Novels like At Dusk
Books Chinese readers most often put in the same booklists as At Dusk, best match first.
- 51 Tales of Qingshiyu 青石峪往事 The story follows nearly half a century of change in Qingshiyu, a village in the Yimeng Mountains. As the mountain countryside is transformed, it portrays the full journey of rural China from the final years of collectivization to the new era of rural revitalization. It tells the stories of life in and beyond the village, exploring tradition and modernity, staying and leaving, survival and growth, and the profound tension between individual destinies and the tides of the times... 10Reads—Score—Shelves
- 52 On the Seventh Day of the New Year, I Poured My Life into a Nongfu Spring Bottle 正月初七，我把人生倒进了农夫山泉瓶 On the seventh day of the first lunar month, I poured my life into a Nongfu Spring bottle. 4Reads—Score—Shelves
- 53 The Silent Battlefield Between Mother-in-Law and Daughter-in-Law 婆媳没有硝烟的战场 The conflict between Lin Xiao and her mother-in-law, Zhang Cuilan, keeps escalating. Then Lin Xiao undergoes a dramatic transformation, becoming independent and self-reliant. She lives life on her own terms and rewrites her future, until the road ahead finally opens up... 3Reads—Score—Shelves
- 54 A Love Triangle in Marriage 婚姻里的三角恋 [Contemporary realistic fiction + the married life of ordinary people in Beijing + love triangles in marriage + real struggles] Bai Xue and Wang Yang are a young married couple living in Beijing. Wang Yang is a typical “phoenix man,” a country boy who made it big in the city. After ten years of marriage, he cheats on her. After they divorce, Bai Xue meets another man, and her new life begins… What makes this book special: A woman faces betrayal in her marriage, but after the hardship comes 1.4kReads8.8Score139Shelves
- 55 Chang'an County 长安县 “Golden Zhouzhi, silver Huxian, Chang’an County is where they kill and burn...” goes a saying in Shaanxi. The author takes you into Chang’an County, where they kill and burn. This panoramic portrait of the customs and local life of Chang’an County, Xi’an, Shaanxi, depicts rural life in all its unvarnished authenticity: an ancient village, a great burial mound rising from the earth, and four clans descended from the tomb guardians... A secret buried for a thousand years, the scheming and rivalrie 4.3kReads9.2Score415Shelves
- 56 San Biaozi 三彪子 In 1980, in Kaoshan Village on the banks of the Songhua River, the Gao family’s fifth child is born. Dubbed “San Biaozi” because he is a bit dim, he grows up amid poverty and gossip. His mother bears the painful memory of having been assaulted, while his father quietly shoulders the burden of their broken family. San Biaozi drifts through life in a daze, but after a string of fires, people begin to suspect him of arson. While working the night shift guarding the grain depot, he learns to smoke. 708Reads—Score—Shelves
- 57 I'll Wait for You in Gusu City 我在姑苏城里等你 After failing the college entrance exams, I left home alone and came to Suzhou, where I met two girls who would shape my whole life... One was as passionate as fire, the other as gentle as jade... At eighteen, I didn't understand what love was... A cigarette, a glass of wine, and so much sorrow in the city of Gusu... Note: This isn't a wish-fulfillment novel, and it takes its time getting going. If you enjoy plot-driven stories, you can start at Chapter 39. Thank you! 2.1kReads—Score225Shelves
- 58 The Hidden Wife 隐妻 [The comic adaptation is now available! Tap “Adaptation Theater” in the lower-right corner of any page of this book to watch instantly. The original novel and short drama each have their own appeal. Share it with your friends!] No rebirth, no transmigration, and no System golden finger, just the true golden years of an entire generation! Having fled an arranged marriage, he joins the tide of migrant workers heading south. In a southern metropolis brimming with both opportunity and challenges, he 805Reads6.2Score104Shelves
- 59 Single Piggy 单身猪猪 A deeply nuanced style, and an unconventional portrait of marriage and love. If corrupt officials are not punished, it is an injustice to ordinary people. A work of realism, peeling back the layers to examine the truth and reflect with cool, unflinching insight. 28Reads—Score—Shelves
