Books like

Books like Silence

12 books with a reading profile close to Silence by Shūsaku Endō. Deep, inward-looking, contemplative and thought-provoking; a moderate read.

  1. 1 East of Eden

    East of Eden

    by John Steinbeck

    Also deep and inward-looking · philosophy, narrative

    Set in the Salinas Valley between the Civil War and World War I, the narrative tracks the interconnected fates of the Trask and Hamilton families.

  2. 2 Narcissus and Goldmund

    Narcissus and Goldmund

    by Hermann Hesse

    Also deep and inward-looking · philosophy, narrative

    Set in medieval Germany, the novel follows two antithetical men who begin as student and teacher at Mariabronn monastery.

  3. 3 Invisible Man

    Invisible Man

    by Ralph Ellison

    Also deep and inward-looking · philosophy, narrative

    An unnamed Narrator chronicles his descent from a hopeful Southern student to a disillusioned resident of a basement apartment in Harlem.

  4. 4 The Plague

    The Plague

    by Albert Camus

    Also deep and contemplative · philosophy, narrative

    Set in the coastal city of Oran, the narrative begins when rats emerge from the shadows to die in the streets, signaling an outbreak of bubonic plague.

  5. 5 The Great Divorce

    The Great Divorce

    by C.S. Lewis

    Also deep and inward-looking · philosophy, narrative

    A narrator boards a flying bus in a grey, rainy city and travels to the foothills of Heaven.

  6. 6 Zorba the Greek

    Zorba the Greek

    by Nikos Kazantzakis

    Also deep and inward-looking · philosophy, narrative

    Set in rural Crete, the narrative follows an unnamed intellectual who attempts to reopen a lignite mine while escaping his bookish existence.

  7. 7 Wise Blood

    Wise Blood

    by Flannery O'Connor

    Also deep and thought-provoking · philosophy, narrative

    Hazel Motes returns from war to a rural Tennessee landscape and establishes the Church Without Christ.

  8. 8 Peter Camenzind

    Peter Camenzind

    by Hermann Hesse

    Also inward-looking and contemplative · philosophy, narrative

    The story follows Peter Camenzind, a boy born into a secluded Swiss mountain village who leaves his rural environment to pursue an intellectual life in Zurich.

  9. 9 The Bridge of San Luis Rey

    The Bridge of San Luis Rey

    by Thornton Wilder

    Also deep and contemplative · philosophy, narrative

    In 1714, a rope bridge in Peru collapses, sending five travelers to their deaths in the chasm below.

  10. 10 The Picture of Dorian Gray Illustrated

    The Picture of Dorian Gray Illustrated

    by Oscar Wilde

    Also deep and contemplative · philosophy, narrative

    In Victorian London, the young Dorian Gray sits for a portrait by artist Basil Hallward, who captures the youth's extraordinary beauty on canvas.

  11. 11 Lord of the Flies

    Lord of the Flies

    by William Golding

    Also deep and contemplative · philosophy, narrative

    During a nuclear conflict, a plane crash leaves a group of British schoolboys stranded on an uninhabited tropical island without adult supervision.

  12. 12 The Baron in the Trees

    The Baron in the Trees

    by Italo Calvino

    Also deep and contemplative · philosophy, narrative

    In 1767, twelve-year-old Cosimo Piovasco di Rondò, a young nobleman in Liguria, climbs a tree after a quarrel at dinner, and vows never to come down.

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