Literary fiction · Similar reads
Books like Olive Kitteridge
The best books like Olive Kitteridge are Normal People, Conversations with Friends, and American Pastoral. Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout is about marriage and distance, grief and depression, small-town life. 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.
- Normal People
01
Sally Rooney · Literary fiction
Normal People follows Connell and Marianne from their small-town Irish secondary school through their years at Trinity College Dublin.
A kindred literary fiction read.
Read the summary → - Conversations with Friends
02
Sally Rooney · Literary fiction
Conversations with Friends is told by Frances, a twenty-one-year-old Dublin student who performs spoken-word poetry with her best friend and ex-girlfriend Bobbi.
A kindred literary fiction read.
Read the summary → - American Pastoral
03
Philip Roth · Literary fiction
American Pastoral opens with a narrator, Nathan Zuckerman, learning at a high school reunion about the life and death of Seymour "the Swede" Levov — a man who embodied postwar American success so completely he seemed almost allegorical.
A kindred literary fiction read.
Read the summary →
- A Visit from the Goon Squad
04
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 → - A Farewell to Arms
05
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
06
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
07
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
08
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
09
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 → - Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
10
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 → - Americanah
11
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie · Literary fiction
Americanah follows Ifemelu, a young Nigerian woman who leaves Lagos for America as a university student and spends fifteen years navigating a country that insists on categorizing her in ways Nigeria never did.
A kindred literary fiction read.
Read the summary → - Animal Farm
12
George Orwell · Literary fiction
When the animals of Manor Farm drive out their human farmer and establish a republic governed by the principle that all animals are equal, the revolution feels like liberation.
A kindred literary fiction read.
Read the summary →
Books like Olive Kitteridge: quick answers
What are the best books like Olive Kitteridge?
The best books like Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout are Normal People by Sally Rooney, Conversations with Friends by Sally Rooney, American Pastoral by Philip Roth, A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan, A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway, plus 7 more below. Each was chosen for themes it shares with Olive Kitteridge, such as marriage and distance, grief and depression, small-town life.
What should I read after Olive Kitteridge?
A natural next read after Olive Kitteridge is Normal People by Sally Rooney. A kindred literary fiction read. Other strong choices are Conversations with Friends by Sally Rooney, American Pastoral by Philip Roth, A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan.
What books are similar to Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout?
Olive Kitteridge centers on marriage and distance, grief and depression, small-town life. Books with a similar feel include Normal People by Sally Rooney, Conversations with Friends by Sally Rooney, American Pastoral by Philip Roth, A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan, A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway, A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry — all free to read and chat with on Superbook.