- 60 Wild Lilies of the Mountain Village 山村野百合 An eighteen-year-old village beauty married a thirty-three-year-old simpleton. A month after their wedding, her husband drowned, and she was branded a woman who brought death to her husband… This story offers a true-to-life account of the loves and hatreds, joys and sorrows of ordinary rural people. It faces the ugliness and greed of human nature head-on, while reflecting on the sincerity and warmth found in this world. 276Reads—Score—Shelves
- 61 The Tail Fire Tiger and Kui Wood Wolf 尾火虎奎木狼 As the old saying goes: Reading ten thousand books is not as good as traveling ten thousand miles; traveling ten thousand miles is not as good as meeting countless people; meeting countless people is not as good as spending every day with masters; and having an expert show you the way is not as good as reaching enlightenment on your own. Over the years, I’ve read plenty of books, traveled many roads, met many people, and experienced many things. I’ve also spent time with masters, and gained a fe 9Reads—Score—Shelves
- 62 A Conspiracy Within the Marriage 婚内合谋 After the passion fades, the leads settle into a dull married life, paying off their debts and living without intimacy. Then the male lead's best friend cheats, and through a twist of fate, the female lead receives hush money of 300,000 yuan. Her desire to make money suddenly awakens, and she joins forces with her husband to start a business. As they make money hand over fist, they rediscover the passion of their romance. Greed and the desires of love and hate collide in a tangle of human nature 63Reads—Score—Shelves
- 63 The End of Ordinary 平凡的尽头 The story began in 2019. It was a turbulent time, and I stopped writing after a hasty 50,000 words. Then, in May 2020, I finished it. At 250,000 words, it is too short to cover all the joys and sorrows of this bustling world through the changing years. It tells only of several years spent wandering through life. The story is based entirely on real events. Freedom, marriage, career, money, family, friendship. As someone born in the 1990s, I have always questioned the world. I hoped to find answer 35Reads—Score—Shelves
- 64 The Newlywed Young Widow 新婚小寡妇 In the winter of 1976, Li Yanmei was newly married when her husband died. Branded a “husband-killing” jinx, she was pregnant when her cruel in-laws threw her out with nothing. On a stormy night, she gave birth in a melon shed. Starving and freezing, she swallowed the slur “loose woman” along with her tears. For the little one in her arms, she wiped away her tears and turned humiliation into a stepping stone. She went from selling goods at a black-market stall to reclaiming land for farming, from 1.6kReads6.5Score103Shelves
- 65 Zhi You: Mom, Take Me with You 知柚：妈妈，带我一起走 [Growing Up with a Little One] [A Post-90s Mom's Comeback] [No Romance] [No Male Lead] "Mommy, don't go..." Youyou buried her face in Lin Sui's neck, her muffled sobs coming one after another. "Youyou will be good. Don't leave me..." Lin Sui stroked her daughter's back again and again. Her voice steadied, then trembled, then steadied again. "Be good and listen, Youyou. Mommy is only leaving for a little while. I'll find a way to come back for you, I promise." The man standing in the entryw 99Reads—Score—Shelves
- 66 Marriage Before Love: Mr. Fu’s Beloved 先婚后爱：付先生的掌心宠 Because of her family background, Xiang Zhaozhao had always been determined never to marry. That same family background left her with no choice but to compromise and go on a blind date with Fu Shiyu. Xiang Zhaozhao thought their marriage would be nothing more than two people sharing a life. She never imagined it would turn out so blissful and sweet! A love story about a first-generation entrepreneur and a woman marrying later in life! 1.1kReads8.7Score119Shelves
- 67 There’s a Rainbow in the Sky After the Rain 雨后的天空有彩虹 When the college entrance exams were reinstated, Zheng Hongmei left her three-year-old son, Wenge, behind in the countryside. Wenge always dreamed of studying hard, getting into college, and finding his mother. Fifteen years later, on the very first day his adoptive father took him to college, he ran into her. His mother was a professor at the university, but he no longer recognized her. His adoptive father was the one who told him she was his mother. But his mother coldly told him not to distur 2kReads—Score130Shelves
