18 books like His Whole Life

What to read after His Whole Life — books similar to it, matched on shared themes.

Black House Stephen King · 2002 · ★ 4.1 · 1456p · ≈ 48h · Moderate Shares: Mothers and sons, Boys Shares: Mothers and sons, Boys

Jim the boy Tony Earley · 2000 · ★ 3.9 · 227p · ≈ 7h · Moderate A fatherless ten-year-old boy comes of age in a Depression-era, southern farming community in this charming and humorous debut novel.A New York Times Notable Book of the Year"Rich and satisfying . . . A novel that perfectly captures the innocence and confusion and wonder of childhood." —Chicago TribuneHailed as one of those rare works with the power to enchant readers of all ages, this luminous… Shares: Mothers and sons, Boys, Bildungsromans

World's fair E. L. Doctorow · 1985 · ★ 3.9 · 288p · ≈ 9h · Moderate Recalls a certain New York City boyhood in the 1930s, through the eyes of the child himself and then him as an adult trying to reconstruct the past. Shares: Boys, Bildungsromans

The Neon Bible John Kennedy Toole · 1989 · ★ 3.8 · 176p · ≈ 5h · Moderate The first novel by the Pulizer Prize-winning author of A Confederacy Of Dunces. David is a young boy growing up in a small Southern town in the 1940s. From his porch, David can see the whole valley, including the neon Bible that lights up the sky, emblem of the God-fearing folk who snub his family because Poppa can't afford the church dues. Shares: Boys, Bildungsromans

The bent twig Dorothy Canfield Fisher · 1915 · 480p · ≈ 16h · Challenging Unlike other young women of her generation, who were "bred up from childhood to sit behind tea-tables and say the right things to tea-drinkers," Sylvia Marshall - the "twig" of this novel - was reared to think for herself and to trust her own instincts and experience. This, coupled with her passionate temperament, makes Sylvia a compelling figure as she resists efforts to mold her with every… Shares: Bildungsromans, Families

The talisman Stephen King · 1925 · ★ 4.1 · 784p · ≈ 26h · Challenging The Talisman is a 1984 fantasy novel by American writers Stephen King and Peter Straub. The Talisman was nominated for both the Locus and World Fantasy Awards in 1985. King and Straub followed up with a sequel, Black House (2001). Followed by: Black House Shares: Mothers and sons, Boys

Boy Swallows Universe Trent Dalton · 2018 · ★ 4.3 · 472p · ≈ 15h · Moderate Raw, whimsical, existential, heartbreaking, modern mythology Shares: Boys, Bildungsromans, Families

Bicycle days John Burnham Schwartz · 1989 · 253p · ≈ 8h · Moderate When Alec Stern arrives in Japan, he discovers a land of opportunity. For only in Tokyo could an impressionable young man fresh out of college find, in one stroke, a new job, a new family, and a society that lavishes attention on Japanese-speaking gaijin. Yet, even as Alec claims a place in this new world, he is haunted by memories of the one he left behind—a world once infinitely secure but… Shares: Boys, Bildungsromans

Dandelion Wine Ray Bradbury · 1946 · ★ 4.1 · 221p · ≈ 7h · Challenging The summer of '28 was a vintage season for a growing boy. A summer of green apple trees, mowed lawns, and new sneakers. Of half-burnt firecrackers, of gathering dandelions, of Grandma's belly-busting dinner. It was a summer of sorrows and marvels and gold-fuzzed bees. A magical, timeless summer in the life of a twelve-year-old boy named Douglas Spaulding—remembered forever by the incomparable Ray… Shares: Boys, Bildungsromans

All the conspirators Christopher Isherwood · 1928 · 255p · ≈ 8h · Challenging A timeless story of decaying middle-class English life after wwI and the generation that tried to escape its values Christopher Isherwood was only twenty-one when he began his first novel, All the Conspirators. in his introduction to the American edition, Isherwood explains: “All the Conspirators records a minor engagement in what Shelley calls ‘the great war between the old and young.’ And what… Shares: Bildungsromans, Families

