Literary fiction · Similar reads
Books like Run
The best books like Run are Bel Canto, The Things They Carried, and Between the World and Me. Run by Ann Patchett is about family and obligation, race and privilege, parenthood. 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.
- Bel Canto
01
Ann Patchett · Literary fiction
Bel Canto opens at a birthday party in an unnamed South American country: a Japanese industrialist, Hosokawa, is celebrating in the private residence of the country's vice president, the sole attraction being a performance by his favorite soprano, Roxane Coss.
A kindred literary fiction read.
Read the summary → - The Things They Carried
02
Tim O'Brien · Memoir
Tim O'Brien served as a foot soldier in Vietnam in 1969 and 1970.
A kindred literary fiction read.
Read the summary → - Between the World and Me
03
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 Metamorphosis
04
Franz Kafka · Literary fiction
The Metamorphosis begins with one of the most famous sentences in world literature: Gregor Samsa wakes one morning to find he has been transformed into a giant insect.
Both dig into family and obligation.
Read the summary → - A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
05
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.
Both dig into parenthood.
Read the summary → - Dial A for Aunties
06
Jesse Q. Sutanto · Contemporary fiction
Medeline Meddelin — Meddelin Chan — accidentally kills her blind date and calls her mother.
Both dig into family and obligation.
Read the summary → - Fear and Trembling
07
Søren Kierkegaard · Philosophy
Fear and Trembling was published in 1843 under the pseudonym Johannes de Silentio, and it is Kierkegaard's most sustained meditation on the nature of faith through the lens of the story of Abraham and Isaac.
Both dig into sacrifice.
Read the summary → - Little Fires Everywhere
08
Celeste Ng · Contemporary fiction
In Shaker Heights, Ohio — a meticulously planned, deliberately integrated suburb — two families collide.
Both dig into race and privilege.
Read the summary → - Long Walk to Freedom
09
Nelson Mandela · Memoir
Nelson Mandela's autobiography traces his life from a rural Xhosa childhood in the Transkei to his release from prison in 1990 after twenty-seven years of incarceration, and ends with his election as South Africa's first democratically chosen president in 1994.
Both dig into sacrifice.
Read the summary → - A Farewell to Arms
10
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
11
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
12
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 →
Books like Run: quick answers
What are the best books like Run?
The best books like Run by Ann Patchett are Bel Canto by Ann Patchett, The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien, Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates, The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers, plus 7 more below. Each was chosen for themes it shares with Run, such as family and obligation, race and privilege, parenthood.
What should I read after Run?
A natural next read after Run is Bel Canto by Ann Patchett. A kindred literary fiction read. Other strong choices are The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien, Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates, The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka.
What books are similar to Run by Ann Patchett?
Run centers on family and obligation, race and privilege, parenthood. Books with a similar feel include Bel Canto by Ann Patchett, The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien, Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates, The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers, Dial A for Aunties by Jesse Q. Sutanto — all free to read and chat with on Superbook.
