Literary fiction · Similar reads
Books like Memorial
The best books like Memorial are On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous, Between the World and Me, and A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius. Memorial by Bryan Washington is about queerness and domesticity, race and family, grief and inheritance. 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.
- On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous
01
On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous
Ocean Vuong · Literary fiction
On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous is structured as a letter from a young Vietnamese-American man, Little Dog, to his illiterate mother — a letter she will never be able to read.
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 → - A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
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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 → - The Alchemist
04
Paulo Coelho · Religion & Spirituality
The Alchemist is a Brazilian novel first published in 1988 and translated into 80 languages, making it one of the most translated books in history.
A kindred literary fiction read.
Read the summary → - Hello Beautiful
05
Ann Napolitano · Literary fiction
Hello Beautiful follows four generations of the Padavano family, beginning in Chicago in the 1920s and ending in the early 2000s.
Both dig into race and family.
Read the summary → - A Farewell to Arms
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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
07
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
08
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
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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
10
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 → - A Visit from the Goon Squad
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Jennifer Egan · Literary fiction
A Visit from the Goon Squad is a novel told in thirteen chapters, each from a different point of view and sometimes in a radically different form — including one chapter composed entirely as a PowerPoint presentation.
A kindred literary fiction read.
Read the summary → - Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
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Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Mark Twain · Literary fiction
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn begins where Tom Sawyer left off — Huck Finn, the outcast son of the town drunk, has been taken in and given a respectable life he doesn't want.
A kindred literary fiction read.
Read the summary →
Books like Memorial: quick answers
What are the best books like Memorial?
The best books like Memorial by Bryan Washington are On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong, Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers, The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano, plus 7 more below. Each was chosen for themes it shares with Memorial, such as queerness and domesticity, race and family, grief and inheritance.
What should I read after Memorial?
A natural next read after Memorial is On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong. A kindred literary fiction read. Other strong choices are Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers, The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho.
What books are similar to Memorial by Bryan Washington?
Memorial centers on queerness and domesticity, race and family, grief and inheritance. Books with a similar feel include On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong, Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers, The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano, A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway — all free to read and chat with on Superbook.
