Literary fiction · Similar reads
Books like Lincoln in the Bardo
The best books like Lincoln in the Bardo are A Grief Observed, The Year of Magical Thinking, and Night. Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders is about grief and loss, acceptance of death, history and myth. 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.
- A Grief Observed
- The Year of Magical Thinking
02
Joan Didion · Memoir
Joan Didion's account of the year following the sudden death of her husband, the writer John Gregory Dunne, is the most rigorous and unflinching memoir of grief in American literature.
A kindred literary fiction read.
Read the summary → - Night
03
Elie Wiesel · Memoir
Night is Elie Wiesel's account of his deportation from the Transylvanian town of Sighet in 1944 and his survival of Auschwitz and Buchenwald concentration camps.
A kindred literary fiction read.
Read the summary → - Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind
04
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind
Yuval Noah Harari · History
Sapiens traces the full arc of human history from the emergence of Homo sapiens in Africa roughly 70,000 years ago to the present.
A kindred literary fiction read.
Read the summary → - Norwegian Wood
05
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 → - The Catcher in the Rye
06
J. D. Salinger · Literary fiction
Holden Caulfield has just been expelled from Pencey Prep — his fourth school — and is not ready to go home and tell his parents.
Both dig into grief and loss.
Read the summary → - The Goldfinch
07
Donna Tartt · Literary fiction
The Goldfinch begins with a bombing in a New York museum.
Both dig into grief and loss.
Read the summary → - The Plague
08
Albert Camus · Literary fiction
The town of Oran, on the Algerian coast, is sealed off after an outbreak of bubonic plague.
Both dig into collective suffering.
Read the summary → - The Sound and the Fury
09
William Faulkner · Literary fiction
The Sound and the Fury is widely considered Faulkner's greatest novel, and it is genuinely one of the most formally radical works in American fiction.
Both dig into grief and loss.
Read the summary → - Firefly Lane
10
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
11
Emily Henry · Romance
Harriet and Wyn were the couple everyone else wanted to be.
Both dig into grief and loss.
Read the summary → - Interpreter of Maladies
12
Jhumpa Lahiri · Short stories
Interpreter of Maladies is Jhumpa Lahiri's debut short story collection, winner of the 1999 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.
Both dig into grief and loss.
Read the summary →
Books like Lincoln in the Bardo: quick answers
What are the best books like Lincoln in the Bardo?
The best books like Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders are A Grief Observed by C. S. Lewis, The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion, Night by Elie Wiesel, Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari, Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami, plus 7 more below. Each was chosen for themes it shares with Lincoln in the Bardo, such as grief and loss, acceptance of death, history and myth.
What should I read after Lincoln in the Bardo?
A natural next read after Lincoln in the Bardo is A Grief Observed by C. S. Lewis. A kindred literary fiction read. Other strong choices are The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion, Night by Elie Wiesel, Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari.
What books are similar to Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders?
Lincoln in the Bardo centers on grief and loss, acceptance of death, history and myth. Books with a similar feel include A Grief Observed by C. S. Lewis, The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion, Night by Elie Wiesel, Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari, Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami, The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger — all free to read and chat with on Superbook.
