10 best-selling historical books like Glory by NoViolet Bulawayo

Cover of Glory by NoViolet Bulawayo

Glory

By: NoViolet Bulawayo

3.70

Format: 416 pages, Hardcover

From the award-winning author of the Booker-prize finalist We Need New Names, a blockbuster of a no…

"The dead are not dead, glory to the ancestors!"

-NoViolet Bulawayo, Glory

"And today they'll call the thing all sort of queer names, I've even heard it called a genocide. But I myself call it service."

-NoViolet Bulawayo, Glory

"Words not only mattered but they were power. Words were muti. Words were weapons. Words were magic. Words were church. Words were wealth. Words were life."

-NoViolet Bulawayo, Glory

"If I don't write, then who will I blame when I wake up one day to find myself in the belly of a crocodile that calls itself History, that devours the stories of everyone else and goes on to speak for us?"

-NoViolet Bulawayo, Glory

If you liked the historical plot in Glory by NoViolet Bulawayo , here is a list of 10 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 NoViolet Bulawayo's Glory

  • 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 Case Study by Graeme Macrae Burnet

2. Case Study

By: Graeme Macrae Burnet

3.60

Format: 278 pages, Hardcover

“I have decided to write down everything that happens, because I feel, I suppose, I may be putting … read more

Similar categories in Graeme Macrae Burnet's Case Study book and NoViolet Bulawayo's Glory

  • literary fiction
  • historical
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
  • contemporary
"Forget about meaning’, he said. ‘Life’s not about meaning, it’s about experience."

-Graeme Macrae Burnet, Case Study

"It is impossible to walk behind someone on a narrow cliff path without the idea of shoving them over the edge crossing one’s mind."

-Graeme Macrae Burnet, Case Study

"To be in another country, speaking another language, was to be another person, and in being another person I felt for the first time that I was myself."

-Graeme Macrae Burnet, Case Study

"Her handbag, he said, was found on the scene. I made a mental note to carry out a thorough spring clean of contents of my own bag before throwing myself in front of any trains."

-Graeme Macrae Burnet, Case Study

Cover of The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Shehan Karunatilaka

3. The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida

By: Shehan Karunatilaka

3.92

Format: 386 pages, Hardcover

Colombo, 1990. Maali Almeida—war photographer, gambler, and closet queen—has woken up dead in what … read more

Similar categories in Shehan Karunatilaka's The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida book and NoViolet Bulawayo's Glory

  • literary fiction
  • magical realism
  • historical
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
  • fantasy
  • audiobook
"Even suicide requires perseverance."

-Shehan Karunatilaka, The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida

"Why should a Creator watch over you? Wasn't creating you enough?"

-Shehan Karunatilaka, The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida

"You were simply a handsome man who enjoyed beautiful boys. Nothing more, nothing less and no one's business."

-Shehan Karunatilaka, The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida

"Despair always begins as a snack that you nibble on when bored and then becomes a meal that you have thrice a day."

-Shehan Karunatilaka, The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida

Cover of If I Survive You by Jonathan Escoffery

4. If I Survive You

By: Jonathan Escoffery

3.69

Format: 260 pages, Hardcover

In the 1970s, Topper and Sanya flee to Miami as political violence consumes their native Kingston. … read more

Similar categories in Jonathan Escoffery's If I Survive You book and NoViolet Bulawayo's Glory

  • literary fiction
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
  • contemporary
  • audiobook
"What does Whiteness feel like?... I imagine it's like walking barefoot…"

-Jonathan Escoffery, If I Survive You

"Why don't stars make any sounds in the winter? What sounds? Ethan said."

-Jonathan Escoffery, If I Survive You

"Every boy deserves to believe him father is good, but if each father were good, we’d be living in a different kind of world."

-Jonathan Escoffery, If I Survive You

"I imagined I could have begged an old girlfriend from college to send money; enough of them had expressed ambivalence about their trust funds that this seemed a plausible path down which I might drag…"

-Jonathan Escoffery, If I Survive You

Cover of Children of Paradise by Camilla Grudova

5. Children of Paradise

By: Camilla Grudova

3.49

Format: 200 pages, Hardcover

When Holly applies for a job at the Paradise - one of the city's oldest cinemas, squashed into the … read more

Similar categories in Camilla Grudova's Children of Paradise book and NoViolet Bulawayo's Glory

  • literary fiction
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
  • contemporary
  • audiobook
Cover of Glory by NoViolet Bulawayo

6. Glory

By: NoViolet Bulawayo

3.70

Format: 416 pages, Hardcover

From the award-winning author of the Booker-prize finalist We Need New Names, a blockbuster of a no… read more

Similar categories in NoViolet Bulawayo's Glory book and NoViolet Bulawayo's Glory

  • literary fiction
  • magical realism
  • historical
  • politics
  • zimbabwe
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • historical fiction
  • fantasy
  • audiobook
"The dead are not dead, glory to the ancestors!"

-NoViolet Bulawayo, Glory

"And today they'll call the thing all sort of queer names, I've even heard it called a genocide. But I myself call it service."

