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1. Call Me by Your Name by André Aciman. Buy on Amazon. Add to library. Call Me By Your Name chronicles a summer of awakening in the life of seventeen-year-old Elio, who is forced to navigate his sexuality and the stirrings of love when his family welcomes a new lodger — the charismatic doctoral student Oliver.
- Reedsy
Mar 31, 2021 · The best coming-of-age novels, as chosen by our readers. Haruki Murakami, Dodie Smith and J.D. Salinger explore the highs and lows of teenage life in these classic coming-of-age tales, selected by you. 01 April 2021. Image: Alicia Fernandes / Penguin. Coming-of-age novels aren’t necessarily about age. They’re about growth, that defining ...
- To Kill a Mockingbird Harper Lee.
- On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous Ocean Vuong.
- Jane Eyre Charlotte Brontë.
- The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Mark Twain.
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What I Leave Behind by Alison McGhee
“After his dad commits suicide, Will tries to overcome his own misery by secretly helping the people around him in this exquisitely crafted story made up of one hundred chapters of one hundred words each.”
Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds
“An ode to Put the Damn Guns Down, this is National Book Award finalist and New York Times bestseller Jason Reynolds’s fiercely stunning novel that takes place in sixty potent seconds—the time it takes a kid to decide whether or not he’s going to murder the guy who killed his brother.”
The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison
“The youngest, half-goblin son of the Emperor has lived his entire life in exile, distant from the Imperial Court and the deadly intrigue that suffuses it. But when his father and three sons in line for the throne are killed in an ‘accident,’ he has no choice but to take his place as the only surviving rightful heir.”
The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly
“High in his attic bedroom, twelve-year-old David mourns the death of his mother, with only the books on his shelf for company. But those books have begun to whisper to him in the darkness. Angry and alone, he takes refuge in his imagination and soon finds that reality and fantasy have begun to meld. While his family falls apart around him, David is violently propelled into a world that is a strange reflection of his own—populated by heroes and monsters and ruled by a faded king who keeps his...
The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
“Nobody Owens, known to his friends as Bod, is a normal boy. He would be completely normal if he didn’t live in a sprawling graveyard, being raised and educated by ghosts, with a solitary guardian who belongs to neither the world of the living nor of the dead. There are dangers and adventures in the graveyard for a boy. But if Bod leaves the graveyard, then he will come under attack from the man Jack—who has already killed Bod’s family…”
The Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston
“A Chinese American woman tells of the Chinese myths, family stories and events of her California childhood that have shaped her identity. It is a sensitive account of growing up female and Chinese American in a California laundry.”
All Souls: A Family Story from Southie by Michael Patrick MacDonald
“In All Souls,MacDonald takes us deep into the secret heart of Southie. With radiant insight, he opens up a contradictory world, where residents are besieged by gangs and crime but refuse to admit any problems, remaining fiercely loyal to their community. MacDonald also introduces us to the unforgettable people who inhabit this proud neighborhood.”
Heart Berries: A Memoir by Terese Marie Mailhot
“Heart Berries is a powerful, poetic memoir of a woman’s coming of age on the Seabird Island Indian Reservation in the Pacific Northwest. Having survived a profoundly dysfunctional upbringing only to find herself hospitalized and facing a dual diagnosis of post traumatic stress disorder and bipolar II disorder; Terese Marie Mailhot is given a notebook and begins to write her way out of trauma. The triumphant result is Heart Berries, a memorial for Mailhot’s mother, a social worker and activis...
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
“The story of young, sensitive, and idealistic Francie Nolan and her bittersweet formative years in the slums of Williamsburg at the turn of the century.”
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle
“Meg’s father had been experimenting with this fifth dimension of time travel when he mysteriously disappeared. Now the time has come for Meg, her friend Calvin, and Charles Wallace to rescue him. But can they outwit the forces of evil they will encounter on their heart-stopping journey through space?”
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
“Humble, orphaned Pip is apprenticed to the dirty work of the forge but dares to dream of becoming a gentleman—and one day, under sudden and enigmatic circumstances, he finds himself in possession of ‘great expectations.'”
Many of these coming of age books above are close to my heart, but there are just so many special coming of age books it’s impossible to list them all. Let’s give it a try anyway. Leave your favorite coming of age books in the comments and keep this list growing (up). And while you’re here, check out some of our other must-read lists.
- Justin Torres, We the Animals. Torres’ slim, elegant, intense 2011 bildungsroman carries us deftly from the mania of childhood and brotherhood to the alienation of young adulthood and the self-knowledge that comes with it—or inspires it, as it were.
- André Aciman, Call Me By Your Name. If you read this space, you’ll know that I’m a fan of Call Me By Your Name, a perfect, deeply interior novel, steeped in desire, about a young man who falls in love with an older visitor, and discovers quite a bit about himself—and love, and family—in the process.
- Jeffrey Eugenides, Middlesex. A coming of age story that is also a coming of self story, as Callie becomes Cal, and the world becomes modern. See also: The Virgin Suicides, which rivals this one fiercely in my heart and is also in some ways a purer bildungsroman, though for a faceless chorus of boys instead of a single one.
- Katherine Dunn, Geek Love. So much more than a coming of age novel, of course, and not usually designated as such—and yet still it fits, as Olympia tells the monstrous story of her childhood (while endeavoring to protect her own daughter from the woman who would “normalize” her).
Jan 30, 2001 · The Catcher in the Rye. J. D. Salinger - Jan 30, 2001 (first published in 1951) Goodreads Rating. 3.8 (3m) Fiction Teen & Young Adult. This coming-of-age novel follows Holden Caulfield, a complex and conflicted teenager from New York, as he navigates his way through society, grappling with love, fear, and uncertainty.
Mar 23, 2023 · To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper lee. Taking place during the Great Depression in small-town Alabama, this classic coming-of-age story is told through the eyes of 6-year-old Scout. Atticus is Scout’s single father, raising two kids on his own with the help of their cook, Calpurnia.
