Here are 72 books that Katabasis fans have personally recommended if you like
Katabasis.
Book DNA is a community of 12,000+ authors and super readers sharing their favorite books with the world.
I've told so many friends that this is the only book I've ever read during which I was crying so hard I could barely breathe and laughing at the same time. I loved, loved, loved the relationships among the characters. They felt clever and real and sassy in all the perfect proportions. My own book addresses dying, courage, the afterlife, so a book that bravely faces the pain and love and beauty of death, life, and love all while being uplifting was something I couldn't put down.
“Catherine Newman sees the heartbreak and comedy of life with wisdom and unflinching compassion. The way she finds the extraordinary in the everyday is nothing short of poetry. She’s a writer’s writer—and a human’s human.”—New York Times bestselling author Katherine Center
“A riotously funny and fiercely loyal love letter to female friendship. The story of Edi and Ash proves that a best friend is a gift from the gods. Newman turns her prodigious talents toward finding joy even in the friendship’s final days. I laughed while crying, and was left revived. Newman is a comic masterhand and a dazzling philosopher…
Cygna is the king’s fairy get, born with a swan wing in place of an arm. Something monstrous to hide away. But when a monster from the Underworld appears, they’re all too happy to sacrifice her life for theirs. The kingdom is withering into a wasteland, and the Lindworm is…
Oh, my gosh! It's so lovely and tender. Found family in the most difficult times of life. The characters are so wonderfully flawed and human, I fell in love with all of them. The different ways creativity can take us in life, the challenges and rewards all felt right. I can't recommend this book highly enough.
A Most Anticipated Book of 2025: Goodreads •USA TODAY • Marie Claire • BookPage • Literary Lifestyle •Book Riot •Sunset Magazine • Totally Booked with Zibby Owens * A Fallon Book Club Pick
The #1 New York Times bestselling author of Anxious People returns with an unforgettably funny, deeply moving tale of four teenagers whose friendship creates a bond so powerful that it changes a complete stranger's life twenty-five years later.
Most people don't even notice them—three tiny figures sitting at the end of a long pier in the corner of one of…
'S. A. Cosby's novels always hit the grand slam of crime fiction' MICHAEL CONNELLY 'Cosby sends a shiver down the spine' DAILY MAIL 'A pulsating saga of family secrets and double and triple-crossing' THE TIMES, THE BEST THRILLERS OF 2025
A son returning home. A dangerous debt. Secrets about to ignite . . . and a family consumed by flames.
Roman Carruthers left the smoke and fire of his family's crematory business behind in his hometown of Jefferson Run, Virginia. He is enjoying a life of shallow excess as a financial adviser in Atlanta until he gets a call from…
Winter Journeys is a story of music, memory, and imagination.
At summer’s end, Ilona Miller loses her job. Instead of adjusting her attitude and sending out resumes, she retreats into grief and paranoid imaginings by day and wanders the streets at night. A long-dormant alter ego awakes and prompts a…
When I was six, I wrote an eleven-page epic about an adventurous otter named "Ottiga." The causality between that early effort and my career as a novelist is uncertain, but it did establish a pattern. I was the perpetual new kid on the block, and novels provided a pathway to escape the difficulties of being young and introverted. I learned that fiction is an antidote to loneliness; that it has the power to transport us to entirely new worlds, or to show us the familiar world in entirely new and unexpected ways. The speculative novels on this list did that for me, and I hope they do the same for you!
McEwan is one of my favorite writers, and as I was reading this, I was trying to figure out why I love his work so much.
There's just something so immersive about it: the way he uses language, the vividness of his characters, the descriptive and emotional accuracy and density of his moment-by-moment storytelling.
What We Can Know is a love story interwoven with a tense, high-stakes "thrillerish" plot powered by a heart-pounding narrative drive and sense of cold inevitability similar to those found in the author's other great novels, like Amsterdam and Atonement.
What sets this book apart from the others is its speculative, futuristic angle. To say more would be to spoil the fun, so I'll leave it there. Read this book, you won't regret it!
A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK • NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the Booker prize–winning, bestselling author of Atonement and Saturday, a genre-bending new novel full of secrets and surprises; an immersive exploration, across time and history, of what can ever be truly known.
ONE OF BARACK OBAMA'S FAVORITE BOOKS OF THE YEAR
"It gave me so much pleasure I sometimes felt like laughing. . . . It's a sophisticated entertainment of a high order." —The New York Times
"Brilliantly, and surprisingly, plotted."—The Washington Post • "A novelist of consummate skill."—The Wall Street Journal • "Elegantly structured and provocative."—Los…
It is a deeply researched look at what Josephine Baker actually did during WWII and how she dedicated her time to helping the Allies. The author takes you beyond the banana-skirted dancer into a person of convictions with the courage to act on them.
