21 Top fiction books like Normal Rules Don't Apply: Stories by Kate Atkinson

Cover of Normal Rules Don't Apply: Stories by Kate Atkinson

Normal Rules Don't Apply: Stories

By: Kate Atkinson

3.71

Format: 212 pages, Hardcover

A dazzling collection of eleven interconnected stories from the bestselling, award-winning author o…

"Hello, Boy," Franklin said. He liked dogs, they were uncomplicated. "I'm a girl, actually," the dog said."

-Kate Atkinson, Normal Rules Don't Apply: Stories

If you liked the fiction plot in Normal Rules Don't Apply: Stories by Kate Atkinson , here is a list of 21 books like this:

Cover of Prophet Song by Paul    Lynch

1. Prophet Song

By: Paul Lynch

4.10

Format: 259 pages, Kindle Edition

A fearless portrait of a society on the brink as a mother faces a terrible choice, from an internat… read more

Similar categories in Paul Lynch's Prophet Song book and Kate Atkinson's Normal Rules Don't Apply: Stories

  • audiobook
  • literary fiction
  • fiction
  • contemporary
"people are entitled to some small moment of peace."

-Paul Lynch, Prophet Song

"the child absorbing the mother’s trauma and storing it in his body for later use,"

-Paul Lynch, Prophet Song

"... time is at once addition and subtraction, time adds one day to the next and always takes away from what's left..."

-Paul Lynch, Prophet Song

"...knowing how it is so that all boys grow up and pull away from home to unmake the world in the guise of making it, nature decrees it so."

-Paul Lynch, Prophet Song

Cover of Close to Death (Hawthorne & Horowitz, #5) by Anthony Horowitz

2. Close to Death (Hawthorne & Horowitz, #5)

By: Anthony Horowitz

4.18

Format: 419 pages, Hardcover

In New York Times–bestselling author Anthony Horowitz’s ingenious fifth literary whodunit in the Ha… read more

Similar categories in Anthony Horowitz's Close to Death (Hawthorne & Horowitz, #5) book and Kate Atkinson's Normal Rules Don't Apply: Stories

  • contemporary
  • audiobook
  • fiction
  • british literature
Cover of You Are Here by David Nicholls

3. You Are Here

By: David Nicholls

4.08

Format: 368 pages, Hardcover

Sometimes you need to get lost to find your way . . . Michael is coming undone. Adrift after his… read more

Similar categories in David Nicholls's You Are Here book and Kate Atkinson's Normal Rules Don't Apply: Stories

  • adult fiction
  • literary fiction
  • british literature
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • adult
  • audiobook
"It’s true I do have time and freedom and I love it, sometimes. But the notion that I should be “making the most of it"

-David Nicholls, You Are Here

"You were traumatised.’ ‘I wonder if people use that word too much.’ ‘It’s the right word for something traumatic.’ ‘But it wasn’t war. People get beaten up every Friday night.’ ‘And are traumatised b…"

-David Nicholls, You Are Here

"she went on a solo trip to Italy, role-playing a character in a Forster novel. In Florence, she read performatively in cafés and sat in the cool of exquisite churches, straining for some kind of spir…"

-David Nicholls, You Are Here

"Books saw her through the pupal stage of thirteen to sixteen, frowning at Kafka and Woolf, then tearing through John Irving and Maeve Binchy, widely read in the proper sense, making no distinction be…"

-David Nicholls, You Are Here

Cover of The Wren, the Wren by Anne Enright

4. 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 Kate Atkinson's Normal Rules Don't Apply: Stories

  • literary fiction
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • adult
  • audiobook
"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 James by Percival Everett

5. 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 Kate Atkinson's Normal Rules Don't Apply: Stories

  • literary fiction
  • fiction
  • audiobook
Cover of Roman Stories by Jhumpa Lahiri

6. Roman Stories

By: Jhumpa Lahiri

3.80

Format: 224 pages, Hardcover

Rome—metropolis and monument, suspended between past and future, multi-faceted and metaphysical—is … read more

Similar categories in Jhumpa Lahiri's Roman Stories book and Kate Atkinson's Normal Rules Don't Apply: Stories

