Short stories · Similar reads
Books like Interpreter of Maladies
The best books like Interpreter of Maladies are Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood, The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts, and Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity. Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri is about displacement and belonging, communication and its failures, marriage and loneliness. 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.
- Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood
01
Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood
Trevor Noah · Memoir
Born a Crime is Trevor Noah's memoir about growing up mixed-race in South Africa during the final years of apartheid and its chaotic aftermath.
A kindred short stories read.
Read the summary → - The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts
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The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts
Maxine Hong Kingston · Memoir
The Woman Warrior is not a conventional memoir.
A kindred short stories read.
Read the summary → - Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity
03
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 short stories read.
Read the summary → - Angela's Ashes
04
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.
A kindred short stories read.
Read the summary → - Between the World and Me
05
Ta-Nehisi Coates · Memoir
Between the World and Me is a letter from Ta-Nehisi Coates to his teenage son, Samori, about what it means to live in a Black body in the United States.
A kindred short stories read.
Read the summary → - Firefly Lane
06
Kristin Hannah · Contemporary fiction
Tully Hart and Kate Mularkey meet in the summer of 1974 as fourteen-year-olds on Firefly Lane in rural Washington State, and their friendship spans three decades — through high school, college, careers in television journalism, marriages, and heartbreak.
Both dig into grief and loss.
Read the summary → - Happy Place
07
Emily Henry · Romance
Harriet and Wyn were the couple everyone else wanted to be.
Both dig into grief and loss.
Read the summary → - Lincoln in the Bardo
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George Saunders · Literary fiction
Lincoln in the Bardo takes place over a single night in February 1862, when President Abraham Lincoln visits the crypt where his eleven-year-old son Willie has just been buried.
Both dig into grief and loss.
Read the summary → - Norwegian Wood
09
Haruki Murakami · Literary fiction
Norwegian Wood is Murakami's most straightforwardly realist novel and his most personal — a coming-of-age story set in late 1960s Tokyo, narrated by Toru Watanabe, who is recalling the year he was nineteen and the two women who shaped him.
Both dig into grief and loss.
Read the summary → - Remarkably Bright Creatures
10
Shelby Van Pelt · Contemporary fiction
Marcellus is a giant Pacific octopus living in the Sowell Bay Aquarium.
Both dig into grief and loss.
Read the summary → - Reminders of Him
11
Colleen Hoover · Contemporary fiction
Kenna Rowan is released from prison after serving five years for a drunk driving accident that killed her boyfriend Scotty.
Both dig into grief and loss.
Read the summary → - Still Life
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Louise Penny · Mystery
Still Life is the first novel featuring Chief Inspector Armand Gamache of the Sûreté du Québec, and the book that introduces the fictional village of Three Pines in Quebec's Eastern Townships.
Both dig into grief and loss.
Read the summary →
Books like Interpreter of Maladies: quick answers
What are the best books like Interpreter of Maladies?
The best books like Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri are Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood by Trevor Noah, The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts by Maxine Hong Kingston, Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity by Katherine Boo, Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt, Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates, plus 7 more below. Each was chosen for themes it shares with Interpreter of Maladies, such as displacement and belonging, communication and its failures, marriage and loneliness.
What should I read after Interpreter of Maladies?
A natural next read after Interpreter of Maladies is Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood by Trevor Noah. A kindred short stories read. Other strong choices are The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts by Maxine Hong Kingston, Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity by Katherine Boo, Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt.
What books are similar to Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri?
Interpreter of Maladies centers on displacement and belonging, communication and its failures, marriage and loneliness. Books with a similar feel include Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood by Trevor Noah, The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts by Maxine Hong Kingston, Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity by Katherine Boo, Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt, Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates, Firefly Lane by Kristin Hannah — all free to read and chat with on Superbook.
