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If you loved
Books like Earthly Powers
A sprawling, cynical, and fiercely intelligent romp through the moral and historical wreckage of the twentieth century. These 12 books are the closest matches in mood, pace and themes, with what each one shares with Earthly Powers.
- grandiose
- decadent
- intellectual
- shadowed
- 01
The Swimming-Pool Library
Alan Hollinghurst · 1994
An impeccably composed, darkly erotic elegy for a lost era of aristocratic privilege and gay life.
- 02
The Bell
Iris Murdoch · 2000
A funny, sad, and deeply psychological exploration of a flawed community searching for salvation.
- 03
Cities of the Red Night
William S. Burroughs · 1982
A fever dream of time-traveling pirates, hardboiled detectives, and ancient plagues that dismantles reality itself.
- 04
A history of the world in 10 1/2 chapters
Julian Barnes
An unsettling yet exhilarating literary journey that sweeps from the ancient floods to the gates of heaven.
- 05
Interzone
William S. Burroughs
A startling, fragmented descent into a 1950s expatriate's psyche, fueled by dark humor and raw compulsion.
- 06
Small World
David Lodge · 1984
A globe-trotting, laugh-out-loud farce that skewers the egos and libidos of the academic elite.
- 07
The hours
Michael Cunningham · 1998
A luminous, deeply interior meditation on the quiet tragedies and fleeting beauties of a single ordinary day.
- 08
The Uncommon Reader
Alan Bennett · 2007
A witty, warm-hearted love letter to the subversive and life-changing magic of books.
- 09
Orlando
Virginia Woolf
A lush, time-bending romp that playfully dismantles the boundaries of gender, history, and the self.
- 10
City of Night
John Rechy
An unflinching, neon-lit journey through the gritty margins of mid-century America, pulsing with restless energy and the search for self.
- 11
Larry's Party
Carol Shields · 1997
An elegant, tender, and witty exploration of an ordinary man's quiet search for self across the shifting decades of the late twentieth century.
- 12
Money
Martin Amis · 1984
A manic, filthy, and hilariously grotesque joyride through the neon-lit excesses of the 1980s.
