Literary fiction · Similar reads
Books like My Brilliant Friend
The best books like My Brilliant Friend are The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts, Angela's Ashes, and Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood. My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante is about female friendship and rivalry, class and education as escape, violence and patriarchy. 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.
- The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts
01
The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts
Maxine Hong Kingston · Memoir
The Woman Warrior is not a conventional memoir.
A kindred literary fiction read.
Read the summary → - Angela's Ashes
02
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 literary fiction read.
Read the summary → - Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood
03
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 literary fiction read.
Read the summary → - Between the World and Me
04
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 → - The Alchemist
05
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 → - East of Eden
06
John Steinbeck · Literary fiction
East of Eden is Steinbeck's self-declared masterwork, a long and ambitious novel published in 1952 that traces two families — the Trasks and the Hamiltons — across two generations in California's Salinas Valley.
Both dig into identity and self-invention.
Read the summary → - The Lacuna
07
Barbara Kingsolver · Literary fiction
The Lacuna follows Harrison William Shepherd, a half-Mexican, half-American man who in the 1930s works as a cook in the household of Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo in Mexico City, and eventually becomes secretary to Leon Trotsky during his Mexican exile.
Both dig into identity and self-invention.
Read the summary → - In a Dark, Dark Wood
08
Ruth Ware · Thriller
Nora receives an out-of-the-blue invitation to a hen party she has no reason to attend — it's for Clare, a friend she hasn't spoken to in ten years, whose circle Nora no longer belongs to.
Both dig into female friendship and rivalry.
Read the summary → - A Farewell to Arms
09
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
10
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
11
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
12
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 →
Books like My Brilliant Friend: quick answers
What are the best books like My Brilliant Friend?
The best books like My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante are The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts by Maxine Hong Kingston, Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt, Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood by Trevor Noah, Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates, The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, plus 7 more below. Each was chosen for themes it shares with My Brilliant Friend, such as female friendship and rivalry, class and education as escape, violence and patriarchy.
What should I read after My Brilliant Friend?
A natural next read after My Brilliant Friend is The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts by Maxine Hong Kingston. A kindred literary fiction read. Other strong choices are Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt, Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood by Trevor Noah, Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates.
What books are similar to My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante?
My Brilliant Friend centers on female friendship and rivalry, class and education as escape, violence and patriarchy. Books with a similar feel include The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts by Maxine Hong Kingston, Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt, Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood by Trevor Noah, Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates, The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, East of Eden by John Steinbeck — all free to read and chat with on Superbook.