- 68 Tales of Xizhou in the 1980s 80年代西州往事 This is a story about youth, and a story about growing up. It is filled with passionate brotherhood, the innocent love of childhood sweethearts, clashes of steel in the streets and alleys, and the struggles and choices people face in the tides of a changing era. Most importantly, it captures the warmth unique to that time: the unreserved sincerity between people, a purity that seems almost like a luxury today. 12Reads—Score—Shelves
- 69 The Young People of Chemen Courtyard 车门院里的年轻人 This is a symphony of destinies spanning generations. In a small courtyard in northern China in the 1970s, several families struggle and drift with the tides of the times. Lei Shaxiao, an orphan whose parents died young, falls in love with Aiai, another orphan from the neighboring courtyard. They were an ordinary couple, but amid the raging currents of the era, Shaxiao rises to become a renowned lawyer who commands the room. Money, power, and desire come one after another. He loses himself in th 25Reads—Score—Shelves
- 70 Rural Sisters-in-Law 农村妯娌 This is a story of war and peace between two women, and also a miniature epic chronicling the transformation of rural China from collectivization to the modern era. When the well in Liuxi Village was filled in and running water reached every home, the women who had once argued, wept, and whispered secrets beside that well proved through their lives that time can bury old grudges, and that a resilient spirit can blossom in the soil. 2.3kReads7.1Score255Shelves
- 71 The Shoe Factory Worker Holds Forth, and She Knows So Much! 鞋厂女工论道，她知道那么多！ [Urban slice of life + romance] The heroine is beautiful and works at a factory. She takes care of looking lovely while the hero works hard to get ahead. He climbs the factory's management ranks and even puts in time on the production line, all so the two of them can tie the knot and enjoy a long, happy life together. But things aren't that simple... 134Reads—Score—Shelves
- 72 Day After Day 日子一天又一天 In the 1980s, two families lived across the street from each other: the Sun family, led by Sun Lanying, and the Chen family, led by Chen Guangtian. On a snowy morning, a teacher from Zicheng No. 1 High School arrived at the Sun family’s home, disturbing their usual peace. The eldest daughter, Ding Hong, ran away with Gao Yong, a married man, and her younger sisters were drawn into the fallout… Across the street, Chen Guangtian suddenly died of a heart attack. His wife, Liu Jinfeng, clashed with 9kReads9.3Score918Shelves
- 73 Sanxi: From Village Beauty to Village Bully 三喜：从村花到村霸 A beautiful country girl marries in a daze, only for upheaval to strike her family. She goes from depending on others to growing strong on her own, but in the end, desire consumes her and leads her to ruin. In her final moments, she realizes that human nature cannot be controlled… 136Reads—Score101Shelves
- 74 A Traveler in Years of Famine 荒年客 A survival epic about ordinary Chinese people. From rural China to the torrents of modern life, three generations of the Hou family are swept along by the tide of history. The grandparents put down roots in the land. Their values, admonitions, and “family scandals” form the family's original identity and its shackles. The parents struggle through a time of transition, inheriting heavy burdens while kindling a desire to change their fate. As someone born in the 1980s, I linger at the divide betwe 137Reads6.6Score105Shelves
- 75 Little Leopard 小豹子 After her grandparents, who had raised her, passed away, the abandoned Situ Lingzhi was left with no one to rely on. Taking the Medical Prescriptions of the Situ Family that her grandfather had left behind, she went to America to find his relatives. Six years later, the first major event that awaited Situ Lingzhi, now a medical doctor returning home, was her classmate Dongfang Xiangrui trying to force her into marriage. The Dongfang family had once been a leading force in Yunhai City's business 321Reads8.6Score101Shelves
