Novels in Verse for Grown ups
In celebration of National Poetry Month, here are a wide variety of novels-in-verse for adult readers. (Created April 2023)
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Oxota
A verse novel composed of 14-line stanzas inspired by Pushkin's Evgeny Onegin, reflecting Hejinian's experiences of literary and lived life in Leningrad and Moscow.
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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Human Landscapes From My Country
Written during the Second World War while Hikmet was serving a thirteen-year sentence as a political prisoner, his verse-novel uses cinematic techniques to tell the story of the emergence of secular, modern Turkey by focusing on the always-entertaining stories of sundry characters from all walks of life.
Format: Book
Availability: All copies in use
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The Night Library of Sternendach
Kunigunde is destined to become the next in a long line of Heller clan vampire hunters -- but her soul is drawn to books, poetry, and the vampire Graf. Set in 1960s Europe, The Night Library of Sternendach is an unabashedly melodramatic opera-in-sonnets that weaves a sweeping, suspenseful tale.
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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Dreaming of You
A young Latinx poet grappling with loneliness and heartache decides one day to bring Tejano pop star Selena Quintanilla back to life. The šance kicks off an uncanny trip narrated by a Greek chorus of gossiping spirits.
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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Ludlow
Ludlow tells the story of a handful of immigrants Greek, Mexican, Scottish, Italian in southern Colorado, climaxing in the Ludlow Massacre of April 1914, in which elements of the Colorado National Guard killed striking miners and family members.
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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The Lehman Trilogy
A novel in verse that inspired the West End and Off-Broadway play of the same name, The Lehman Trilogy follows the epic rise and fall of three generations of the Lehman family and through them tells the story of American ambition and hubris.
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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La trilogía Lehman
La Trilog̕a Lehman, obra maestra de Stefano Massini es una historia americana de ambici̤n y ̌xito, pero tambǐn de arrogancia y excesos; una epopeya profundamente original, sorprendente y conmovedora.
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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Poguemahone
A verse epic for the 21st century, Poguemahone combines the fragmentation of cummings and Williams and the spontaneity of Ginsberg and Ferlinghetti with a soundtrack by Mott the Hoople, then douses it in whisky and sets it on fire.
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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Northwood
A genre-breaking novella told in short, brilliant, beautifully strange passages. The narrator, a young woman, has fled to the forest to pursue her artwork in isolation. While there, she falls in love with a married man she meets at a country dance.
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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Angel & Hannah
Hannah, a Korean American girl from Queens, New York, and Angel, a Puerto Rican boy from Brooklyn, fall in love in the spring of 1993, as told in this hip-hop love story, not of the Capulets and the Montagues, but two New York City kids trying to survive and grow within their families and communities, driven by an all-consuming love.
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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