Books like The Metamorphosis

01

Steppenwolf

Hermann Hesse · Philosophy

Steppenwolf is Hermann Hesse's most psychologically intense and formally inventive novel, published in 1927 at a time of personal crisis.

Both dig into alienation.

02

Siddhartha

Hermann Hesse · Religion & Spirituality

Siddhartha is Hermann Hesse's 1922 novel of spiritual seeking, written at a time when Hesse was deeply studying Buddhist and Hindu texts.

A kindred literary fiction read.

03

Existentialism Is a Humanism

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.

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

The Myth of Sisyphus

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.

06

Run

Ann Patchett · Literary fiction

Run is set over the course of a single night in Boston, threading through the lives of the Doyle family — Bernard Doyle, a former mayor and widower, and his two adopted Black sons, Tip and Teddy.

Both dig into family and obligation.

07

The Stranger

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.

Both dig into alienation.

08

Dial A for Aunties

Jesse Q. Sutanto · Contemporary fiction

Medeline Meddelin — Meddelin Chan — accidentally kills her blind date and calls her mother.

Both dig into family and obligation.

09

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.

Both dig into dehumanization.

10

The Monk and the Riddle

Randy Komisar · Business

Randy Komisar spent years as a virtual CEO and partner at Kleiner Perkins helping founders build companies, and The Monk and the Riddle draws on that experience to make a case about what startup culture gets badly wrong.

Both dig into work and identity.

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.