Literary fiction · Similar reads
Books like The Idiot
The best books like The Idiot are Crime and Punishment, The Brothers Karamazov, and When Nietzsche Wept. The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoevsky is about goodness and its costs, society's cruelty toward innocence, beauty and destruction. 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.
- Crime and Punishment
01
Fyodor Dostoevsky · Literary fiction
Raskolnikov is a former student living in desperate poverty in St.
A kindred literary fiction read.
Read the summary → - The Brothers Karamazov
02
Fyodor Dostoevsky · Literary fiction
Three brothers — Dmitri, Ivan, and Alyosha Karamazov — orbit around their contemptible, sensuous father Fyodor, who is also a rival with Dmitri for the affections of a local woman.
A kindred literary fiction read.
Read the summary → - When Nietzsche Wept
03
Irvin D. Yalom · Philosophy
When Nietzsche Wept is a philosophical novel by psychiatrist Irvin Yalom set in Vienna in 1882.
A kindred literary fiction read.
Read the summary → - Steppenwolf
04
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 → - A Farewell to Arms
05
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
06
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
07
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
08
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
09
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
10
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 → - Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
11
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Mark Twain · Literary fiction
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn begins where Tom Sawyer left off — Huck Finn, the outcast son of the town drunk, has been taken in and given a respectable life he doesn't want.
A kindred literary fiction read.
Read the summary → - American Pastoral
12
Philip Roth · Literary fiction
American Pastoral opens with a narrator, Nathan Zuckerman, learning at a high school reunion about the life and death of Seymour "the Swede" Levov — a man who embodied postwar American success so completely he seemed almost allegorical.
A kindred literary fiction read.
Read the summary →
Books like The Idiot: quick answers
What are the best books like The Idiot?
The best books like The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoevsky are Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky, When Nietzsche Wept by Irvin D. Yalom, Steppenwolf by Hermann Hesse, A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway, plus 7 more below. Each was chosen for themes it shares with The Idiot, such as goodness and its costs, society's cruelty toward innocence, beauty and destruction.
What should I read after The Idiot?
A natural next read after The Idiot is Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky. A kindred literary fiction read. Other strong choices are The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky, When Nietzsche Wept by Irvin D. Yalom, Steppenwolf by Hermann Hesse.
What books are similar to The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoevsky?
The Idiot centers on goodness and its costs, society's cruelty toward innocence, beauty and destruction. Books with a similar feel include Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky, When Nietzsche Wept by Irvin D. Yalom, Steppenwolf by Hermann Hesse, A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway, A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry — all free to read and chat with on Superbook.
