Autofiction books
Autofiction books to start from. Open one to see books like it, or tell BookSense what you loved for four picks made for you.
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New to the genre? These 5 are the books to read first.
My Struggle
Karl Ove KnausgårdCatapulted the genre into international prominence through its exhaustive, unvarnished depiction of mundane domestic life, grief, and shame.
Outline
Rachel CuskPioneered a detached, listening-based approach where the narrator's life is defined largely through the monologues of people she meets.
The Lover
Marguerite DurasA landmark French text that revisits the author's adolescence in colonial Indochina using shifting temporalities and prose fragments.
Leaving the Atocha Station
Ben LernerExplores artistic fraudulence, translation, and detached self-consciousness through a poet living on a fellowship in Madrid.
How Should a Person Be?
Sheila HetiIntegrates transcribed tape recordings of real conversations with artist friends to examine female friendship and creative paralysis.
Chosen and described with AI from our notes on the genre.
More autofiction books
- Fils
FilsSerge Doubrovsky - I Love Dick
I Love DickChris Kraus - To the Friend Who Did Not Save My Life
To the Friend Who Did Not Save My LifeHervé Guibert - Dept of Speculation
Dept of SpeculationJenny Offill - Open City
Open CityTeju Cole - The Years
The YearsAnnie Ernaux - The End of Eddy
The End of EddyÉdouard Louis - What Belongs to You
What Belongs to YouGarth Greenwell - On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous
On Earth We're Briefly GorgeousOcean Vuong - 人間失格
人間失格太宰 治1948 - The Bell Jar
The Bell JarSylvia Plath1948 - On the Road
On the RoadJack Kerouac1957