Books with Elements of the Surreal

Try these books if you're looking for:

• Books similar to those of Paul Auster, Thomas Pynchon, or Kurt Vonnegut
• Books with elements that are surreal or unusual

Underworld
By Don DeLillo
F DELILLO A work combining fiction and history in a collaboration that encompasses fifty years gives readers a glimpse into the realities upon which America’s modern culture is based and explores the complex relationship between “waste analyst” Nick Shay and artist Klara Sax.

Kafka on the Shore
By Haruki Murakami
F MURAKAMI
An unlikely alliance forms between Kafka Tamura, a fifteen-year-old runaway, and the aging Nakata, a man who has never recovered from a wartime affliction, as they embark on a surreal odyssey through a strange, fantastical world.

Freddy and Fredericka
By Mark Helprin
F HELPRIN
Ridiculed by the British press, Prince of Wales Freddy and his wife, the frivolous Fredericka, are sent to colonize the barbaric land of America, during which they engage in a freight train ride, an art theft, and a wayward presidential election.

The Yiddish Policeman’s Union
By Michael Chabon
F CHABON
In a world in which Alaska, rather than Israel, has become the homeland for the Jews following World War II, Detective Meyer Landsman and his half-Tlingit partner Berko investigate the death of a heroin-addicted chess prodigy.

Spook Country
By William Gibson
F GIBSON
Multilingual Tito engages in sensitive information transfers from his single-room apartment, while journalist Hollis frets over her start-up magazine’s censure of its own promotions, and prescription drug addict Milgrim wonders about the military connections of an enigmatic benefactor.