- 76 The Years of Growing Up 成长的岁月 Pingping was born in the mid-1960s and grew up in a small town in Jiangnan. Her parents raised five children, and Pingping was the fourth. Born during the Cultural Revolution, Pingping witnessed the country rise from poverty and backwardness to prosperity and strength. Through her own hard work, she grew alongside the times. 27Reads—Score—Shelves
- 77 With a Start This Bad, I'm Not Taking the Loss 开局这么烂，吃亏我不干 Born under a peach-blossom fate, where it’s me or him: flirtatious men and women, face-slapping, and putting scumbags in their place. On a snowy night, in an earth cellar, on a heated kang in the Northeast, in a remote mountain village, poor Liang Laonian sees something he shouldn’t. Under immense pressure and with no one to turn to, he can only keep quiet. Later, Liang Daqing is born, his bloodline a mystery. As a child, he was lazy, sly, greedy, and slippery. As a teenager, he was rebellious 747Reads8.4Score107Shelves
- 78 A Woman Named Chunxiu 一个叫春秀的女人 [Period drama + everyday family life + marriage + building a career + personal growth] I married a state-owned enterprise worker, and after years of trying, I finally had a son. Then, just as my husband was sent to prison, my mother-in-law branded me a bringer of bad luck and threw me out of the house. Qiu Yue, widowed and bullied, and Wang Feng, tormented by domestic abuse, shared my fate. The three of us hard-done-by women joined forces, working, doing business, and opening a factory. We neede 9kReads8.0Score768Shelves
- 79 A Child's Grief 亲殇 Yu Jiacheng’s mother was full of energy during the 2023 Mid-Autumn Festival, on September 29, and the National Day holiday. Then, on October 4, she suddenly suffered an acute myocardial infarction. She was rushed to the hospital for emergency surgery, stayed in the UCU until October 23, then moved to a regular ward and remained there until she was discharged on November 3. In all, she spent 31 days in the hospital. During her hospitalization and recovery after discharge, Yu Jiacheng and his olde 16Reads—Score—Shelves
- 80 Rural Chronicle 乡村纪实 The little details of life, all those everyday moments, come together to paint a picture of a changing countryside. Generation after generation pursues its dreams, working hard in the mountain valleys. They make it through the winter, then the hills turn green in spring. Summer crops blanket the mountains, and autumn is always a season of joy. 212Reads8.4Score—Shelves
- 81 A Capable Village Belle and Her Good-for-Nothing Live-In Son-in-Law 能干村花和她的窝囊倒插门 Zhao Hua is the capable, no-nonsense village beauty of Taiping Village. She supports her family with a small shop, while her adoptive parents hope she'll marry a man who can support them in their old age. A scandalous affair involving a potential match ruins the marriage prospects outright. Unable to find a man willing to marry into her family, she chooses the impoverished Li boy who lives behind her house. His family is buried in debt, he's timid by nature and always lowers his head when troubl 3.8kReads—Score125Shelves
- 82 Whose Youth Is Without Scars? 谁的青春不带伤 In the eighties and nineties, I was a child too. I went from being confused and bewildered to a rebellious teenager, from a student whose ideals shone bright to a laborer struggling through hardship. Friendships faded and were forgotten; my first love left a deep mark before ending in heartbreak. Being young means constantly growing up. 84Reads—Score—Shelves
- 83 Chang'an Road Is Long 长安路远 [Urban daily life + romance + campus + friendship + work + emotional journey] Lin Da cherishes friendship, loves life, and longs for a beautiful future. He had a wonderful childhood and a colorful youth, and chose the love he wanted. Then, for the sake of making a living, he went far from home to work, and before he knew it, half his life had passed... Every encounter in life is part of its journey, and every encounter brings another story... 11Reads—Score—Shelves
- 84 A Bitter Girl’s Rebirth 苦妹之涅槃重生 Inside Ku Mei’s five-year-old body lived the soul of someone who had died with a heart full of hatred. Reborn, she faced a spiteful grandmother who beat and berated her, a cold grandfather who enabled the abuse, and a mother who could only weep helplessly. Ku Mei concealed her boundless hatred and memories of her past life, pretending to be timid as she carefully plotted her every move. She outsmarted her relatives and broke free of her shackles, starting with a bottle of chili sauce from the mi 118Reads—Score—Shelves
