18 books like The Kite Runner

What to read after The Kite Runner — books similar to it, matched on shared themes.

Nineteen Eighty-Four George Orwell · 1949 · ★ 4.2 · 244p · ≈ 8h · Challenging Nineteen Eighty-Four: A Novel, often referred to as 1984, is a dystopian social science fiction novel by the English novelist George Orwell (the pen name of Eric Arthur Blair). It was published on 8 June 1949 by Secker & Warburg as Orwell's ninth and final book completed in his lifetime. Thematically, Nineteen Eighty-Four centres on the consequences of totalitarianism, mass surveillance, and… Shares: Drama

All the Light We Cannot See Anthony Doerr · 2014 · ★ 4.3 · 544p · ≈ 18h · Moderate From the highly acclaimed, multiple award-winning Anthony Doerr, a stunningly ambitious and beautiful novel about a blind French girl and a German boy whose paths collide in occupied France as both try to survive the devastation of World War II. Marie Laure lives with her father in Paris within walking distance of the Museum of Natural History where he works as the master of the locks (there are… Shares: Historical Fiction

The Great Gatsby F. Scott Fitzgerald · 1920 · ★ 3.9 · 431p · ≈ 14h · Challenging Here is a novel, glamorous, ironical, compassionate – a marvelous fusion into unity of the curious incongruities of the life of the period – which reveals a hero like no other – one who could live at no other time and in no other place. But he will live as a character, we surmise, as long as the memory of any reader lasts. "There was something gorgeous about him, some heightened sensitivity to… Shares: Drama

Gone Girl Gillian Flynn · 2011 · ★ 4.0 · 440p · ≈ 14h · Moderate Gone Girl is a 2012 crime thriller novel by American writer Gillian Flynn. It was published by Crown Publishing Group in June 2012. The novel became popular and made the New York Times Best Seller list. The sense of suspense in the novel comes from whether or not Nick Dunne is involved in the disappearance of his wife Amy. ---------- Also contained in: Les apparences suvi de la novella Nous… Shares: Community pick

Something Wicked This Way Comes Ray Bradbury · 1962 · ★ 3.9 · 272p · ≈ 9h · Moderate Few American novels written this century have endured in the heart and memory as has Ray Bradbury's unparalleled literary classic SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES. For those who still dream and remember, for those yet to experience the hypnotic power of its dark poetry, step inside. The show is about to begin. The carnival rolls in sometime after midnight, ushering in Halloween a week early. The… Shares: Male friendship, Boys, Drama

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: Male friendship, Boys

General Winston's daughter Sharon Shinn · 2007 · ★ 3.9 · 352p · ≈ 11h · Moderate When seventeen-year-old heiress Averie Winston travels with her guardian to faraway Chiarrin, she looks forward to a reunion with her father, who is a commanding general, seeing her handsome fiance Morgan once more, and exploring the strange new country. What she finds is entirely different. Although the Chiarizzi appear to tolerate the invading army, rebels have already tried to destroy them;… Shares: Betrayal, Social classes

The Prince and the Pauper Mark Twain · 1881 · ★ 3.9 · 258p · ≈ 8h · Challenging When young Edward VI of England and a poor boy who resembles him exchange places, each learns something about the other's very different station in life. Includes a brief biography of the author. Shares: Social classes, Boys, Historical Fiction

Women in Love D. H. Lawrence · 1877 · ★ 3.7 · 508p · ≈ 16h · Challenging Dark, but filled with bright genius, Women in Love is a prophetic masterpiece steeped in eroticism, filled with perceptions about sexual power and obsession that have proven to be timeless and true. Shares: Male friendship, Social classes

A fine dark line Joe R. Lansdale · 2003 · ★ 4.1 · 307p · ≈ 10h · Moderate It is the summer of 1958 in Dewmont, Texas, a town the great American postwar boom passed by. The kids listen idly to rockabilly on the radio and waste their weekends at the Dairy Queen. And an undetected menace simmers under the heat that clings to the skin like molasses... For thirteen-year-old Stanley Mitchell, the end of innocence comes with his discovery of the mysterious long-ago demise of… Shares: Male friendship, Boys

