Really close perspective of one man’s spiral into addiction. It feels almost like a memoir at times.
SharksRS on
Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams. It is about the creation of the Oxford English Dictionary, a fiction based on the true stories of some people who worked on it. I’m not sure that it reads like a documentary in non-fiction, but it reads a bit like a descriptive memoir. There are elements that are more flowery in language than others, and it is fairly immersive.
EmeryyRS on
Most of Jorges Luis Borges stories read more like articles, essays, or sometimes journal entries. Many of them also make use of information from the real world, but most have something fantastic or otherworldly that they’re exploring (or try to; he deals a lot with paradoxical, impossible phenomena that even evades understanding for the main characters).
For someone more contemporary, you should definitely look into Benjamin Labatut. Although he’s not completely fiction (he himself doesn’t give his books a genre), in that he also uses a lot of real individual’s stories, he brings the information together with such atmosphere that it really becomes a unique experience.
EDIT: On a similar note to above, I have to also bring up W.G. Sebald. He’s certainly not unknown, but he fits your search so well he at least should
be mentioned.
needaredesign on
I was convinced Breasts and Eggs by Mieko Kawakami was autobiographical.
1404er on
*Earthmare: The Book of Lost Wars* by Cergat
burnhorn on
For Want of a Nail by Robert Sobel
HerculesMulligatawny on
The Martian
bhbhbhhh on
The 2020 Commission Report on the North Korean Nuclear Attacks Against the United States: A Speculative Novel
The Third World War: August 1985
Sergeant-Snorty-Cake on
The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara (American Civil War — really climbs into the viewpoints on both sides of the battles at Gettysburg) and also the Paula McClain books The Paris Wife (Hemingway’s first marriage) and Love and Ruin (Hemingway’s third marriage).
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World War z – max brooks
Less Than by A.D. Long.
Really close perspective of one man’s spiral into addiction. It feels almost like a memoir at times.
Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams. It is about the creation of the Oxford English Dictionary, a fiction based on the true stories of some people who worked on it. I’m not sure that it reads like a documentary in non-fiction, but it reads a bit like a descriptive memoir. There are elements that are more flowery in language than others, and it is fairly immersive.
Most of Jorges Luis Borges stories read more like articles, essays, or sometimes journal entries. Many of them also make use of information from the real world, but most have something fantastic or otherworldly that they’re exploring (or try to; he deals a lot with paradoxical, impossible phenomena that even evades understanding for the main characters).
For someone more contemporary, you should definitely look into Benjamin Labatut. Although he’s not completely fiction (he himself doesn’t give his books a genre), in that he also uses a lot of real individual’s stories, he brings the information together with such atmosphere that it really becomes a unique experience.
EDIT: On a similar note to above, I have to also bring up W.G. Sebald. He’s certainly not unknown, but he fits your search so well he at least should
be mentioned.
I was convinced Breasts and Eggs by Mieko Kawakami was autobiographical.
*Earthmare: The Book of Lost Wars* by Cergat
For Want of a Nail by Robert Sobel
The Martian
The 2020 Commission Report on the North Korean Nuclear Attacks Against the United States: A Speculative Novel
The Third World War: August 1985
The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara (American Civil War — really climbs into the viewpoints on both sides of the battles at Gettysburg) and also the Paula McClain books The Paris Wife (Hemingway’s first marriage) and Love and Ruin (Hemingway’s third marriage).
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