19 must-read literary fiction books like Pure Colour by Sheila Heti

Cover of Pure Colour by Sheila Heti

Pure Colour

By: Sheila Heti

3.46

Format: 224 pages, Hardcover

Pure Colour is a galaxy of a novel: explosive, celestially bright, huge, and streaked with beauty. …

"And what opens one heart opens many."

-Sheila Heti, Pure Colour

"The body becomes a woman and it cannot turn back."

-Sheila Heti, Pure Colour

"And a glimpse into one heart is a glimpse into many."

-Sheila Heti, Pure Colour

"Why did it seem like the only way to live-was to disobey?"

-Sheila Heti, Pure Colour

If you liked the literary fiction plot in Pure Colour by Sheila Heti , here is a list of 19 books like this:

Cover of The Idiot by Elif Batuman

1. The Idiot

By: Elif Batuman

3.66

Format: 423 pages, Hardcover

A portrait of the artist as a young woman. A novel about not just discovering but inventing oneself… read more

Similar categories in Elif Batuman's The Idiot book and Sheila Heti's Pure Colour

  • literary fiction
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • novels
  • adult
  • audiobook
"For a while now, I have been conscious of a tension in my relationship with you,"

-Elif Batuman, The Idiot

"Lighting a match felt exciting and a little bit dangerous, and when the flame came into contact with the paper, it made a sound like the needle coming down on a record player—like the music was about…"

-Elif Batuman, The Idiot

"For the first time in my life, I couldn't think of anything I particularly wanted to study or to do. I still had the old idea of being a writer, but that was being, not doing. It didn't say what you …"

-Elif Batuman, The Idiot

"Suddenly it occurred to me that maybe the point of writing wasn't just to record something past but also to prolong the present, like in One Thousand and One Nights, to stretch out the time until the…"

-Elif Batuman, The Idiot

Cover of Bluets by Maggie Nelson

2. Bluets

By: Maggie Nelson

4.22

Format: 72 pages, Paperback

Suppose I were to begin by saying that I had fallen in love with a color... A lyrical, philosophica… read more

Similar categories in Maggie Nelson's Bluets book and Sheila Heti's Pure Colour

  • philosophy
  • contemporary

3. Outline

By: Rachel Cusk

4.20

Format: 488 pages, Hardcover

A woman writer goes to Athens in the height of summer to teach a writing course. Though her own cir… read more

Similar categories in Rachel Cusk's Outline book and Sheila Heti's Pure Colour

Cover of I Who Have Never Known Men by Ros Schwartz, Jacqueline Harpman

4. I Who Have Never Known Men

By: Ros Schwartz , Jacqueline Harpman

4.22

Format: 208 pages, Paperback

"As far back as I can recall, I have been in the bunker." A young woman is kept in a cage underg… read more

Similar categories in Ros Schwartz's I Who Have Never Known Men book and Sheila Heti's Pure Colour

  • literary fiction
  • fiction
  • novels
  • adult
  • fantasy
"Survival is never more than putting off the moment of death."

-Ros Schwartz, I Who Have Never Known Men

"I thought it was unfair, and then I understood that, alone and terrified, anger was my only weapon against the horror"

-Ros Schwartz, I Who Have Never Known Men

"Look at them. They’re pretending, they behave as though they still have some control over their lives and make momentous decisions about which vegetable to cook first."

-Ros Schwartz, I Who Have Never Known Men

"Only now, I tell myself that what I'd felt for her, the trust that slowly built up, the constant preference for her company and the joy each time I was reunited with her after an expedition were prob…"

-Ros Schwartz, I Who Have Never Known Men

Cover of Rouge by Mona Awad

5. Rouge

By: Mona Awad

3.56

Format: 383 pages, Kindle Edition

From the critically acclaimed author of Bunny comes a horror-tinted, gothic fairy tale about a lone… read more

Similar categories in Mona Awad's Rouge book and Sheila Heti's Pure Colour

  • literary fiction
  • magical realism
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • adult
  • fantasy
  • audiobook
"If I had beauty, I decided then, I would never throw it away. I would never give it up."

-Mona Awad, Rouge

"I mean, we all have our dark days. Very dark days, sometimes. When our demons come out to play. No one lives entirely in the light, right?"

-Mona Awad, Rouge

"That I can’t protect you from my terrible places that I still go, can’t help but go because no one protected me, no one saved me, no one ever held out their hand and walked me away. But I’m trying to…"

-Mona Awad, Rouge

Cover of Bliss Montage by Ling  Ma

6. Bliss Montage

By: Ling Ma

3.91

Format: 228 pages, Hardcover

A new creation by the author of Severance, the stories in Bliss Montage crash through our carefully… read more

Similar categories in Ling Ma's Bliss Montage book and Sheila Heti's Pure Colour

  • literary fiction
  • magical realism
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • adult
  • fantasy
  • audiobook
"To live is to exist within time. To remember is to negate time."

