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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, Volume 1: Friends

#1 of 22 in 20th Century Boys

20th Century Boys, Volume 1: Friends
ByNaoki Urasawa,Akemi Wegmüller(Translator)

2000 • 60 Readers • 210 pages 4

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Absalom, Absalom!

Absalom, Absalom!
ByWilliam Faulkner

1936 • 238 Readers • 305 pages 4

A Canticle for Leibowitz

#1 of 2 in St. Leibowitz

A Canticle for Leibowitz
ByWalter M. Miller Jr.

1959 • 752 Readers • 334 pages 3.9

Accordion Crimes

Accordion Crimes
ByAnnie Proulx

1996 • 14 Readers • 381 pages 3.2

A Cosmology of Monsters

2019 • 118 Readers • 338 pages 3.8

Alaska

Alaska
ByJames A. Michener

1988 • 33 Readers • 1,092 pages 4.2

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

2006 • 133 Readers • 111 pages 4.3

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Angry Housewives Eating Bon Bons

2003 • 22 Readers • 512 pages 3.6

Anne of Green Gables

#1 of 13 in Anne of Green Gables

Anne of Green Gables
ByL.M. Montgomery

1908 • 1,042 Readers • 326 pages 4.3

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An Unlasting Home

An Unlasting Home
ByMai Al-Nakib

2022 • 13 Readers • 371 pages

Any Human Heart

Any Human Heart
ByWilliam Boyd

2002 • 70 Readers • 498 pages 4

Appleseed

Appleseed
ByMatt Bell

2021 • 78 Readers • 480 pages 3.6

A Short History of Women

13 Readers 4

A Tale of Two Cities

1 Oxford Bookworms

A Tale of Two Cities
ByCharles Dickens

19 • 1,335 Readers • 544 pages 3.6

At the Full and Change of the Moon

2 Readers

A Woman Is No Man

2019 • 312 Readers • 336 pages 4.1

A Woman of Substance

#1 of 2 in Emma Harte Saga

A Woman of Substance
ByBarbara Taylor Bradford

1979 • 17 Readers • 932 pages 4

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A Yellow Raft In Blue Water

1987 • 15 Readers • 343 pages 3.3

Banyan Moon

Banyan Moon
ByThao Thai

2023 • 118 Readers • 336 pages 4

Barkskins

Barkskins
ByAnnie Proulx

2016 • 77 Readers 4

Beasts of a Little Land

2021 • 145 Readers • 416 pages 3.7

Beloved

#1 of 2 in Beloved Trilogy

Beloved
ByToni Morrison

1987 • 1,034 Readers • 362 pages 3.9

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Bestiary

Bestiary
ByK-Ming Chang

2020 • 60 Readers • 259 pages 3.5

Black Cake

Black Cake
ByCharmaine Wilkerson

2022 • 416 Readers • 401 pages 3.9

