If you liked
Books like The Glass Hotel
by Emily St. John Mandel
The Glass Hotel is Emily St. John Mandel's slippery novel about a Ponzi scheme, a vanished woman and a remote island hotel, all connected by money and guilt. It reads like a ghost story about capitalism. If you want more elegant, interlinked literary fiction, these are the reads.
The shortlist
What to read next
Station Elevenby Emily St. John Mandel
“Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel 2014 review. A roving theatre troupe performs Shakespeare in the Great Lakes twenty years after a pandemic. National Book Award finalist 2014 and the canonical contemporary post-apocalyptic literary novel.”
Sea of Tranquilityby Emily St. John Mandel
“Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel 2022 review. Four characters across four centuries are connected by the same anomalous moment. Mandel's third in the post-Station-Eleven sequence and the most structurally ambitious of the three.”
The Candy Houseby Jennifer Egan
“The Candy House by Jennifer Egan 2022 review. A tech billionaire develops memory-externalization technology. Structural sequel to A Visit from the Goon Squad.”
A Visit from the Goon Squadby Jennifer Egan
“A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan 2010 review. An interconnected novel about a music-industry executive, his assistant, and the people their lives touch across forty years. Pulitzer Prize 2011 and the canonical postmodern American family novel of its decade.”
Bad Bloodby John Carreyrou
“Bad Blood by John Carreyrou 2018 review. The Theranos and Elizabeth Holmes blood-testing fraud. Carreyrou's investigative account built from his Pulitzer Prize-winning Wall Street Journal reporting.”
Cloud Cuckoo Landby Anthony Doerr
“Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr 2021 review. Five characters across three timelines connected by a fictional ancient Greek novel. Doerr's follow-up to All the Light We Cannot See.”
FAQ
Common questions about The Glass Hotel read-alikes
- I want more Emily St. John Mandel.
- Station Eleven and Sea of Tranquility are the essential companions, and they share characters and a world with The Glass Hotel. The three read as a loose, interlinked set, each haunted by the same faces and questions.
- I want the interconnected, time-hopping structure.
- A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan and its sequel The Candy House build a web of linked lives across decades, the same pleasure of watching minor characters resurface as major ones. Egan is more formally playful, but the DNA matches.
- I want the true-story version of the financial fraud.
- Bad Blood by John Carreyrou documents the Theranos collapse, a charismatic figure and a house of cards, the nonfiction cousin to The Glass Hotel's Ponzi scheme. Gripping and infuriating in equal measure.
- I want the same reflective, hopeful sweep.
- Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr braids far-flung lives around a fragile thread and lands somewhere near grace. It shares Mandel's belief that connection survives even collapse.
The original