-Ling Ma, Bliss Montage

"It doesn't take much to come into your own; all it takes is someone's gaze."

-Ling Ma, Bliss Montage

"Maybe you don't know that you're wounded until you receive the salve. The salve that makes everything come back."

-Ling Ma, Bliss Montage

"It was a time when the future could have been anything, been anywhere. It was so open that it could actually crush her."

-Ling Ma, Bliss Montage

Cover of Lapvona by Ottessa Moshfegh

7. Lapvona

By: Ottessa Moshfegh

3.53

Format: 313 pages, Kindle Edition

In a village in a medieval fiefdom buffeted by natural disasters, a motherless shepherd boy finds h… read more

Similar categories in Ottessa Moshfegh's Lapvona book and Sheila Heti's Pure Colour

  • literary fiction
  • magical realism
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • adult
  • fantasy
  • audiobook
"But such was death - it had nothing to say."

-Ottessa Moshfegh, Lapvona

"Blood was the wine of the spirit, was it not?"

-Ottessa Moshfegh, Lapvona

"What scared her were other people and their immovable selfishness"

-Ottessa Moshfegh, Lapvona

"But Jude's piety was a kind of violent urge and not the love and peace it ought to be"

-Ottessa Moshfegh, Lapvona

Cover of Paradise Rot by Jenny Hval

8. Paradise Rot

By: Jenny Hval

3.55

Format: 160 pages, Paperback

A lyrical debut novel from a musician and artist renowned for her sharp sexual and political imager… read more

Similar categories in Jenny Hval's Paradise Rot book and Sheila Heti's Pure Colour

  • literary fiction
  • magical realism
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • fantasy
  • audiobook
"I took a bite of a Bloody Ploughman. Even the flesh was red. 'Bloody,' Carral said. 'Nice colour,' I answered. 'It looks sinful. I bet that was the apple Eve ate, you know, in the Bible, the forbidde…"

-Jenny Hval, Paradise Rot

"I'll tell you the fairy tale of the apple. Eve ate the apple, and then Adam came and did so too. Afterwards the apple was forgotten, and it was assumed that it rolled away in the grass while Adam and…"

-Jenny Hval, Paradise Rot

Cover of All Fours by Miranda July

9. All Fours

By: Miranda July

3.81

Format: 336 pages, Hardcover

The New York Times–bestselling author of The First Bad Man returns with an irreverently sexy, tende… read more

Similar categories in Miranda July's All Fours book and Sheila Heti's Pure Colour

  • literary fiction
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • novels
  • adult
  • audiobook
"But maybe the road split between: a life spent longing vs. a life that was continually surprising"

-Miranda July, All Fours

"Maybe we shouldn't do that," Jordi said. "Flatten ourselves like that. Erratic doesn't have to mean crazy or irresponsible. Shouldn't we be normalizing change?"

-Miranda July, All Fours

"I guess any calling, no mater what it is, is a kind of unresolved ache," I said, giving in to knowing more than him. "It's a problem that you can't fix, but there is some relief in knowing you will c…"

-Miranda July, All Fours

"For me lying created just the right amount of problems and what you saw was just one of my four or five faces- each real, each with different needs. The only dangerous lie was one that asked me to co…"

-Miranda July, All Fours

Cover of The Guest by Emma Cline

10. The Guest

By: Emma Cline

3.29

Format: 304 pages, Hardcover

A young woman pretends to be someone she isn't in this stunning novel by the New York Times bestsel… read more

Similar categories in Emma Cline's The Guest book and Sheila Heti's Pure Colour

  • literary fiction
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • novels
  • adult
  • audiobook
"Younger men had to make everything mean something, had to turn every choice and preference into a referendum on their personality."

-Emma Cline, The Guest

"He assumed her attention when he spoke. He had his insecurities, his anxieties. But underlying it all was the certainty that the world would be generous in its orientation toward him."

-Emma Cline, The Guest

"All the women in the show hated each other, hated each other so much, just so they could avoid hating their husbands. Only their little dogs, blinking from their laps, seemed real: they were the wome…"

-Emma Cline, The Guest

Cover of Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar

11. Martyr!

By: Kaveh Akbar

4.24

Format: 352 pages, Hardcover

Kaveh Akbar’s Martyr! is a paean to how we spend our lives seeking meaning—in faith, art, ourselves… read more

Similar categories in Kaveh Akbar's Martyr! book and Sheila Heti's Pure Colour

  • literary fiction
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • novels
  • audiobook
Cover of If an Egyptian Cannot Speak English by Noor Naga

12. If an Egyptian Cannot Speak English

By: Noor Naga

3.92

Format: 186 pages, Paperback

In the aftermath of the Arab Spring, an Egyptian American woman and a man from the village of Shobr… read more

