Match BookThe Paper Year
Avery Aster
2017 · 141 pages · Literary fiction
How it reads
The Paper Year is literary fiction (literary novella, specifically), and its dominant mood is melancholy. It's quietly sad, wistful and reflective. It's a slow burn: character-driven, with a payoff that comes from accumulation rather than twists. It rewards attention and suits unhurried reading more than five-minute gaps.
It's set in several locations, in the present day, told in the third person, staying close to one character. Its central concerns are identity, loss and grief and family. 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 141 pages it's a single-sitting book. It's a hidden gem — known to relatively few readers.
Pick it up if…
- you're in the mood for something melancholy
- you have time to settle in
- you want something to chew on
Maybe not if…
- you need something funny or hopeful
- you're reading in five-minute gaps
All 15 dimensions
- Genre
- literary fiction
- Author gender
- multiple or unknown
- Author experience
- debut
- Setting: place
- multiple locations
- Setting: time
- contemporary
- Mood / feeling
- melancholy
- Pace
- slow burn
- Tone / weight
- heavy and literary
- Length
- short
- Narrative style
- third person, one viewpoint
- Publication era
- modern classic
- Popularity
- hidden gem
- Series vs standalone
- standalone
- Themes
- identity, loss and grief, family
- 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.
- Untold LessonsMaddalena Vaglio TanetShares: literary fiction, melancholy mood, heavy and literary tone, slow burn
The Great Offshore GroundsVanessa VeselkaShares: literary fiction, melancholy mood, heavy and literary tone, slow burn- The GulfRachel CochranShares: literary fiction, melancholy mood, heavy and literary tone, slow burn
- The OverstoryRichard PowersShares: literary fiction, melancholy mood, heavy and literary tone, slow burn
Idle GroundsKrystelle BamfordShares: literary fiction, melancholy mood, heavy and literary tone, slow burn- ImpermanenceDaniel FrisanoShares: literary fiction, melancholy mood, heavy and literary tone, slow burn
Appears in
Find a copy
Reviews on Goodreads ↗Match Book earns a commission on purchases made through these links, at no extra cost to you. As an Amazon Associate, Match Book earns from qualifying purchases.