The full story of Josephine Baker's wartime and intelligence work in France and North Africa
Before the Second World War, Josephine Baker (1906-1975) was one of the most famous performers in the world. She made her name dancing on the Parisian stage, but when war broke out she decided not to return to America. Instead, Baker turned spy for the French Secret Services.
In this engaging, deeply researched study, Hanna Diamond tells the full story of Baker's actions for the French and Allied powers in World War Two. Drawing on previously unseen material, Diamond reveals the vital role…
'A tour de force...King Sorrow is huge, sprawling - and absolutely fantastic' THE GUARDIAN 'Joe Hill gloriously resurrects the doorstop horror blockbuster for a startling new century' ALAN MOORE 'A soaring epic and painfully intimate. You won't be able to stop burning through the pages' PAUL TREMBLAY 'Epic, exhilarating and haunting in equal measures' DAILY EXPRESS 'A commanding, captivating read' FINANCIAL TIMES 'Epic...a multi-layered, rich response to the horrors and hopes of living today' DAILY MAIL
Bookish dreamer Arthur Oakes is a student at Rackham College, Maine,…
"Witches take on the patriarchy in this epic feminist fantasy." Spirit Sight book 1 volume 1 is an award-winning debut epic fantasy novel written by Ross Hightower, the first in the six-book Spirit Song series. Winner of numerous awards, including the Readers Favorite Fantasy Finalist and the Eric B Hoffer…
Winner of the Reddit Fantasy Award for Best Debut 2018
'The best fantasy debut of 2018' - WIRED
A brilliantly imaginative epic fantasy debut, inspired by the bloody history of China's twentieth century and filled with treachery and magic.
When Rin aced the Keju - the test to find the most talented students in the Empire - it was a shock to everyone: to the test officials, who couldn't believe a war orphan from Rooster Province could pass without cheating; to Rin's guardians, who had hoped to get rich by marrying her off; and to Rin herself,…
I don’t read much science fiction these days, but this (if it really is SciFi) drew me in and hooked me almost immediately with its alternate universe and truly original storyline.
As an author, I love reading books that feature writers and explore their daily ups and downs as well as their larger successes and failures. Working on a novel or an article is already a harrowing task, but throw in other complications like writer’s block, dangerous fans, and sources who won’t give you the information you need, and life gets a lot more challenging. These twisty tomes explore what happens when these writers find their own stories taking some perilous turns.
Much like The Plot, this novel features a writer who makes a terrible decision in an attempt to jumpstart her career.
What ensues is a satirical look at the publishing industry and the literary world in general. June, the main character, attempts to justify her actions, making readers cringe as she digs herself in deliciously deeper. A scary skewering of the writing life, I wanted to read this bestseller in a single setting.
Watching a fictional author attempt to appease the demands of publishing and, ultimately, experience the perils and pitfalls of popularity feels both relatable and voyeuristic.
The No. 1 Sunday Times and New York Times bestseller from literary sensation R.F. Kuang
*A Reese Witherspoon Book Club pick*
'Propulsive' SUNDAY TIMES
'Razor-sharp' TIME
'A wild ride' STYLIST
'Darkly comic' GQ
'A riot' PANDORA SYKES
'Hard to put down, harder to forget' STEPHEN KING
Athena Liu is a literary darling and June Hayward is literally nobody.
White lies When Athena dies in a freak accident, June steals her unpublished manuscript and publishes it as her own under the ambiguous name Juniper Song.
The Cave of Past and Present is an archaeological descent into a living labyrinth—part ruin, part machine, part prophecy.
When Moria Chione follows a vanished colleague into the empire’s wild fringes, she uncovers a sentient subterranean archive that reshapes itself around intruders and rewrites their memories as easily as stone.…
I write and read fantasy that doesn’t play safe—where magic is messy, divine, rotten, or reborn in mud. I’m obsessed with stories that walk barefoot through forgotten folklore, eerie townships, and mythic detours. The Fallow Swallow grew from this exact craving: for fantasy that’s personal, poetic, and just a little unwell. I gravitate toward tales that embrace magical realism, morally grey characters, and dark humour—and these books helped shape my voice as a writer.
Reading this was like drinking tea with a ghost in a dusty library—charming, eerie, and wonderfully slow.
Clarke's ability to mix historical fiction with brooding, folkloric magic was inspiring. I admired how it builds tension not with battles, but with manners, contracts, and impossible choices. It taught me patience in worldbuilding and in life.
Two magicians shall appear in England. The first shall fear me; the second shall long to behold me The year is 1806. England is beleaguered by the long war with Napoleon, and centuries have passed since practical magicians faded into the nation's past. But scholars of this glorious history discover that one remains: the reclusive Mr Norrell whose displays of magic send a thrill through the country. Proceeding to London, he raises a beautiful woman from the dead and summons an army of ghostly ships to terrify the French. Yet the cautious, fussy Norrell is challenged by the emergence of…
