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If you loved
Books like A Little Life
An emotionally annihilating, deeply intimate epic about the enduring scars of trauma and the fierce, sometimes helpless, power of found family. These 12 books are the closest matches in mood, pace and themes, with what each one shares with A Little Life.
- melancholic
- dread-soaked
- tender
- emotionally exhausting
- 01
To Paradise
Hanya Yanagihara
A sweeping, symphonic epic that shatters the illusion of utopia across three centuries of American longing and heartbreak.
- 02
On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous
Ocean Vuong
A devastatingly beautiful, poetic excavation of the tender and violent intersections of love, trauma, and queer identity.
- 03
A Tale for the Time Being
Ruth Ozeki
A deeply moving meditation on time, existence, and the invisible threads that connect us across oceans and generations.
- 04
Call Me by Your Name
André Aciman
A sun-drenched, intoxicating plunge into the agonizing beauty of first love and the haunting power of memory.
- 05
Shuggie Bain
Douglas Stuart
A devastatingly tender portrait of a boy's fierce, unrequited love for his deeply flawed mother amidst a grim, unforgiving world.
- 06
All adults here
Emma Straub
A warm, wry exploration of the messy reality that no one ever really figures out how to be a grown-up.
- 07
My Name is Lucy Barton
Elizabeth Strout
A quiet, deeply intimate exploration of the unbridgeable gaps and enduring tethers between a mother and daughter.
- 08
The Story of a Marriage
Andrew Sean Greer
A lyrical, quietly devastating exploration of the profound mysteries hidden within a seemingly ordinary marriage.
- 09
Young Mungo
Douglas Stuart
A devastatingly tender exploration of queer first love blooming in the cracks of a brutal, hyper-masculine world.
- 10
The Death of Vivek Oji
Akwaeke Emezi
A tender, devastating portrait of a fiercely beautiful spirit blooming in secret, framed by the profound grief of those left behind.
- 11
The Dutch House
Ann Patchett
A sweeping, melancholic meditation on the places we can never return to and the siblings who anchor us when we are cast out.
- 12
Less
Andrew Sean Greer
A sparkling, globe-trotting comedy of errors about outrunning heartbreak and accidentally stumbling into grace.
