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If you loved
Books like A single man
A sharply observed, deeply moving portrait of a single day in the life of a man carrying the invisible weight of profound grief. These 12 books are the closest matches in mood, pace and themes, with what each one shares with A single man.
- sun-bleached
- intimate
- elegiac
- lonely
- 01
The Berlin Stories
Christopher Isherwood
An intimate, autobiographical exploration of queer identity and expatriate life set against the bustling backdrop of historical Berlin.
- 02
Goodbye to Berlin
Christopher Isherwood
A glittering, detached portrait of a bohemian underworld dancing obliviously on the edge of a historical abyss.
- 03
Less
Andrew Sean Greer
A sparkling, globe-trotting comedy of errors about outrunning heartbreak and accidentally stumbling into grace.
- 04
Tod in Venedig
Thomas Mann
A feverish, suffocating descent into obsession set against the decaying splendor of a plague-ridden city.
- 05
The Swimming-Pool Library
Alan Hollinghurst · 1994
An impeccably composed, darkly erotic elegy for a lost era of aristocratic privilege and gay life.
- 06
Giovanni's Room
James Baldwin · 1993
A devastating, beautifully written confession of doomed love and the tragic cost of denying one's own heart.
- 07
The hours
Michael Cunningham · 1998
A luminous, deeply interior meditation on the quiet tragedies and fleeting beauties of a single ordinary day.
- 08
Enduring Love
Ian McEwan · 1997
A chilling, elegantly crafted descent into paranoia that pits scientific rationalism against the terrifying force of obsession.
- 09
Dancer from the Dance
Andrew Holleran
A glittering, tragic love letter to the endless nights and profound loneliness of 1970s queer New York.
- 10
The Bell
Iris Murdoch · 2000
A funny, sad, and deeply psychological exploration of a flawed community searching for salvation.
- 11
The Sea, the Sea
Iris Murdoch · 2004
A plunge into the tempestuous, self-deluded mind of an aging theater director whose obsessive pursuit of a past love spirals into madness.
- 12
Under the Volcano
Malcolm Lowry
A feverish, hallucinatory descent into the mind of a man drinking himself to death under the shadow of looming mountains and impending war.