  • literary fiction
  • short stories
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • adult
  • audiobook
Cover of Normal Rules Don't Apply: Stories by Kate Atkinson

7. Normal Rules Don't Apply: Stories

By: Kate Atkinson

3.71

Format: 212 pages, Hardcover

A dazzling collection of eleven interconnected stories from the bestselling, award-winning author o… read more

Similar categories in Kate Atkinson's Normal Rules Don't Apply: Stories book and Kate Atkinson's Normal Rules Don't Apply: Stories

  • adult fiction
  • literary fiction
  • magical realism
  • british literature
  • short stories
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • adult
  • fantasy
  • audiobook
"Hello, Boy," Franklin said. He liked dogs, they were uncomplicated. "I'm a girl, actually," the dog said."

-Kate Atkinson, Normal Rules Don't Apply: Stories

Cover of North Woods by Daniel       Mason

8. 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 Kate Atkinson's Normal Rules Don't Apply: Stories

  • adult fiction
  • literary fiction
  • magical realism
  • fiction
  • adult
  • audiobook
Cover of Day by Michael Cunningham

9. Day

By: Michael Cunningham

3.57

Format: 273 pages, Hardcover

As the world changes around them, a family weathers the storms of growing up, growing older, fallin… read more

Similar categories in Michael Cunningham's Day book and Kate Atkinson's Normal Rules Don't Apply: Stories

  • adult fiction
  • literary fiction
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • adult
  • audiobook
"Here, then, is the answer. A degree of cruelty is necessary because Garth, like most men, can only deposit his needs at her feet, can only declare his love—that romantic hallucination, which would be…"

-Michael Cunningham, Day

Cover of Long Island (Eilis Lacey, #2) by Colm Tóibín

10. Long Island (Eilis Lacey, #2)

By: Colm Tóibín

3.82

Format: 294 pages, Hardcover

From the beloved, critically acclaimed New York Times bestselling author comes a spectacularly movi… read more

Similar categories in Colm Tóibín's Long Island (Eilis Lacey, #2) book and Kate Atkinson's Normal Rules Don't Apply: Stories

  • literary fiction
  • adult
  • fiction
  • audiobook
Cover of The Bee Sting by Paul Murray

11. 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 Kate Atkinson's Normal Rules Don't Apply: Stories

  • audiobook
  • literary fiction
  • fiction
  • contemporary
"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

12. 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 Kate Atkinson's Normal Rules Don't Apply: Stories

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

13. 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 Kate Atkinson's Normal Rules Don't Apply: Stories

  • literary fiction
  • short stories
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • adult
  • 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 Hunter (Cal Hooper, #2) by Tana French

14. The Hunter (Cal Hooper, #2)

By: Tana French

4.12

Format: 467 pages, Hardcover

It’s a blazing summer when two men arrive in a small village in the West of Ireland. One of them is… read more

Similar categories in Tana French's The Hunter (Cal Hooper, #2) book and Kate Atkinson's Normal Rules Don't Apply: Stories

  • adult
  • fiction
  • audiobook
"She'll bake bread and make jam, because she likes those made her way, but she says she cooked a good meal from scratch every night of her marriage, and now if she wants to live mainly off toasted san…"

-Tana French, The Hunter (Cal Hooper, #2)

"Trey has a bone-deep mistrust of marriage or anything resembling it. She knows that Lena sometimes stays the night at Cal's place, but Lena also has a place of her own, which she can go back to whene…"

-Tana French, The Hunter (Cal Hooper, #2)

Cover of The Fraud by Zadie Smith

15. 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 Kate Atkinson's Normal Rules Don't Apply: Stories

  • literary fiction
  • british literature
  • fiction
  • adult
  • 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 The Last Word by Elly Griffiths

16. The Last Word

By: Elly Griffiths

3.92

Format: 338 pages, Hardcover

Natalka and Edwin, whom we met in The Postscript Murders, are running a detective agency in Shoreha… read more

Similar categories in Elly Griffiths's The Last Word book and Kate Atkinson's Normal Rules Don't Apply: Stories

  • contemporary
  • audiobook
  • fiction
  • british literature
Cover of Absolutely and Forever by Rose Tremain

