Books like “The Call of the Wild”

What to read after “The Call of the Wild” by Jack London: a list matched by tropes, mood and atmosphere. Under each book you will see what it has in common.

About “The Call of the Wild”

Another favorite book?

Or start with a well-known book

1
The Revenant
Michael Punke · 2002
Similar setting: “Wild West”
- Wild West
- Survival
Frontiersman Hugh Glass is mauled by a bear and left for dead by his companions, who take his rifle and supplies. He crawls out of the wilderness and sets out on a long journey to find the men who abandoned him.
2
Lonesome Dove
Larry McMurtry · 1985
Similar setting: “Wild West”
Two former Texas Rangers drive a herd of cattle north to Montana, leading a ragged crew across rivers, drought and hostile country. The long journey tests the old friendship of the two men and the loyalties of everyone who follows them.
3
The Sisters Brothers
Patrick deWitt · 2011
Similar setting: “Wild West”
- Wild West
Eli and Charlie Sisters are hired killers riding to California to find a prospector. As the brothers travel, Eli grows tired of the violence of their trade and begins to imagine another life, while Charlie insists that the job must be finished.
4
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Mark Twain · 1884
Similar plot moves: “Coming of Age”
- Coming of Age
A boy fleeing his abusive father and a man escaping slavery travel together down the Mississippi on a raft. Their friendship grows as they meet swindlers and feuds along the way, and Huck must decide what he believes. A comic, humane adventure about freedom and conscience.
5
The Sea-Wolf
Jack London · 1904
Same genre: “Adventure novel”
- Survival
A literary critic survives a ferry collision in San Francisco Bay and is picked up by a sealing schooner commanded by Wolf Larsen, a brutal and brilliant captain. Thrown into the crew's rough life, the soft scholar must find his footing under a man who answers to no law but his own.
6
Treasure Island
Robert Louis Stevenson · 1883
Same genre: “Adventure novel”
- Coming of Age
Young Jim Hawkins finds a treasure map in a dead sailor's chest and sails for a distant island where a pirate's gold is buried. Among the crew is the one-legged cook Long John Silver, whose charm hides a plan to seize the hoard.
7
Robinson Crusoe
Daniel Defoe · 1719
Same genre: “Adventure novel”
- Survival
Shipwrecked alone on a deserted island, a castaway named Robinson Crusoe builds a life from nothing: shelter, crops and a canoe. Years of solitude end when he finds a footprint in the sand and rescues a man he names Friday.
8
The Alchemist
Paulo Coelho · 1988
Similar plot moves: “Coming of Age”
- Coming of Age
Santiago, an Andalusian shepherd, dreams of treasure buried near the Egyptian pyramids and sets out across the desert to find it. Along the way strangers, omens and hardship teach him to read the world and to trust his own heart.
9
The Prince and the Pauper
Mark Twain · 1881
Similar plot moves: “Coming of Age”
- Coming of Age
On the same day in Tudor London a beggar boy and the heir to the English throne meet and find they look identical. They trade clothes as a joke, and the swap turns real, so each must survive a life he was never taught to live. A tale of switched places, misrule and what a crown is really worth.
10
Lord of the Flies
William Golding · 1954
Similar plot moves: “Survival” and “Coming of Age”
- Survival
- Coming of Age
A group of schoolboys survives a plane crash on a deserted island and tries to govern themselves. Order slips first into fear and then into savagery as the boys turn on one another. An allegory about civilisation, violence and what people become without rules.
11
For Whom the Bell Tolls
Ernest Hemingway · 1940
Similar plot moves: “Survival”
- Survival
Robert Jordan, an American volunteer, joins a band of Republican guerrillas in the Spanish mountains to blow up a bridge. Over a few days he falls for Maria, a young woman scarred by war, and weighs duty, love and the near certainty that the mission will cost him his life.
12
Moby-Dick
Herman Melville · 1851
The author is also from United States
A wandering sailor joins the whaling ship Pequod, whose captain is obsessed with hunting the white whale that took his leg. As the voyage stretches across the oceans, the crew is dragged toward a reckoning. A vast, digressive novel of obsession, the sea and human nature.