Literary fiction · Similar reads
Books like Invisible Man
The best books like Invisible Man are Homage to Catalonia, Between the World and Me, and All Quiet on the Western Front. Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison is about racial invisibility and identity, self-determination, ideology and manipulation. 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.
- Homage to Catalonia
01
George Orwell · Memoir
Homage to Catalonia is George Orwell's firsthand account of fighting in the Spanish Civil War, which he joined in late 1936 as a volunteer with the POUM militia — a Trotskyist revolutionary organization that was later suppressed by the Soviet-backed Stalinist wing of the Republican forces.
A kindred literary fiction read.
Read the summary → - Between the World and Me
02
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 literary fiction read.
Read the summary → - All Quiet on the Western Front
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.
Read the summary →
- A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
04
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 → - It Ends with Us
05
Colleen Hoover · Contemporary fiction
Lily Bloom moves to Boston after her father's death and opens the flower shop she always dreamed of.
Both dig into self-determination.
Read the summary → - The Autobiography of Malcolm X
06
The Autobiography of Malcolm X
Malcolm X and Alex Haley · Memoir
The Autobiography of Malcolm X was assembled from a series of conversations between Malcolm X and the journalist Alex Haley, conducted over two years before Malcolm's assassination in February 1965.
Both dig into self-determination.
Read the summary → - The Sixth Man
07
Andre Iguodala · Memoir
Andre Iguodala won four NBA championships and a Finals MVP award, but The Sixth Man is less interested in the games than in the social and psychological landscape those games happened inside.
Both dig into self-determination.
Read the summary → - A Farewell to Arms
08
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.
Read the summary → - A Fine Balance
09
Rohinton Mistry · Literary fiction
A Fine Balance is set in an unnamed Indian city during Indira Gandhi's Emergency of 1975–1977, a period of suspended democracy, forced sterilization, and slum clearances that is barely taught in the West and barely taught in India.
A kindred literary fiction read.
Read the summary → - A Little Life
10
Hanya Yanagihara · Literary fiction
A Little Life follows four men from college into middle age and beyond — Willem, an actor; JB, a painter; Malcolm, an architect; and Jude, a lawyer with a past that is revealed in increasingly devastating detail as the novel progresses.
A kindred literary fiction read.
Read the summary → - A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
11
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
James Joyce · Literary fiction
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man traces the intellectual and spiritual development of Stephen Dedalus from early childhood to the edge of adulthood, when he leaves Ireland to pursue life as an artist.
A kindred literary fiction read.
Read the summary → - A Thousand Acres
12
Jane Smiley · Literary fiction
A Thousand Acres retells King Lear on a thousand-acre Iowa farm in the 1970s.
A kindred literary fiction read.
Read the summary →
Books like Invisible Man: quick answers
What are the best books like Invisible Man?
The best books like Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison are Homage to Catalonia by George Orwell, Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates, All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers, It Ends with Us by Colleen Hoover, plus 7 more below. Each was chosen for themes it shares with Invisible Man, such as racial invisibility and identity, self-determination, ideology and manipulation.
What should I read after Invisible Man?
A natural next read after Invisible Man is Homage to Catalonia by George Orwell. A kindred literary fiction read. Other strong choices are Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates, All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers.
What books are similar to Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison?
Invisible Man centers on racial invisibility and identity, self-determination, ideology and manipulation. Books with a similar feel include Homage to Catalonia by George Orwell, Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates, All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers, It Ends with Us by Colleen Hoover, The Autobiography of Malcolm X by Malcolm X and Alex Haley — all free to read and chat with on Superbook.