Blackwater: The Complete Saga

#1 of 7 in Blackwater

1983 • 174 Readers • 30 pages 3.9

Bloodroot

Bloodroot
ByAmy Greene

2010 • 11 Readers • 386 pages 3

Buddenbrooks

Buddenbrooks
ByThomas Mann

1901 • 113 Readers • 768 pages 4.1

Chesapeake

Chesapeake
ByJames A. Michener

1978 • 34 Readers • 1,131 pages 3.9

Childhood's End

Childhood's End
ByArthur C. Clarke

1953 • 839 Readers • 212 pages 4

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Children of Time

#1 of 3 in Children of Time

Children of Time
ByAdrian Tchaikovsky

2015 • 1,972 Readers • 600 pages 4.3

Circles of Stone

#1 of 1 in Mother People

Circles of Stone
ByJoan Dahr Lambert

1995 • 528 pages

Cloud Atlas

Cloud Atlas
ByDavid Mitchell

2003 • 1,238 Readers • 509 pages 3.9

Cloud Cuckoo Land

Cloud Cuckoo Land
ByAnthony Doerr

2021 • 868 Readers • 640 pages 4.3

Compulsion

#1 of 3 in The Heirs of Watson Island

Compulsion
ByMartina Boone

2014 • 21 Readers • 433 pages 3.5

Cosmicomics

Cosmicomics
ByItalo Calvino

1968 • 94 Readers • 172 pages 4.2

Creation

Creation
ByGore Vidal

1981 • 30 Readers • 612 pages 4

Cryptonomicon

Cryptonomicon
ByNeal Stephenson

1999 • 877 Readers • 1,152 pages 4.2

Csardas

Csardas
ByDiane Pearson

1975 • 2 Readers • 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 • 252 Readers • 295 pages 3.7

Doomsday Book

#1 of 4 in Oxford Time Travel

Doomsday Book
ByConnie Willis,Rafael Marín Trechera(Translator)

1992 • 507 Readers • 593 pages 3.8

Dune

#1 of 8 in Dune

Dune
ByFrank Herbert

1965 • 5,561 Readers • 704 pages 4.3

Early Warning

Early Warning
ByJane Smiley

2015 • 6 Readers • 496 pages 3

Earthly Powers

Earthly Powers
ByAnthony Burgess

1980 • 24 Readers • 649 pages 5

East of Eden

East of Eden
ByJohn Steinbeck

1939 • 1,560 Readers • 601 pages 4.5

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Empire

#2 of 4 in Rome

Empire
BySteven Saylor

2010 • 11 Readers • 589 pages 4.5

Encounter with Tiber

Encounter with Tiber
ByBuzz Aldrin,John Barnes

1996 • 10 Readers • 656 pages 4

Fall of Giants

#1 of 3 in The Century Trilogy

Fall of Giants
ByKen Follett

2010 • 385 Readers • 865 pages 4.1

Fall on Your Knees

Fall on Your Knees
ByAnn-Marie MacDonald

1996 • 84 Readers • 576 pages 3.7

Five-Part Invention: A Novel

Five-Part Invention: A Novel
ByAndrea J. Buchanan

2022 • 304 pages

Foundation

#1 of 9 in Foundation (Publication Order)

