What’s in it
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24 books with the same feel
Include books by the same authorTai-Pan
James Clavell · 601 pages
"It is the early 19th century, when European traders and adventurers first began to penetrate the forbidding Chinese mainland. And it is in this exciting time and exotic place that a giant of an Englishman, Dirk Straun, sets out to turn the desolate island of Hong Kong into an impregnable fortress of British power, and to make himself supreme ruler-- Tai-Pan!"--P. [4] of cover.
The Jewel in the Crown
Paul Scott · 467 pages
The first instalment of Scott's Raj Quartet, about life in colonial India. A young Englishwoman, new to India and untainted by the institutionalized racism of the ruling British colonials, begins an affair with a British public school educated young Indian. When the woman is raped by members of a rioting mob her lover is among those accused. The young woman refuses to testify against him or implic
What the Body Remembers
Shauna Singh Baldwin · 515 pages
Nostromo
Joseph Conrad · 464 pages
A gripping tale of capitalist exploitation and rebellion, set amid the mist-shrouded mountains of a fictional South American republic, employs flashbacks and glimpses of the future to depict the lure of silver and its effects on men. Conrad's deep moral consciousness and masterful narrative technique are at their best in this, one of his greatest works.
The Luminaries
Eleanor Catton · 834 pages
This novel is a murder mystery set in a remote gold-mining frontier town in 19th-century New Zealand. Arriving in New Zealand in 1866 a weary Englishman, Walter Moody, lands in a gold-mining frontier town on the coast of New Zealand to make his fortune and forever leave behind his family's shame. On arrival, he stumbles across a tense gathering of twelve local men who have met in secret to investi
A Falcon Flies
Wilbur Smith · 523 pages
Creation
Gore Vidal · 574 pages
"The hero-narrator, Cyrus Spitama, grandson of the prophet Zoroaster, is brought up in a fifth-century B.C. Persian court and educated with his closest friend, Xerxes, who is destined to become master of the empire that stretches from India to the Mediterranean. As an ambassador for Xerxes, Cyrus embarks on journeys far beyond the boundaries of the known world, seeking wealth and trade routes.".
The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet
David Mitchell · 479 pages
The year is 1799, the place Dejima in Nagasaki Harbor, the “high-walled, fan-shaped artificial island” that is the Japanese Empire’s single port and sole window onto the world, designed to keep the West at bay; the farthest outpost of the war-ravaged Dutch East Indies Company; and a de facto prison for the dozen foreigners permitted to live and work there. To this place of devious merchants, decei
East of the Sun
Julia Gregson · 602 pages
Autumn 1928. The Kaiser-i-Hind is en route to Bombay. In cabin D38, Viva Holloway, and inexperienced chaperone, feels as though she?s made a mistake. Her advert in The Lady had resulted in an assignment to escort three young charges to India. And overshadowing all three is the dangerously malevolent presence of Guy Glover. But nothing frightens Viva as much as her real reasons for the voyage.
English Passengers
Matthew Kneale · 462 pages
"English Passengers is an old-fashioned book in the best sense: epic in scale, crammed with outsize characters, set in a long-ago time and a faraway place... 'A-'"--Entertainment Weekly"Robust and rollicking...unforgettable...It's tough to pull off a memorable epic, but Kneale has done it. So get comfortable, and be prepared to enter a fascinating world."--New York PostWhen Captain Illiam Quillian
Hawaii
James A. Michener · 988 pages
Hawaii's prehistory and history appears through the eyes of its natives, missionaries and Asians who came to influence it.
The Sand Pebbles
Richard McKenna · 597 pages
Literary theorist Georg Lukacs complains in his seminal work, The Historical Novel, that the works of imaginative literature too often use history as a mere backdrop, a way for an author to decorate the story and characters. Lukas singles out Sir Walter Scott, English author of such works as Ivanhoe and the Waverly novels, as a notable exception. According to Lukas, Scott's novels document, with
Homegoing
Yaa Gyasi · 320 pages
Two half sisters, Effia and Esi, unknown to each other, are born into two different tribal villages in 18th century Ghana. Effia will be married off to an English colonial, and will live in comfort in the sprawling, palatial rooms of Cape Coast Castle, raising half-caste children who will be sent abroad to be educated in England before returning to the Gold Coast to serve as administrators of the
The Cairo Trilogy: Palace Walk / Palace of Desire / Sugar Street
Naguib Mahfouz · 1,336 pages
Contains: [بين القصرين](https://openlibrary.org/works/OL1599742W) [قصر الشوق](https://openlibrary.org/works/OL1599738W) [السكرية](https://openlibrary.org/works/OL1599727W)
Throne of Jade
Naomi Novik · 399 pages
When Britain intercepted a French ship and its precious cargo--an unhatched dragon's egg--Capt. Will Laurence of HMS Reliant unexpectedly became master and commander of the noble dragon he named Temeraire. As new recruits in Britain's Aerial Corps, man and dragon soon proved their mettle in daring combat against Bonaparte's invading forces. Now China has discovered that its rare gift, intended for
The Crab-Flower Club
Cao Xueqin · 608 pages
A Moment in the Sun
John Sayles · 955 pages
"In 1897, gold has been discovered in the Yukon. New York is under the sway of Hearst and Pulitzer. And in a few months, an American battleship will explode in a Cuban harbor, plunging the U.S. into war. This is the story of that extraordinary moment: the turn of the twentieth century, as seen by one of our greatest storytellers of all time...'A Moment in the Sun' takes the whole era in its sight
The Dreamer Wakes
Cao Xueqin, Gao E · 384 pages
The Far Pavilions
M.M. Kaye · 960 pages
The Far Pavilions is the story of an English man - Ashton Pelham-Martyn - brought up as a Hindu. It is the story of his passionate, but dangerous love for Juli, an Indian princess. It is the story of divided loyalties, of friendship that endures till death, of high adventure and of the clash between East and West. To the burning plains and snow-capped mountains of this great, humming continent,
Star of the Sea
Joseph O'Connor · 432 pages
Burnt Shadows
Kamila Shamsie · 384 pages
A powerful, sweeping epic crossing generations, cultures and continentsIn a prison cell in the US, a man stands trembling, naked, fearfully waiting to be shipped to Guantanamo Bay. How did it come to this? he wonders...August 9th, 1945, Nagasaki. Hiroko Tanaka steps out onto her veranda, taking in the view of the terraced slopes leading up to the sky. Wrapped in a kimono with three black cranes sw
River of Stars
Guy Gavriel Kay · 639 pages
"Ren Daiyan was still just a boy when he took the lives of seven men while guarding an imperial magistrate of Kitai. That moment on a lonely road changed his life-- in entirely unexpected ways, sending him into the forests of Kitai among the outlaws. From there he emerges years later-- and his life changes again, dramatically, as he circles towards the court and emperor, while war approaches Kitai