Books like Fathers and Sons

01

Steppenwolf

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 literary fiction read.

02

The Myth of Sisyphus

Albert Camus · Philosophy

The Myth of Sisyphus begins with what Camus calls the only truly serious philosophical question: why not commit suicide?

A kindred literary fiction read.

03

All Quiet on the Western Front

Erich Maria Remarque · History

All Quiet on the Western Front follows Paul Bäumer, a young German soldier who enlists with his classmates during the First World War after being swept up in patriotic speeches.

A kindred literary fiction read.

04

Siddhartha

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 literary fiction read.

05

American Pastoral

Philip Roth · Literary fiction

American Pastoral opens with a narrator, Nathan Zuckerman, learning at a high school reunion about the life and death of Seymour "the Swede" Levov — a man who embodied postwar American success so completely he seemed almost allegorical.

Both dig into generational conflict.

06

Blood Meridian

Cormac McCarthy · Literary fiction

Blood Meridian, or The Evening Redness in the West is set along the Texas-Mexico border in the 1840s and loosely follows a teenage runaway known only as the kid, who falls in with the Glanton gang — a historical band of scalp hunters hired by the Mexican government to kill Apache raiders.

Both dig into nihilism.

07

The Corrections

Jonathan Franzen · Literary fiction

Jonathan Franzen's third novel, published in 2001 and winner of the National Book Award, follows the Lambert family across three adult children and their aging parents, Alfred and Enid, through the late 1990s.

Both dig into generational conflict.

08

The Namesake

Jhumpa Lahiri · Literary fiction

The Namesake follows the Ganguli family across three decades, beginning with Ashoke and Ashima's arranged marriage and their immigration from Calcutta to Cambridge, Massachusetts, and extending into the American adulthood of their son, Gogol.

Both dig into generational conflict.

09

Beyond Good and Evil

Friedrich Nietzsche · Philosophy

Beyond Good and Evil is Nietzsche's assault on the philosophical tradition he had been trained in and had grown to distrust.

Both dig into nihilism.

10

Thus Spoke Zarathustra

Friedrich Nietzsche · Philosophy

Thus Spoke Zarathustra is Nietzsche's most ambitious and peculiar work — part philosophical treatise, part prose poem, styled deliberately after the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament.

Both dig into nihilism.

11

Twilight of the Idols

Friedrich Nietzsche · Philosophy

Twilight of the Idols, written by Nietzsche in just a few weeks in 1888 and published the following year, is one of his most concentrated and accessible works.

Both dig into nihilism.

12

A Farewell to Arms

Ernest Hemingway · Literary fiction

A Farewell to Arms is set during the First World War in northern Italy and follows Frederic Henry, an American serving as a lieutenant in the Italian ambulance corps, who falls in love with Catherine Barkley, a British nurse.

A kindred literary fiction read.