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Someday This Pain Will Be Useful to You

Peter Cameron · back to the book

What’s in it

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24 books with the same feel

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❤️

The Catcher in the Rye

Jerome David Salinger · 277 pages

With the author's recent passing, the classic novel about young Holden Caulfield's disillusionment with the adult world and its phoniness will only rise in popularity--and controversy, since it is a favorite target of censors, who often cite profan

DepressionNew York CityDry HumorCharacter-Driven
❤️

The Catcher in the Rye

J.D. Salinger · 218 pages

Story of Holden Caufield with his idiosyncrasies, penetrating insight, confusion, sensitivity and negativism. Holden, knowing he is to be expelled from school, decides to leave early. He spends three days in New York City and tells the story of what he did and suffered there.

DepressionCharacter-DrivenNew York CityDry Humor
❤️

Naïve. Super

Erlend Loe · 208 pages

DepressionDry HumorCharacter-DrivenFirst Person Narrator
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DepressionDry HumorCharacter-DrivenFirst Person Narrator
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The Brooklyn Follies

Paul Auster · 320 pages

Nathan Glass has come to Brooklyn to die. Divorced, estranged from his only daughter, the retired life insurance salesman seeks only solitude and anonymity. Then Nathan finds his long-lost nephew, Tom Wood, working in a local bookstore - a far cry from the brilliant academic career he'd begun when Nathan saw him last. Tom's boss is the charismatic Harry Brightman, whom fate has also brought to the

New York CityDry HumorCharacter-DrivenFirst Person Narrator
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The Sense of an Ending

Julian Barnes · 152 pages

By an acclaimed writer at the height of his powers, The Sense of an Ending extends a streak of extraordinary books that began with the best-selling Arthur & George and continued with Nothing to Be Frightened Of and, most recently, Pulse. This intense new novel follows a middle-aged man as he contends with a past he has never much thought about—until his closest childhood friends return with a

Dry HumorDepressionCharacter-DrivenFirst Person Narrator
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The Goldfinch

Donna Tartt · 817 pages

"The Goldfinch is a rarity that comes along perhaps half a dozen times per decade, a smartly written literary novel that connects with the heart as well as the mind....Donna Tartt has delivered an extraordinary work of fiction."--Stephen King, The New York Times Book Review Composed with the skills of a master, The Goldfinch is a haunted odyssey through present day America and a drama of enthra

DepressionNew York CityCharacter-DrivenFirst Person Narrator
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The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

Mark Haddon · 240 pages

This is Christopher's murder mystery story. There are no lies in this story because Christopher can't tell lies. Christopher does not like strangers or the colours yellow or brown or being touched. On the other hand, he knows all the countries in the world and their capital cities and every prime number up to 7507. When Christohper decides to find out who killed the neighbour's dog, his mystery st

Dry HumorCharacter-DrivenFirst Person NarratorDivorced Parents
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Fight Club

Chuck Palahniuk · 208 pages

A man who struggles with insomnia meets a colorful extremist, and they create a secret organization together. Chuck Palahniuk showed himself to be his generation’s most visionary satirist in this, his first book. Fight Club’s estranged narrator leaves his lackluster job when he comes under the thrall of Tyler Durden, an enigmatic young man who holds secret after-hours boxing matches in the base

DepressionDry HumorCharacter-DrivenFirst Person Narrator
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Love Letters to the Dead

Ava Dellaira · 327 pages

When Laurel starts writing letters to dead people for a school assignment, she begins to spill about her sister's mysterious death, her mother's departure from the family, her new friends, and her first love.

DepressionCharacter-DrivenLGBTQ+ ProtagonistFirst Person Narrator
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The Art of Fielding

Chad Harbach · 512 pages

At Westish College, a small school on the shore of Lake Michigan, baseball star Henry Skrimshander seems destined for big league stardom. But when a routine throw goes disastrously off course, the fates of five people are upended. Henry’s fight against self-doubt threatens to ruin his future. College president Guert Affenlight, a longtime bachelor, has fallen unexpectedly and helplessly in love

Dry HumorDepressionLGBTQ+ ProtagonistCharacter-Driven
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Anybody Out There?

