Historical fiction · Similar reads
Books like Babel
The best books like Babel are 1984, Beloved, and A Tale of Two Cities. Babel by R.F. Kuang is about colonialism, language and power, complicity. 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.
- 1984
01
George Orwell · Philosophy
Nineteen Eighty-Four is George Orwell's 1949 novel about a future England called Airstrip One, governed by the totalitarian Party under the figurehead Big Brother.
Both dig into language and power.
Read the summary → - Beloved
02
Toni Morrison · Literary fiction
Beloved is set in post-Civil War Ohio, where Sethe, a formerly enslaved woman, lives with her daughter Denver in a house shadowed by the ghost of a baby she killed rather than let be taken back into slavery.
A kindred historical fiction read.
Read the summary → - A Tale of Two Cities
03
Charles Dickens · Historical fiction
A Tale of Two Cities is set against the French Revolution and follows three intertwined characters: Charles Darnay, a French aristocrat who has renounced his title and family legacy; Lucie Manette, the daughter of a man who spent eighteen years imprisoned in the Bastille; and Sydney Carton, a dissolute English lawyer who loves Lucie without hope and knows he will never be the man Darnay already is.
A kindred historical fiction read.
Read the summary →
- A Memory Called Empire
04
Arkady Martine · Science fiction
Mahit Dzmare, ambassador from a small, semi-independent mining station to the vast Teixcalaanli Empire, arrives at the capital to find her predecessor has died under suspicious circumstances and the neural implant that was supposed to give her access to his memories and knowledge is three years out of date.
Both dig into complicity.
Read the summary → - Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West
05
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West
Dee Brown · History
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, published in 1970, is Dee Brown's account of the systematic dispossession of Native American peoples across the American West between 1860 and 1890.
Both dig into colonialism.
Read the summary → - Empire of Cotton: A Global History
06
Empire of Cotton: A Global History
Sven Beckert · History
Sven Beckert's Empire of Cotton argues that cotton was not just the raw material of the Industrial Revolution but the commodity through which modern capitalism was invented.
Both dig into colonialism.
Read the summary → - Empire of the Summer Moon: Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches
07
Empire of the Summer Moon: Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches
S. C. Gwynne · History
Empire of the Summer Moon, published in 2010, follows the rise of the Comanche empire on the southern Great Plains and the long, brutal conflict between the Comanches and the expanding United States.
Both dig into colonialism.
Read the summary → - Heart of Darkness
08
Joseph Conrad · Literary fiction
Marlow, a sailor sitting on a boat on the Thames, tells the story of a journey he made up the Congo River to find Kurtz, a brilliant company agent who has gone silent deep in the interior.
Both dig into complicity.
Read the summary → - Old Man's War
09
John Scalzi · Science fiction
John Perry is 75 years old when he enlists in the Colonial Defense Forces.
Both dig into colonialism.
Read the summary → - Poverty, by America
10
Matthew Desmond · Economics
Poverty, by America is Matthew Desmond's follow-up to Evicted, and it makes a more explicit and polemical argument: poverty in the United States is not a natural condition or a problem of insufficient resources.
Both dig into complicity.
Read the summary → - The Black Jacobins
11
C.L.R. James · History
The Black Jacobins is C.L.R.
Both dig into colonialism.
Read the summary → - The Divide
12
Jason Hickel · Economics
The Divide is Jason Hickel's argument that global poverty is not a natural condition that development has failed to fully remedy, but a product of policies — colonial extraction, debt regimes, trade rules, and structural adjustment — that wealthy countries have imposed on poor ones.
Both dig into colonialism.
Read the summary →
Books like Babel: quick answers
What are the best books like Babel?
The best books like Babel by R.F. Kuang are 1984 by George Orwell, Beloved by Toni Morrison, A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens, A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West by Dee Brown, plus 7 more below. Each was chosen for themes it shares with Babel, such as colonialism, language and power, complicity.
What should I read after Babel?
A natural next read after Babel is 1984 by George Orwell. Both dig into language and power. Other strong choices are Beloved by Toni Morrison, A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens, A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine.
What books are similar to Babel by R.F. Kuang?
Babel centers on colonialism, language and power, complicity. Books with a similar feel include 1984 by George Orwell, Beloved by Toni Morrison, A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens, A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West by Dee Brown, Empire of Cotton: A Global History by Sven Beckert — all free to read and chat with on Superbook.
