Books like Lord Jim

01

Heart of Darkness

Joseph Conrad · Literary fiction

Marlow, a sailor sitting on a boat on the Thames, tells the story of a journey he made up the Congo River to find Kurtz, a brilliant company agent who has gone silent deep in the interior.

A kindred literary fiction read.

02

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.

03

Homage to Catalonia

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.

04

A Moveable Feast

Ernest Hemingway · Memoir

A Moveable Feast is Hemingway's posthumously published account of his years in Paris during the 1920s, when he and his first wife Hadley lived cheaply in Montparnasse while he apprenticed himself to the work of becoming a writer.

A kindred literary fiction read.

05

The Human Stain

Philip Roth · Literary fiction

Coleman Silk is a seventy-one-year-old classics professor and former dean at Athena College in western Massachusetts who has been driven from his position by a racially charged accusation.

Both dig into identity and reinvention.

06

The Story of a New Name

Elena Ferrante · Literary fiction

The Story of a New Name is the second volume of Elena Ferrante's Neapolitan Novels, continuing the story of Elena Greco and Lila Cerullo from roughly 1960 through the late 1960s.

Both dig into identity and reinvention.

07

American Gods

Neil Gaiman · Fantasy

American Gods opens with Shadow Moon, a man released from prison days early because his wife has died in a car accident.

Both dig into identity and reinvention.

08

Hook, Line, and Sinker

Tessa Bailey · Romance

Hannah Bellinger has always been the dependable one — her sister Piper's anchor, the practical twin who keeps things running.

Both dig into identity and reinvention.

09

The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared

Jonas Jonasson · Contemporary fiction

Allan Karlsson turns one hundred years old in a Swedish nursing home, and rather than sit through his birthday party, he climbs out the window in his slippers and walks away.

Both dig into identity and reinvention.

10

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo

Taylor Jenkins Reid · Contemporary fiction

Evelyn Hugo is eighty-one, a reclusive Hollywood legend who has outlived her beauty, most of her enemies, and all seven of her husbands.

Both dig into identity and reinvention.

11

The Talented Mr. Ripley

Patricia Highsmith · Thriller

Tom Ripley is a small-time con man in New York, barely surviving on petty fraud, when a chance encounter leads a wealthy shipbuilder to hire him as an emissary: go to Italy, find my son Dickie, bring him home.

Both dig into identity and reinvention.

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.