10 Unforgettable Books Like Remarkably Bright Creatures

The publisher’s description of Remarkably Bright Creatures says that it is “for fans of A Man Called Ove,” so it only makes sense that fans of Shelby Van Pelt’s debut could look to Fredrik Backman’s hit bestseller for their next read. 

Turned into a movie starring Tom Hanks, A Man Called Ove is the story of a curmudgeonly “neighbor from hell” who may be more than he appears, and the friendly family who moves in next door and manages to bridge the gaps between them. “If there was an award for ‘Most Charming Book of the Year,’” raves Booklist, “this first novel by a Swedish blogger-turned-overnight-sensation would win hands down.”

“If you have anything in the way of feelings, this novel will make you weep,” hails the New York Times of this long-awaited new book from a writer “with extraordinary emotional acuity and with a keen sense of the small detail that says it all” (Chicago Tribune). 

A fire in a senior residence brings the residents of the deteriorating Pheasant Run together while also pulling them apart. Meanwhile, the city’s chief fire inspector tries to sort out the truth of what took place and how each of the building’s residents factor into the mystery in this “quietly revelatory” book (Refinery29).

Literary debuts can be hit or miss, but in this “quiet gem of a first novel” (Library Journal), author Meredith Hall paints a convincing portrait of a family fractured by grief and tragedy. “If the word ‘luminous’ didn’t already exist, you’d have to invent it to describe Meredith Hall’s radiant new novel,” raves Richard Russo, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Empire Falls. 

In the wake of an almost unfathomable tragedy, a family is reduced from five members to four, each one of which must navigate their way through grief to the place on the other side, “where we learn that a home is part of the ‘vast world of innocence and harm,’ not an island beyond it” (Wall Street Journal).

“A powerful meditation on loss, grief, self-help, and life” (Ridgefield Press), Gravity Is the Thing tells the story of Abigail Sorenson, whose brother went missing the day before her sixteenth birthday. Ever since, she has received pages in the mail from a mysterious self-help volume called the Guidebook. 

Now, she has been given a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to learn the truth behind the mysterious book, which may not be at all what she expects in this “witty” book that “will delight anyone mending their own broken life” (Kirkus Reviews).

Named one of Tor.com’s Best Books of the Year, Dale Bailey’s atmospheric gothic thriller follows a couple who move to a mysterious new house after the death of their daughter, only to find themselves haunted by the history of the house, and their own recent tragedies. 

Is the haunting literal, or is it merely the ghosts of their past? Readers will wait breathlessly to find out in this “luminously written, literate, absorbing, transporting, and all-around excellent” book (Karen Joy Fowler, author of We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves) from Shirley Jackson Award-winner Dale Bailey.

“Fans of Fredrik Backman will find much to like here,” raves Publishers Weekly about this global sensation, published in 32 countries, from Sofia Lundberg. But you don’t have to take their word for it. The author of A Man Called Ove himself called The Red Address Book a tale “written with love, told with joy.” 

In the story of 96-year-old Doris and her American grandniece Jenny, who communicate via Skype from Doris’ Stockholm apartment, readers are taken on a journey through the past in this “charming, fragile romance” (Kirkus Reviews).

Seamlessly interweaving Lithuanian history and magical realism, Above Us Only Sky tells the story of Prudence Eleanor Vilkas, who was born with wings only to have them surgically removed. 

In a “gripping, heartwarming tale that affirms the strength of family connections despite tragedy, time and separation” (BookPage), Michele Young-Stone describes the travels and travails of Prudence and her family, and their connection to a long line of Lithuanian bird women whose stories echo the history of their nation while also telling of both horrors and wonders.

In her acclaimed novel Hannah’s Dream, Diane Hammond told the story of Hannah, the only elephant at a down-at-the-heels zoo. Now, in this eagerly awaited follow-up, the Max L. Biedelman Zoo has expanded, and taken on a new resident, a dying orca named Friday. 

Can they perform a similar miracle with this titan of the sea? Readers will eagerly look to find out in this “uplifting” (St Paul Pioneer Press) book written with “sublime sensitivity and infectious empathy” (Booklist).

“Moving from Jacksonville to Scotland and back, from another disaster to a laugh-out-loud moment,” this new novel by Laura Lee Smith, author of Heart of Palm, is a “heartbreaking, heartwarming […] original” (Tampa Bay Times). 

Just as it seems that Johnny MacKinnon may be on the verge of losing it all, he struggles to find some way back into the life of his estranged son in this one-of-a-kind book that “majestically captures the urgency of reconnecting with a loved one when time seems to be quickly slipping away” (Publishers Weekly).

Winner of the Nordic Council Literature Prize, this “charming and immersive new work from the award-winning author of Butterflies in November” has been hailed as “witty, soulful, lighthearted, and tender” by Library Journal in a starred review. 

It is the story of a recently-divorced man making his way through a war-torn country, “told in surreal, almost Kafkaesque prose” (Kirkus Reviews) to reveal a “beautifully spare and insightful tale of redemption” (Booklist).