Books like Slaughterhouse-Five

01

Catch-22

Joseph Heller · Literary fiction

Yossarian is a bombardier stationed on the Mediterranean island of Pianosa during World War II who has concluded that the people trying to kill him are not the enemy — they're everyone, including his own commanders.

A kindred literary fiction read.

02

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 literary fiction read.

03

The Things They Carried

Tim O'Brien · Memoir

Tim O'Brien served as a foot soldier in Vietnam in 1969 and 1970.

A kindred literary fiction read.

04

Man's Search for Meaning

Viktor E. Frankl · Psychology

Man's Search for Meaning is Viktor Frankl's account of his years as a prisoner in Nazi concentration camps, including Auschwitz, and the psychological theory he developed from that experience.

A kindred literary fiction read.

05

Night

Elie Wiesel · Memoir

Night is Elie Wiesel's account of his deportation from the Transylvanian town of Sighet in 1944 and his survival of Auschwitz and Buchenwald concentration camps.

A kindred literary fiction read.

06

Mrs Dalloway

Virginia Woolf · Literary fiction

Mrs Dalloway takes place over the course of a single June day in London in 1923, following Clarissa Dalloway — the wife of a politician, preparing for an evening party — and Septimus Warren Smith, a shell-shocked veteran who never intersects with Clarissa but exists in parallel throughout the novel.

Both dig into time and memory.

07

The Lincoln Highway

Amor Towles · Literary fiction

The Lincoln Highway unfolds over ten days in June 1954.

Both dig into american mythology.

08

American Gods

Neil Gaiman · Fantasy

American Gods opens with Shadow Moon, a man released from prison days early because his wife has died in a car accident.

Both dig into american mythology.

09

Hyperion

Dan Simmons · Science fiction

Seven pilgrims travel to the dying world of Hyperion, each knowing the journey is likely a one-way trip.

Both dig into time and memory.

10

The Right Stuff

Tom Wolfe · Memoir

Tom Wolfe's account of the early years of American manned spaceflight — from the test pilots of Edwards Air Force Base to the Mercury Seven astronauts — is the most celebrated work of New Journalism and one of the essential books about American culture in the twentieth century.

Both dig into american mythology.

11

A Farewell to Arms

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.

12

A Fine Balance

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.