Books like The Great Gatsby
12 books with a reading profile close to The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Deep, contemplative and thought-provoking; a moderate read.
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1
A Sportsman's Sketches Vol. I
Also deep and contemplative · narrative, literary
In this 2025 edition from Double 9 Books, an aristocratic narrator travels through the Russian countryside on hunting expeditions, documenting his encounters with various social strata.
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2
Half of a Yellow Sun
Also deep and contemplative · narrative, literary
Set in the 1960s, the narrative centers on the Biafran War through the intersecting lives of five characters.
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3
Brideshead Revisited: The Sacred and Profane Memories of Captain Charles Ryder
by Evelyn Waugh
Also deep and contemplative · narrative, literary
During the mobilization of World War II, Captain Charles Ryder finds himself stationed at Brideshead Castle, the ancestral seat of the Marchmain family.
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4
The Snows of Kilimanjaro and Other Stories
Also deep and contemplative · narrative, literary
Harry, a writer dying of gangrene while on an African safari, lies at the base of Mount Kilimanjaro and catalogues his professional failures.
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5
Leaf Storm and Other Stories
Also deep and contemplative · narrative, literary
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.
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6
Great Gatsby
Also deep and contemplative · narrative, literary
Jay Gatsby spends his life accumulating wealth through criminal channels to reclaim a past romance with Daisy Buchanan.
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7
The Complete Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway
Also deep and contemplative · narrative, literary
This comprehensive collection gathers the full breadth of Hemingway’s short fiction, including the iconic Nick Adams adventures, vignettes from In Our Time, and posthumously published fragments.
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8
White Teeth
by Zadie Smith
Also deep and contemplative · narrative, literary
In post-war North London, two former soldiers, Archie Jones and Samad Iqbal, navigate a cityscape shaped by the aftermath of the British Empire.
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9
The Inheritance of Loss
by Kiran Desai
Also deep and contemplative · narrative, literary
Set in a crumbling house in the Himalayas against the 1980s Gorkhaland insurgency, the narrative follows Biju and Sai.
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10
The Cherry Orchard
Also deep and contemplative · narrative, literary
Madame Lyubov Ranevskaya returns to her family estate in Russia after years of exile in Paris to find her ancestral home facing public auction to pay off debts.
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11
A Prayer for Owen Meany
by John Irving
Also deep and contemplative · narrative, literary
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.
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12
On Beauty
by Zadie Smith
Also deep and contemplative · narrative, literary
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.
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