Books like

Books like The Savage Detectives

12 books with a reading profile close to The Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolaño. Deep, open-ended and thought-provoking; a demanding read.

1

Watchmen #1: At Midnight, All The Agents…

by Alan Moore

Also deep and open-ended · dense, narrative

Watchmen's first issue opens in 1985, in an alternate America where costumed heroes exist, Richard Nixon is still president, and nuclear war with the Soviet Union seems near.
2

NW

by Zadie Smith

Also deep and open-ended · dense, narrative

NW focuses on four Londoners—Leah, Natalie, Felix, and Nathan—who grew up in the Caldwell council estate in the NW6 postcode.
3

4 3 2 1

by Paul Auster

Also deep and open-ended · dense, narrative

Archie Ferguson is born in Newark in 1947, the son of a Jewish furniture-store owner.
4

Girl, Woman, Other

by Bernardine Evaristo

Also deep and thought-provoking · dense, narrative

This collective narrative tracks the interconnected lives of twelve characters, mostly Black British women, spanning different generations, social classes, and gender identities.
5

Milkman

by Anna Burns

Also deep and open-ended · dense, literary

Middle sister lives in an unnamed city under the shadow of paramilitary violence and state surveillance, reminiscent of the Troubles in Northern Ireland.
6

How to be Both

by Ali Smith

Also deep and open-ended · dense, literary

This novel connects two distinct eras through a dual-narrative structure that can be read in either order.
7

To Paradise

by Hanya Yanagihara

Also deep and open-ended · dense, literary

This novel follows three distinct narratives set in a reimagined New York City across different centuries.
8

Lanny

by Max Porter

Also deep and open-ended · narrative, literary

Lanny lives in an English village where his unusual sensitivity draws the attention of Dead Papa Toothwort, an ancient, mythical presence woven into the land.
9

Number9Dream

by David Mitchell

Also deep and open-ended · dense, literary

Nineteen-year-old Eiji Miyake travels from rural Yakushima to the neon-drenched cityscape of Tokyo to find the father he has never met.
10

Ghostwritten

by David Mitchell

Also deep and open-ended · dense, literary

David Mitchell’s debut novel connects nine disparate characters across the globe through a series of interlocking narratives.
11

The People in the Trees

by Hanya Yanagihara

Also deep and open-ended · dense, narrative

Norton Perina, an ambitious young immunologist, travels to the remote Micronesian island of Ivu'ivu in 1950 to investigate a lost tribe.
12

Killing Commendatore

by Haruki Murakami

Also deep and open-ended · narrative, literary

A portrait painter in Tokyo is left by his wife and drives around Japan before settling into the mountain house of the famous painter Tomohiko Amada, now in a care home.

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