Books like

Books like Franny and Zooey

12 books with a reading profile close to Franny and Zooey by J.D. Salinger. Deep, inward-looking, contemplative and thought-provoking; a moderate read.

  1. 1 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.

  2. 2 The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter

    The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter

    by Carson McCullers

    Also deep and inward-looking · narrative, psychology

    Set in a 1930s Georgia mill town, the narrative centers on John Singer, a deaf-mute man who becomes the silent confidant for four disparate neighbors.

  3. 3 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.

  4. 4 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.

  5. 5 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.

  6. 6 Sophie’s Choice

    Sophie’s Choice

    by William Styron

    Also deep and inward-looking · narrative, psychology

    In 1947 Brooklyn, a young aspiring writer named Stingo moves into a boarding house and becomes entangled in the volatile relationship between Sophie Zawistowska, a Polish Catholic survivor of Auschwitz, and Nathan Landa…

  7. 7 A Separate Peace

    A Separate Peace

    by John Knowles

    Also deep and inward-looking · narrative, psychology

    Set against the backdrop of World War II at the Devon School, the story follows Gene Forrester, an intellectual student, and his charismatic roommate Phineas.

  8. 8 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.

  9. 9 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.

  10. 10 Chess Story

    Chess Story

    by Stefan Zweig, Peter Gay

    Also deep and inward-looking · narrative, psychology

    Set on a passenger liner traveling from New York to Buenos Aires, the narrative centers on an unlikely encounter between Mirko Czentovic, the arrogant world chess champion, and a mysterious passenger known as Dr.

  11. 11 No Longer Human

    No Longer Human

    by Osamu Dazai

    Also deep and inward-looking · narrative, psychology

    The narrative follows Yozo Oba, a young man who feels physically and mentally alienated from the human race.

  12. 12 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.

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