Best Books Set in Michigan

Every state is known for something. As you work your way through the list, don't miss the best books set in Michigan.

Michigan is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly 97,000 sq mi, Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the largest by area east of the Mississippi River.

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Song of Solomon

intriguing novel
Morrison, Toni (Author)

Song of Solomon

Author: Toni Morrison

Milkman Dead was born shortly after a neighborhood eccentric hurled himself off a rooftop in a vain attempt at flight. For the rest of his life he, too, will be trying to fly.

As Morrison follows Milkman from his rustbelt city to the place of his family’s origins, she introduces an entire cast of strivers and seeresses, liars and assassins, the inhabitants of a fully realized Black world.

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Station Eleven

Mandel, Emily St. John (Author)
English (Publication Language)

Station Eleven

Author: Emily St. John Mandel

RELATED: Best Books Set in Georgia

Kirsten Raymonde will never forget the night Arthur Leander, the famous Hollywood actor, had a heart attack on stage during a production of King Lear. That was the night when a devastating flu pandemic arrived in the city, and within weeks, civilization as we know it came to an end.

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Virgin Suicides (Picador Modern Classics, 2)

Eugenides, Jeffrey (Author)
English (Publication Language)

Virgin Suicides

Author: Jeffrey Eugenides

First published in 1993, The Virgin Suicides announced the arrival of a major new American novelist. In a quiet suburb of Detroit, the five Lisbon sisters―beautiful, eccentric, and obsessively watched by the neighborhood boys―commit suicide one by one over the course of a single year.

As the boys observe them from afar, transfixed, they piece together the mystery of the family's fatal melancholy, in this hypnotic and unforgettable novel of adolescent love, disquiet, and death.

A Mentor and Her Muse

Amazon Kindle Edition
Sage, Susan (Author)

A Mentor and Her Muse

Author: Susan Sage

Maggie Barnett works in the media center of a school in Flint, Michigan where she meets Taezha Riverton, an aspiring teenage writer. After discovering that Maggie is also a writer, Taezha turns to her as both a mentor and friend.

The Dollmaker

Amazon Kindle Edition
Arnow, Harriette (Author)

The Dollmaker

Author: Harriet Simpson Arnow

RELATED: Best Books Set in New York

The Dollmaker was originally published in 1954 to immediate success and critical acclaim. In unadorned and powerful prose, Harriette Arnow tells the unforgettable and heartbreaking story of the Nevels family and their quest to preserve their deep-rooted values amidst the turmoil of war and industrialization.

When Gertie Nevels, a strong and self-reliant matriarch, follows her husband to Detroit from their countryside home in Kentucky, she learns she will have to fight desperately to keep her family together.

A sprawling book full of vividly drawn characters and masterful scenes, The Dollmaker is a passionate tribute to a woman's love for her children and the land.