Books like

Books like Anna Karenina

12 books with a reading profile close to Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy. Deep, inward-looking, contemplative and thought-provoking; a moderate read.

1

Three Comrades

by Erich Maria Remarque

Also deep and inward-looking · romance, narrative

Robert Lohkamp, Otto Köster and Gottfried Lenz are three veterans of the First World War who run a car repair shop in Germany in the late 1920s, bound by their wartime experiences and poverty.
2

The Age of Innocence

by Edith Wharton

Also inward-looking and contemplative · romance, narrative

Newland Archer, a young gentleman integrated into the rigid social hierarchy of 1870s New York, prepares for a safe marriage to the conventional May Welland.
3

Jane Eyre

by Charlotte Brontë

Also deep and inward-looking · romance, narrative

Jane Eyre follows the life of an orphaned girl who survives a neglectful upbringing at Gateshead Hall and the harsh conditions of Lowood Institution.
4

The novels of Jane Austen [6 volumes]

by Jane Austen

Also contemplative and thought-provoking · romance, narrative

This six-volume collection contains the complete major fiction of Jane Austen, including Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park, Emma, Northanger Abbey, and Persuasion.
5

Persuasion

by Jane Austen

Also contemplative · romance, narrative

Anne Elliot, the overlooked middle daughter of a vain baronet, lives with the regret of having broken her engagement to Frederick Wentworth eight years earlier.
6

Madonna in a Fur Coat

by Sabahattin Ali

Also inward-looking and contemplative · romance, narrative

In the grey landscape of 1920s Berlin, Raif Efendi, a reserved Turkish clerk, encounters a self-portrait in an art gallery and becomes obsessed with the woman depicted.
7

Desayuno en Tiffany's

by Truman Capote

Also thought-provoking · romance, narrative

Set in wartime Manhattan, the story follows an aspiring writer who becomes fascinated by his neighbor, Holly Golightly.
8

The Price of Salt

by Claire Morgan

Also inward-looking and contemplative · romance, narrative

Therese Belivet is a nineteen-year-old stage designer working a temporary retail job at Frankenberg’s department store in Manhattan.
9

The Price of Salt

by Patricia Highsmith

Also inward-looking and contemplative · romance, narrative

Therese Belivet works as a temporary shop assistant in a Manhattan department store when she meets Carol Aird, an elegant suburban mother purchasing a doll for her daughter.
10

Howards End

by E.M. Forster

Also deep and contemplative · narrative, literary

Set in Edwardian England, the narrative follows three families representing distinct social strata: the intellectual Schlegel sisters, the wealthy business-minded Wilcoxes, and the struggling clerk Leonard Bast.
11

Villette, a novel

by Charlotte Brontë

Also deep and inward-looking · narrative, literary

Lucy Snowe, a young woman without family or financial security, travels to the fictional Belgian city of Villette to become a teacher at a girls’ boarding school.
12

A Fine Balance

by Rohinton Mistry

Also deep and inward-looking · narrative, literary

Set in mid-1970s India during the government-mandated Emergency, the narrative centers on four strangers cohabitating in a cramped apartment to survive economic hardship.

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