swap_horiz Philip Roth Alternatives

1

Cormac McCarthy

American novelist celebrated for his bleak, violent themes and his Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Road.

American 20TH Century Dark Literary

9.1 Excellent

2

Ralph Ellison

American writer whose sole published novel during his lifetime, *Invisible Man* (1952), won the National Book Award and...

African American American 20TH Century Literary

9.0 Excellent

3

James Baldwin

American novelist and essayist whose works, including *Go Tell It on the Mountain* (1953), profoundly explored racial, c...

African American American 20TH Century Literary

9.0 Excellent

4

Zora Neale Hurston

American author and anthropologist who was a central figure of the Harlem Renaissance, best known for her 1937 novel *Th...

African American American 20TH Century Literary

8.5 Great

5

Maya Angelou

American memoirist, poet, and civil rights activist best known for her 1969 autobiography *I Know Why the Caged Bird Sin...

African American American 20TH Century Literary

8.5 Great

6

Richard Wright

American author whose landmark 1940 novel *Native Son* and memoir *Black Boy* profoundly impacted discussions of race an...

African American American 20TH Century Literary

8.4 Great

7

Saul Bellow

Canadian-American novelist (1915–2005) and Nobel laureate (1976) whose urban, intellectually expansive novels, including...

American 20TH Century Literary Nobel

8.3 Great

8

Truman Capote

American novelist celebrated for the novella *Breakfast at Tiffany's* and his groundbreaking 1966 true crime novel *In C...

American 20TH Century True Crime Literary

8.3 Great

9

Colson Whitehead

American novelist who won consecutive Pulitzer Prizes for Fiction in 2017 and 2020 for his historical novels *The Underg...

African American American Contemporary Literary

8.2 Great

10

Willa Cather

American author celebrated for her novels depicting frontier life on the Great Plains, including the 1918 classic *My Án...

American 20TH Century Literary Pulitzer

8.1 Great

11

Donna Tartt

American novelist recognized for her dense, richly textured literary fiction, winning the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for *The G...

American Contemporary Dark Literary

8.1 Great

12

Don DeLillo

American novelist born 1936 whose postmodern works including 'White Noise' (1985, National Book Award) and 'Underworld'...

American Contemporary Cultural 20TH Century

8.0 Great

13

Carson McCullers

American novelist celebrated for her Southern Gothic literature, notably her 1940 debut *The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter*,...

American 20TH Century Dark Literary

8.0 Great

14

Jeffrey Eugenides

American fiction writer who won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2003 for his acclaimed epic novel *Middlesex*.

American Contemporary Psychological Literary

8.0 Great

15

Ian McEwan

British novelist celebrated for his psychological depth, notably in the Booker Prize-winning World War II novel Atonemen...

Contemporary Psychological 20TH Century British

7.9 Good

16

Michael Chabon

American novelist known for his elegant prose, winning the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for his ambitious novel *The...

American Contemporary Literary Pulitzer

7.9 Good

17

John Updike

American novelist (1932–2009) whose 'Rabbit' tetralogy, following protagonist Harry Angstrom from 1960 to 1990, earned h...

Realism American 20TH Century Literary

7.8 Good

18

Jonathan Franzen

American novelist and essayist celebrated for his sprawling, socially conscious contemporary fiction, most notably the 2...

Realism American Contemporary Social

7.8 Good

19

Paul Auster

American author famous for his existential, postmodern detective fiction, notably his 1987 *The New York Trilogy*.

American Contemporary Psychological Literary

7.8 Good

20

Norman Mailer

American novelist and journalist who pioneered New Journalism and won Pulitzer Prizes for *The Armies of the Night* and...

American Controversial 20TH Century Literary

7.5 Good