Despite the prevalence of happy romantic heroes, I’m most interested in the ambiguous love story. My favorite titles show that the land of love can be treacherous terrain – emigration, murder, parental illness, getting pregnant by a stranger. Sometimes, the lovers even die – shot in bed, buried in a cave, or made to disappear by the government.
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Trouble is expected—what is a love story, if not a series of escalating tests of love? But it’s not a problem that can take someone down, so why do these obscure stories resonate? For many people, a happy ending is the main thing. Last I checked the world is a mess, and these feel-good stories provide so much joy.
I am not immune. i breathed heated rivalry Almost as fast as Shane Hollander can say, I’d rather be the hole than the peg. In book form, I absorb the wisdom and longing that lead to a union between lovers. Once that desire is fulfilled, another will surely appear. Not just happiness, but certainty.
Here light-hearted fun turns into a reality, which I don’t buy into, because much of life is uncertain, neither Happy and neither since. The world we actually live in is a dangerous and dirty place. Promises—like hearts—can be broken, sometimes beyond repair.
my first novel, everything to the seaSo is a love story based on a bitter truth that tests our lovers. We meet our heroes in the summer before a tsunami destroys their hometown and follow them for a decade as they grapple with grief, rebuild their lives, and try to find their way back to each other.
As a reader and writer, I am most interested in romantic love as a process of change, not an endpoint. A union as risky as it is worthy, come hell or high water. There are books that do just that.
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Gabriel Garcia Marquez, love in the Time of Cholera
If love is patient, then there is no lover more patient than Florentino Ariza, who waited for his young love for almost 50 years, 9 months and four days. I first read this novel in a comparative literature course that emphasized how the theme of romantic love spans geography and time in global literature; Its thrill and pain are central to the human condition.
Florentino doesn’t spend years alone, but with 622(!) cases. He thinks, “A person can love many people at the same time, feel equal sorrow with each, and not betray any of them. Alone in the midst of the crowd on the pier, he said angrily to himself: ‘There are more rooms in my heart than a brothel.'”
Yet his heart ultimately belongs to only one, Fermina Daza. No matter what happens—an inconvenient husband, a cholera epidemic—the novel asks, does love ever end?
Crystal Hana Kim, if you leave me
if you leave me It follows Hemi, a courageous young refugee, during the war and its aftermath in South Korea between 1951 and 1967. Hemi must choose between her desire for her childhood friend Kyungwan and her wealthy cousin, Jisoo, whose life the station offers a life or death stakes to Hemi’s beloved brother, Hyunki. At this juncture, 16-year-old Hemi asks Jisoo’s mother, “What if I don’t love him?” Her mother responded, “No one is telling you to love anyone. …What do you think will happen to our country? Ours?”
Told in multiple first-person narratives – we see Hemi endure through war, marriage, and motherhood. Her life is filled with practical choices she must make for her family, and yet circumstances cannot extinguish her ill-advised desire for love. A portrait of not just a woman, but a country at a turning point of change. Be careful, it’s a tragedy – think about it Anna Karenina-But Hemi will haunt you just as she haunts her daughters, long past the last page.
Daniel Alarcon, Lost City Radio
The novel takes its name from the most popular radio show in this unnamed Latin American country, as listeners attempt to reconnect with loved ones lost in the war. Listeners believed that show host Norma was able to “bring the lost, the estranged, and the missing out of town” – with the notable exception of her husband, who had gone missing 10 years earlier. Then an 11-year-old boy from the village where his husband disappeared arrives at the radio station…
A friend recommended this novel, with a sad heart, envying the pleasure I had reading it for the first time. Because the lover has disappeared, the love story does not carry with it the present – much like, say, Ondaatje. English patient-Yet it moves the story forward. The diverse viewpoints and weaves of past and present allow the reader to explore both love and its consequences, not to mention its myriad obstacles – politics, imprisonment, betrayal. The novel asks, how far will Norma go to discover the truth? And what risks will Norma take to set things right?
Kamila Shamsi, house fire
house fire A novel that is both modern and timeless, reimagining a family of British Muslims antigone. Like antigoneThe novel is told in five acts, parts, each of which deals with a central character. An eldest sister is left to care for her siblings after their mother dies and their jihadist father is jailed, her two younger siblings, a powerful politician and his handsome son. The stage is set for a political and domestic explosion, and love is the spark.
After their first encounter, Eamonn (the handsome son, of course) wakes Anika up to find her praying. “He should have gone immediately, but he could not help seeing this woman, this stranger, bowing before God in the same room where only a few hours before she had been on her knees for a very different purpose. Eventually, the depth of her immersion in another world apart from the body and the senses forced him to go back to bed, wondering if she would return.” This is a book that wrestles with loyalty, trust, and the temptations – not just of the body, but of thoughts and identity – that are woven between arrivals and departures.
Mohsin Hamid, west exit
This slim book is magical. Love blossoms between Saeed and Nadia as civil war breaks out in their eponymous city. The stakes couldn’t be higher, as Hamid writes as the novel begins, “One moment we’re going about our business as usual and the next we’re dying.” In such a scenario, what should the young lovers do?
west exit Explores the tension between duty and freedom, desire and tradition, and how to move forward when the present is untenable. Our young lovers must leave their families and country behind, fleeing through the first of many doors as refugees. The novel highlights the refugee crisis alongside the sharp interludes of global violence, while also grappling with questions about a relationship that is no longer new: How do we bring change to every door we walk through? Have we gone through so many doors that we are no longer the people we were? Can we continue this journey together? And will you remember me, no matter how this journey ends?
Lewis Kennedy, crimes
A quietly devastating portrayal of a secret affair between 24-year-old Catholic Cushla and married Protestant barrister Michael in 1970s Belfast. Every morning in her class, Cushla has to review “The News” – another bomb in Belfast. “Booby trap. Incendiary device. Gelignite. Nitroglycerin. Petrol bomb. Rubber bullets. Saracen. Internment. Special Powers Act. Vanguard. Now the vocabulary of a seven-year-old.” At night, she wanders the streets of army posts, soldiers brandishing rifles and keeping an eye on her thighs. During the day, she delivers food to a student whose father has been beaten and is therefore unable to work.
It is a fraught scenario in which Kushala falls in love. Certain happiness is impossible from the beginning – not just religion, but his marriage, his youth, the violence that will undoubtedly mark them. This novel is about how we get through the darkest times – recognizing humanity, finding love and seeking justice.
Ann napolitano, dear edward
dear edward is a book that is much bigger than its premise: the protagonist, 12-year-old Edward, is the sole survivor of a plane crash in which he loses his parents and brother. We ask how will he move forward after such a huge loss? How will he rebuild his family? Restore his heart?
This is a book with a big heart that makes me cry even when rereading it. While the novel beautifully weaves together the lives of the other travelers, I am most impressed by the community of people who surround Edward as he comes of age with his surviving aunt and uncle and befriends the girl next door. Unlike the other books on this list, it doesn’t dive into adult romance, but instead explores the many types of love that make our lives meaningful. As Edward adjusts to his new life, he is inspired to lift weights to escape the burden of his high school gym. After a few months his gym teacher tells Edward, “You’re tougher than I thought.” “And you’re getting stronger.” In this novel the heart is a muscle.
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everything to the sea By Alicia Upano Available from William Morrow.
