The Pearl
John Steinbeck
A poor pearl diver in a Mexican village finds an enormous pearl, in a short, fable-like story of hope and greed.
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Books like The Old Man and the Sea
The Old Man and the Sea, by Nobel Prize-winning author Ernest Hemingway, tells of an aging Cuban fisherman who heads far out alone and hooks a giant fish. These seven books offer more tales of endurance and spare, direct prose.
Books to read next
Of Mice and Men
John Steinbeck
Two migrant farmhands in 1930s California dream of a small farm of their own, in a short, plain-spoken novel with a hard edge.
Moby-Dick
Herman Melville
A sailor joins a whaling ship whose captain is bent on hunting one white whale, in a far longer, denser classic with long digressions on whaling.
The Call of the Wild
Jack London
A sled dog taken from a California home to the Yukon gold rush has to survive in the wild, in a short adventure classic.
Life of Pi
Yann Martel
After a shipwreck, a teenage boy is stranded at sea in a lifeboat with a Bengal tiger, in a tale of survival and faith.
A Farewell to Arms
Ernest Hemingway
An American ambulance driver in the Italian army in World War I falls in love with an English nurse, in a spare novel of war and love.
The Sun Also Rises
Ernest Hemingway
A circle of American and British expatriates travels from 1920s Paris to Pamplona for the bullfights, in a spare novel of disillusionment.
How to choose
Choose by what you loved. For another short, spare parable, read The Pearl or Of Mice and Men, which includes harsh language and violence. For people against nature, try The Call of the Wild, a short dog's-eye adventure that includes cruelty to animals, or Life of Pi, a lifeboat survival story. Moby-Dick is the ambitious pick: much longer and full of digressions on whaling. For more Hemingway, A Farewell to Arms and The Sun Also Rises show his style on land, with war and love in the first and restless expatriates in the second, which has bullfighting scenes and some antisemitic remarks from its characters.
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- Books like Of Mice and MenOf Mice and Men, by Nobel Prize-winning author John Steinbeck, follows two migrant farm workers in 1930s California who share a dream of a small farm of their own.
- Books like Lord of the FliesLord of the Flies, by Nobel Prize-winning author William Golding, follows a group of boys stranded on an island with no adults.
- Books like The AlchemistThe Alchemist follows Santiago, a young Andalusian shepherd who sets out for Egypt after a recurring dream of treasure at the Pyramids.