18 books like As I Lay Dying

What to read after As I Lay Dying — books similar to it, matched on shared themes.

The Sound and the Fury William Faulkner · 1929 · ★ 3.9 · 335p · ≈ 11h · Challenging In many ways this was an experimental novel, using several differing narrative styles. Divided into four parts, the author relates the same episodes from four different viewpoints, using a different style for each. The story concerns various members of a Southern family, once wealthy landowners but now struggling to maintain their reputation. Shares: American Manuscripts, Facsimiles, Manuscripts, Death

Intruder in the Dust William Faulkner · 1948 · 247p · ≈ 8h · Challenging Using his preferred stream-of-consciousness style the author tells a story of a black farmer in Mississippi accused of murdering a white man. Shares: American Manuscripts, Facsimiles, Manuscripts, Criticism and interpretation

The Faithless Martina Cole · 2011 · ★ 4.2 · 490p · ≈ 16h · Moderate Don't miss NO REGRET, the brand new novel from Martina Cole. Coming October 2025. With family, there's a dangerous line between love and hate... Reaching the darkest corners of family life, THE FAITHLESS by the 'undisputed queen of crime writing' (Guardian) and Sunday Times No.1 bestseller Martina Cole is an unputdownable novel about a deadly ambition that trumps family loyalty... Cynthia Tailor… Shares: Dysfunctional families, Families

The Town William Faulkner · 1957 · 371p · ≈ 12h · Moderate Flem Snopes goes on to higher things in Jefferson, Yoknapatawpha's county seat. Shares: American Manuscripts, Facsimiles, Manuscripts, Social life and customs

Dombey and Son Charles Dickens · 1800 · ★ 4.0 · 578p · ≈ 19h · Challenging Dombey and Son is both a firm and a family and the ambiguous connection between public and private life lies at the heart of Dickens' novel. Paul Dombey is a man who runs his domestic affairs as he runs his business: calculatingly, callously, coldly and commercially. Through his dysfunctional relationships with his son, his two wives, and his neglected daughter Florence, Dickens paints a vivid… Shares: Problem families, Dysfunctional families, Families, Social life and customs

Tender Is the Night F. Scott Fitzgerald · 1933 · ★ 3.8 · 399p · ≈ 13h · Challenging A psychiatrist, Dick Diver, treats and eventually marries a wealthy patient, Nicole. Eventually, this marriage destroys him. Shares: American Manuscripts, Facsimiles, Manuscripts

Absalom, Absalom! William Faulkner · 1936 · ★ 4.1 · 321p · ≈ 10h · Challenging The story of Thomas Sutpen, an enigmatic stranger who came to Jefferson in the early 1830s to wrest his mansion out of the muddy bottoms of the north Mississippi wilderness. He was a man, Faulkner said, "who wanted sons and the sons destroyed him." Shares: American Manuscripts, Facsimiles, Manuscripts

The Europeans Henry James · 1878 · 196p · ≈ 6h · Challenging The Europeans concerns an expatriate American, Eugenia, and her artist brother, Felix Young. Eugenia is the morganatic wife of a German prince, but she is to be repudiated in favor of a state marriage; thus she leaves for Boston to make an appropriate match of her own. Shares: American Manuscripts, Facsimiles, Manuscripts

Sanctuary William Faulkner · 1931 · ★ 3.6 · 312p · ≈ 10h · Challenging Lee Goodwin es acusado de asesinato. El escenario del crimen es una casa oculta entre los árboles que alberga una destilería ilegal. Allí viven, entre otros, Ruby, una mujer que ha renunciado a todo por Lee, y Popeye, un sádico gánster marcado por una infancia terrible. El abogado Horace Benbow lucha para que Goodwin no sea juzgado por ser quien es, sino por los actos de los que le acusan. Para… Shares: American Manuscripts, Facsimiles, Manuscripts

The Red Badge of Courage Stephen Crane · 1855 · ★ 3.3 · 184p · ≈ 6h · Challenging The Red Badge of Courage is a war novel by American author Stephen Crane (1871–1900). Taking place during the American Civil War, the story is about a young private of the Union Army, Henry Fleming, who flees from the field of battle. Overcome with shame, he longs for a wound, a "red badge of courage," to counteract his cowardice. When his regiment once again faces the enemy, Henry acts as… Shares: American Manuscripts, Facsimiles, Criticism and interpretation

Sail James Patterson · 1998 · ★ 3.9 · 419p · ≈ 13h · Moderate Since the death of her husband, Anne Dunne and her three children have struggled in every way. In a last ditch effort to save the family, Anne plans an elaborate sailing vacation to bring everyone together once again. But only an hour out of port, everything is going wrong. The teenage daughter, Carrie, is planning to drown herself. The teenage son, Mark, is high on drugs and ten-year-old… Shares: Problem families, Dysfunctional families

This Side of Paradise F. Scott Fitzgerald · 1920 · ★ 3.6 · 252p · ≈ 8h · Challenging This Side of Paradise, F. Scott Fitzgerald's romantic and witty first novel, was written when the author was only twenty-three years old. This semi-autobiographical story of the handsome, indulged, and idealistic Princeton student Amory Blaine received critical raves and catapulted Fitzgerald to instant fame. Now, readers can enjoy the newly edited, authorized version of this early classic of the… Shares: American Manuscripts, Facsimiles, Manuscripts

Proserpine & Midas Mary Shelley · 1922 · ★ 3.4 · 54p · ≈ 1h · Challenging Mary Shelley was an English writer best known for the classic gothic novel Frankenstein which has been adapted into film many times.  This edition of Proserpine & Midas includes a table of contents.  Shares: Facsimiles, Manuscripts

Moments of vision Thomas Hardy · 1889 · 184p · ≈ 6h · Challenging ix, 443 p. ; 23 cm Shares: Facsimiles, Manuscripts, Criticism and interpretation

Winter's Bone Daniel Woodrell · 2006 · ★ 3.9 · 197p · ≈ 6h · Moderate Ree Dolly's father has skipped bail on charges that he ran a crystal meth lab, and the Dollys will lose their house if he doesn't show up for his next court date. With two young brothers depending on her, 16-year-old Ree knows she has to bring her father back, dead or alive. Living in the harsh poverty of the Ozarks, Ree learns quickly that asking questions of the rough Dolly clan can be a fatal… Shares: Problem families, Dysfunctional families

The Corrections Jonathan Franzen · 2001 · ★ 3.9 · 504p · ≈ 16h · Moderate Like bookends of the past half century, the two generations of the Lambert family represent two very different aspects of America. Alfred, the patriarch, is a distant, puritanical company man; he is also slipping into Parkinson's-induced dementia. His wife, Enid, is a model Midwestern housewife, at once deferential and controlling. Their three children--Gary, an uptight banker, baffled by his own… Shares: Parent and adult child, Married women

Heartbreak House George Bernard Shaw · 1919 · ★ 3.7 · 160p · ≈ 5h · Challenging Published in 1919, Heartbreak House is an examination of the failings of the European leisure classes before World War I—failings that author George Bernard Shaw blamed for the war, and that he predicted would quickly lead to another, longer war. The play is set in an English country house, where representatives of every type of English society have gathered at the home of the seemingly-mad… Shares: Facsimiles, Manuscripts

Poems by John Keats John Keats · 1800 · ★ 4.1 · 302p · ≈ 10h · Challenging Twenty-five poems by one of the English Romantic poets of the early nineteenth century. Shares: Facsimiles, Manuscripts, Criticism and interpretation

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