Books › The Line of Beauty › Books like it
If you loved
Books like The Line of Beauty
A glittering, devastating plunge into the intoxicating excess and quiet tragedies of 1980s London high society. These 12 books are the closest matches in mood, pace and themes, with what each one shares with The Line of Beauty.
- glittering
- opulent
- melancholic
- seductive
- doomed
- 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
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.
- 03
Young Mungo
Douglas Stuart
A devastatingly tender exploration of queer first love blooming in the cracks of a brutal, hyper-masculine world.
- 04
The Remains of the Day
Kazuo Ishiguro · 1994
A masterclass in what is left unsaid, where a lifetime of perfect duty masks a quietly devastating tragedy of unlived love.
- 05
About a Boy
Nick Hornby · 2002
A sharp, funny, and surprisingly tender exploration of growing up, whether you are twelve or thirty-six.
- 06
The paying guests
Sarah Waters
A masterclass in simmering tension where a quiet domestic drama slowly tightens into a suffocating knot of passion and dread.
- 07
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.
- 08
Enduring Love
Ian McEwan · 1997
A chilling, elegantly crafted descent into paranoia that pits scientific rationalism against the terrifying force of obsession.
- 09
The History Boys
Alan Bennett
A brisk, intellectually charged theatrical experience that wrestles with the anarchy of youth and the true purpose of education.
- 10
The Story of a Marriage
Andrew Sean Greer
A lyrical, quietly devastating exploration of the profound mysteries hidden within a seemingly ordinary marriage.
- 11
Closer
Dennis Cooper
A dark, unflinching exploration of obsessive desire and the destructive search for meaning in the hollows of middle America.
- 12
Girl, Woman, Other
Bernardine Evaristo
A vibrant, free-flowing chorus of voices that weaves a rich, interconnected tapestry of modern and historical identity.
