Books about people who start a new life (but don't find happiness by falling in love)

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I'm looking for recommendations for books (fiction or non-fiction) about people (ideally women, preferably middle-aged) who start over (new job, new area, whatever), ditching an unhappy life and finding happiness. However, that happiness is not found by falling in love and living happily ever after.

I appreciate that's really precise! I'm just sick of 'and then she found love and therefore was happy' books.

Educated by Tara Westover. She does get a boyfriend, but I don't think it lasts and it certainly isn't about that iyswim?

Also, the signature of all things. Iirc she doesn't find love at all, but has an astonishing life.

Ladder of Years is basically the template for these although it's not really happy ever after at the end. But it is about rethinking life, finding happiness in where you are etc. I've read it quite a few times and it always resonates even at different stages in your life.

Not exactly as requested but Wild by Cheryl Strayed has the essence of what you’re after. A woman who was lost in her life who walked a stretch of the Pacific Crest Trail…. She was really unprepared. It’s a story of survival, resilience and hope.

Interpreting your brief very widely, these are the books I've read this year that might fit.

The Girl with the Louding Voice is about a poor teenager in Nigeria changing her life to get herself an education. Definitely no romance, the men are dreadful in it. Main character is joyous.
Nervous Conditions by Tsitsi Dangarembga. Similar themes but set in Zimbabwe, the men are less bad and it's better written.
Memories: From Moscow to the Black Sea by Teffi. This is a memoir about Teffi's escape from the Bolsheviks, she had been happy and successful in Russia though.
Butterflies in November by Auđur Ava Ólafsdóttir. Quirky novel about a woman who is getting divorced then wins the lottery and goes on a road trip round Iceland. She has relationships with men but that's incidental.

Thank you everyone. Some great suggestions there and I'm starting an order now!

I am just reading 'Miss Benson' s beetle' by Rachel Joyce, which seems to fit your bill.

Thank you! Just bought it

Lolly Willowes by Sylvia Townsend Warner - one of my all time favourite books and it fits your brief exactly.

Also second The Signature of All Things which I loved.

Postcards or Cartes Postales from Greece by Victoria Hislop.

Sorry can't quite remember the title!

The Education of Harriet Hatfield fits your description almost exactly, except that Harriet wasn't unhappy as such before the starting over - it follows the death of her partner of 30 years. (I mean, obviously she is unhappy because she's grieving her loss, but it's not about abandoning an unsatisfactory life, which I think is what you mean?)

What Hetty Did by JL Carr also fits the bill apart from being about an 18 year old girl. But it's a lovely book!

In this House of Brede by Rumer Godden. A 40 plus successful career woman becomes a nun. Maybe not quite what your looking for but a good read all the same.

The forty rules of love might just got your brief. In a sideways way. Don't be put off by the cover. (I only say this because someone gave it to me and I was (privately) snobby about it looking a bit like romance/chick lit. It's not. Oops... It was brilliant)

The Salt Path by Raynor Winn is v good and I think fits what you're after.

The Midnight Library is another good one - not necessarily starting over, but taking a new outlook and reevaluating what you have.

Judging by the Radio 4 adaptation, Meet Me at the Museum by Anne Youngson would go some way to meet your brief. There is a love story there but I felt what was really happening as the story progressed was that both protagonists were re-evaluating themselves and their lives and working out what they needed to change to move on.

I would also recommend South Riding by Winifred Holtby, published in the mid 1930s after the tragic early death of the author from kidney disease. There is a love story of sorts here, but the central character is a career woman by choice at at time when that was really quite unusual and her teaching vocation is what makes her so interesting. There are lots of strong women characters, of all ages. One of my all-time favourite novels.

following! :-)

(The Midnight Library - just read that myself. It is original, even if I didn't like it, and does deal a lot with 'this was your regret, but look, it would have turned out rubbish')

(Not sure how to watch a thread… so.. watching :) )

Jane Gardam's books. You've just made me realise one of the reasons I like them so much

There is a marriage at the centre of the Old Filth trilogy, but it's all about people growing and shifting despite the marriage not being idyllic - friendships, relationships and achievements that don't hang on people finding soulmates.

Old Filth started life as a short story, so if you get the first chapter as a sample on Amazon for Kindle you could see if you like it Not usually v interested in male protagonists but second in trilogy is from a woman's perspective and all three seem obviously written by a woman, to me. Might be what you're looking for.

Thank you for your recommendations, just what I’m after!

Remnant population by Elizabet Moon It' Sci-Fi and quite old but you may be able to get it second hand.

Girl A - halfway through this book about ‘Girl A’ and her siblings who managed to escape from being imprisoned by their parents. The stories details their lives afterwards through the eyes of the sister who escaped and raised the alarm. Not sure whether it finishes ‘happily ever after’, but all the siblings start a new life.

It is just such an interesting question, OP, and has helped me understand why I feel all at sea in the literary world at middle age - I like to read about women. I don't (necessarily) want love stories.

Here's an article I found on the theme - male protagonists get plots, women, romances ...

www.theatlantic.com/sexes/archive/2013/07/its-frustratingly-rare-to-find-a-novel-about-women-thats-not-about-love/277621/

Maeve Binchy is good for this.

I also came on here to say Miss Bensons Beetle and The Salt Path