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If You Like... Where the Crawdads Sing
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Literary stories that are leisurely-paced, character-driven and atmospheric.
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Sugar Birds
by Cheryl Bostrom
For years, Harris Hayes has taught his daughter, Aggie, the ways of the northern woods. So when her mother's depression worsens, Harris shows the girl how to find and sketch the nests of wild birds as an antidote to sadness. Aggie is in a tree when her unpredictable mother spots her and forbids her to climb. Angry, the ten-year-old accidentally lights a tragic fire, then hides. Hurting from her parents' breakup, newly-arrived Celia also plans to run. But when she joins the search party for Aggie, she meets two irresistible young men who compel her to stay.
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Tell the Wolves I'm Home
by Carol Rifka Brunt
Her world upended by the death of a beloved artist uncle who was the only person who understood her, 14-year-old June is mailed a teapot by her uncle's grieving friend, with whom June forges a poignant relationship.
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Once Upon a River
by Bonnie Jo Campbell
Margo Crane, a beauty and uncanny markswoman takes to the Stark River after being complicit in the death of her father and embarks on an odyssey in search of her vanished mother in this novel from the National Book Award finalist.
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The Orchardist
by Amanda Coplin
When two feral girls--one of which is very pregnant--appear on his homestead, solitary orchardist Talmadge, who carefully tends the grove of fruit trees he has cultivated for nearly half a century, vows to save and protect them while trying to reconcile the ghosts of his own troubled past.
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Peace Like a River
by Leif Enger
Eleven-year-old asthmatic Reuben Land chronicles the Land family's odyssey in search of Reuben's older brother, Davy, who has escaped from jail before he can stand trial for the killing of two marauders who came to their Minnesota farm to harm the family.
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Nightwoods
by Charles Frazier
Named the guardian of her murdered sister's troubled twins, Luce of 1950s rural North Carolina struggles to build a family with the children and a new romantic prospect before being targeted by the twins' father--her sister's killer--who believes that the children are in possession of a stolen cache of money. Although the story is darker, readers may enjoy this Southern gothic narrative that's strong on characters and backwoods atmosphere.
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Bloodroot
by Amy Greene
A tale told from myriad viewpoints follows a family from the Great Depression to the present, describing the experiences of a wild young mountain girl, her protective grandmother, the men who love her and the children who struggle to manage her untamed legacy.
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This Tender Land
by William Kent Krueger
Fleeing the Depression-era school for Native American children who have been taken from their parents, four orphans share a summer marked by struggling farmers, faith healers and lost souls.
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The Gravedigger's Daughter
by Joyce Carol Oates
The daughter of a German high school teacher who was forced to work as a gravedigger after immigrating to upstate New York, Rebecca begins a life-changing pilgrimage throughout America in the wake of a prejudice-motivated tragedy.
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Let's No One Get Hurt
by Jon Pineda
A teenage girl squatting in an abandoned boathouse with her disgraced college professor father in the swamps of the American South begins an unbalanced relationship with the rich, bratty son of a developer who has bought the property.
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The Marsh King's Daughter
by Karen Dionne
A woman whose birth occurred as a result of her teen mother's abduction and imprisonment in an isolated marshland cabin risks the adult family that does not know her past when she uses survival skills honed in childhood to track down her murderous father.
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My Absolute Darling
by Gabriel Tallent
Enduring an isolated existence after the death of her mother, 14-year-old Turtle roams the rocky shores and tide pools of the California coast and refutes every outside attempt to engage her before an unexpected friendship with a newcomer helps her realize the vulnerabilities of her life with her charismatic father.
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