Berlin
Bea Setton
A young Englishwoman moves to Berlin to reinvent herself, but the small, needless lies she tells new friends pile up until it all cracks
Both: Funny · Dark · Big city
Content warning Books like…Content warning5 picks
My Year of Rest and Relaxation
Ottessa Moshfegh
A young Upper East Side woman decides to sleep through an entire year in 2000 Manhattan, helped by the most careless psychiatrist in New York
- Literary fiction
- Funny
- Dark
- Mental health
- Big city
- Steady
- Medium read
Top picks
Picks suggested by readers, each with one line on why.
Green Girl
Kate Zambreno
In restless fragments, a young American adrift in London sells perfume and feels like a stranger inside her own life
Both: Mental health · Big city
Content warning
Luster
Raven Leilani
A broke, sardonic 23-year-old in New York has an affair with a married man and ends up living in his suburban house with his wife and kid
Both: Funny · Dark · Big city
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My Husband
Maud Ventura
A Parisian wife with the perfect home secretly tracks her husband's every move for a week, and her obsession grows more unsettling
Content warning
Play It as It Lays
Joan Didion
A burnt-out actress in 1960s LA drives the freeways for hours to avoid feeling anything as her marriage and Hollywood life fall apart
Both: Dark · Mental health
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Books this one was picked for.
The Bell Jar
Sylvia Plath
A glamorous 1950s New York summer that slowly slides into breakdown
