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If you loved
Books like Pastoralia
A hilarious, heartbreaking funhouse mirror reflecting the soul-crushing absurdities of modern work and life. These 12 books are the closest matches in mood, pace and themes, with what each one shares with Pastoralia.
- surreal
- claustrophobic
- tragicomic
- oddly tender
- 01
Oblivion
David Foster Wallace · 2004
A dizzying, darkly hilarious plunge into the hyper-articulate and deeply lonely labyrinths of the modern human mind.
- 02
CivilWarLand in Bad Decline
George Saunders · 1996
A hilarious, heartbreaking tour through the theme parks of a degraded American future.
- 03
Tenth of December
George Saunders
A surreal, darkly funny, and ultimately tender exploration of the bizarre moral obstacle course of modern life.
- 04
Get in Trouble
Kelly Link
A darkly playful plunge into a world where suburban anxieties and teenage sleepovers collide with ghosts, superheroes, and the uncanny.
- 05
Brief Interviews With Hideous Men
David Foster Wallace · 2001
A dizzying, darkly hilarious plunge into the neurotic, self-justifying minds of profoundly alienated people.
- 06
Bad behavior
Mary Gaitskill · 1988
A raw, disenchanted plunge into the longing and angst of an urban fringe generation desperate for connection.
- 07
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.
- 08
Reasons to live
Amy Hempel · 1985
A masterclass in saying everything by saying almost nothing, wrapping profound grief in sharp, brittle wit.
- 09
Magic for beginners
Kelly Link
A surreal, pop-culture-infused fever dream where the mundane and the magical bleed seamlessly into one another.
- 10
Knockemstiff
Donald Ray Pollock
A visceral, unapologetic descent into the dirt and blood of a forgotten American town, laced with pitch-black humor.
- 11
The Birthday of the World
Ursula K. Le Guin
A quiet, anthropological exploration of alien societies that ultimately holds a mirror up to the complexities of our own humanity.
- 12
The Bazaar of Bad Dreams
Stephen King
A fireside chat with a master of horror who wants to tell you a few unsettling secrets about life, death, and the dark corners of the human mind.