17. 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 Kate Atkinson's Normal Rules Don't Apply: Stories

  • literary fiction
  • british literature
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • audiobook
Cover of Learned by Heart by Emma Donoghue

18. Learned by Heart

By: Emma Donoghue

3.51

Format: 336 pages, Hardcover

Eliza and Lister have never been this wide-awake in their lives, and the Slope, with its curtains d… read more

Similar categories in Emma Donoghue's Learned by Heart book and Kate Atkinson's Normal Rules Don't Apply: Stories

  • literary fiction
  • adult
  • fiction
  • audiobook
Cover of The Last Devil to Die (Thursday Murder Club, #4) by Richard Osman

19. The Last Devil to Die (Thursday Murder Club, #4)

By: Richard Osman

4.49

Format: 421 pages, Hardcover

Shocking news reaches the Thursday Murder Club. An old friend in the antiques business has been … read more

Similar categories in Richard Osman's The Last Devil to Die (Thursday Murder Club, #4) book and Kate Atkinson's Normal Rules Don't Apply: Stories

  • audiobook
  • fiction
  • contemporary
"His authentic indifference seems to delight them."

-Richard Osman, The Last Devil to Die (Thursday Murder Club, #4)

"I think Psychopaths wear lipstick too,' says Joyce."

-Richard Osman, The Last Devil to Die (Thursday Murder Club, #4)

"I love you,' he says. Because what else is there to say?"

-Richard Osman, The Last Devil to Die (Thursday Murder Club, #4)

"Sure,' says Ron. 'She wants to kill me. Bake her some scones."

-Richard Osman, The Last Devil to Die (Thursday Murder Club, #4)

Cover of The Vaster Wilds by Lauren Groff

20. The Vaster Wilds

By: Lauren Groff

3.77

Format: 272 pages, Hardcover

A taut and electrifying novel from celebrated bestselling author Lauren Groff, about one spirited g… read more

Similar categories in Lauren Groff's The Vaster Wilds book and Kate Atkinson's Normal Rules Don't Apply: Stories

  • adult fiction
  • literary fiction
  • fiction
  • adult
  • audiobook
"For what is a girl but a vessel made to hold the desires of men."

-Lauren Groff, The Vaster Wilds

"O put the memory away, girl, she told herself sternly. For the sorrow could eat you entire."

-Lauren Groff, The Vaster Wilds

"And humans were not made to be always alone; humans survive only in the company of other humans."

-Lauren Groff, The Vaster Wilds

"Against the resistance of other minds, one's thoughts are pulled out of their comfortable shapes, and true thinking begins."

-Lauren Groff, The Vaster Wilds

Cover of So Late in the Day: Stories of Women and Men by Claire Keegan

21. So Late in the Day: Stories of Women and Men

By: Claire Keegan

3.99

Format: 128 pages, Hardcover

Librarian's Note: This is the entry for the short story collection. Please don't combine it with th… read more

Similar categories in Claire Keegan's So Late in the Day: Stories of Women and Men book and Kate Atkinson's Normal Rules Don't Apply: Stories

  • adult fiction
  • literary fiction
  • short stories
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • adult
"You know what is at the heart of misogyny? When it comes down to it?’ ‘So I’m a misogynist now?’ ‘It’s simply about not giving,’ she said."

-Claire Keegan, So Late in the Day: Stories of Women and Men

13 best-selling contemporary books like Normal Rules Don't Apply: Stories by Kate Atkinson

Transform Your Habits

Prophet Song

Paul Lynch

4.10

Transform Your Habits

Close to Death (Hawthorne & Horowitz, #5)

Anthony Horowitz

4.18

Transform Your Habits

You Are Here

David Nicholls

4.08

Transform Your Habits

The Wren, the Wren

Anne Enright

3.55

View all the books

21 must-read fiction books like Day by Michael Cunningham

Transform Your Habits

After Annie

Anna Quindlen

4.03

Transform Your Habits

The Wren, the Wren

Anne Enright

3.55

Transform Your Habits

James

Percival Everett

4.54

Transform Your Habits

Leaving

Roxana Robinson

3.87

View all the books

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