Match BookThe Gap of Time
Jeanette Winterson
2015 · 273 pages · Literary fiction
How it reads
The Gap of Time is literary fiction (literary retelling, specifically), and its dominant mood is melancholy. It's quietly sad, wistful and reflective. The pace is moderate — neither a page-turner nor a slow burn — so it holds up whether you read it in long sittings or short ones.
It's set in a big city setting, in the present day, told in the third person across several viewpoints. Its central concerns are family, loss and grief and identity. In weight it's heavy and literary — denser, more serious, and more demanding of you.
It stands alone, so there's nothing else you need to read first or after. The ending is bittersweet: it resolves, but at a price. At 273 pages it's a quick read. It's well known, the kind of book most keen readers have heard of.
Pick it up if…
- you're in the mood for something melancholy
- you want something to chew on
- you want a complete story in one book
Maybe not if…
- you need something funny or hopeful
All 15 dimensions
- Genre
- literary fiction
- Author gender
- female
- Author experience
- prolific veteran
- Setting: place
- big city
- Setting: time
- contemporary
- Mood / feeling
- melancholy
- Pace
- moderate
- Tone / weight
- heavy and literary
- Length
- short
- Narrative style
- third person, several viewpoints
- Publication era
- modern classic
- Popularity
- well known
- Series vs standalone
- standalone
- Themes
- family, loss and grief, identity
- Ending style
- bittersweet
What these mean: the 15 dimensions of a book.
Books with a similar reading
The closest books in Match Book's catalogue across the same dimensions, and what they share.
- Drunk with Love: A Book of StoriesEllen GilchristShares: literary fiction, melancholy mood, heavy and literary tone, moderate pace
- The OverstoryRichard PowersShares: literary fiction, melancholy mood, heavy and literary tone, bittersweet ending
Things Don't Break on Their OwnSarah Easter CollinsShares: literary fiction, melancholy mood, heavy and literary tone, bittersweet ending
White OleanderJanet FitchShares: literary fiction, melancholy mood, heavy and literary tone, moderate pace- The Paper YearAvery AsterShares: literary fiction, melancholy mood, heavy and literary tone, bittersweet ending
Fair and Tender LadiesLee SmithShares: literary fiction, melancholy mood, heavy and literary tone, moderate pace
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