Literary fiction · Similar reads
Books like The Fall
The best books like The Fall are The Stranger, The Plague, and The Myth of Sisyphus. The Fall by Albert Camus is about guilt and self-deception, confession as performance, moral complicity. 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.
- The Stranger
01
Albert Camus · Literary fiction
Meursault is a French Algerian clerk who, over a few days following his mother's funeral, takes a girlfriend, shoots an Arab man on a beach for no clearly articulable reason, and is tried and sentenced to death.
A kindred literary fiction read.
Read the summary → - The Plague
02
Albert Camus · Literary fiction
The town of Oran, on the Algerian coast, is sealed off after an outbreak of bubonic plague.
A kindred literary fiction read.
Read the summary → - The Myth of Sisyphus
03
Albert Camus · Philosophy
The Myth of Sisyphus begins with what Camus calls the only truly serious philosophical question: why not commit suicide?
A kindred literary fiction read.
Read the summary → - Existentialism Is a Humanism
04
Jean-Paul Sartre · Philosophy
Existentialism Is a Humanism began as a 1945 lecture Sartre gave to a packed Paris hall in response to critics who called existentialism pessimistic, quietist, and dangerous.
A kindred literary fiction read.
Read the summary → - Steppenwolf
05
Hermann Hesse · Philosophy
Steppenwolf is Hermann Hesse's most psychologically intense and formally inventive novel, published in 1927 at a time of personal crisis.
A kindred literary fiction read.
Read the summary → - All the Light We Cannot See
06
Anthony Doerr · Historical fiction
All the Light We Cannot See follows two children through the Second World War on a collision course neither can see coming.
Both dig into moral complicity.
Read the summary → - A Farewell to Arms
07
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
08
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
09
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
10
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 → - A Thousand Acres
11
Jane Smiley · Literary fiction
A Thousand Acres retells King Lear on a thousand-acre Iowa farm in the 1970s.
A kindred literary fiction read.
Read the summary → - A Visit from the Goon Squad
12
Jennifer Egan · Literary fiction
A Visit from the Goon Squad is a novel told in thirteen chapters, each from a different point of view and sometimes in a radically different form — including one chapter composed entirely as a PowerPoint presentation.
A kindred literary fiction read.
Read the summary →
Books like The Fall: quick answers
What are the best books like The Fall?
The best books like The Fall by Albert Camus are The Stranger by Albert Camus, The Plague by Albert Camus, The Myth of Sisyphus by Albert Camus, Existentialism Is a Humanism by Jean-Paul Sartre, Steppenwolf by Hermann Hesse, plus 7 more below. Each was chosen for themes it shares with The Fall, such as guilt and self-deception, confession as performance, moral complicity.
What should I read after The Fall?
A natural next read after The Fall is The Stranger by Albert Camus. A kindred literary fiction read. Other strong choices are The Plague by Albert Camus, The Myth of Sisyphus by Albert Camus, Existentialism Is a Humanism by Jean-Paul Sartre.
What books are similar to The Fall by Albert Camus?
The Fall centers on guilt and self-deception, confession as performance, moral complicity. Books with a similar feel include The Stranger by Albert Camus, The Plague by Albert Camus, The Myth of Sisyphus by Albert Camus, Existentialism Is a Humanism by Jean-Paul Sartre, Steppenwolf by Hermann Hesse, All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr — all free to read and chat with on Superbook.