Similar categories in Noor Naga's If an Egyptian Cannot Speak English book and Sheila Heti's Pure Colour

  • literary fiction
  • canada
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • novels
  • audiobook
Cover of Death Valley by Melissa Broder

13. Death Valley

By: Melissa Broder

3.49

Format: 240 pages, Hardcover

A woman arrives alone at a Best Western seeking respite from an emptiness that plagues her. She has… read more

Similar categories in Melissa Broder's Death Valley book and Sheila Heti's Pure Colour

  • literary fiction
  • magical realism
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • novels
  • adult
  • fantasy
  • audiobook
"My body is the real problem here. If I could be bodiless - or at least, senseless - I’d be better off."

-Melissa Broder, Death Valley

"This is the problem with human relationships: you come to a person with one feeling and they’re having another."

-Melissa Broder, Death Valley

"I am going to die out here. I might. I could. Die. All this time I should have been practising for dying. What was I doing instead? Reading reviews for sweatpants."

-Melissa Broder, Death Valley

"Stop placing so much value on the known, I tell myself. Fake like this is the hero’s journey. It’s good to get lost. Good for the soul. But how lost is the good amount of lost? If I die here, is that…"

-Melissa Broder, Death Valley

Cover of Biography of X by Catherine Lacey

14. Biography of X

By: Catherine Lacey

3.85

Format: 416 pages, Hardcover

From one of our fiercest stylists, a roaring epic chronicling the life, times, and secrets of a not… read more

Similar categories in Catherine Lacey's Biography of X book and Sheila Heti's Pure Colour

  • literary fiction
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • novels
  • adult
  • audiobook
"One of the armed guards smiled and said, “God bless,"

-Catherine Lacey, Biography of X

"Who can say who I are, how many I are, which I is the most I of my I’s?"

-Catherine Lacey, Biography of X

"She could not hurt me. I had no more space, at the time, to hold any new hurts."

-Catherine Lacey, Biography of X

"She kept losing track of the people she loved, and losing track of herself along with them."

-Catherine Lacey, Biography of X

Cover of Second Place by Rachel Cusk

15. Second Place

By: Rachel Cusk

3.68

Format: 186 pages, Hardcover

From the author of the Outline trilogy, a fable of human destiny and decline, enacted in a closed s… read more

Similar categories in Rachel Cusk's Second Place book and Sheila Heti's Pure Colour

  • literary fiction
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • novels
  • adult
  • audiobook
"Some people write simply because they don’t know how to live in the moment and have to reconstruct it and live in it afterwards."

-Rachel Cusk, Second Place

"Muutoksen ja toiston kaava on niin tiukasti yhteydessä tietynlaiseen harmoniaan elämässä, ja vapauden harjoittaminen on alisteista sille aivan kuin opinkappaleelle. Muutoksia täytyy annostella kohtuu…"

-Rachel Cusk, Second Place

"Joskus minun vain täytyy saada puhua jotta tuntisin itseni todelliseksi, ja toivoisin että sinäkin puhuisit minulle." Hän makasi vaiti pimeässä ja tuijotti kattoon. Sitten hän sanoi: "Minusta tuntuu …"

-Rachel Cusk, Second Place

"It struck me how the human capacity for receptivity is a kind of birthright, an asset given to us in the moment of our creation by which we are intended to regulate the currency of our souls. Unless …"

-Rachel Cusk, Second Place

Cover of Parade by Rachel Cusk

16. Parade

By: Rachel Cusk

3.70

Format: 198 pages, Hardcover

From the exhilarating mind of Rachel Cusk, author of the Outline trilogy, Parade disturbs and defin… read more

Similar categories in Rachel Cusk's Parade book and Sheila Heti's Pure Colour

  • literary fiction
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • novels
  • adult
  • audiobook
"He knew that [his work] embodied change, and he wasn’t interested in change. He was interested in the fragments that change leaves behind in its storming passage toward the future."

-Rachel Cusk, Parade

"Not to be understood is effectively to be silenced, but not understanding can in its turn legitimise that silence, can illuminate one’s own unknowability. Art is the pact of individuals denying socie…"

-Rachel Cusk, Parade

"Sanity and insanity were not opposites but rather were the two faces of inanimate matter, the point at which the existence of consciousness can get no further in breaking down the existence of substa…"

-Rachel Cusk, Parade

"The impulse to have a child is very often a response to the woman’s own childhood, as though her childhood has left her incomplete, or has taken a part of her that she is driven to find again. The st…"

-Rachel Cusk, Parade

Cover of Happy Hour by Marlowe Granados

17. Happy Hour

By: Marlowe Granados

3.50

Format: 280 pages, Paperback

With the verve and bite of My Year of Rest and Relaxation and the whip-smart, wisecracking sensibil… read more

Similar categories in Marlowe Granados's Happy Hour book and Sheila Heti's Pure Colour

  • literary fiction
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • novels
  • adult
  • audiobook
"Being unattached is exhausting."

