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If you loved
Books like Reasons to live
A masterclass in saying everything by saying almost nothing, wrapping profound grief in sharp, brittle wit. These 12 books are the closest matches in mood, pace and themes, with what each one shares with Reasons to live.
- melancholic
- quiet
- intimate
- devastating
- 01
Brief Interviews With Hideous Men
David Foster Wallace · 2001
A dizzying, darkly hilarious plunge into the neurotic, self-justifying minds of profoundly alienated people.
- 02
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.
- 03
Bad behavior
Mary Gaitskill · 1988
A raw, disenchanted plunge into the longing and angst of an urban fringe generation desperate for connection.
- 04
Pastoralia
George Saunders · 2000
A hilarious, heartbreaking funhouse mirror reflecting the soul-crushing absurdities of modern work and life.
- 05
What We Talk About When We Talk About Love
Raymond Carver · 1997
A masterclass in minimalism that finds devastating heartbreak in the quiet, gin-soaked corners of ordinary American lives.
- 06
Enormous Changes at the Last Minute
Grace Paley · 1975
A grounded collection of stories capturing the sudden shifts and everyday customs of 20th-century American life.
- 07
Ten Little Indians
Sherman Alexie
A tragicomic and deeply empathetic exploration of urban lives caught between history and the modern world.
- 08
A manual for cleaning women
Lucia Berlin
A sharp, unsentimental, and deeply empathetic tour through the messy, beautiful lives of working-class women.
- 09
Going to Meet the Man
James Baldwin · 1986
A searing, blues-inflected descent into the beautiful and brutal realities of American life, where survival is an act of desperate artistry.
- 10
Where I'm Calling From
Raymond Carver · 1988
A definitive, career-spanning collection that showcases the unmistakable and widely imitated voice of an American short story master.
- 11
Oblivion
David Foster Wallace · 2004
A dizzying, darkly hilarious plunge into the hyper-articulate and deeply lonely labyrinths of the modern human mind.
- 12
Goodbye, Columbus and five short stories
Philip Roth
A sharp, bittersweet plunge into mid-century American suburbs, where young love collides with class anxiety and cultural assimilation.
