Do you have Sally Rooney's latest and hotly-anticipated novel, Beautiful World, Where Are You, on hold at the Library? If so, you're not alone—as you likely noticed by the number of people also waiting for the book. In the immortal lyrics of Peter Gabriel, don't give up. It will be your turn soon enough, and in the meantime we have some reading suggestions that will hardly feel like a consolation prize. While Rooney's literary sensibility and style are all her own, these books share complex, emotionally rich characters that we think you'll love.

And if you haven't already, try one of Rooney's first two books—Conversations with Friends and Normal People—which have relatively short waitlists.

Chemistry by Weike Wang

At first glance, the quirky, overworked narrator of Weike Wang’s debut novel seems to be on the cusp of a perfect life: she is studying for a prestigious PhD in chemistry that will make her Chinese parents proud (or at least satisfied), and her successful, supportive boyfriend has just proposed to her. But instead of feeling hopeful, she is wracked with ambivalence: the long, demanding hours at the lab have created an exquisite pressure cooker, and she doesn’t know how to answer the marriage question. When it all becomes too much and her life plan veers off course, she finds herself on a new path of discoveries about everything she thought she knew. 

 

Memorial by Bryan Washington

Japanese-American chef Mike and Black daycare teacher Benson begin reevaluating their stale relationship after Mike departs for Japan to visit his dying father and Benson is suddenly stuck with his visiting mother-in-law, who becomes an unconventional roommate.

 

 

 

 

Breasts and Eggs by Mieko Kawakami

Painting a portrait of contemporary womanhood in Japan, a Japanese writer tells the intimate journeys of three women as they confront oppression and their own uncertainties as they search for peace and a future they can finally call their own.

 

 

 

 

Exciting Times by Naoisie Dolan

Millennial Irish expat Ava becomes entangled in a love triangle with a male banker and a female lawyer. 

 

 

 

 

 

The Idiot by Elif Batuman

Embarking on her freshman year at Harvard in 1995, Selin, the daughter of Turkish immigrants, begins a correspondence with an older mathematics student from Hungary while struggling with her changing sense of self, first love, and a daunting career prospect.

 

 

 

 

NW by Zadie Smith

Follows four Londoners—Leah, Natalie, Felix and Nathan—after they've left their childhood council estate, grown up and moved on to different lives. From private houses to public parks, at work and at play, their city is brutal, beautiful and complicated.

 

 

 

 

Ordinary People by Diana Evans

In South London and the surrounding suburbs, two couples—longtime friends whose bonds are no longer clearly defined—struggle through a year of marital crisis.

 

 

 

 

 

Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff

Marrying in a whirlwind amid predictions of future greatness, Lotto and Mathilde are shaped throughout a subsequent shared decade by complications, secrets, and powerful creative drives.

 

 

 

 

 

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Have trouble reading standard print? Many of these titles are available in formats for patrons with print disabilities.

Summaries provided via NYPL’s catalog, which draws from multiple sources. Click through to each book’s title for more.