Book description
Margaret Drabble is one of the major literary figures of her generation. In this collection of her complete short fiction from across four decades, she examines the intense private worlds and passions of everyday people.
From one man's honeymooning epiphany in 'Hassan's Tower' to the journeying fantasies of 'A Voyage…
Why read it?
1 author picked A Day in the Life of a Smiling Woman as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?
The one and only collection by this great novelist [and the sister of A.S. Byatt] is one of my most favorite. These short tales explore all sorts of relationships, not only marriage and friendship, but our relationships with personal identity, politics, and the culture which defines us. The writing is absolutely divine – images pop from the page and characters stay with us as if we’ve actually known them. And between the lines there is a lot of philosophical musing, which I love – just enough to make us think but never wear us down. These stories are for women…
From Randy's list on The best short stories for smart women.
If you love A Day in the Life of a Smiling Woman...
December on 5C4
Magical realism meets the magic of Christmas in this mix of Jewish, New Testament, and Santa stories–all reenacted in an urban psychiatric hospital!
On locked ward 5C4, Josh, a patient with many similarities to Jesus, is hospitalized concurrently with Nick, a patient with many similarities to Santa. The two argue…
Want books like A Day in the Life of a Smiling Woman?
Our community of 13,000+ authors has personally recommended 97 books like A Day in the Life of a Smiling Woman.
Share your top 3 reads of 2026!
And get a beautiful page showing off your 3 favorite reads.
219
readers submitted
so far, will you?
📚 If you like A Day in the Life of a Smiling Woman, you might also like...
Christmas Actually
Every picture tells a story, but it’s not always the one we expect or remember. Christmas Actually is a festive drama about family and forgiveness and a snapshot of modern family life, addressing Instagram to motherhood and everything in between.
Why Christmas? My publisher wanted my new novel to have…
The Shift
In this New York Times best-selling book, Theresa Brown, nurse and writer, invites us to experience not just a day in the life of a nurse but all the life that happens in just one day in a busy teaching hospital’s cancer ward.
In the span of twelve hours, lives…