Foundation
ByIsaac Asimov

1951 • 2,243 Readers • 255 pages 4

Genesis: Memory of Fire, Volume 1

#1 in Genesis: Memory of Fire

1982 • 25 Readers • 336 pages 4.7

Ghost Story

Ghost Story
ByPeter Straub

1979 • 221 Readers • 530 pages 3.6

Gnomon

Gnomon
ByNick Harkaway

2017 • 134 Readers • 662 pages 3.9

Golden Age

#3 of 2 in Last Hundred Years: A Family Saga

Golden Age
ByJane Smiley

2015 • 7 Readers • 464 pages 3

Great Expectations

3 Graffex

Great Expectations
ByCharles Dickens

1860 • 1,103 Readers • 548 pages 3.5

Greenwood

Greenwood
ByMichael Christie

2019 • 121 Readers • 480 pages 4.1

Hag

Hag
ByKathleen Kaufman

2018 • 2 Readers • 336 pages

Hawaii

Hawaii
ByJames A. Michener

1959 • 71 Readers • 1,036 pages 4

Hearts in Atlantis

Hearts in Atlantis
ByStephen King

1998 • 221 Readers • 621 pages 3.8

Here

Here
ByRichard McGuire

2014 • 116 Readers • 304 pages 4.1

Her Mother's Daughter

Her Mother's Daughter
ByMarilyn French

1987 • 2 Readers • 686 pages 5

Homegoing

Homegoing
ByYaa Gyasi

2016 • 819 Readers • 468 pages 4.5

Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet

2009 • 150 Readers • 507 pages 4

How High We Go in the Dark

How High We Go in the Dark
BySequoia Nagamatsu

2022 • 863 Readers • 304 pages 3.7

I, Claudius

#1 of 2 in Claudius

I, Claudius
ByRobert Graves,Stephen Alcorn

1934 • 249 Readers • 432 pages 4.1

Infinite Jest

Infinite Jest
ByDavid Foster Wallace

1996 • 1,031 Readers • 1,079 pages 4.2

Isle of Woman

#1 of 5 in Geodyssey

Isle of Woman
ByPiers Anthony

1993 • 13 Readers • 470 pages 2.8

It

It
ByStephen King

1986 • 1,654 Readers • 1,168 pages 4.1

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Jade City

#1 of 3 in The Green Bone Saga

Jade City
ByFonda Lee

2017 • 1,656 Readers • 498 pages 4.1

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

#1 of 108 in Jojo's Bizarre Adventure

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

1987 • 5 Readers • 186 pages 3.8

Les Misérables

#1 of 3 in Los Miserables

Les Misérables
ByVictor Hugo,Isabel Florence Hapgood(Translator)

7 • 997 Readers • 1,378 pages 4.2

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Little, Big

Little, Big
ByJohn Crowley,Donatella Rizzati(Translator)

1981 • 190 Readers • 576 pages 3.7

London

London
ByEdward Rutherfurd

1997 • 72 Readers • 1,152 pages 3.8

Love Medicine

#1 of 8 in Love Medicine

Love Medicine
ByLouise Erdrich

1984 • 103 Readers • 400 pages 4.1

Marooned in Realtime

#2 of 2 in Across Realtime

Marooned in Realtime
ByVernor Vinge

1986 • 51 Readers • 288 pages 4.3

Master and Commander

#1 of 21 in Aubrey-Maturin

Master and Commander
ByPatrick O'Brian

1969 • 257 Readers • 457 pages 3.9

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Master of the Game

#1 of 12 in The Game

Master of the Game
BySidney Sheldon

1982 • 55 Readers • 495 pages 3.6

Mater 2-10

Mater 2-10
ByHwang Sok-yong

2020 • 16 Readers 3

Memphis

Memphis
ByTara M. Stringfellow

2022 • 162 Readers • 252 pages 4

Methuselah's Children

#22 of 20 in Future History or "Heinlein Timeline"

Methuselah's Children
ByRobert A. Heinlein

1958 • 51 Readers • 234 pages 3.6

Middlesex

Middlesex
ByJeffrey Eugenides

2002 • 768 Readers • 548 pages 4.1

Midnight's Children

Midnight's Children
BySalman Rushdie

1981 • 541 Readers • 640 pages 4

Mr. Mani

Mr. Mani
ByAbraham B. Yehoshua

1993 • 2 Readers • 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 • 2,184 Readers • 422 pages 4.1

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Orlando

Orlando
ByVirginia Woolf

1919 • 422 Readers • 333 pages 3.8

Pachinko

Pachinko
ByMin Jin Lee

2017 • 1,470 Readers • 496 pages 4.2

Peach Blossom Spring

2022 • 116 Readers • 400 pages 4.3

Cover 8

Penguin Island
ByAnatole France

1908 • 7 Readers 3.5

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 • 13 Readers • 261 pages 2

Revelation Space

#1 of 5 in Revelation Space

Revelation Space
ByAlastair Reynolds

2000 • 605 Readers • 596 pages 3.9

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Roma

#1 of 4 in Rome

Roma
BySteven Saylor

2007 • 37 Readers • 651 pages 3.6

Roots

Roots
ByAlex Haley

1976 • 153 Readers • 587 pages 4.4

Russka: The Novel of Russia

#1 in Russka

Russka: The Novel of Russia
ByEdward Rutherfurd

1991 • 37 Readers • 961 pages 4

Salt Houses

Salt Houses
ByHala Alyan

2017 • 101 Readers • 320 pages 4

Same Bed Different Dreams

2023 • 98 Readers • 528 pages 4.2

Sarum

Sarum
ByEdward Rutherfurd

94 Readers 4.3