Books like “A Man Called Ove”

What to read after “A Man Called Ove” by Fredrik Backman: a list matched by tropes, mood and atmosphere. Under each book you will see what it has in common.

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1
Me Before You
Jojo Moyes · 2012
Similar atmosphere: “Melancholic”
- Melancholic
- Grumpy Sunshine
Bubbly Lou takes a job caring for Will, a wealthy young man left paralysed after an accident and bitter about the life he has lost. As she tries to show him there is still joy worth living for, the two of them change each other in ways neither expected.
2
Remarkably Bright Creatures
Shelby Van Pelt · 2022
Similar atmosphere: “Comfort Read” and “Melancholic”
Tova Sullivan cleans the local aquarium at night and talks to Marcellus, a clever giant Pacific octopus. When Marcellus works out the answer to a loss that has haunted her for years, a drifting young man arrives in town, and three quiet lives slowly knit together.
3
The Enchanted April
Elizabeth von Arnim · 1922
Similar atmosphere: “Comfort Read”
- Comfort Read
Four British women, strangers to one another, answer an advertisement to rent an Italian castle for April. Away from husbands and habit, each is quietly changed by the sun, the sea and the company of the others, and returns to her old life seeing it anew.
4
Little Women
Louisa May Alcott · 1868
Similar atmosphere: “Comfort Read”
- Comfort Read
Four sisters grow up in a modest New England home while their father is away at war. They argue, make art, fall in love and learn to support one another through loss and change. A warm coming-of-age story about family, ambition and becoming yourself.
5
Before the Coffee Gets Cold
Toshikazu Kawaguchi · 2015
Similar atmosphere: “Comfort Read” and “Melancholic”
- Comfort Read
- Melancholic
In a small Tokyo cafe, one seat lets a visitor travel to the past. There are rules: you cannot change the present, you must not leave the seat, and you must return before the coffee goes cold. Four customers sit down, each hoping to say what was left unsaid.
6
Things Fall Apart
Chinua Achebe · 1958
Similar atmosphere: “Melancholic”
- Melancholic
Okonkwo, a respected wrestler and farmer in a Nigerian village, builds his standing on a fear of appearing weak. When he is exiled and, years later, British missionaries and officials arrive, the customs that shaped him begin to collapse around him and his people.
7
The Kamogawa Food Detectives
Hisashi Kashiwai · 2013
Similar atmosphere: “Comfort Read” and “Melancholic”
- Comfort Read
- Melancholic
At a small Kyoto diner, Nagare Kamogawa and his daughter quietly work as food detectives. Clients describe a dish they cannot forget, and the pair trace its ingredients and the people tied to it, recovering memories, old losses and small reconciliations along the way.
8
The Catcher in the Rye
J. D. Salinger · 1951
Similar atmosphere: “Melancholic”
- Melancholic
Expelled from prep school and drifting through New York before going home, teenager Holden Caulfield narrates a few days of restless encounters. He rails against adults he calls phonies while quietly grieving a brother and his own place in the world.
9
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
Mary Ann Shaffer & Annie Barrows · 2008
Similar atmosphere: “Comfort Read”
- Comfort Read
- Found Family
Writer Juliet Ashton begins a friendship in letters with the people of Guernsey, an island still marked by the German occupation. Through their stories of a secret reading group, she finds a community, a purpose and a reason to cross the sea herself.
10
The Bell Jar
Sylvia Plath · 1963
Similar atmosphere: “Melancholic”
- Melancholic
Esther Greenwood wins a magazine internship in New York, but the city and the pressure of her bright future leave her feeling hollow. Back home, her mind begins to slip and she is drawn toward a darkness she cannot name, even as she tries to recover.
11
Thirteen Reasons Why
Jay Asher · 2007
Similar atmosphere: “Melancholic”
- Melancholic
Clay Jensen receives a box of tapes recorded by Hannah Baker, a classmate who has taken her own life. As he follows her voice around town, she explains the thirteen reasons behind her decision, and Clay learns his own place in her story.
12
Anne of Green Gables
L. M. Montgomery · 1908
Similar atmosphere: “Comfort Read”
- Comfort Read
- Found Family
Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert mean to adopt a boy to help on their farm, but the orphan who arrives is Anne Shirley, a talkative red-haired girl with a vivid imagination. Over years of scrapes and small triumphs she wins over the village of Avonlea and finds a place she can finally call home.