Autofiction and Introspective Novels To Start Reading

Along the streets of Manhattan, a young Nigerian doctor named Julius doing his residency wanders aimlessly. The walks are a release from the tightly regulated mental environment of work, and they give him the opportunity to process his relationships, his recent breakup, his present, his past. Though he’s navigating the busy parts of town, the impression of countless faces does nothing to assuage his feelings of isolation. Seething with intelligence and written in a clear, rhythmic voice, Open City is a haunting, mature, profound work about our country and our world.

From the acclaimed and bestselling author of The Idiot, the continuation of beloved protagonist Selin’s quest for self-knowledge, as she travels abroad and tests the limits of her newfound adulthood. Hilarious, revelatory, and unforgettable, its gripping narrative will confront you with searching questions that persist long after the last page.

A marvelous novel from the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Lowland and Interpreter of Maladies about a woman questioning her place in the world, wavering between stasis and movement, between the need to belong and the refusal to form lasting ties.

Mrs. Dalloway chronicles a June day in the life of Clarissa Dalloway – a day that is taken up with running minor errands in preparation for a party and that is punctuated, toward the end, by the death of a young man she has never met. Originally published in 1925, Mrs. Dalloway is Woolf’s first complete rendering of what she described as the “luminous envelope” of consciousness: a dazzling display of the mind’s inside as it plays over the brilliant surface and darker depths of reality.

From the author of the “dazzling … and daring” Pond (O magazine), the adventures of a young woman discovering her own genius, through the people she meets — and dreams up — along the way.

In Chilean Poet, Alejandro Zambra chronicles with enormous tenderness and insight the small moments — sexy, absurd, painful, sweet, profound — that make up our personal histories. Exploring how we choose our families and how we betray them, and what it means to be a man in relationships — a partner, father, stepfather, teacher, lover, writer, and friend — it is a bold and brilliant work by one of the most important writers of our time.

A “formally daring, emotionally devastating, and deeply political” (The New York Times Book Review) exploration of personal grief through the prism of the color white, from the internationally bestselling author of The Vegetarian.

When a woman unexpectedly loses her lifelong best friend and mentor, she finds herself burdened with the Great Dane he has left behind. A moving story of love, friendship, grief, healing, and the magical bond between a woman and her dog.

Blurring the line between fact and fiction, an unnamed narrator attempts to plot the emotional and physical course of her two year relationship with a married foreigner where every word, event, and person either provides a connection with her beloved or is subject to her cold indifference. In her spare, stark style, Annie Ernaux documents the desires and indignities of a human heart ensnared in an all-consuming passion.

On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous is a letter from a son to a mother who cannot read. Written when the speaker, Little Dog, is in his late twenties, the letter unearths a family’s history that began before he was born — a history whose epicenter is rooted in Vietnam — and serves as a doorway into parts of his life his mother has never known, all of it leading to an unforgettable revelation.

A darkly funny, soul-rending novel of love in an epoch of collapse — one woman’s furious revisiting of family, marriage, work, sex, and motherhood.

From an author of rare, haunting power, a stunning novel about a young African American woman coming-of-age — a deeply felt meditation on race, sex, family, and country.

From the beloved author of the nationwide bestseller Dept. of Speculation comes a “darkly funny and urgent” (NPR) tour de force about a family, and a nation, in crisis.

An interpreter has come to The Hague to escape New York and work at the International Court. A woman of many languages and identities, she is looking for a place to finally call home. A woman of quiet passion, she confronts power, love, and violence, both in her personal intimacies and in her work at the Court. She is soon pushed to the precipice, where betrayal and heartbreak threaten to overwhelm her, forcing her to decide what she wants from her life.

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Piano Teacher, a searing novel of marriage, motherhood, and the search for connection far from home.