- 85 Greyhound 灰狗 In real life, a “gray dog” is a private investigator. Unlike the detectives in movies and TV shows, who fight crime and uphold justice, real-world gray dogs are criminals who illegally profit by invading other people’s privacy through stalking, taking secret photos, bugging, tracking, and entrapment. You may never have encountered a gray dog, but they are very much among us. This book is a warning to the world: the law is inescapable, so do not stray onto the wrong path, and always protect your 31Reads—Score—Shelves
- 86 Water Willow 水性杨花儿 (The rating was just added and will rise. It's already going up!) Neighbor Guo Hongmei ran off with another man? What? That man is Yang Hua'er's husband, Zhao Dashan? Talk about gossip coming right back to bite you. They say nine out of ten people born in the Year of the Sheep are fated to have a hard life, but Yang Hua'er doesn't believe in fate. Even without a man, she can still make a warm and happy life for herself. 9.8kReads8.2Score657Shelves
- 87 The Butcher's Fierce Wife Is My Third Sister-in-Law 卖肉悍妇是我三嫂 When Wang Xiuying was eighteen, she chased two men through the streets with a shoulder pole. Everyone in the village said she was too fierce. Who would dare marry her? And yet my useless third brother insisted on marrying her. On their wedding night, she laid down three rules: from now on, I make the decisions at home; don't let anyone bully you again; wherever I point, you hit. We all thought our third brother had married a tigress and that their life together would be impossible. But who could 968Reads—Score100Shelves
- 88 The Plains' True Colors 平原底色 Beginning in the twenty-first century, this novel follows Fang Lizhu, a child of the post-80s generation growing up in the rural Jianghan Plain of central China. Through Fang Lizhu's education, work, and the many people he meets and events he experiences, the novel portrays how life has changed for people across the plains since the start of the new century. It also depicts the many ways ordinary people respond to sweeping changes in a new era and a shifting social landscape: the choices they ma 17Reads—Score114Shelves
- 89 Finding True Love Inside and Outside Marriage in Midlife 人到中年婚姻内外寻找真爱 Yang Duo is a flower in full bloom. Though she’s forty, she’s still young and beautiful. A woman in pursuit of true love, she yearns for romance and has spent her life exploring and experiencing it. A passionate love affair that nearly cost her life in her youth, a joyless marriage in middle age, and an unexpected encounter outside her marriage: whenever she falls for someone, she loves with wild abandon and suffers heartbreak that tears her apart. Her three close friends have very different l 640Reads8.7Score101Shelves
- 90 A Working Girl’s Life Through Wind and Rain 打工女孩的风雨人生路 In the 1990s, a wave of migrant workers swept across the country, and countless young people left their hometowns for the big cities. The dazzling neon lights of the metropolis conjured one fantasy after another, while burying the youth of so many. Longing for a fresh start, the naive young Zhou Jie joined the great wave heading south. From getting a factory job to running away, from falling on hard times to fighting her way forward, she had to tread carefully at every step. She thought that a 267Reads8.2Score—Shelves
- 91 After Being Driven Mad, She Took Revenge on Her Whole Family 被逼成疯批后，她报复了全家 [Revenge] [Both Leads Are Each Other's First] [Redemption] [Feel-Good Story] [Happy Ending] To seize the Su family's wealth, Chen Wei, a man who married into the family for money, plotted to kill his father-in-law and mother-in-law, then pushed his wife down the stairs. His daughter, Su Ying, had the surname Su, not Chen. To him, that was a disgrace. Her very existence constantly reminded him of the humiliating days he had spent in the Su family. So he wanted to get rid of her as soon as possibl 7.8kReads8.3Score495Shelves