-NoViolet Bulawayo, Glory

"Words not only mattered but they were power. Words were muti. Words were weapons. Words were magic. Words were church. Words were wealth. Words were life."

-NoViolet Bulawayo, Glory

"If I don't write, then who will I blame when I wake up one day to find myself in the belly of a crocodile that calls itself History, that devours the stories of everyone else and goes on to speak for…"

-NoViolet Bulawayo, Glory

Cover of A Spell of Good Things by Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀

7. A Spell of Good Things

By: Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀

3.79

Format: 352 pages, Hardcover

Ayobami Adebayo, the celebrated author of Stay With Me unveils a dazzling story of modern Nigeria a… read more

Similar categories in Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀'s A Spell of Good Things book and NoViolet Bulawayo's Glory

  • audiobook
  • literary fiction
  • fiction
  • contemporary
"Time was unforgiving, it didn’t stop, not even to give people a chance to scrape themselves off the floor if they’d been shattered."

-Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀, A Spell of Good Things

"He stared back at her, unconcerned. She had always marvelled at his calm assurance that everything good in his life would either remain the same or get better. He took good fortune for granted. As th…"

-Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀, A Spell of Good Things

Cover of This Other Eden by Paul Harding

8. This Other Eden

By: Paul Harding

3.78

Format: 224 pages, Hardcover

Set at the beginning of the twentieth century and inspired by historical events, This Other Eden te… read more

Similar categories in Paul Harding's This Other Eden book and NoViolet Bulawayo's Glory

  • literary fiction
  • historical
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
  • audiobook
Cover of Treacle Walker by Alan Garner

9. Treacle Walker

By: Alan Garner

3.13

Format: 152 pages, Hardcover

Treacle Walker is a stunning fusion of myth and folklore and an exploration of the fluidity of time… read more

Similar categories in Alan Garner's Treacle Walker book and NoViolet Bulawayo's Glory

  • literary fiction
  • magical realism
  • fiction
  • fantasy
  • audiobook
Cover of After Sappho by Selby Wynn Schwartz

10. After Sappho

By: Selby Wynn Schwartz

3.51

Format: 272 pages, Hardcover

What did we want? To begin with, we wanted what half the population had got by just being born. … read more

Similar categories in Selby Wynn Schwartz's After Sappho book and NoViolet Bulawayo's Glory

  • historical
  • literary fiction
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
"The death of a child makes a barbaric sound, even in print."

-Selby Wynn Schwartz, After Sappho

"We were going to be sappho, but how did Sappho begin to become herself? P.40"

-Selby Wynn Schwartz, After Sappho

"But some of us have always seen the modern world as a sea meant to drown us."

-Selby Wynn Schwartz, After Sappho

"There is always this risk, in life, that we have our parts in a tragedy and we do not know it."

-Selby Wynn Schwartz, After Sappho

Cover of Black Butterflies by Priscilla  Morris

11. Black Butterflies

By: Priscilla Morris

4.25

Format: 256 pages, Kindle Edition

Sarajevo, spring 1992. Each night, nationalist gangs erect barricades, splitting the diverse city i… read more

Similar categories in Priscilla Morris's Black Butterflies book and NoViolet Bulawayo's Glory

  • literary fiction
  • historical
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
  • contemporary
  • audiobook
Cover of Study for Obedience by Sarah Bernstein

12. Study for Obedience

By: Sarah Bernstein

3.05

Format: 192 pages, Hardcover

A haunting, compressed masterwork from an extraordinary new voice in Canadian fiction. A young w… read more

Similar categories in Sarah Bernstein's Study for Obedience book and NoViolet Bulawayo's Glory

  • audiobook
  • literary fiction
  • fiction
  • contemporary
"I try always to be good."

-Sarah Bernstein, Study for Obedience

"How, I wondered, might a person, a people, take root, roots and rootlessness, the preservation of what little remains of the past, such were thoughts that blew through me on any given morning, standi…"

-Sarah Bernstein, Study for Obedience

"In taking a side, I thought uneasily, perhaps I ought to take the long view, the survival of the species as a whole. That was my problem, I thought, I was always thinking at the level of the individu…"

-Sarah Bernstein, Study for Obedience

"I had hoped that here in the country I would experience the turn of the seasons differently, with less apprehension, I might come to see the form and plan of the world. Not to frame it within systems…"

-Sarah Bernstein, Study for Obedience

Cover of Western Lane by Chetna Maroo

13. Western Lane

By: Chetna Maroo

3.51

Format: 160 pages, Hardcover

Shortlisted for the 2023 Booker Prize A taut, enthralling first novel about grief, sisterhood, a… read more

Similar categories in Chetna Maroo's Western Lane book and NoViolet Bulawayo's Glory

  • audiobook
  • literary fiction
  • fiction
  • contemporary
Cover of Pod by Laline Paull

14. Pod

By: Laline Paull

3.63

Format: 272 pages, Hardcover

An astonishing and immersive new novel, Pod takes the reader into the depths of the ocean—and into … read more

Similar categories in Laline Paull's Pod book and NoViolet Bulawayo's Glory

  • literary fiction
  • magical realism
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • fantasy
"To spin like everyone else was the key to fitting in, and if she could only hear the music of the ocean like everyone else, she too would be able to tune in and do it."