Last Days of Summer Updated Ed Steve Kluger · 1998 · ★ 4.4 · 368p · ≈ 12h · Moderate From Goodreads: The hilarious and heart–warming story about a down–and–out kid who finds inspiration in his favourite baseball hero. In Brooklyn, 1940, a wisecracking, baseball loving twelve–year–old boy, Joey Margolis, is in desperate need of a hero. His rich father has recently divorced his mother, leaving her all but penniless, and she is forced to move herself and her son to an Italian… Shares: Boys, Bildungsromans

A Painted House John Grisham · 2000 · ★ 4.1 · 462p · ≈ 15h · Moderate Using his own childhood for inspiration (and leaving the lawyers behind), bestselling author John Grisham sets A Painted House in 1950s rural Arkansas. During harvest time, together with hired Mexicans and hill people, seven-year-old Luke Chandler picks cotton on his family's rented 80 acres. But racial tension, a forbidden love affair, and murder cause Luke to grow up before he's ready. Shares: Boys, Bildungsromans

Sammy Feral's Diaries of Weird Eleanor Hawken · 2013 · ★ 4.1 · 256p · ≈ 8h · Moderate Eleanor Hawken worked as a children's book editor for many years and was part of the team that established the Bath Festival of Children's Literature. Her popular children's series Sammy Feral's Diaries of Weird chronicles the hilarious adventures of a boy who spends his time with the furry and ferocious tenants of the zoo his family runs. "This is a hilarious story." Parents In Touch said of… Shares: Boys, Families

Shuggie Bain Douglas Stuart · 2019 · ★ 4.3 · 538p · ≈ 17h · Moderate Shuggie Bain is the unforgettable story of young Hugh “Shuggie” Bain, a sweet and lonely boy who spends his 1980s childhood in run-down public housing in Glasgow, Scotland. Thatcher’s policies have put husbands and sons out of work, and the city’s notorious drugs epidemic is waiting in the wings. Shuggie’s mother Agnes walks a wayward path: she is Shuggie’s guiding light but a burden for him and… Shares: Mothers and sons, Boys

Great Expectations Charles Dickens · 1861 · ★ 3.8 · 546p · ≈ 18h · Challenging Great Expectations is the thirteenth novel by Charles Dickens and his penultimate completed novel. It depicts the education of an orphan nicknamed Pip (the book is a bildungsroman; a coming-of-age story). It is Dickens' second novel, after David Copperfield, to be fully narrated in the first person. The novel was first published as a serial in Dickens's weekly periodical All the Year Round, from… Shares: Boys, Bildungsromans

The Magnificent Ambersons Booth Tarkington · 1917 · ★ 3.8 · 276p · ≈ 9h · Challenging Major Amberson had "made a fortune" in 1878, when other people were losing fortunes, and the magnificence of the Ambersons began then. Magnificence, like the size of a fortune, is always comparative, as even Magnificent Lorenzo may now perceive, if he has happened to haunt New York in 1916; and the Ambersons were magnificent in their day and place. Their splendour lasted throughout all the years… Shares: Mothers and sons, Families

Look Homeward, Angel Thomas Wolfe · 1929 · ★ 3.9 · 636p · ≈ 21h · Challenging An elaborate and moving coming-of-age story about Eugene Gant, a restless and energetic character whose passion to experience life takes him from his small, rural hometown in North Carolina to Harvard University and the city of Boston. The novel's pattern is artfully simple--a small town, a large family, high school and college--yet the characters are monumental in their graphic individuality and… Shares: Boys, Families

Judith Paris Hugh Walpole · 1931 · 782p · ≈ 26h · Challenging Covering the years 1771 to 1822 and set partly in Revolutionary Paris, and partly in romantic Cumbria, Judith Paris is the story of the two very different men who love Walpole's most delightful heroine. Daughter of Francis Herries and Mirabell Starr, Judith was described on publication as "the most delightful of Walpole's heroines." As impetuous, impulsive and passionate as her father, she is… Shares: Bildungsromans, Families

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