Book description
The Lost Weekend - directed by Billy Wilder as an all-time classic Oscar and Cannes winning film, starring Ray Milland in his most famous role - is one of the most important books ever written about addiction. No novelist had ever so honestly, and vividly, described the torments, tricks and…
Why read it?
1 author picked The Lost Weekend as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?
This book is also a semi-autobiographical and painful exploration of a writer’s addiction to alcohol. It is the story of a talented writer, Don Birnam. Birnam lives in a rundown neighborhood in Manhattan and is praised for his realism in his writing but he drinks to numb himself to his struggle with his homosexual feelings. The novel follows him on a five-day binge as he uses all kinds of ingenuity to get a bottle of rye to sustain him. He contemplates murdering his selfless, dedicated girlfriend’s maid to get a key to a liquor cabinet. He bangs his head in…
From Richard's list on The best novels about writers and how being a writer changes their lives.
If you love The Lost Weekend...
December on 5C4
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 The Lost Weekend?
Our community of 13,000+ authors has personally recommended 100 books like The Lost Weekend.
Share your top 3 reads of 2026!
And get a beautiful page showing off your 3 favorite reads.
186
readers submitted
so far, will you?
📚 If you like The Lost Weekend, you might also like...
Child of Vanris
At five years old, Kasiel was found with the pointed ends of his ears cut off. Despite that brutal start, he’s lived twelve peaceful years with the man who took him in. Keeping his hair long over his mutilated ears helps him hide the fact that he is Vanrian, a…
Almost Home
Almost Home is a fictional retelling of the last great tragedy of the Civil War.
In late April 1865, almost 2,000 newly freed Union prisoners of war are packed onto the steamer Sultana, in poor repair and with a listed capacity of 376 passengers. Among them are four Indiana soldiers…