The deerslayer James Fenimore Cooper · 1841 · ★ 3.7 · 422p · ≈ 14h · Challenging The Deerslayer is the last book in Cooper's Leatherstocking Tales pentalogy, but acts as a prequel to the other novels. It begins with the rapid civilizing of New York, in which surrounds the following books take place. It introduces the hero of the Tales, Natty Bumppo, and his philosophy that every living thing should follow its own nature. He is contrasted to other, less conscientious,… Shares: Male friendship, Drama, Historical Fiction

Cyrano de Bergerac Edmond Rostand · 1897 · 192p · ≈ 6h · Challenging A Representation at the Hotel de Bourgogne. The hall of the Hotel de Bourgogne, in 1640. A sort of tennis-court arranged and decorated for a theatrical performance. The hall is oblong and seen obliquely, so that one of its sides forms the back of the right foreground, and meeting the left background makes an angle with the stage, which is partly visible. On both sides of the stage are benches.… Shares: Drama

Home as found James Fenimore Cooper · 1800 · ★ 5.0 · 432p · ≈ 14h · Challenging "No society, dear!--Why you were at the Henderson's, and the Morgan's, and the Drewett's; three of the greatest _réunions_ that we have had in two winters!"' "I did not know that you meant those unpleasant crowds, by society". "Unpleasant crowds! Why, child, that is society, is it not?' "Not what I have been taught to consider such; I rather think it would be better to call it company". "And is… Shares: Historical Fiction

The Border Empire Ralph Compton · 1997 · ★ 4.0 · 352p · ≈ 11h · Moderate Wes Stone was a lawman—until the Sandlin gang gunned down his legendary father. Now, he's giving up his badge for vengeance... Shares: Historical Fiction

The Woodlanders Thomas Hardy · 1800 · ★ 3.9 · 419p · ≈ 13h · Challenging When country-girl Grace Melbury returns home from her middle-class school she feels she has risen above her suitor, the simple woodsman Giles Winterborne. Though marriage had been discussed between her and Giles, Grace finds herself captivated by Dr Edred Fitzpiers, a sophisticated newcomer to the area - a relationship that is encouraged by her socially ambitious father. Hardy's novel of… Shares: Social classes, Drama, Historical Fiction

Pearl Harbor Randall Wallace · 2000 · 309p · ≈ 10h · Moderate Pearl Harbor is a beautifully written and suspenseful epic saga of love and war. Rafe McCawley and Danny Walker are two daring young pilots in the U.S. Army Air Corps who have grown up like brothers and first learned to fly in crop-dusting planes. Rafe has fallen in love with Evelyn Stewart, a beautiful and courageous nurse serving in the U.S. Navy. But they are soon separated by war when Rafe… Shares: Male friendship, Historical Fiction

Othello William Shakespeare · 1794 · 274p · ≈ 9h · Demanding Othello, a successful Moorish general in the service of Venice, elopes with Desdemona, the daughter of a Venetian noble. His evil lieutenant Iago works on his jealousy and persuades him that his wife is unfaithful. Overwrought, Othello strangles her then kills himself in grief after the truth is revealed. Shares: Betrayal, Drama

Pan Michael An historical novel Henryk Sienkiewicz · 1893 · ★ 4.2 · 542p · ≈ 18h · Challenging The third and final book of Henryk Sienkiewicz’s Trilogy takes a closer and more intimate look at one of the series’ protagonists: Pan Michael Volodyovski. The Polish Commonwealth has been through intense periods of war, and the peace that follows leaves one of its greatest heroes, Pan Michael, finally free to marry his beloved Panna Anusia. But in a twist of fate, she falls ill and dies, leaving… Shares: Historical Fiction

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