-Laline Paull, Pod

Cover of The Trees by Percival Everett

15. The Trees

By: Percival Everett

4.06

Format: 309 pages, Paperback

When a pair of detectives from the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation arrive in Money, Mississippi… read more

Similar categories in Percival Everett's The Trees book and NoViolet Bulawayo's Glory

  • audiobook
  • literary fiction
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
"Unknown Male is a name,"

-Percival Everett, The Trees

"Goddamnit, I hate murder more than just about anything,"

-Percival Everett, The Trees

"You should know I consider police shootings to be lynchings"

-Percival Everett, The Trees

"People should know, understand that not all Thursdays are the same."

-Percival Everett, The Trees

Cover of Booth by Karen Joy Fowler

16. Booth

By: Karen Joy Fowler

3.83

Format: 470 pages, Hardcover

Best Book of the Year Real Simple - AARP - USA Today From the Man Booker finalist and bestselli… read more

Similar categories in Karen Joy Fowler's Booth book and NoViolet Bulawayo's Glory

  • literary fiction
  • historical
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
  • audiobook
"Why does the extraordinary courage of ordinary women go so unsung?"

-Karen Joy Fowler, Booth

Cover of The Colony by Audrey Magee

17. The Colony

By: Audrey Magee

4.11

Format: 376 pages, Hardcover

In 1979, as violence erupts all over Ireland, two outsiders travel to a small island off the west c… read more

Similar categories in Audrey Magee's The Colony book and NoViolet Bulawayo's Glory

  • literary fiction
  • historical
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
  • contemporary
  • audiobook
Cover of Maps of Our Spectacular Bodies by Maddie Mortimer

18. Maps of Our Spectacular Bodies

By: Maddie Mortimer

3.98

Format: 448 pages, Paperback

This lyrical debut novel is at once a passionate coming-of-age story, a meditation on illness and d… read more

Similar categories in Maddie Mortimer's Maps of Our Spectacular Bodies book and NoViolet Bulawayo's Glory

  • audiobook
  • literary fiction
  • fiction
  • contemporary
"the best way to ruin a perfect moment is by letting it continue."

-Maddie Mortimer, Maps of Our Spectacular Bodies

"For we inherit the haunts of our mothers; we are left with the guests they let in."

-Maddie Mortimer, Maps of Our Spectacular Bodies

"It is history's only duty, Lia thought: ensuring daughters are brighter than their mothers."

-Maddie Mortimer, Maps of Our Spectacular Bodies

"Sometimes it takes a lifetime to receive the world in a language different to your own; to let the shape and taste and sense of a thing eclipse its own translation."

-Maddie Mortimer, Maps of Our Spectacular Bodies

Cover of Fire Rush by Jacqueline  Crooks

19. Fire Rush

By: Jacqueline Crooks

3.79

Format: 352 pages, Hardcover

Set amid the Jamaican diaspora in London at the dawn of 1980s, a mesmerizing story of love, loss, a… read more

Similar categories in Jacqueline Crooks's Fire Rush book and NoViolet Bulawayo's Glory

  • literary fiction
  • historical
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
  • audiobook
Cover of Held by Anne   Michaels

20. Held

By: Anne Michaels

3.66

Format: 240 pages, Hardcover

A breathtaking and mysterious new novel from the beloved Anne Michaels, internationally bestselling… read more

Similar categories in Anne Michaels's Held book and NoViolet Bulawayo's Glory

  • literary fiction
  • historical
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
  • audiobook
"Who can say what happens when we are remembered?"

-Anne Michaels, Held

"Do we really need our own misery to teach us to be kind?"

-Anne Michaels, Held

"We know life is finite. Why should we believe death lasts forever?"

-Anne Michaels, Held

"Would he know the moment of his death or would it be like night falling."

-Anne Michaels, Held

Cover of Homesick by Jennifer  Croft

21. Homesick

By: Jennifer Croft

3.78

Format: 256 pages, Hardcover

The coming of age story of an award-winning translator, Homesick is about learning to love language… read more

Similar categories in Jennifer Croft's Homesick book and NoViolet Bulawayo's Glory

  • literary fiction
  • audiobook

20 must-read fiction books like Glory by NoViolet Bulawayo

Transform Your Habits

Prophet Song

Paul Lynch

4.10

Transform Your Habits

Case Study

Graeme Macrae Burnet

3.60

Transform Your Habits

The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida

Shehan Karunatilaka

3.92

Transform Your Habits

If I Survive You

Jonathan Escoffery

3.69

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15 best-selling adult books like Homesick by Jennifer Croft

Transform Your Habits

The Dog of the North

Elizabeth Mckenzie

3.61

Transform Your Habits

Children of Paradise

Camilla Grudova

3.49

Transform Your Habits

Enter Ghost

Isabella Hammad

4.09

Transform Your Habits

I'm a Fan

Sheena Patel

3.32

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