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Wasn't built in a day: Stories that span time

Inspired by a bluesky thread requesting recs for books that span several decades, centuries, millennia, or longer. Multi-genre. Vibes!

20th Century Boys, Band 1

38 Readers 4.2

Absalom, Absalom!

Absalom, Absalom!
ByWilliam Faulkner

1936 • 173 Readers • 305 pages 4

A Canticle for Leibowitz

A Canticle for Leibowitz
ByWalter M. Miller Jr.

1959 • 507 Readers • 334 pages 3.9

Accordion Crimes

Accordion Crimes
ByAnnie Proulx

1996 • 9 Readers • 544 pages 1

A Cosmology of Monsters

2019 • 76 Readers • 338 pages 4.1

Alaska

Alaska
ByJames A. Michener

1988 • 23 Readers • 1,092 pages 3.9

All Tomorrows: A Billion Year Chronicle of the Myriad Species and Mixed Fortunes of Man

2006 • 92 Readers • 111 pages 4.2

Angry Housewives Eating Bon Bons

2003 • 13 Readers • 512 pages 3.8

Anne of Green Gables

Anne of Green Gables
ByL.M. Montgomery

1908 • 632 Readers • 384 pages 4.3

An Unlasting Home

An Unlasting Home
ByMai Al-Nakib

2022 • 8 Readers • 371 pages

Any Human Heart

Any Human Heart
ByWilliam Boyd

2002 • 40 Readers • 498 pages 3.7

Appleseed

Appleseed
ByMatt Bell

2021 • 58 Readers • 480 pages 3.6

A Short History of Women

7 Readers 4

A Tale of Two Cities

A Tale of Two Cities
ByCharles Dickens

19 • 964 Readers • 544 pages 3.6

At the Full and Change of the Moon

2 Readers

A Woman Is No Man

2019 • 213 Readers 4

A Woman of Substance

A Woman of Substance
ByBarbara Taylor Bradford

1979 • 11 Readers • 932 pages 3.8

A Yellow Raft In Blue Water

1987 • 7 Readers • 343 pages 3

Banyan Moon

Banyan Moon
ByThao Thai

2023 • 83 Readers • 336 pages 3.9

Barkskins

Barkskins
ByAnnie Proulx

2016 • 39 Readers • 717 pages 4.2

Beasts of a Little Land

2021 • 95 Readers • 416 pages 3.5

Beloved

Beloved
ByToni Morrison

1987 • 752 Readers • 362 pages 3.9

Bestiary

Bestiary
ByK-Ming Chang

2020 • 42 Readers • 259 pages 3.5

Black Cake

Black Cake
ByCharmaine Wilkerson

2022 • 295 Readers • 401 pages 3.9

Blackwater: The Complete Saga

1983 • 112 Readers • 30 pages 3.7

Bloodroot

Bloodroot
ByAmy Greene

2010 • 11 Readers • 386 pages 3

Buddenbrooks

Buddenbrooks
ByThomas Mann

1901 • 78 Readers • 768 pages 4.4

Chesapeake

Chesapeake
ByJames A. Michener

1978 • 15 Readers • 1,131 pages 3.5

Childhood's End

Childhood's End
ByArthur C. Clarke

1953 • 596 Readers • 212 pages 4

Children of Time

Children of Time
ByAdrian Tchaikovsky

2015 • 1,369 Readers • 600 pages 4.3

Circles of Stone

Circles of Stone
ByJoan Dahr Lambert

1995 • 528 pages

Cloud Atlas

Cloud Atlas
ByDavid Mitchell

2003 • 908 Readers • 509 pages 3.9

Cloud Cuckoo Land

Cloud Cuckoo Land
ByAnthony Doerr

2021 • 642 Readers • 640 pages 4.3

Compulsion

Compulsion
ByMartina Boone

2014 • 13 Readers • 433 pages 3.7

Cosmicomics

Cosmicomics
ByItalo Calvino

1968 • 66 Readers • 172 pages 4.4

Creation

Creation
ByGore Vidal

1981 • 20 Readers • 612 pages 4

Cryptonomicon

Cryptonomicon
ByNeal Stephenson

1999 • 578 Readers • 1,152 pages 4.3

Csardas

Csardas
ByDiane Pearson

1975 • 1 Reader • 576 pages

Cuddy

Cuddy
ByBenjamin Myers

2023 • 16 Readers • 465 pages 4.3

Daughter of Family G

2019 • 1 Reader • 300 pages 4

Diaspora

Diaspora
ByGreg Egan

1997 • 152 Readers • 295 pages 3.6

Doomsday Book

Doomsday Book
ByConnie Willis

1992 • 376 Readers • 587 pages 3.8

Dune

Dune
ByFrank Herbert

1965 • 3,980 Readers • 704 pages 4.3

Early Warning

Early Warning
ByJane Smiley

2015 • 5 Readers • 496 pages 3

Earthly Powers

Earthly Powers
ByAnthony Burgess

1980 • 19 Readers • 649 pages 5

East of Eden

East of Eden
ByJohn Steinbeck

1952 • 1,087 Readers • 601 pages 4.5

Empire

Empire
BySteven Saylor

2010 • 7 Readers • 589 pages 4.5

Encounter with Tiber

Encounter with Tiber
ByBuzz Aldrin,John Barnes

1996 • 10 Readers • 656 pages 4

Fall of Giants

Fall of Giants
ByKen Follett

2010 • 269 Readers • 865 pages 4.1

Fall on Your Knees

Fall on Your Knees
ByAnn-Marie MacDonald

1996 • 65 Readers • 576 pages 3.7

Five-Part Invention: A Novel

Five-Part Invention: A Novel
ByAndrea J. Buchanan

2022 • 304 pages

