your Habits

Stone Butch Blues

Leslie Feinberg

4.43

View all the books

18 Top fiction books like Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin

Transform Your Habits

Play It As It Lays

Joan Didion , David Thomson

3.92

Transform Your Habits

The Bluest Eye

Toni Morrison

4.12

Transform Your Habits

The Stranger

Albert Camus , Matthew Ward , Stuart Gilbert , None

4.02

Transform Your Habits

White Nights

Fyodor Dostoevsky

4.06

View all the books

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