Book cover of At the Existentialist Cafe: Freedom, Being, and Apricot Cocktails with Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, Albert Camus, Martin Heidegger, Maurice Merleau-Ponty and Others

Book description

Named one of the Ten Best Books of 2016 by the New York Times, a spirited account of a major intellectual movement of the twentieth century and the revolutionary thinkers who came to shape it, by the best-selling author of How to Live and Humanly Possible Sarah Bakewell.

Paris, 1933:…

When you buy books, we may earn a commission that helps keep our lights on (or join the rebellion as a member).

Why read it?

2 authors picked At the Existentialist Cafe as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

The author does a marvelous job of giving even the beginner a way into the phenomenological movement in general and the existentialist development of phenomenology in particular.

At the Existentialist Café introduced me to Sarah Bakewell. The text represents an overview of the philosophical work conducted by Jean-Paul Sartre and his polyamorous partner, Simone de Beauvoir, along with many other philosophers.

The writings of Albert Camus, Martin Heidegger, Edmund Husserl, Karl Jaspers, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, and many others are critically evaluated by Bakewell in this capacious romp through the world of modern philosophy. If you seek an overview of philosophical writing with implications for your own life, this is the book for you.

If you love At the Existentialist Cafe...

Book cover of December on 5C4

December on 5C4 by Adam Strassberg,

Magical realism meets the magic of Christmas in this mix of Jewish, New Testament, and Santa stories–all reenacted in an urban psychiatric hospital!

On locked ward 5C4, Josh, a patient with many similarities to Jesus, is hospitalized concurrently with Nick, a patient with many similarities to Santa. The two argue…

Want books like At the Existentialist Cafe?

Our community of 12,000+ authors has personally recommended 100 books like At the Existentialist Cafe.

Browse books like At the Existentialist Cafe

Book cover of Becoming Beauvoir: A Life
Book cover of Being and Nothingness
Book cover of What Is Existentialism?

Share your top 3 reads of 2025!

And get a beautiful page showing off your 3 favorite reads.

1,300

readers submitted
so far, will you?

📚 If you like At the Existentialist Cafe, you might also like...

Book cover of Raggedyland

Raggedyland by Paul J. Heald,

An auctioned storage locker comes with a box of Raggedy Ann books and a dresser drawer stuffed with grisly momentos. A small college town in Georgia is now ground zero for a mind-bending cold case.

Local journalist James Murphy wishes he had never bought the storage unit which either contains…

Book cover of Selkie Moon

Selkie Moon by Kelly Jarvis,

We are all surrounded by darkness. And we are all drawn to the light.

The Orkney Islands north of Scotland are steeped in stories of selkies, seal folk who swim in cold ocean waters and shed their skins to sing and dance on land.

One young girl named Isla uses…

5 book lists we think you will like!