6 Top science fiction books like I Cheerfully Refuse by Leif Enger

Cover of I Cheerfully Refuse by Leif Enger

I Cheerfully Refuse

By: Leif Enger

4.03

Format: 336 pages, Hardcover

Set in a not-too-distant America, I Cheerfully Refuse is the tale of Rainy, an aspiring musician se…

"Those thieves and lovers and wandering poets- what big lives they had! I began watching everyone I met for secret greatness."

-Leif Enger, I Cheerfully Refuse

"Those thieves and lovers and wandering poets- what big lives they had! I began watching everyone I met for secret greatness."

-Leif Enger, I Cheerfully Refuse

"I think the sea has no in-between: you get either rage and wayward lightning and schizoid frenzy or such freehanded beauty that time contract or turns in on itself leaving you forgetful and no more no more civilized than a gull."

-Leif Enger, I Cheerfully Refuse

"I think the sea has no in-between: you get either rage and wayward lightning and schizoid frenzy or such freehanded beauty that time contract or turns in on itself leaving you forgetful and no more no more civilized than a gull."

-Leif Enger, I Cheerfully Refuse

If you liked the science fiction plot in I Cheerfully Refuse by Leif Enger , here is a list of 6 books like this:

Cover of James by Percival Everett

1. 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 Leif Enger's I Cheerfully Refuse

  • literary fiction
  • fiction
  • audiobook
Cover of Beautyland by Marie-Helene Bertino

2. Beautyland

By: Marie-Helene Bertino

4.15

Format: 336 pages, Hardcover

From the acclaimed author of Parakeet, Marie-Helene Bertino’s Beautyland is a wise, tender novel ab… read more

Similar categories in Marie-Helene Bertino's Beautyland book and Leif Enger's I Cheerfully Refuse

  • literary fiction
  • fiction
  • science fiction
  • adult
  • fantasy
  • audiobook
Cover of North Woods by Daniel       Mason

3. 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 Leif Enger's I Cheerfully Refuse

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

4. 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 Leif Enger's I Cheerfully Refuse

  • literary fiction
  • adult
  • 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 Real Americans by Rachel Khong

5. 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 Leif Enger's I Cheerfully Refuse

  • literary fiction
  • adult
  • fiction
  • 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

6. 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 Leif Enger's I Cheerfully Refuse

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

7. 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 Leif Enger's I Cheerfully Refuse

  • literary fiction
  • adult
  • 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 Sipsworth by Simon Van Booy

8. Sipsworth

By: Simon Van Booy

4.26

Format: 240 pages, Hardcover

Over the course of a single week, a woman who is ready to die discovers an unexpected reason to liv… read more

Similar categories in Simon Van Booy's Sipsworth book and Leif Enger's I Cheerfully Refuse

  • literary fiction
  • adult
  • fiction
  • audiobook
Cover of I Cheerfully Refuse by Leif Enger

9. I Cheerfully Refuse

By: Leif Enger

4.03

Format: 336 pages, Hardcover

Set in a not-too-distant America, I Cheerfully Refuse is the tale of Rainy, an aspiring musician se… read more

Similar categories in Leif Enger's I Cheerfully Refuse book and Leif Enger's I Cheerfully Refuse

  • literary fiction
  • adventure
  • adult
  • dystopia
  • fiction
  • science fiction
  • speculative fiction
  • fantasy
  • books about books
  • audiobook
"Those thieves and lovers and wandering poets- what big lives they had! I began watching everyone I met for secret greatness."

-Leif Enger, I Cheerfully Refuse

"I think the sea has no in-between: you get either rage and wayward lightning and schizoid frenzy or such freehanded beauty that time contract or turns in on itself leaving you forgetful and no more n…"

-Leif Enger, I Cheerfully Refuse

"One shelf became two. Then a wall. Then eight-foot rolling racks from a shut library in Hayward, Wisconsin. Maudie suggested changing the shop name to reflect its inventory. Bread and Books. Loaves a…"

-Leif Enger, I Cheerfully Refuse

"Much as I wanted to think of Lark in someplace better, I knew from a thousand conversations that she never worried abut that place. Maybe it was real and full of saints and poets, or maybe it was poe…"

-Leif Enger, I Cheerfully Refuse

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 Leif Enger's I Cheerfully Refuse

  • literary fiction
  • adult
  • fiction
  • 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 Whale Fall by Elizabeth  O'Connor

11. Whale Fall

By: Elizabeth O'Connor

3.87

Format: 224 pages, Hardcover

A stunning debut from an award-winning writer, about loss, isolation, folklore, and the joy and dis… read more

Similar categories in Elizabeth O'Connor's Whale Fall book and Leif Enger's I Cheerfully Refuse

  • literary fiction
  • adult
  • fiction
  • audiobook
Cover of A Short Walk Through a Wide World by Douglas Westerbeke

12. A Short Walk Through a Wide World

By: Douglas Westerbeke

3.56

Format: 400 pages, Hardcover

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue meets Life of Pi in this dazzlingly epic debut that charts the in… read more

Similar categories in Douglas Westerbeke's A Short Walk Through a Wide World book and Leif Enger's I Cheerfully Refuse

  • adult
  • fantasy
  • fiction
  • audiobook
Cover of Clear by Carys Davies

13. Clear

By: Carys Davies

3.92

Format: 196 pages, Hardcover

A stunning, exquisite novel from an award-winning writer about a minister dispatched to a remote is… read more

