Literary fiction · Similar reads
Books like Small Things Like These
The best books like Small Things Like These are Beloved, Night, and Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay. Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan is about moral courage, complicity and silence, community and conformity. 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.
- Beloved
01
Toni Morrison · Literary fiction
Beloved is set in post-Civil War Ohio, where Sethe, a formerly enslaved woman, lives with her daughter Denver in a house shadowed by the ghost of a baby she killed rather than let be taken back into slavery.
A kindred literary fiction read.
Read the summary → - Night
02
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.
Read the summary → - Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay
03
Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay
Elena Ferrante · Literary fiction
Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay is the third novel in Elena Ferrante's Neapolitan quartet, picking up where The Story of a New Name left off.
A kindred literary fiction read.
Read the summary → - Angela's Ashes
04
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 → - The Great Gatsby
05
F. Scott Fitzgerald · Classics
The Great Gatsby is narrated by Nick Carraway, a young Midwesterner who moves to Long Island in the summer of 1922 and finds himself adjacent to the fabulous, mysterious parties of his neighbor Jay Gatsby.
A kindred literary fiction read.
Read the summary → - To Kill a Mockingbird
06
Harper Lee · Literary fiction
Jean Louise "Scout" Finch is six years old at the start of the novel and nine by the end.
Both dig into moral courage.
Read the summary → - Blindsighted
07
Karin Slaughter · Thriller
Blindsighted is Karin Slaughter's debut novel, published in 2001, and the first book in the Grant County series set in fictional Heartsdale, Georgia.
Both dig into complicity and silence.
Read the summary → - The Constant Gardener
08
John le Carré · Thriller
Justin Quayle is a mild, reserved British diplomat stationed in Kenya.
Both dig into complicity and silence.
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 Small Things Like These: quick answers
What are the best books like Small Things Like These?
The best books like Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan are Beloved by Toni Morrison, Night by Elie Wiesel, Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay by Elena Ferrante, Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, plus 7 more below. Each was chosen for themes it shares with Small Things Like These, such as moral courage, complicity and silence, community and conformity.
What should I read after Small Things Like These?
A natural next read after Small Things Like These is Beloved by Toni Morrison. A kindred literary fiction read. Other strong choices are Night by Elie Wiesel, Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay by Elena Ferrante, Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt.
What books are similar to Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan?
Small Things Like These centers on moral courage, complicity and silence, community and conformity. Books with a similar feel include Beloved by Toni Morrison, Night by Elie Wiesel, Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay by Elena Ferrante, Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee — all free to read and chat with on Superbook.
