If you loved
Books like Mitko
A hypnotic, exquisitely written descent into the labyrinth of transactional desire and the inescapable ghosts of the past. These 12 books are the closest matches in mood, pace and themes, with what each one shares with Mitko.
- claustrophobic
- erotic
- haunting
- somber
- 01
Less
Andrew Sean Greer
A sparkling, globe-trotting comedy of errors about outrunning heartbreak and accidentally stumbling into grace.
- 02
Closer
Dennis Cooper
A dark, unflinching exploration of obsessive desire and the destructive search for meaning in the hollows of middle America.
- 03
Find Me
André Aciman
A lush, melancholic meditation on the passage of time and the enduring echoes of past loves across European landscapes.
- 04
Real life
Brandon Taylor
A quiet, devastating dissection of intimacy, alienation, and the suffocating weight of unspoken pain over a single, humid weekend.
- 05
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.
- 06
Swimming in the Dark
Tomasz Jedrowski
A devastatingly beautiful, sun-drenched memory of first love colliding with the gray reality of an oppressive regime.
- 07
Young Mungo
Douglas Stuart
A devastatingly tender exploration of queer first love blooming in the cracks of a brutal, hyper-masculine world.
- 08
You are not a stranger here
Adam Haslett
An intimate, heavy collection of stories that peers unflinchingly into the shadowed corners of mental illness and human connection.
- 09
The Swimming-Pool Library
Alan Hollinghurst · 1994
An impeccably composed, darkly erotic elegy for a lost era of aristocratic privilege and gay life.
- 10
Giovanni's Room
James Baldwin · 1993
A devastating, beautifully written confession of doomed love and the tragic cost of denying one's own heart.
- 11
Open Water
Caleb Azumah Nelson
A hypnotic, second-person plunge into the tender, terrifying depths of falling in love while navigating a world that refuses to see your humanity.
- 12
No One Belongs Here More Than You
Miranda July
A tender, delightfully weird exploration of lonely people fumbling toward connection in the most unexpected ways.
