Literary fiction · Similar reads
Books like The Story of the Lost Child
The best books like The Story of the Lost Child are The Namesake, Educated: A Memoir, and Angela's Ashes. The Story of the Lost Child by Elena Ferrante is about female friendship, aging and loss, motherhood. 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 Namesake
01
Jhumpa Lahiri · Literary fiction
The Namesake follows the Ganguli family across three decades, beginning with Ashoke and Ashima's arranged marriage and their immigration from Calcutta to Cambridge, Massachusetts, and extending into the American adulthood of their son, Gogol.
A kindred literary fiction read.
Read the summary → - Educated: A Memoir
02
Tara Westover · Memoir
Educated is Tara Westover's memoir about growing up in a survivalist family in rural Idaho and eventually earning a PhD in history from Cambridge University.
A kindred literary fiction read.
Read the summary → - Angela's Ashes
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Frank McCourt · Memoir
Angela's Ashes is Frank McCourt's memoir of a catastrophically impoverished Irish Catholic childhood, first in Brooklyn and then in Limerick, during the 1930s and 1940s.
A kindred literary fiction read.
Read the summary → - A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
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A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
Dave Eggers · Memoir
Dave Eggers's debut memoir about losing both parents to cancer within five weeks and raising his younger brother Toph while trying to start a literary magazine in San Francisco in the mid-1990s arrived in 2000 with unusual self-consciousness about its own nature.
A kindred literary fiction read.
Read the summary → - Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity
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Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity
Katherine Boo · History
Behind the Beautiful Forevers is Katherine Boo's account of three years spent in Annawadi, a Mumbai slum built on reclaimed land next to the international airport.
A kindred literary fiction read.
Read the summary → - Beloved
06
Toni Morrison · Literary fiction
Beloved is set in post-Civil War Ohio, where Sethe, a formerly enslaved woman, lives with her daughter Denver in a house shadowed by the ghost of a baby she killed rather than let be taken back into slavery.
Both dig into motherhood.
Read the summary → - The Story of a New Name
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Elena Ferrante · Literary fiction
The Story of a New Name is the second volume of Elena Ferrante's Neapolitan Novels, continuing the story of Elena Greco and Lila Cerullo from roughly 1960 through the late 1960s.
Both dig into class and escape.
Read the summary → - Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay
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Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay
Elena Ferrante · Literary fiction
Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay is the third novel in Elena Ferrante's Neapolitan quartet, picking up where The Story of a New Name left off.
Both dig into female friendship.
Read the summary → - Big Little Lies
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Liane Moriarty · Thriller
Big Little Lies begins with a death at a school trivia night and then spends its entire length working backward to explain how it happened.
Both dig into female friendship.
Read the summary → - Circe
10
Madeline Miller · Fantasy
Circe is the daughter of Helios, god of the sun, but she inherits neither divine radiance nor power — only a human voice that embarrasses her immortal family.
Both dig into motherhood.
Read the summary → - Firefly Lane
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Kristin Hannah · Contemporary fiction
Tully Hart and Kate Mularkey meet in the summer of 1974 as fourteen-year-olds on Firefly Lane in rural Washington State, and their friendship spans three decades — through high school, college, careers in television journalism, marriages, and heartbreak.
Both dig into female friendship.
Read the summary → - Little Fires Everywhere
12
Celeste Ng · Contemporary fiction
In Shaker Heights, Ohio — a meticulously planned, deliberately integrated suburb — two families collide.
Both dig into motherhood.
Read the summary →
Books like The Story of the Lost Child: quick answers
What are the best books like The Story of the Lost Child?
The best books like The Story of the Lost Child by Elena Ferrante are The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri, Educated: A Memoir by Tara Westover, Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers, Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity by Katherine Boo, plus 7 more below. Each was chosen for themes it shares with The Story of the Lost Child, such as female friendship, aging and loss, motherhood.
What should I read after The Story of the Lost Child?
A natural next read after The Story of the Lost Child is The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri. A kindred literary fiction read. Other strong choices are Educated: A Memoir by Tara Westover, Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers.
What books are similar to The Story of the Lost Child by Elena Ferrante?
The Story of the Lost Child centers on female friendship, aging and loss, motherhood. Books with a similar feel include The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri, Educated: A Memoir by Tara Westover, Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers, Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity by Katherine Boo, Beloved by Toni Morrison — all free to read and chat with on Superbook.
