Historical fiction · Similar reads
Books like The Name of the Rose
The best books like The Name of the Rose are The Trial, The Castle, and Crime and Punishment. The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco is about knowledge and its suppression, religious power and heresy, signs, symbols, and interpretation. 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 Trial
01
Franz Kafka · Literary fiction
On the morning of his thirtieth birthday, Josef K.
A kindred historical fiction read.
Read the summary → - The Castle
- Crime and Punishment
03
Fyodor Dostoevsky · Literary fiction
Raskolnikov is a former student living in desperate poverty in St.
A kindred historical fiction read.
Read the summary →
- The Brothers Karamazov
04
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 historical fiction read.
Read the summary → - The Alchemist
05
Paulo Coelho · Religion & Spirituality
The Alchemist is a Brazilian novel first published in 1988 and translated into 80 languages, making it one of the most translated books in history.
A kindred historical fiction read.
Read the summary → - A Gentleman in Moscow
06
Amor Towles · Historical fiction
In 1922, Count Alexander Rostov is sentenced by a Bolshevik tribunal — not to death, but to permanent house arrest in Moscow's Metropol Hotel.
A kindred historical fiction read.
Read the summary → - A Tale of Two Cities
07
Charles Dickens · Historical fiction
A Tale of Two Cities is set against the French Revolution and follows three intertwined characters: Charles Darnay, a French aristocrat who has renounced his title and family legacy; Lucie Manette, the daughter of a man who spent eighteen years imprisoned in the Bastille; and Sydney Carton, a dissolute English lawyer who loves Lucie without hope and knows he will never be the man Darnay already is.
A kindred historical fiction read.
Read the summary → - A Thousand Splendid Suns
08
Khaled Hosseini · Historical fiction
A Thousand Splendid Suns follows two Afghan women across nearly forty years of their country's turbulence: Mariam, the illegitimate daughter of a wealthy merchant who is married off at fifteen to a much older man in Kabul, and Laila, a young woman from a different generation whose family is destroyed in a rocket strike during the civil war and who is subsequently forced into the same household.
A kindred historical fiction read.
Read the summary → - Alias Grace
09
Margaret Atwood · Historical fiction
Alias Grace is based on the historical case of Grace Marks, a young Irish immigrant servant who was convicted in 1843, along with stable hand James McDermott, of the murders of her employer Thomas Kinnear and his housekeeper Nancy Montgomery in Upper Canada.
A kindred historical fiction read.
Read the summary → - All the Light We Cannot See
10
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.
A kindred historical fiction read.
Read the summary → - Babel
11
R.F. Kuang · Historical fiction
Set in an alternate 1830s Oxford, Babel imagines a Royal Institute of Translation at the heart of the British Empire — a place where silver bars engraved with translation "match-words" generate the industrial magic that powers British supremacy.
A kindred historical fiction read.
Read the summary → - Bring Up the Bodies
12
Hilary Mantel · Historical fiction
Bring Up the Bodies is the second novel in Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall trilogy, picking up where Wolf Hall ended: Anne Boleyn is Queen, Henry VIII is restless, and Thomas Cromwell is the indispensable minister who keeps the machinery of the court running.
A kindred historical fiction read.
Read the summary →
Books like The Name of the Rose: quick answers
What are the best books like The Name of the Rose?
The best books like The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco are The Trial by Franz Kafka, The Castle by Franz Kafka, Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, plus 7 more below. Each was chosen for themes it shares with The Name of the Rose, such as knowledge and its suppression, religious power and heresy, signs, symbols, and interpretation.
What should I read after The Name of the Rose?
A natural next read after The Name of the Rose is The Trial by Franz Kafka. A kindred historical fiction read. Other strong choices are The Castle by Franz Kafka, Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky.
What books are similar to The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco?
The Name of the Rose centers on knowledge and its suppression, religious power and heresy, signs, symbols, and interpretation. Books with a similar feel include The Trial by Franz Kafka, The Castle by Franz Kafka, Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles — all free to read and chat with on Superbook.
