Books like

Books like The English Patient

12 books with a reading profile close to The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje. Deep, inward-looking, open-ended and thought-provoking; a moderate read.

1

Leaf Storm and Other Stories

by Gabriel García Márquez

Also deep and open-ended · narrative, classic literature

This collection centers on the titular novella set in the fictional town of Macondo, narrated through the perspectives of a colonel, his daughter, and his grandson.
2

The Marriage Plot

by Jeffrey Eugenides

Also deep and inward-looking · narrative, classic literature

Set in the early 1980s, the story follows three Brown University graduates navigating the transition to adulthood.
3

Howards End

by E.M. Forster

Also deep and thought-provoking · narrative, classic literature

Set in Edwardian England, the narrative follows three families representing distinct social strata: the intellectual Schlegel sisters, the wealthy business-minded Wilcoxes, and the struggling clerk Leonard Bast.
4

On Beauty

by Zadie Smith

Also deep and thought-provoking · narrative, classic literature

The narrative center of the novel is the Belsey family, led by Howard, a white British art historian living in a fictional Massachusetts college town.
5

Villette, a novel

by Charlotte Brontë

Also deep and inward-looking · narrative, classic literature

Lucy Snowe, a young woman without family or financial security, travels to the fictional Belgian city of Villette to become a teacher at a girls’ boarding school.
6

The Winter's Tale

by William Shakespeare

Also deep and open-ended · narrative, classic literature

King Leontes of Sicily falls into a sudden, irrational jealousy, accusing his pregnant wife Hermione of adultery with his childhood friend, King Polixenes.
7

The Sun Also Rises

by Ernest Hemingway

Also deep and inward-looking · narrative, classic literature

Jake Barnes, an American journalist living in Paris, lives with a physical wound from the Great War that leaves him impotent.
8

Tess of the D’Urbervilles

by Thomas Hardy, Margaret R. Higonnet

Also deep and inward-looking · narrative, classic literature

Tess Durbeyfield, a young woman living in the rural English countryside, discovers her family descends from the aristocratic d’Urberville line.
9

A Prayer for Owen Meany

by John Irving

Also deep and inward-looking · narrative, classic literature

John Wheelwright narrates the life of his best friend, Owen Meany, a boy with a high-pitched voice who accidentally kills John’s mother with a foul ball during a Little League game in 1953.
10

The Mill on the Floss

by George Eliot, Rosalyn Landor

Also deep and thought-provoking · narrative, classic literature

Maggie Tulliver grows up at Dorlcote Mill, torn between her intellectual curiosity and the rigid expectations of her provincial Victorian community.
11

The Overcoat

by Nikolai Gogol

Also deep and open-ended · narrative, classic literature

Akaky Akakievich is a low-ranking government clerk in St.
12

Let the Great World Spin

by Colum McCann

Also deep and thought-provoking · narrative, classic literature

Set in New York City during August 1974, the narrative centers on Philippe Petit’s unauthorized tightrope walk between the Twin Towers.

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