Literary fiction · Similar reads
Books like Conversations with Friends
The best books like Conversations with Friends are Normal People, The Bell Jar, and A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius. Conversations with Friends by Sally Rooney is about desire and self-knowledge, friendship and betrayal, class and privilege. 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.
- Normal People
01
Sally Rooney · Literary fiction
Normal People follows Connell and Marianne from their small-town Irish secondary school through their years at Trinity College Dublin.
A kindred literary fiction read.
Read the summary → - The Bell Jar
02
Sylvia Plath · Memoir
The Bell Jar is Sylvia Plath's only novel, published in January 1963 under the pseudonym Victoria Lucas, one month before Plath's death.
A kindred literary fiction read.
Read the summary → - A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
03
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
Dave Eggers · Memoir
Dave Eggers's debut memoir about losing both parents to cancer within five weeks and raising his younger brother Toph while trying to start a literary magazine in San Francisco in the mid-1990s arrived in 2000 with unusual self-consciousness about its own nature.
A kindred literary fiction read.
Read the summary → - The Alchemist
04
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 literary fiction read.
Read the summary → - Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity
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Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity
Katherine Boo · History
Behind the Beautiful Forevers is Katherine Boo's account of three years spent in Annawadi, a Mumbai slum built on reclaimed land next to the international airport.
A kindred literary fiction read.
Read the summary → - James
06
Percival Everett · Literary fiction
James retells Adventures of Huckleberry Finn from the perspective of Jim — renamed James here — the enslaved man who escapes down the Mississippi with Huck Finn.
Both dig into identity and performance.
Read the summary → - Death on the Nile
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Agatha Christie · Mystery
A luxury Nile cruise becomes the setting for one of Agatha Christie's most accomplished locked-room puzzles.
Both dig into identity and performance.
Read the summary → - It Happened One Summer
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Tessa Bailey · Romance
Piper Bellinger is LA royalty — or at least she was until a very public, very filmed party incident lands her in her stepfather's office facing consequences.
Both dig into class and privilege.
Read the summary → - Murder on the Orient Express
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Agatha Christie · Mystery
A man is found stabbed in his sleeping compartment on the snowbound Orient Express somewhere in Yugoslavia.
Both dig into identity and performance.
Read the summary → - Red Rising
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Pierce Brown · Science fiction
Red Rising is set on Mars in a far-future humanity stratified by color-coded caste: Golds rule, Reds mine the deep rock, and everyone in between occupies a precisely ordered place.
Both dig into identity and performance.
Read the summary → - The Cuckoo's Calling
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Robert Galbraith · Mystery
The Cuckoo's Calling was published in 2013 under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith and received modest but positive reviews before an anonymous tip revealed the author was J.K.
Both dig into identity and performance.
Read the summary → - The Grace of Kings
12
Ken Liu · Fantasy
The Grace of Kings is the first volume of Ken Liu's Dandelion Dynasty, an epic fantasy set in an archipelago empire that maps broadly onto the fall of the Qin dynasty and the rise of the Han.
Both dig into friendship and betrayal.
Read the summary →
Books like Conversations with Friends: quick answers
What are the best books like Conversations with Friends?
The best books like Conversations with Friends by Sally Rooney are Normal People by Sally Rooney, The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers, The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity by Katherine Boo, plus 7 more below. Each was chosen for themes it shares with Conversations with Friends, such as desire and self-knowledge, friendship and betrayal, class and privilege.
What should I read after Conversations with Friends?
A natural next read after Conversations with Friends is Normal People by Sally Rooney. A kindred literary fiction read. Other strong choices are The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers, The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho.
What books are similar to Conversations with Friends by Sally Rooney?
Conversations with Friends centers on desire and self-knowledge, friendship and betrayal, class and privilege. Books with a similar feel include Normal People by Sally Rooney, The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers, The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity by Katherine Boo, James by Percival Everett — all free to read and chat with on Superbook.
