Books like

Books like The Leopard

12 books with a reading profile close to The Leopard by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa. Deep, contemplative and thought-provoking; a moderate read.

1

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.
2

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.
3

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.
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

The Grapes of Wrath

by John Steinbeck

Also deep and contemplative · history, narrative

In 1930s America, a severe drought and aggressive agricultural mechanization force the Joad family off their Oklahoma farm.
6

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.
7

Birdsong

by Sebastian Faulks

Also deep and thought-provoking · history, narrative

Stephen Wraysford begins the novel as a young Englishman living in Amiens, where he conducts a forbidden affair with Isabelle Azaire, his host’s wife.
8

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.
9

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.
10

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.
11

The Poisonwood Bible

by Barbara Kingsolver

Also deep and contemplative · history, narrative

Nathan Price, a rigid evangelical Baptist, moves his wife Orleanna and their four daughters from Georgia to the Belgian Congo in 1959.
12

Howards End

by E.M. Forster

Also deep and contemplative · narrative, literary

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.

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