Read-alike Guides - The Pilot's Wife

If you liked The Pilot’s Wife by Anita Shreve, you might enjoy one of these books:

Caught in the Light by Robert Goddard
Photographer Ian Jarrett, on assignment in snowy Vienna, meets and falls in love with a mysterious woman—and then she disappears. Edgier than Shreve's writing, this novel still offers similar appeal: strong characters in extreme circumstances, a compelling story of obsession, polished prose, and psychological undercurrents.

Come Sunday by Isla Morey
Abbe Deighton tries to cope after her daughter’s death in an accident. She leaves Hawaii to return to her home in South Africa, where she must examine her relations with people she loves and come to terms with secrets from her past. With beautiful storytelling, Morley’s first novel is stunningly authentic, mature, and full of conviction.

A Crime in the Neighborhood by Suzanne Berne
As an adult, Marsha reflects on the summer of 1972. She was 10 years old, obsessed with the murder of a local boy and her new neighbor, and thought she had found a link. Berne’s first novel is a thought-provoking, character-driven work with seamless narrative structure, an extraordinary sense of lightness and suspense, and a deeply affecting conclusion.

The Deepest Water by Kate Wilhelm
In this haunting, disturbing story, Abby Conners investigates her father's death—and possible murder. The feel of the story, the atmosphere, layers of meaning, and psychological elements all create strong appeal. Abby must re-evaluate all of her safe assumptions about life as she probes for hidden messages in her father's last novel.

The Law of Bound Hearts by Anne LeClaire
Years after a terrible rift separates sisters Libby and Sam, they are forced to come to terms with the event that drove them apart when Libby needs a kidney transplant. What drove them apart, and can they forgive each other? LeClaire is a master of minutiae—from a lover’s touch to the random tenderness children can show to parents.

The Life You Longed For by Maribeth Fischer
Fighting to preserve the life of her mysteriously ill three-year-old son, Grace finds herself accused of Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy and is targeted with suspicion by everyone around her. Like Shreve, Fischer has a knack for crafting a suspenseful plot while exploring deeper familial issues, such as intimacy and grief.

Never Change by Elizabeth Berg
Myra Lipinsky, a 51-year-old visiting nurse, has been content to be a self-appointed spinster—until the man she adored in high school is struck by an incurable brain tumor and returns to New England to die. Berg delivers a bittersweet novel that serves as a gentle reminder to "only connect."

Plain Truth by Jodi Picoult
Picoult offers sensitive portrayals of characters and explorations of life's intimacies in emotional stories with psychological depths. Plain Truth relates the story of a young woman lawyer who escapes to Amish country to rest from her frantic life but finds a case that captures her, as she defends a young Amish girl, accused of murdering her illegitimate child.

Without a Backward Glance by Kate Veitch
Abandoned by their mother on Christmas Eve 1967, the four McDonald children grow up with questions about the past, but as their father progresses into dementia and James encounters their mother again after nearly forty years, old wounds are reopened and individual secrets come to light. Brisk pacing and a compassionate take on human failing make this an absorbing novel.

The World Below by Sue Miller
After being diagnosed with tuberculosis in 1919, a young woman is sent to a sanitarium. where she rediscovers the pleasures of unfettered youth and falls in love with a doomed man. This novel offers the elegant, evocative prose, strong characterizations, and storylines in the past and present that distinguish the work of both Miller and Shreve.

Also by Anita Shreve:

Eden Close
A young man recalls his life-long passion for his neighbor, Eden Close, and his anguish over the tragedy that separated them. Shreve's evocative prose, elegiac voice, and faithful attention to her likable hero's emotions render him believable and give this romance a weight superior to most in the genre. Flashbacks also add to this sensitive exploration as characters struggle to obtain the ever elusive happy ending.

The Weight of Water
A photographer accepts an assignment to document a murder/suicide case from the late 1800s. However, as she is drawn into that story, her own life is about to fall apart in a fashion frighteningly similar to that case. Parallel story lines, layers of meaning embedded into events in both centuries, and secrets hidden and discovered make for a satisfying read.

A Change of Altitude
In a novel of stunning language and striking emotional intensity, Margaret and Patrick have been married just a few months when they set off on a great adventure—a year living in Kenya. Following a horrific accident on Mount Kenya, Margaret struggles to understand what happened there and how these events have transformed her and her marriage, perhaps forever.