What's the Name of That Book??? discussion

sorry if this is too vague, but i'm looking for actual novels that include many different vignettes that could all be taken individually, but are tied together with the same main characters, setting, plot, etc. so not at all a collection, but more just a story that branches off in various directions throughout. examples would be Dandelion Wine, The House on Mango Street, Love Medicine, or even Before the Coffee Gets Cold. thanks in advance and sorry for the bad explanation!

The Shore by Sara Taylor fits this, I think. The publisher describes it as a novel but it can also be described as a collection of interlinked short stories - each chapter is about a different member of the same family tree, in the same setting but over a wide spread of time. I loved it.

Winesburg, Ohio

Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe

How High We Go in the Dark

Alice Munro's stories are set in small-town Canada, and often involve members of the same families.

Local Girls
What You Call Winter

If fantasy is acceptable, Journeys of the Catechist: Carnivores of Light and Darkness, Into the Thinking Kingdoms, and A Triumph of Souls is a bunch of different encounters strung together as the characters go on a long journey across a very strange and fantastical country.


It's been a long while, so my memory may be off but I think Dreamsnake might work too, at least I remember feeling like it was more short stories stitched together than a proper novel length plot.

Happy are the Happy Yasmin Reza

Olive Kitteridge

It's the End of the World, My Love

Maybe Tim Weaver's The Shadow at the Door .

Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell

Pavane

Great alternate history through centuries.

Perhaps the elegic The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury also qualifies here.

City by Clifford D. Simak
Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh

The term you might be looking for is "fix-up."

You definitely don't want to miss the fun in Mirabile

The Natural Order of Things

Paratime

The Book of Gaheris by Kari Sperring

The book is split into 4 parts. The first part is told from Gaheris' POV. Part 2 is from Gaheris' sister-in-law's POV. Part 3 is split between Gaheris' and a demi-goddess' POVs. And part 4 is told from Gawain, one of Gaheris' brothers, POV. Gaheris remains at the heart of all these tales.

The Purple Chair: Books 1 - 6

Slaves of New York by Tama Janowitz

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...

Chola Salvation

Wolf on the Fold

The Puttermesser Papers

If you like spooky / ghost stories The Hotel would fit the bill.

Tenth of December by George Saunders. smart, darkly funny, and emotionally story

Everything’s Eventual by Stephen King if you like horror and suspense this one is great.

Dubliners by James Joyce a short story

Shadowboxing

One Girl

In Case We're Separated

Rules of the Lake