Books like “Kristin Lavransdatter”

What to read after “Kristin Lavransdatter” by Sigrid Undset: a list matched by tropes, mood and atmosphere. Under each book you will see what it has in common.

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1
Pachinko
Min Jin Lee · 2017
Similar atmosphere: “Melancholic”
- Melancholic
- Coming of Age
A young woman in colonial Korea, Sunja, leaves home for Japan with a husband she barely knows and raises a family that lives as outsiders for generations. Through war and poverty, the household holds on to its dignity and its secrets.
2
Katherine
Anya Seton · 1954
Same genre: “Historical fiction”
- Medieval Setting
- Forbidden Love
In fourteenth-century England, Katherine Swynford becomes a lady-in-waiting and falls in love with John of Gaunt, a royal duke bound by marriage and politics. Their long, often forbidden attachment survives plague, war and the disapproval of a court that cannot forgive a scandal.
3
All Quiet on the Western Front
Erich Maria Remarque · 1929
Similar atmosphere: “Melancholic”
- Melancholic
- Coming of Age
Paul Baumer and his classmates enlist in the German army straight from school, urged on by a patriotic teacher. Trench life strips away everything they were taught, and the friends cling to each other as the war grinds them down.
4
Things Fall Apart
Chinua Achebe · 1958
Similar atmosphere: “Melancholic”
- Melancholic
Okonkwo, a respected wrestler and farmer in a Nigerian village, builds his standing on a fear of appearing weak. When he is exiled and, years later, British missionaries and officials arrive, the customs that shaped him begin to collapse around him and his people.
5
World Without End
Ken Follett · 2007
Same genre: “Historical fiction”
- Medieval Setting
- Forbidden Love
Two centuries after The Pillars of the Earth, four children in Kingsbridge witness a killing that binds their fates together. As plague sweeps the land, they struggle with love, ambition and the harsh rules of their age.
6
The Pillars of the Earth
Ken Follett · 1989
Same genre: “Historical fiction”
- Medieval Setting
- Forbidden Love
In twelfth-century England a stonemason named Tom Builder dreams of raising a great cathedral. Around its construction gather a cunning prior, a noblewoman and a ruthless lord whose ambitions and feuds shape the lives of an entire town.
7
A Thousand Splendid Suns
Khaled Hosseini · 2007
Similar atmosphere: “Melancholic”
- Melancholic
Mariam and Laila, born a generation apart in Afghanistan, are forced together by marriage to the same violent man. Through decades of war and loss, the two women become each other's only home and take great risks for the chance of a different life.
8
The Book Thief
Markus Zusak · 2005
Similar atmosphere: “Melancholic”
- Melancholic
- Coming of Age
Narrated by Death, the story follows Liesel Meminger, a girl sent to live with a foster family in Nazi Germany. She steals books, shares them with a Jewish man hiding in the basement, and grows up amid bombs, loss and small acts of kindness.
9
The Catcher in the Rye
J. D. Salinger · 1951
Similar atmosphere: “Melancholic”
- Melancholic
- Coming of Age
Expelled from prep school and drifting through New York before going home, teenager Holden Caulfield narrates a few days of restless encounters. He rails against adults he calls phonies while quietly grieving a brother and his own place in the world.
10
The Remains of the Day
Kazuo Ishiguro · 1989
Similar atmosphere: “Melancholic”
- Melancholic
Stevens, a butler at an English country house, sets out on a motoring trip in 1956 and looks back over decades of service. Recalling his employer's political misjudgements and his own missed chances with the housekeeper, he begins to see what a life given to duty has cost him.
11
The Greatest Knight
Elizabeth Chadwick · 2005
Same genre: “Historical fiction”
- Medieval Setting
- Coming of Age
William Marshal, a landless younger son, wins renown on the tournament circuit of twelfth-century Europe. Sworn to kings and queens, he serves through rebellion and shifting alliances, and his loyalty is tested as often as his skill at arms.
12
Their Eyes Were Watching God
Zora Neale Hurston · 1937
Similar atmosphere: “Melancholic”
- Melancholic
- Coming of Age
Janie Crawford tells her friend the story of her life: three marriages, a long search for love and independence, and the storm that changes everything. Set in the Black towns and farms of Florida, the novel follows her from a silent girl to a woman who speaks for herself.