If you liked
Books like Beautiful World, Where Are You
by Sally Rooney
Beautiful World, Where Are You is Sally Rooney's third novel, four thirty-somethings emailing about the state of the world while their love lives quietly fall apart. Talky, self-aware, and more searching than her earlier books. If you want more smart fiction about young people and intimacy, these are the reads.
The shortlist
What to read next
Normal Peopleby Sally Rooney
“Normal People by Sally Rooney 2018 review. Connell and Marianne grow up in the same small Sligo town, attend Trinity College Dublin together, and orbit each other across four years of intermittent intimacy. The literary-fiction novel that defined the Rooney moment.”
Conversations with Friendsby Sally Rooney
“Conversations with Friends by Sally Rooney 2017 review. Two Dublin college students become entangled with an older married couple. Rooney's debut and the structural predecessor to Normal People.”
Intermezzoby Sally Rooney
“Intermezzo by Sally Rooney 2024 review. Two Dublin brothers - a lawyer and a chess player - navigate grief and romance after their father's death. Rooney's fourth novel and her structurally most ambitious yet.”
My Brilliant Friendby Elena Ferrante
“My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante 2012 review. Two girls grow up in a poor neighborhood of 1950s Naples. The first Neapolitan Novel and one of the canonical contemporary European literary novels.”
A Little Lifeby Hanya Yanagihara
“A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara 2015 review. Four college friends in New York, slowly narrowing onto Jude St. Francis and what childhood trauma does to the rest of an adult life. Man Booker Prize shortlist and the most-discussed contemporary American doorstop.”
Olive Kitteridgeby Elizabeth Strout
“Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout 2008 review. A retired Maine math teacher across thirteen interlinked stories. Pulitzer Prize 2009 and canonical contemporary American interconnected-novels project.”
FAQ
Common questions about Beautiful World, Where Are You read-alikes
- Which Rooney should I read next?
- Normal People, if you have not. It is the tightest, most devastating version of what she does, and the show made it a phenomenon. Conversations with Friends and Intermezzo round out her catalog and share the same voice.
- What is the closest match outside Rooney?
- My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante. It shares the intense, ambivalent friendships and the sense that relationships are the real plot. Ferrante is warmer and more sweeping, but the DNA is clearly shared.
- I want the emotional depth pushed to the limit.
- A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara follows friends from college into adulthood and takes the pain much further than Rooney does. Brace yourself, but it is the deep end of that pool.
- I want quiet, precise fiction about ordinary lives.
- Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout builds a whole life from small, exact moments and won the Pulitzer for it. Less online than Rooney, but it shares the belief that nothing dramatic needs to happen for a book to land hard.
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