Books like

Books like Sweet Bean Paste

12 books with a reading profile close to Sweet Bean Paste by Durian Sukegawa. Inward-looking, contemplative and thought-provoking; an easy read.

1

Daytripper

by Fábio Moon

Also inward-looking and contemplative · philosophy, narrative

Brás de Oliva Domingos writes obituaries for a Brazilian newspaper while living in the shadow of his famous novelist father.
2

Women Talking

by Miriam Toews

Also inward-looking and contemplative · philosophy, narrative

Based on real events in the Manitoba Colony in Bolivia, this novel centers on eight Mennonite women meeting secretly in a hayloft.
3

The Elegance of the Hedgehog

by Muriel Barbery

Also inward-looking and contemplative · philosophy, narrative

Set in a luxury Parisian apartment building, the story follows Renée Michel, a fifty-four-year-old concierge who hides her deep knowledge of Kant, Tolstoy, and art behind a facade of working-class dullness.
4

The Dharma Bums

by Jack Kerouac

Also inward-looking · philosophy, narrative

Ray Smith, a fictionalized version of Kerouac, navigates the contrast between urban jazz parties and the solitude of the Sierra Nevada mountains.
5

The Zahir

by Paulo Coelho

Also inward-looking · philosophy, narrative

Esther, a war correspondent, is married to a celebrated novelist, the narrator, who is living comfortably in Paris.
6

The Book of Form and Emptiness

by Ruth Ozeki

Also inward-looking and contemplative · philosophy, narrative

Following the sudden death of his father, fourteen-year-old Benny Oh begins to hear the voices of inanimate objects.
7

The Witch of Portobello

by Paulo Coelho

Also inward-looking · philosophy, narrative

Athena is a woman born in Romania to a Roma mother, adopted as a baby by a Lebanese couple, and raised partly in Beirut and later in London.
8

Desert Solitaire

by Edward Abbey

Also contemplative · philosophy, narrative

Edward Abbey recounts his seasons as a seasonal ranger at Arches National Monument in the late 1950s.
9

If Cats Disappeared from the World

by Genki Kawamura

Also inward-looking and contemplative · philosophy, narrative

A terminally ill postman receives a visit from the devil, who offers him one extra day of life for every category of item he agrees to erase from existence.
10

Three Daughters of Eve

by Elif Shafak

Also thought-provoking · philosophy, narrative

Peri is an Istanbul housewife in her thirties, married with a child, who is at a dinner party when a mugger takes her bag and she chases him.
11

The Children Act

by Ian McEwan

Also inward-looking and thought-provoking · philosophy, narrative

High Court judge Fiona Maye presides over the Family Division in London, where she adjudicates cases involving medical ethics and religious freedom.
12

The Housekeeper and the Professor

by Yōko Ogawa

Also inward-looking and contemplative · narrative, literary

Mathematics serves as the primary language in this story about a professor whose short-term memory lasts only eighty minutes following a traumatic brain injury.

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