- 92 The Man with Six Marriages 六婚男人 A marriage spanning half a century, full of ups and downs, and one man's six sorrowful, blood-stained journeys into wedlock. In the late 1970s, at a state-owned coal mine in Northeast China, Kim Dazhuang, an ethnic Korean Chinese who had returned from Korea, was tall and burly, with a fiery temper. He sweated through his work amid the roar of steam locomotives. Over the course of his life, he went through six marriages. Each time, he entered with hope, only for almost every one to end in heartbr 19Reads—Score—Shelves
- 93 After Tricking My Husband into a Divorce, I Was Fleeced for a Million by a Puppy-Like Boy 骗夫离婚后，我被小奶狗掏空百万 Urban suspense + sham marriage + a gentle trap + younger puppy-like man + a battle of wits Her marriage was cold, her life suffocating. Liang Qiuyue struggled through half her life, asking only for a peaceful existence. Then the gentle, warm-hearted Jiang Zhihao appeared, doting on her, protecting her, and helping her support the family. Believing she had found salvation, she bravely divorced and was reborn. Little did she know... He seemed mild-mannered and harmless, but behind the scenes he 96Reads—Score—Shelves
- 94 Us in Xiangyang Lane 向阳里的我们 [#Real life, #warm neighborhood stories, #healing family bonds, #raising a child and turning life around] Delivery worker Wang Xiaojun had a pain he couldn't put into words: his six-year-old son Xiaobao lived in his own world, like a star. One moment of carelessness nearly resulted in Xiaobao getting lost, sending the entire Xingfuli residential community into chaos. The incident tore open the cracks in Wang Xiaojun and his wife Li Xiujuan's strained marriage, while also revealing the troubles 16Reads—Score—Shelves
- 95 I Accidentally Transmigrated into My Late Aunt 一不小心，穿成了我那早死的姑姑 Fang Qingqing transmigrates as an aunt who died young. She vows to help her family become among the first to get rich, and to give them hope. Somehow, she ends up catching the attention of a man who will become a bureau chief in the future. She feels bad about holding back his career, but he keeps pursuing her at every turn. Note: In her world, her aunt died young. 4kReads8.2Score381Shelves
- 96 A Marriage of Money 钱婚 To become the dutiful daughter, good wife, and loving mother everyone expected, Liu Xiaoqing buried her youthful dreams and deepest desires before the age of thirty-three, living a life of constant compromise. After graduating, she painfully gave up her dream of becoming a writer and took the civil service exam, becoming a government employee. At home, she endured her in-laws' repeated provocations, again and again, just to preserve her marriage. At work, she likewise chose to put up with her 57Reads—Score—Shelves
- 97 Childhood Symphony 童年交响曲 Five-year-old Wang Xiaozhu’s happy life in the countryside! She helps her mother wash clothes by the river and finds a duck egg in the water. She helps her mother sew a quilt on the rooftop, only to be pranked by the girl next door. Her grandmother raises a flock of chickens, but no one knows where they’re laying their eggs... 12Reads—Score—Shelves
- 98 Great-Aunt Xile's Happy Life 姑奶奶喜乐的幸福生活 Home is a sheltered harbor, and family is always there to support you. This is a story about three generations of the Song family living happily in an old building on Tianjin's Five Avenues. It features Tianjin's delicious food, as well as the family's joys and sorrows over the past thirty years. 757Reads9.1Score104Shelves
- 99 Her Secret Thoughts: A Young Man’s Hidden Diary in a Small Village 致她的心事：小村青年的隐秘日记 No formulaic plot | Not a wish-fulfillment novel | Realistic fiction | Zhou Zhiqiang grows up amid poverty and chaos in her birth family, with her father instilling in her the survival rule that “you have to please people to survive.” She gets into college and lands a job at a bank. A well-off man, Ke Qingyan, pursues her, but as the truth about her family comes out, she gradually loses her self-respect and her relationship. Later, burdened with debt, she returns to her hometown and, under he 2Reads—Score—Shelves
- 100 Home on a Unicycle 独轮车上的家 The novel follows Liu Shouren and his family from the late 1970s to the present day. As society changes and the countryside is transformed, they weather a tumultuous journey. Through stories from in and around the village, it portrays the lives, resilience, struggles, and growth of countless ordinary rural families across China... 1Reads—Score—Shelves