-Marlowe Granados, Happy Hour

"being a muse is not for the weak"

-Marlowe Granados, Happy Hour

"Money was limited, but my taste was not."

-Marlowe Granados, Happy Hour

"isn't a vacation when you forget what day it is?"

-Marlowe Granados, Happy Hour

Cover of Big Swiss by Jen Beagin

18. Big Swiss

By: Jen Beagin

3.68

Format: 336 pages, Hardcover

Greta lives with her friend Sabine in an ancient Dutch farmhouse in Hudson, New York. The house is … read more

Similar categories in Jen Beagin's Big Swiss book and Sheila Heti's Pure Colour

  • literary fiction
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • adult
  • audiobook
"¿Habla más de un idioma?"

-Jen Beagin, Big Swiss

"You bullied other bullies,"

-Jen Beagin, Big Swiss

"she’d always been less of a shit-talker and more of a shit-thinker"

-Jen Beagin, Big Swiss

"At least I know where the hell I am and what’s happening. Which way is north?"

-Jen Beagin, Big Swiss

Cover of Pure Colour by Sheila Heti

19. Pure Colour

By: Sheila Heti

3.46

Format: 224 pages, Hardcover

Pure Colour is a galaxy of a novel: explosive, celestially bright, huge, and streaked with beauty. … read more

Similar categories in Sheila Heti's Pure Colour book and Sheila Heti's Pure Colour

  • literary fiction
  • magical realism
  • canada
  • philosophy
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • novels
  • adult
  • fantasy
  • audiobook
"And what opens one heart opens many."

-Sheila Heti, Pure Colour

"The body becomes a woman and it cannot turn back."

-Sheila Heti, Pure Colour

"And a glimpse into one heart is a glimpse into many."

-Sheila Heti, Pure Colour

"Why did it seem like the only way to live-was to disobey?"

-Sheila Heti, Pure Colour

Cover of Either/Or by Elif Batuman

20. Either/Or

By: Elif Batuman

4.01

Format: 368 pages, Hardcover

From the acclaimed and bestselling author of The Idiot, the continuation of beloved protagonist Sel… read more

Similar categories in Elif Batuman's Either/Or book and Sheila Heti's Pure Colour

  • literary fiction
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • novels
  • adult
  • audiobook
"I'm going to become whatever I was going to become."

-Elif Batuman, Either/Or

"Fiona Apple's album made me more immediately depressed than any other music I remembered hearing."

-Elif Batuman, Either/Or

"That had probably been written by a professor. I recognized the professor's characteristic delight at not imparting information."

-Elif Batuman, Either/Or

"I was going to remember, or discover, where everything came from. I was going to do the subtle, monstrous thing where you figured out what you were doing, and why."

-Elif Batuman, Either/Or

Cover of Ripe by Sarah Rose Etter

21. Ripe

By: Sarah Rose Etter

3.63

Format: 288 pages, Hardcover

A year into her dream job at a cutthroat Silicon Valley startup, Cassie finds herself trapped in a … read more

Similar categories in Sarah Rose Etter's Ripe book and Sheila Heti's Pure Colour

  • literary fiction
  • magical realism
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • adult
  • fantasy
  • audiobook
"The open office floor plan is a form of strangulation."

-Sarah Rose Etter, Ripe

"Maybe there must always be two of us—our real selves and the ones we create to survive in the world as it is."

-Sarah Rose Etter, Ripe

"When you're young, every part of life seems big and monumental. Once older you can see it for what it is: smaller pieces of a larger game you have no choice but to play."

-Sarah Rose Etter, Ripe

"If the brain is elastic and memory is faulty, maybe all of these stories are wrong. Maybe it happened a different way altogether. Maybe I was happy and I just forget that now."

-Sarah Rose Etter, Ripe

19 Top fiction books like Pure Colour by Sheila Heti

Transform Your Habits

The Idiot

Elif Batuman

3.66

Transform Your Habits

I Who Have Never Known Men

Ros Schwartz , Jacqueline Harpman

4.22

Transform Your Habits

Rouge

Mona Awad

3.56

Transform Your Habits

Bliss Montage

Ling Ma

3.91

View all the books

17 Best fiction books like Either/Or by Elif Batuman

Transform Your Habits

Play It As It Lays

Joan Didion , David Thomson

3.92

Transform Your Habits

Rouge

Mona Awad

3.56

Transform Your Habits

Bliss Montage

Ling Ma

3.91

Transform Your Habits

Disorientation

Elaine Hsieh Chou

3.84

View all the books

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