Literary fiction · Similar reads
Books like The Passenger
The best books like The Passenger are Man's Search for Meaning, 1984, and A Grief Observed. The Passenger by Cormac McCarthy is about grief and guilt, physics and consciousness, moral contamination. 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.
- Man's Search for Meaning
01
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.
Read the summary → - 1984
02
George Orwell · Philosophy
Nineteen Eighty-Four is George Orwell's 1949 novel about a future England called Airstrip One, governed by the totalitarian Party under the figurehead Big Brother.
A kindred literary fiction read.
Read the summary → - A Grief Observed
- Into the Water
04
Paula Hawkins · Thriller
In a small English town, women have been dying in a river pool called the Drowning Pool for centuries.
Both dig into grief and guilt.
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 Passenger: quick answers
What are the best books like The Passenger?
The best books like The Passenger by Cormac McCarthy are Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl, 1984 by George Orwell, A Grief Observed by C. S. Lewis, Into the Water by Paula Hawkins, A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway, plus 7 more below. Each was chosen for themes it shares with The Passenger, such as grief and guilt, physics and consciousness, moral contamination.
What should I read after The Passenger?
A natural next read after The Passenger is Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl. A kindred literary fiction read. Other strong choices are 1984 by George Orwell, A Grief Observed by C. S. Lewis, Into the Water by Paula Hawkins.
What books are similar to The Passenger by Cormac McCarthy?
The Passenger centers on grief and guilt, physics and consciousness, moral contamination. Books with a similar feel include Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl, 1984 by George Orwell, A Grief Observed by C. S. Lewis, Into the Water by Paula Hawkins, A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway, A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry — all free to read and chat with on Superbook.