Marian Keyes · 592 pages

Life is perfect for Anna Walsh. She has the "Best Job in the World" as a PR exec for a top-selling urban beauty brand, a lovely apartment in New York, and a perfect husband - the love of her life, Aidan Maddox. Until the morning she wakes up in her mammy's living room in Dublin with stitches in her face, a dislocated knee, and completely smashed-up hands - and no memory of how she got there. While

DepressionCharacter-DrivenNew York CityDry Humor
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Will Grayson, Will Grayson

John Green, David Levithan · 331 pages

One cold night, in a most unlikely corner of Chicago, two teens—both named Will Grayson—are about to cross paths. As their worlds collide and intertwine, the Will Graysons find their lives going in new and unexpected directions, building toward romantic turns-of-heart and the epic production of history’s most fabulous high school musical.Hilarious, poignant, and deeply insightful, John Green and D

DepressionCharacter-DrivenLGBTQ+ ProtagonistFirst Person Narrator
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Paper Towns

John Green · 320 pages

One month before graduating from his Central Florida high school, Quentin "Q" Jacobsen basks in the predictable boringness of his life until the beautiful and exciting Margo Roth Spiegelman, Q's neighbor and classmate, takes him on a midnight adventure and then mysteriously disappears.

DepressionDry HumorCharacter-DrivenFirst Person Narrator
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They Both Die at the End

Adam Silvera · 378 pages

Adam Silvera reminds us that there’s no life without death and no love without loss in this devastating yet uplifting story about two people whose lives change over the course of one unforgettable day. On September 5, a little after midnight, Death-Cast calls Mateo Torrez and Rufus Emeterio to give them some bad news: They’re going to die today. Mateo and Rufus are total strangers, but, for

New York CityCharacter-DrivenLGBTQ+ ProtagonistFirst Person Narrator
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The Bell Jar

Sylvia Plath · 258 pages

The Bell Jar is a classic of American literature, with over two million copies sold in this country. This extraordinary work chronicles the crack-up of Esther Greenwood: brilliant, beautiful, enormously talented, successful - but slowly going under, and maybe for the last time. Step by careful step, Sylvia Plath takes us with Esther through a painful month in New York as a contest-winning junior

Dry HumorNew York CityCharacter-DrivenDepression
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The Cranes Dance

Meg Howrey · 373 pages

Kate is conflicted after she is offered her sister Gwen's starring role in a ballet, especially since her jealously prevented her from seeing the signs of the mental breakdown that made Gwen lose the role.

DepressionNew York CityCharacter-DrivenFirst Person Narrator
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Anxious People

Fredrik Backman · 352 pages

It's New Year's Eve and House Tricks estate agents are hosting an open viewing in an up-market apartment when an incompetent bank robber rushes in and politely takes everyone hostage. For Anna-Lena and Roger, busy buying-up apartments to fill the hole in their marriage, it's something else to talk about. For Julia and Ro, panicky parents-to-be, it's yet another worry. Lonely bank manager

DepressionDry HumorCharacter-DrivenLGBTQ+ Protagonist
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Dying Inside

Robert Silverberg · 256 pages

From the back cover: David Selig is outwardly unimpressive. His early promise as a student and scholar is unrealised. He has no proper job, he has no girlfriend. But, inside, Selig has the power of a god, for he can probe other people's minds and read their thoughts and feelings. This extraordinary faculty defines his sense of self -- his power is *him*. But with the onset of middle age, S

DepressionNew York CityCharacter-DrivenFirst Person Narrator
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About a Boy

Nick Hornby · 288 pages

Nick Hornby's second bestselling novel is about sex, manliness and fatherhood. Will is thirty-six, comfortable and child-free. And he's discovered a brilliant new way of meeting women - through single-parent groups. Marcus is twelve and a little bitnerdish: he's got the kind of mother who made him listen to Joni Mitchell rather than Nirvana. Perhaps they can help each other out a little bit, and b

DepressionDry HumorCharacter-DrivenDivorced Parents
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The Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing

Melissa Bank · 274 pages

After following the advice from a manual called "How to Meet and Marry Mr Right", Jane learns that in love there is neither pattern nor promise. This is a funny collection of connected stories and a portrait of Jane, a woman manoeuvring her way through love, sex and relationships.

Dry HumorNew York CityCharacter-DrivenFirst Person Narrator
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It's Kind of a Funny Story

Ned Vizzini · 444 pages

A humorous account of a New York City teenager's battle with depression and his time spent in a psychiatric hospital.

New York CityDepressionCharacter-DrivenFirst Person Narrator
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The Hours

Michael Cunningham

New York CityLGBTQ+ ProtagonistCharacter-DrivenDepression
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The Art of Racing in the Rain

Garth Stein · 321 pages

Enzo knows he is different from other dogs: a philosopher with a nearly human soul (and an obsession with opposable thumbs), he has educated himself by watching television extensively, and by listening very closely to the words of his master, Denny Swift, an up-and-coming race car driver.Through Denny, Enzo has gained tremendous insight into the human condition, and he sees that life, like racing,

Character-DrivenDry HumorFirst Person NarratorDivorced Parents

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