Foundation

Foundation
ByIsaac Asimov

1951 • 1,572 Readers • 255 pages 4

Genesis: Memory of Fire, Volume 1

1982 • 15 Readers • 336 pages 4.7

Ghost Story

Ghost Story
ByPeter Straub

1979 • 149 Readers • 530 pages 3.7

Gnomon

Gnomon
ByNick Harkaway

2017 • 93 Readers • 662 pages 3.8

Golden Age

Golden Age
ByJane Smiley

2015 • 5 Readers • 464 pages

Great Expectations

Great Expectations
ByCharles Dickens

1860 • 832 Readers • 548 pages 3.6

Greenwood

Greenwood
ByMichael Christie

2019 • 82 Readers • 528 pages 4.1

Hag

Hag
ByKathleen Kaufman

2018 • 2 Readers • 336 pages

Hawaii

Hawaii
ByJames A. Michener

1959 • 35 Readers • 1,036 pages 4.1

Hearts in Atlantis

Hearts in Atlantis
ByStephen King

1998 • 163 Readers • 621 pages 3.9

Here

Here
ByRichard McGuire

2014 • 78 Readers • 304 pages 4.1

Her Mother's Daughter

Her Mother's Daughter
ByMarilyn French

1987 • 686 pages

Homegoing

Homegoing
ByYaa Gyasi

2016 • 574 Readers • 468 pages 4.5

Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet

2009 • 95 Readers • 507 pages 4

How High We Go in the Dark

How High We Go in the Dark
BySequoia Nagamatsu

2022 • 652 Readers • 305 pages 3.8

I, Claudius

I, Claudius
ByRobert Graves,Stephen Alcorn

1934 • 185 Readers • 432 pages 4.1

Infinite Jest

Infinite Jest
ByDavid Foster Wallace

1996 • 758 Readers • 1,079 pages 4.2

Isle of Woman

Isle of Woman
ByPiers Anthony

1993 • 7 Readers • 470 pages 3

It

It
ByStephen King

1980 • 1,173 Readers • 1,168 pages 4.1

Jade City

Jade City
ByFonda Lee

2017 • 1,257 Readers • 498 pages 4.1

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, Part 1 — Phantom Blood, Vol. 1

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, Part 1 — Phantom Blood, Vol. 1
ByHirohiko Araki,Evan Galloway(Translator)

1987 • 5 Readers • 186 pages 3.8

Les Misérables

Les Misérables
ByVictor Hugo,Isabel Florence Hapgood(Translator)

7 • 729 Readers • 1,378 pages 4.2

Little, Big

Little, Big
ByJohn Crowley,Donatella Rizzati(Translator)

1981 • 134 Readers • 576 pages 3.8

London

London
ByEdward Rutherfurd

1997 • 47 Readers • 1,152 pages 3.6

Love Medicine

Love Medicine
ByLouise Erdrich

1984 • 62 Readers • 367 pages 4.1

Marooned in Realtime

Marooned in Realtime
ByVernor Vinge

1986 • 30 Readers • 288 pages 4.3

Master And Commander

Master And Commander
ByPatrick O'Brian

1969 • 176 Readers • 350 pages 4

Master of the Game

Master of the Game
BySidney Sheldon

1982 • 35 Readers • 495 pages 3.6

Mater 2-10

Mater 2-10
ByHwang Sok-yong

2020 • 8 Readers

Memphis

Memphis
ByTara M. Stringfellow

2022 • 117 Readers • 336 pages 4.1

Methuselah's Children

Methuselah's Children
ByRobert A. Heinlein

1958 • 30 Readers • 234 pages 3.6

Middlesex

Middlesex
ByJeffrey Eugenides

559 Readers 4.2

Midnight's Children

Midnight's Children
BySalman Rushdie

1981 • 381 Readers • 640 pages 4.1

Mr. Mani

Mr. Mani
ByAbraham B. Yehoshua

1993 • 1 Reader • 386 pages

No Enemy But Time

No Enemy But Time
ByMichael Bishop

1982 • 3 Readers • 384 pages

One Hundred Years of Solitude

One Hundred Years of Solitude
ByGabriel García Márquez,Gregory Rabassa(Translator)

1967 • 1,496 Readers • 422 pages 4.1

Orlando: A Biography

Orlando: A Biography
ByVirginia Woolf

1919 • 297 Readers • 350 pages 3.8

Pachinko

Pachinko
ByMin Jin Lee

2017 • 1,023 Readers • 496 pages 4.3

Peach Blossom Spring

2022 • 88 Readers • 400 pages 4.5

Cover 8

Penguin Island
ByAnatole France

1908 • 6 Readers 4

Rain of Gold (Lluvia de Oro)

Rain of Gold (Lluvia de Oro)
ByVictor Villaseñor

2015 • 1 Reader • 497 pages 4

Return to Wyldcliffe Heights

2024 • 7 Readers • 261 pages

Revelation Space

Revelation Space
ByAlastair Reynolds

2000 • 406 Readers • 596 pages 3.8

Roma

Roma
BySteven Saylor

2007 • 21 Readers • 651 pages 3.5

Roots

Roots
ByAlex Haley

1976 • 89 Readers • 587 pages 4.3

Russka: The Novel of Russia

Russka: The Novel of Russia
ByEdward Rutherfurd

1991 • 26 Readers • 961 pages 3.8

Salt Houses

Salt Houses
ByHala Alyan

2017 • 60 Readers • 320 pages 4

Same Bed Different Dreams

2023 • 67 Readers • 528 pages 4

Sarum

Sarum
ByEdward Rutherfurd

69 Readers 4.2