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Quick answer: If you loved The Sun Also Rises, try A Farewell to Arms, A Moveable Feast, The Great Gatsby, Tender Is the Night, The Paris Wife and Everybody Behaves Badly. Each one offers lost young people, travel, heartbreak or the restless spirit of the 1920s.
Ernest Hemingway's 1926 debut novel follows a group of American and British expatriates in Paris and Spain. The narrator Jake Barnes, wounded in the war, loves the free-spirited Lady Brett Ashley, but cannot be with her. The friends travel to Pamplona for the running of the bulls, where jealousy and drinking boil over. Readers love its clean prose and its portrait of the Lost Generation. These books share its restless characters and its travel.
Table of Contents
Quick Picks at a Glance
| Book | Author | Setting | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|
| A Farewell to Arms | Ernest Hemingway | Italy | readers who want more Hemingway |
| A Moveable Feast | Ernest Hemingway | Paris | readers who want Hemingway's memories |
| The Great Gatsby | F. Scott Fitzgerald | New York | readers who want the 1920s classic |
| Tender Is the Night | F. Scott Fitzgerald | French Riviera | readers who like glamorous decline |
| The Paris Wife | Paula McLain | Paris | readers who want Hadley's view |
| Everybody Behaves Badly | Lesley M.M. Blume | Spain | readers who want the true story |
| Death in the Afternoon | Ernest Hemingway | Spain | readers who want Hemingway on bullfighting |
| On the Road | Jack Kerouac | America | readers who like drifting friends |
| The Sheltering Sky | Paul Bowles | Sahara | readers who like doomed travelers |
| Brideshead Revisited | Evelyn Waugh | England | readers who like lost youth |
| Mrs Dalloway | Virginia Woolf | London | readers who like the postwar mood |
| The Beautiful and Damned | F. Scott Fitzgerald | New York | readers who like doomed couples |
| Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald | Therese Anne Fowler | Paris and America | readers who like the Jazz Age |
| Down and Out in Paris and London | George Orwell | Paris | readers who want the other side of Paris |
| The Rules of Civility | Amor Towles | New York | readers who like 1930s glamour |
1. A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway
An ambulance driver falls in love during WWI.
Best for: readers who want more Hemingway.
2. A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway
Hemingway recalls his early years in Paris.
Best for: readers who want Hemingway's memories.
3. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
A mysterious millionaire pursues the woman he lost.
Best for: readers who want the 1920s classic.
4. Tender Is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald
A couple's glamorous marriage unravels.
Best for: readers who like glamorous decline.
5. The Paris Wife by Paula McLain
Hemingway's first wife tells their story.
Best for: readers who want Hadley's view.
6. Everybody Behaves Badly by Lesley M.M. Blume
The real trip that inspired the novel.
Best for: readers who want the true story.
7. Death in the Afternoon by Ernest Hemingway
Hemingway's nonfiction about the bullfight.
Best for: readers who want Hemingway on bullfighting.
8. On the Road by Jack Kerouac
Young friends crisscross the country.
Best for: readers who like drifting friends.
9. The Sheltering Sky by Paul Bowles
An American couple drifts into North Africa.
Best for: readers who like doomed travelers.
10. Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh
A man remembers an aristocratic family.
Best for: readers who like lost youth.
11. Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
A day in the life of a London society woman.
Best for: readers who like the postwar mood.
12. The Beautiful and Damned by F. Scott Fitzgerald
A young couple drink away their fortune.
Best for: readers who like doomed couples.
13. Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald by Therese Anne Fowler
Zelda Fitzgerald tells her side.
Best for: readers who like the Jazz Age.
14. Down and Out in Paris and London by George Orwell
Orwell lives among the poor in both cities.
Best for: readers who want the other side of Paris.
15. The Rules of Civility by Amor Towles
A young woman climbs through New York society.
Best for: readers who like 1930s glamour.
How We Chose These Books
Every pick is a real, widely available book that shares something specific with The Sun Also Rises: its tone, its themes, its pace or the kind of characters it puts at the center. We mixed well-known favorites with a few less obvious titles, and we noted who each book suits best so you can match it to the reader. Where a book belongs to a series, we list the first volume so you can start at the beginning.
If you are not sure where to begin, start with the first three picks in the table: they are the closest match to The Sun Also Rises. The rest of the list moves further out, so it works well once you know which part of the original you liked most. If a pick is part of a longer series, read the first book before you commit, and check the age or content notes in the table before passing a book to a younger reader.
How to Choose
Read A Moveable Feast next for Hemingway's own memories of the same Paris, then Everybody Behaves Badly for the real story behind the novel. If you love the Lost Generation, The Great Gatsby and Tender Is the Night are essential. For a woman's view of these years, The Paris Wife and Z are popular choices. On the Road gives you the same aimless travel thirty years later.
Related: The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway: Summary and Key Takeaways · Tender Is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald: Summary and Key Takeaways
Frequently Asked Questions
What is The Sun Also Rises about?
A group of expatriates travel from Paris to Pamplona, where love and jealousy tear them apart.
Who is Lady Brett Ashley?
A free-spirited English woman whom Jake loves but cannot be with.
What is the Lost Generation?
The generation that came of age during WWI, a phrase Hemingway used in the novel's epigraph.
Is the novel based on real people?
Yes. Hemingway based the characters on friends who joined him in Pamplona in 1925.
How long is The Sun Also Rises?
It is short, at around 250 pages.