Literary fiction · Similar reads
Books like The English Patient
The best books like The English Patient are A Moveable Feast, All Quiet on the Western Front, and The Things They Carried. The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje is about memory and identity, war's aftermath, love and obsession. 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.
- A Moveable Feast
01
Ernest Hemingway · Memoir
A Moveable Feast is Hemingway's posthumously published account of his years in Paris during the 1920s, when he and his first wife Hadley lived cheaply in Montparnasse while he apprenticed himself to the work of becoming a writer.
A kindred literary fiction read.
Read the summary → - All Quiet on the Western Front
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.
Read the summary → - The Things They Carried
03
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 → - The Year of Magical Thinking
04
Joan Didion · Memoir
Joan Didion's account of the year following the sudden death of her husband, the writer John Gregory Dunne, is the most rigorous and unflinching memoir of grief in American literature.
A kindred literary fiction read.
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.
A kindred literary fiction read.
Read the summary → - Lila
06
Marilynne Robinson · Literary fiction
Lila is the third novel set in Gilead, Iowa, and it arrives as a prequel and companion to both Gilead and Home.
Both dig into memory and identity.
Read the summary → - Love in the Time of Cholera
07
Gabriel García Márquez · Literary fiction
Love in the Time of Cholera begins with the death of Dr.
Both dig into love and obsession.
Read the summary → - The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
08
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
Junot Díaz · Literary fiction
Oscar Wao is an overweight Dominican American nerd from New Jersey who wants nothing more than to find love and write fantasy novels.
Both dig into love and obsession.
Read the summary → - Exhalation: Stories
09
Ted Chiang · Short stories
Exhalation: Stories is Ted Chiang's second collection, containing nine stories written between 2005 and 2019.
Both dig into memory and identity.
Read the summary → - Ficciones
10
Jorge Luis Borges · Short stories
Ficciones collects seventeen short stories and fictions by the Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges, first published in two parts in 1941 and 1944.
Both dig into memory and identity.
Read the summary → - Great Expectations
11
Charles Dickens · Classics
Great Expectations follows Pip, an orphan boy on the Kent marshes who is yanked from modest obscurity into the orbit of wealth and social aspiration when an anonymous benefactor funds his move to London.
Both dig into love and obsession.
Read the summary → - Night Watch
12
Terry Pratchett · Fantasy
Night Watch is the twenty-ninth Discworld novel and the one many readers consider Pratchett's masterpiece.
Both dig into memory and identity.
Read the summary →
Books like The English Patient: quick answers
What are the best books like The English Patient?
The best books like The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje are A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway, All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque, The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien, The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers, plus 7 more below. Each was chosen for themes it shares with The English Patient, such as memory and identity, war's aftermath, love and obsession.
What should I read after The English Patient?
A natural next read after The English Patient is A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway. A kindred literary fiction read. Other strong choices are All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque, The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien, The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion.
What books are similar to The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje?
The English Patient centers on memory and identity, war's aftermath, love and obsession. Books with a similar feel include A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway, All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque, The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien, The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers, Lila by Marilynne Robinson — all free to read and chat with on Superbook.