Similar categories in Carys Davies's Clear book and Leif Enger's I Cheerfully Refuse

  • literary fiction
  • adult
  • fiction
  • audiobook
Cover of The Cemetery of Untold Stories by Julia Alvarez

14. The Cemetery of Untold Stories

By: Julia Alvarez

3.68

Format: 243 pages, Hardcover

Literary icon Julia Alvarez returns with an inventive and emotional novel about storytelling itself… read more

Similar categories in Julia Alvarez's The Cemetery of Untold Stories book and Leif Enger's I Cheerfully Refuse

  • literary fiction
  • fiction
  • adult
  • fantasy
  • books about books
  • audiobook
Cover of The Morningside by Téa Obreht

15. The Morningside

By: Téa Obreht

3.61

Format: 304 pages, Hardcover

From the critically beloved, New York Times bestselling author of The Tiger's Wife and Inland, a ma… read more

Similar categories in Téa Obreht's The Morningside book and Leif Enger's I Cheerfully Refuse

  • literary fiction
  • dystopia
  • fiction
  • science fiction
  • fantasy
  • audiobook
Cover of Sandwich by Catherine Newman

16. Sandwich

By: Catherine Newman

3.75

Format: 229 pages, Hardcover

From the beloved author of We All Want Impossible Things, a moving, hilarious story of a family sum… read more

Similar categories in Catherine Newman's Sandwich book and Leif Enger's I Cheerfully Refuse

  • literary fiction
  • adult
  • fiction
  • audiobook
"What does loss look like, in your body? Where is it? It feels like an air bubble stuck in your psyche. It feels like peering down into a deep hole. The vertigo of that. The potential for obliteration…"

-Catherine Newman, Sandwich

"We're just ruined by sex, women---our bodies, our psyches. We're sexually assaulted every five minutes. We're infected with everything. Traumatized by conceiving, by not conceiving. But let's keep at…"

-Catherine Newman, Sandwich

Cover of The Other Valley by Scott Alexander Howard

17. The Other Valley

By: Scott Alexander Howard

3.90

Format: 304 pages, Hardcover

A literary speculative novel about an isolated town neighbored by its own past and future Sixtee… read more

Similar categories in Scott Alexander Howard's The Other Valley book and Leif Enger's I Cheerfully Refuse

  • literary fiction
  • adult
  • fiction
  • science fiction
  • speculative fiction
  • fantasy
  • audiobook
Cover of The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley

18. The Ministry of Time

By: Kaliane Bradley

3.62

Format: 341 pages, Hardcover

A time travel romance, a spy thriller, a workplace comedy, and an ingenious exploration of the natu… read more

Similar categories in Kaliane Bradley's The Ministry of Time book and Leif Enger's I Cheerfully Refuse

  • adult
  • fiction
  • science fiction
  • speculative fiction
  • fantasy
  • audiobook
"And then when she was given a second chance, she caught the sword and came up singing."

-Kaliane Bradley, The Ministry of Time

"You'll have lived through heat waves by now, and you'll know that they make time go utterly Dali clocks."

-Kaliane Bradley, The Ministry of Time

"What was it like, to be the only one who came back? The only one who still had a body to touch, to hurt, to yearn with? The last one still able to die?"

-Kaliane Bradley, The Ministry of Time

"He was here, by and with and in my body. He lives in me like trauma does. If you ever fall in love, you’ll be a person who was in love for the rest of your life."

-Kaliane Bradley, The Ministry of Time

Cover of Bear by Julia  Phillips

19. Bear

By: Julia Phillips

3.38

Format: 304 pages, Hardcover

A mesmerising novel of two sisters on a Pacific Northwest island whose lives are upended by an unex… read more

Similar categories in Julia Phillips's Bear book and Leif Enger's I Cheerfully Refuse

  • literary fiction
  • fiction
  • adult
  • fantasy
  • audiobook
"There'd been only three hundred students in the whole school, which made it a tiny, gossipy hellhole, a bucket of crabs snapping at each other and falling over themselves."

-Julia Phillips, Bear

"What was Sam afraid of? Withering away here. Dreaming of chances she'd never be able to take, and shriveling up from that denial, getting poorer and put under more pressure and pushed farther from th…"

-Julia Phillips, Bear

Cover of The God of the Woods by Liz    Moore

20. The God of the Woods

By: Liz Moore

4.27

Format: 490 pages, Kindle Edition

When a teenager vanishes from her Adirondack summer camp, two worlds collide Early morning, Augu… read more

Similar categories in Liz Moore's The God of the Woods book and Leif Enger's I Cheerfully Refuse

  • literary fiction
  • adult
  • fiction
  • audiobook
Cover of Burn by Peter Heller

21. Burn

By: Peter Heller

3.72

Format: 304 pages, Hardcover

From the best-selling author of The Dog Stars, a novel about two men—friends since boyhood—who emer… read more

Similar categories in Peter Heller's Burn book and Leif Enger's I Cheerfully Refuse

  • literary fiction
  • dystopia
  • fiction
  • science fiction
  • adult
  • audiobook

21 Best fiction books like I Cheerfully Refuse by Leif Enger

Transform Your Habits

James

Percival Everett

4.54

Transform Your Habits

Beautyland

Marie-Helene Bertino

4.15

Transform Your Habits

North Woods

Daniel Mason

4.15

Transform Your Habits

Wandering Stars

Tommy Orange

3.89

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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