Books like

Books like Number9Dream

12 books with a reading profile close to Number9Dream by David Mitchell. Deep, open-ended and thought-provoking; a moderate read.

1

How to be Both

by Ali Smith

Also deep and open-ended · dense, literary

This novel connects two distinct eras through a dual-narrative structure that can be read in either order.
2

Ghostwritten

by David Mitchell

Also deep and open-ended · dense, literary

David Mitchell’s debut novel connects nine disparate characters across the globe through a series of interlocking narratives.
3

Milkman

by Anna Burns

Also deep and open-ended · dense, literary

Middle sister lives in an unnamed city under the shadow of paramilitary violence and state surveillance, reminiscent of the Troubles in Northern Ireland.
4

To Paradise

by Hanya Yanagihara

Also deep and open-ended · dense, literary

This novel follows three distinct narratives set in a reimagined New York City across different centuries.
5

NW

by Zadie Smith

Also deep and open-ended · dense, literary

NW focuses on four Londoners—Leah, Natalie, Felix, and Nathan—who grew up in the Caldwell council estate in the NW6 postcode.
6

The Magus

by John Fowles

Also deep and open-ended · dense, literary

Nicholas Urfe, a restless British schoolteacher, takes a job on the remote Greek island of Phraxos to escape a stagnant life in London.
7

The Book of Laughter and Forgetting

by Milan Kundera

Also deep and open-ended · dense, literary

Milan Kundera's novel is composed of seven parts which are linked by themes of memory, forgetting and the exercise of power.
8

Pedro Páramo

by Juan Rulfo

Also deep and open-ended · dense, literary

Juan Preciado travels to Comala to fulfill a deathbed promise to his mother: find his father, the ruthless cacique Pedro Páramo.
9

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.
10

The Savage Detectives

by Roberto Bolaño

Also deep and open-ended · dense, literary

The story begins in 1970s Mexico City through the diary of Juan García Madero, a law student drawn into a circle of radical poets known as the visceral realists.
11

A Brief History of Seven Killings

by Marlon James

Also deep and open-ended · dense, literary

In December 1976, seven gunmen stormed Bob Marley’s residence in Kingston, Jamaica, an event that serves as the pivot for this narrative spanning three decades.
12

4 3 2 1

by Paul Auster

Also deep and open-ended · dense, literary

Archie Ferguson is born in Newark in 1947, the son of a Jewish furniture-store owner.

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