Books like

Books like The Grapes of Wrath

12 books with a reading profile close to The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck. Deep, contemplative and thought-provoking; a moderate read.

1

Every Man Dies Alone

by Hans Fallada

Also thought-provoking · history, narrative

Otto and Anna Quangel are ordinary Berliners who, after their son's death in the war, start leaving postcards that criticize Hitler in stairwells and offices.
2

Suite française

by Irène Némirovsky

Also deep and thought-provoking · history, narrative

Set in 1940 during the German invasion of France, the narrative follows a chaotic exodus from Paris as civilians flee an oncoming army.
3

Germinal

by Émile Zola

Also deep and thought-provoking · history, narrative

Set in a coal-mining settlement in northern France during the 1860s, the narrative follows Etienne Lantier, an unemployed railway worker who secures a job at the Voreux pit.
4

For Whom the Bell Tolls

by Ernest Hemingway

Also deep and thought-provoking · history, narrative

Robert Jordan, an American language instructor, joins an International Brigade in the Spanish Civil War to fight against Francisco Franco’s fascist forces.
5

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich

by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Also deep and contemplative · history, narrative

Set in a 1950s Soviet labor camp, the novel tracks Ivan Denisovich Shukhov through a single winter day of his ten-year sentence.
6

Les Misérables

by Victor Hugo

Also deep and contemplative · history, narrative

Jean Valjean exits a French prison after nineteen years of hard labor, a sentence triggered by stealing bread for his family.
7

Uncle Tom’s Cabin

by Harriet Beecher Stowe

Also thought-provoking · history, narrative

The narrative follows the parallel trajectories of Uncle Tom, a devout Christian man sold away from his family in Kentucky, and Eliza, an enslaved mother who escapes across the Ohio River to save her son from the same f…
8

The Leopard

by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa

Also deep and contemplative · history, narrative

Set in nineteenth-century Sicily during the Risorgimento, the narrative follows Don Fabrizio Corbera, the Prince of Salina, as he witnesses the collapse of the Bourbon monarchy and the rise of a unified Italian state.
9

Small Island

by Andrea Levy

history, narrative

In 1948, Hortense Roberts arrives in London from Jamaica to join her husband, Gilbert Joseph, who fought for Britain in the war.
10

Cry, the Beloved Country

by Alan Paton

Also deep and contemplative · history, narrative

Stephen Kumalo, a Zulu pastor from the rural village of Ndotsheni, travels to Johannesburg to find his sister and his missing son, Absalom.
11

A Tale of Two Cities

by Charles Dickens

Also deep and contemplative · history, narrative

Set against the violent backdrop of the French Revolution, the narrative follows physician Alexandre Manette, his daughter Lucie, and the two men who love her: Charles Darnay and Sydney Carton.
12

The Garden of Evening Mists

by Tan Twan Eng

Also deep and contemplative · history, narrative

Set in the aftermath of the Japanese occupation of Malaya, the narrative follows Teoh Yun Ling, a survivor of a brutal prisoner-of-war camp.

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