Classics · Similar reads
Books like Robinson Crusoe
The best books like Robinson Crusoe are Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, Guns, Germs, and Steel, and Homage to Catalonia. Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe is about survival and self-reliance, colonialism and race, providence and faith. 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.
- Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind
01
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 classics read.
Read the summary → - Guns, Germs, and Steel
02
Jared Diamond · Science
Guns, Germs, and Steel is Jared Diamond's attempt to answer a question posed to him by a Papua New Guinean politician named Yali: why did Europeans end up with so much cargo — wealth, technology, power — while other peoples had comparatively little?
A kindred classics read.
Read the summary → - Homage to Catalonia
03
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 classics read.
Read the summary → - All Quiet on the Western Front
04
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 classics read.
Read the summary → - And Then There Were None
05
Agatha Christie · Mystery
Ten strangers are invited to an island off the Devon coast under various pretexts.
Both dig into isolation.
Read the summary → - In a Dark, Dark Wood
06
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 isolation.
Read the summary → - Revelation Space
07
Alastair Reynolds · Science fiction
Revelation Space opens in 2551 on a dead alien world, where archaeologist Dan Sylveste is excavating a civilization that vanished instantaneously nine hundred thousand years ago.
Both dig into isolation.
Read the summary → - The Atlas Six
08
Olivie Blake · Fantasy
Six of the world's most powerful young magicians are recruited by the Alexandrian Society, a secret organization that has preserved forbidden knowledge since antiquity.
Both dig into isolation.
Read the summary → - The Martian
09
Andy Weir · Science fiction
Mark Watney is accidentally left behind on Mars when his crewmates, believing him dead, abort their mission during a storm and launch for Earth.
Both dig into isolation.
Read the summary → - The Turn of the Key
10
Ruth Ware · Thriller
Rowan, a young nanny, writes a series of letters from prison to a solicitor she hopes will take her case.
Both dig into isolation.
Read the summary → - The Woman in the Window
11
A.J. Finn · Thriller
Anna Fox is a child psychologist who hasn't left her Manhattan brownstone in ten months.
Both dig into isolation.
Read the summary → - Bleak House
12
Charles Dickens · Classics
Bleak House is organized around the interminable Chancery case of Jarndyce and Jarndyce — a legal dispute over a will that has been grinding through the Court of Chancery for decades, consuming the fortunes and lives of everyone attached to it.
A kindred classics read.
Read the summary →
Books like Robinson Crusoe: quick answers
What are the best books like Robinson Crusoe?
The best books like Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe are Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari, Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond, Homage to Catalonia by George Orwell, All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque, And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie, plus 7 more below. Each was chosen for themes it shares with Robinson Crusoe, such as survival and self-reliance, colonialism and race, providence and faith.
What should I read after Robinson Crusoe?
A natural next read after Robinson Crusoe is Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari. A kindred classics read. Other strong choices are Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond, Homage to Catalonia by George Orwell, All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque.
What books are similar to Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe?
Robinson Crusoe centers on survival and self-reliance, colonialism and race, providence and faith. Books with a similar feel include Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari, Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond, Homage to Catalonia by George Orwell, All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque, And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie, In a Dark, Dark Wood by Ruth Ware — all free to read and chat with on Superbook.
