Books like

Books like A Separate Peace

12 books with a reading profile close to A Separate Peace by John Knowles. Deep, inward-looking and thought-provoking; a moderate read.

  1. 1 The Awakening

    The Awakening

    by Kate Chopin

    Also deep and inward-looking · narrative, psychology

    Edna Pontellier lives within the rigid social structures of late nineteenth-century Louisiana, moving between the French Quarter in New Orleans and the vacation community of Grand Isle.

  2. 2 A Single Man

    A Single Man

    by Christopher Isherwood

    Also deep and inward-looking · narrative, psychology

    Set in Southern California during the early 1960s, the novel follows twenty-four hours in the life of George, a middle-aged British professor grieving the sudden death of his partner, Jim.

  3. 3 Franny and Zooey

    Franny and Zooey

    by J.D. Salinger

    Also deep and inward-looking · narrative, psychology

    Set in Manhattan during the 1950s, the narrative centers on two siblings of the brilliant Glass family as they navigate a shared spiritual crisis.

  4. 4 The hours

    The hours

    by Michael Cunningham

    Also deep and inward-looking · narrative, psychology

    In 1923 England, Virginia Woolf struggles with debilitating headaches while writing the first sentences of Mrs.

  5. 5 El túnel

    El túnel

    by Ernesto Sabato

    Also deep and inward-looking · narrative, psychology

    Juan Pablo Castel, a painter, tells the reader at the start that he has killed Maria Iribarne, and then he explains why.

  6. 6 The Catcher in the Rye

    The Catcher in the Rye

    by J.D. Salinger

    Also deep and inward-looking · narrative, psychology

    Holden Caulfield, a teenage boy recently expelled from Pencey Prep, wanders through New York City over a cold December weekend.

  7. 7 Giovanni’s Room

    Giovanni’s Room

    by James Baldwin

    Also deep and inward-looking · narrative, psychology

    In 1950s Paris, David, a young American living on his father’s allowance, struggles with his sexual identity while his fiancée, Hella, travels in Spain.

  8. 8 Death of a Salesman

    Death of a Salesman

    by Arthur Miller

    Also deep and inward-looking · narrative, psychology

    Willy Loman is an aging traveling salesman in Brooklyn whose mental health is fracturing under the weight of professional failure and debt.

  9. 9 The Bell Jar

    The Bell Jar

    by Sylvia Plath

    Also deep and inward-looking · narrative, psychology

    Esther Greenwood, a college student from Massachusetts, wins a competitive summer internship at a fashion magazine in mid-century New York City.

  10. 10 Revolutionary Road

    Revolutionary Road

    by Richard Yates

    Also deep and inward-looking · narrative, psychology

    Frank and April Wheeler live in a Connecticut suburb, maintaining a surface of intellectual superiority over their neighbors while struggling with internal stagnation.

  11. 11 Play It As It Lays

    Play It As It Lays

    by Joan Didion

    Also deep and inward-looking · narrative, psychology

    Maria Wyeth is a thirty-year-old former actress living in Los Angeles who spends her days driving the California freeway system in a silver Corvette.

  12. 12 Hedda Gabler

    Hedda Gabler

    by Henrik Ibsen

    Also deep and inward-looking · narrative, psychology

    Hedda Gabler returns from a honeymoon to a life of stifling domesticity and debt alongside her academic husband, George Tesman.

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