Fiction with Emphasis on Characters

Try these books if you're looking for:

• Fiction
• Books written similar to Steinbeck or Chaim Potok
• Emphasis on characters and relationships

Their Eyes Were Watching God
By Zora Neale Hurston
F HURSTON
This poignant book, a classic of African American literature, features the unforgettable Janie Crawford, an articulate African-American woman in the 1930s. Follow Janie’s quest for identity, through three marriages, on a journey to her roots.

History of Love
By Nicole Krauss
F KRAUSS
Sixty years after a book's publication, its author remembers his lost love and missing son, while a teenage girl named for one of the book's characters seeks her namesake, as well as a cure for her widowed mother's loneliness.

Angle of Repose
By Wallace Stegner
F STEGNER
Susan and her engineer husband live rough lives in mining camps during the late 19th century, and their marriage cannot survive. Stegner’s style and empathy for his characters are reminiscent of Steinbeck’s writing.

Plainsong
By Kent Haruf
F HARUF An unlikely extended family is formed when a high school teacher helps a pregnant student make a home with two elderly bachelor ranchers.

The Ladies Auxiliary
By Tova Mirvis
F MIRVIS
Batsheva, who is recently widowed, converts to Judaism and moves from New York to Tennesse. Despit her fervent faith, her modern ways are somewhat shocking in Memphis’s Orthodox Jewish community, and she and her five-year-old daughter, Ayala, unwittingly stir up trouble in the community.