swap_horiz Sula Alternatives

1

Absalom, Absalom!

William Faulkner’s *Absalom, Absalom!* explores the ambitious, ultimately tragic story of Thomas Sutpen’s attempt to bui...

Classic American 20TH Century Southern

9.4 Excellent

2

The Magic Mountain

Thomas Mann’s *The Magic Mountain* explores themes of mortality, knowledge, and societal change through the story of Han...

German Philosophical Modernist 20TH Century

9.2 Excellent

3

Light in August

William Faulkner’s *Light in August* explores complex themes within rural Mississippi during the 1930s. The novel examin...

Classic American 20TH Century Southern

9.1 Excellent

4

Life and Fate

Vasily Grossman’s *Life and Fate* chronicles the devastating events surrounding the Battle of Stalingrad during World Wa...

Russian 20TH Century Historical War

9.1 Excellent

5

Pedro Páramo

Juan Rulfo’s *Pedro Páramo* presents a haunting narrative set in Comala, Mexico. The novel explores themes of memory, gu...

Classic 20TH Century Magical Realism Mexican

9.0 Excellent

6

A House for Mr Biswas

V.S. Naipaul’s *A House for Mr Biswas* chronicles the struggles of Rampersad Biswas, an Indo-Trinidadian immigrant, as h...

Family 20TH Century Postcolonial Trinidadian

8.8 Great

7

Buddenbrooks

Thomas Mann’s *Buddenbrooks* chronicles the decline of a prosperous Lübeck merchant family over seven decades. This sign...

German Family 20TH Century Realist

8.7 Great

8

Infinite Jest

David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest is a complex American novel exploring themes of entertainment, addiction, and commu...

American Satire Experimental Postmodern

8.7 Great

9

Suttree

Suttree is Cormac McCarthy's 1979 novel set in Knoxville, Tennessee, following Cornelius Suttree among riverfront outcas...

American 20TH Century Literary Southern

8.6 Great

10

A Fine Balance

A Fine Balance is Rohinton Mistry's 1995 novel set in India during the 1975-77 Emergency, following four lives in Bombay...

Indian 20TH Century Historical Literary

8.6 Great

11

The House of Mirth

The House of Mirth is Edith Wharton's 1905 American novel about Lily Bart, a sharp critique of wealth and marriage in Ne...

Classic American Wharton 20TH Century

8.5 Great

12

Passing

Nella Larsen’s *Passing* explores the complexities of racial identity within the context of the Harlem Renaissance. The...

Classic American Race Harlem Renaissance

8.5 Great

13

Go Tell It on the Mountain

Go Tell It on the Mountain is James Baldwin's 1953 debut novel, drawing on Harlem Pentecostal life and a teenage boy's a...

Classic American 20TH Century Race

8.4 Great

14

Giovanni's Room

Giovanni's Room is James Baldwin's 1956 novel set in Paris, a major early American treatment of gay male desire and exil...

Classic American 20TH Century Lgbtq+

8.4 Great

15

Housekeeping

Housekeeping is Marilynne Robinson's 1980 debut novel, set in fictional Fingerbone, Idaho, and later a Pulitzer Prize fi...

American Family 20TH Century Literary

8.4 Great

16

Tender Is the Night

Tender Is the Night is Francis Scott Fitzgerald's 1934 novel, set largely on the French Riviera and tracing the decline...

Classic American Modernist 20TH Century

8.3 Great

17

Angle of Repose

Angle of Repose is Wallace Stegner's 1971 novel of the American West, winner of the 1972 Pulitzer Prize, framed by histo...

American 20TH Century Historical Western

8.3 Great

18

Sister Carrie

Sister Carrie is Theodore Dreiser's 1900 American novel, a key work of naturalism centered on ambition, desire, and city...

Classic American Naturalist 20TH Century

8.2 Great

19

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow is a 2022 novel by Gabrielle Zevin about video game designers, noted for its focus...

Gaming American Literary Friendship

7.8 Good

20

A Mercy

A Mercy is Toni Morrison's 2008 novel set in late 17th-century colonial America, examining slavery, race, and dependence...

American 21ST Century Historical Colonial

7.7 Good