Fantasy · Similar reads
Books like A Wizard of Earthsea
The best books like A Wizard of Earthsea are The Silmarillion, The Alchemist, and Siddhartha. A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin is about shadow and self-knowledge, pride and its consequences, names and power. If that's what drew you in, here are 12 books that share its DNA — each summarized on Superbook, and ready to chat with in the app.
- The Silmarillion
01
J.R.R. Tolkien · Fantasy
The Silmarillion is Tolkien's attempt to do for English literature what the Norse Eddas and Finnish Kalevala did for their cultures: create a complete mythology from scratch.
A kindred fantasy read.
Read the summary → - The Alchemist
02
Paulo Coelho · Religion & Spirituality
The Alchemist is a Brazilian novel first published in 1988 and translated into 80 languages, making it one of the most translated books in history.
A kindred fantasy read.
Read the summary → - Siddhartha
03
Hermann Hesse · Religion & Spirituality
Siddhartha is Hermann Hesse's 1922 novel of spiritual seeking, written at a time when Hesse was deeply studying Buddhist and Hindu texts.
A kindred fantasy read.
Read the summary → - Steppenwolf
04
Hermann Hesse · Philosophy
Steppenwolf is Hermann Hesse's most psychologically intense and formally inventive novel, published in 1927 at a time of personal crisis.
A kindred fantasy read.
Read the summary → - Stardust
05
Neil Gaiman · Fantasy
Stardust begins with a simple bargain: young Tristran Thorn promises a girl he fancies that he will bring her a fallen star, and to find it he must cross the wall at the edge of his English village into Faerie.
Both dig into coming of age.
Read the summary → - The Eye of the World
06
Robert Jordan · Fantasy
The Eye of the World is the opening volume of Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time, a fourteen-book series that spent more than two decades reshaping the commercial landscape of epic fantasy.
Both dig into coming of age.
Read the summary → - Uprooted
07
Naomi Novik · Fantasy
Uprooted is a standalone fantasy novel inspired by Polish folklore.
Both dig into coming of age.
Read the summary → - Angela's Ashes
08
Frank McCourt · Memoir
Angela's Ashes is Frank McCourt's memoir of a catastrophically impoverished Irish Catholic childhood, first in Brooklyn and then in Limerick, during the 1930s and 1940s.
Both dig into coming of age.
Read the summary → - Barbarian Days
09
William Finnegan · Memoir
Barbarian Days is William Finnegan's memoir of a life spent surfing — from his childhood in Los Angeles and Hawaii through decades of obsessive searching for waves across the Pacific, Asia, Africa, and eventually the cold waters of New York.
Both dig into coming of age.
Read the summary → - Boy Erased: A Memoir
10
Garrard Conley · Memoir
Boy Erased is Garrard Conley's memoir of attending Love in Action, a conversion therapy program in Memphis, Tennessee, in the early 2000s.
Both dig into coming of age.
Read the summary → - I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
11
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Maya Angelou · Memoir
Maya Angelou's first volume of autobiography covers her childhood and adolescence in Stamps, Arkansas and San Francisco during the 1930s and 1940s, ending with the birth of her son at age sixteen.
Both dig into coming of age.
Read the summary → - Just Kids
12
Patti Smith · Memoir
Just Kids is Patti Smith's National Book Award-winning memoir of her relationship with the photographer Robert Mapplethorpe, from their first meeting in New York in 1967 through their years of shared poverty, artistic development, and eventual celebrity, to Mapplethorpe's death from AIDS in 1989.
Both dig into coming of age.
Read the summary →
Books like A Wizard of Earthsea: quick answers
What are the best books like A Wizard of Earthsea?
The best books like A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin are The Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien, The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse, Steppenwolf by Hermann Hesse, Stardust by Neil Gaiman, plus 7 more below. Each was chosen for themes it shares with A Wizard of Earthsea, such as shadow and self-knowledge, pride and its consequences, names and power.
What should I read after A Wizard of Earthsea?
A natural next read after A Wizard of Earthsea is The Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien. A kindred fantasy read. Other strong choices are The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse, Steppenwolf by Hermann Hesse.
What books are similar to A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin?
A Wizard of Earthsea centers on shadow and self-knowledge, pride and its consequences, names and power. Books with a similar feel include The Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien, The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse, Steppenwolf by Hermann Hesse, Stardust by Neil Gaiman, The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan — all free to read and chat with on Superbook.
