Books like

Books like Hopscotch

12 books with a reading profile close to Hopscotch by Julio Cortázar. Deep, contemplative, open-ended and thought-provoking; a demanding read.

  1. 1 2666

    2666

    by Roberto Bolaño

    Also deep and contemplative · dense, literary

    The narrative follows five interconnected parts, beginning with four European academics tracking the reclusive German novelist Benno von Archimboldi.

  2. 2 Journey to the End of the Night

    Journey to the End of the Night

    by Louis-Ferdinand Céline

    Also deep and contemplative · dense, literary

    Ferdinand Bardamu, a cynical and nihilistic protagonist, begins his odyssey in the trenches of World War I, where he observes the senseless brutality of mechanized slaughter.

  3. 3 The Satanic Verses

    The Satanic Verses

    by Salman Rushdie

    Also deep and contemplative · dense, literary

    Two Indian expatriates, Gibreel Farishta and Saladin Chamcha, survive a mid-air plane explosion over the English Channel and undergo startling physical transformations.

  4. 4 Pale Fire

    Pale Fire

    by Vladimir Nabokov

    Also deep and contemplative · dense, literary

    Vladimir Nabokov’s 1962 novel is structured as a 999-line poem titled "Pale Fire," written by the fictional American poet John Shade, followed by a lengthy line-by-line commentary.

  5. 5 Midnight’s Children

    Midnight’s Children

    by Salman Rushdie

    Also deep and contemplative · dense, literary

    Saleem Sinai is born at the exact stroke of midnight on August 15, 1947, linking his life to the birth of independent India.

  6. 6 The Waste Land

    The Waste Land

    by T.S. Eliot

    Also deep and contemplative · dense, literary

    The Waste Land presents a fragmented vision of Europe following the First World War, utilizing a collage of classical mythology, religious texts, and urban vignettes.

  7. 7 The Waste Land and Other Poems

    The Waste Land and Other Poems

    by T.S. Eliot

    Also deep and open-ended · dense, literary

    Published in the wake of the First World War, this collection centers on the psychological and cultural fragmentation of Western society.

  8. 8 Pedro Páramo

    Pedro Páramo

    by Juan Rulfo

    Also deep and contemplative · dense, literary

    Juan Preciado travels to Comala to fulfill a deathbed promise to his mother: find his father, the ruthless cacique Pedro Páramo.

  9. 9 Absalom, Absalom!

    Absalom, Absalom!

    by William Faulkner

    Also deep and contemplative · dense, literary

    Thomas Sutpen arrives in Mississippi in 1833 with a group of enslaved people and a plan to create a vast plantation called Sutpen’s Hundred.

  10. 10 Ulysses

    Ulysses

    by James Joyce

    Also deep and contemplative · dense, literary

    Set in Dublin on June 16, 1904, the narrative follows Leopold Bloom, an ordinary Jewish advertisement canvasser, as he moves through the city’s streets, pubs, and cemeteries.

  11. 11 Blood Meridian, or, the Evening Redness in the West

    Blood Meridian, or, the Evening Redness in the West

    by Cormac McCarthy

    Also deep and open-ended · dense, literary

    The story follows a nameless teenager known only as the kid, a runaway from Tennessee who joins the Glanton gang along the Texas-Mexico borderlands in the late 1840s.

  12. 12 The Tin Drum

    The Tin Drum

    by Günter Grass

    Also deep and open-ended · dense, literary

    Oskar Matzerath, an inmate in a mental institution, narrates his life through his toy tin drum.

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