16 best-selling 20th century books like The Missing Girl by Shirley Jackson

Cover of The Missing Girl by Shirley Jackson

The Missing Girl

By: Shirley Jackson

3.55

Format: 55 pages, Paperback

' "Of course, no one would want to say anything about a girl like this that's missing..." ' Mali…

If you liked the 20th century plot in The Missing Girl by Shirley Jackson , here is a list of 16 books like this:

Cover of The Three Electroknights by Stanisław Lem

1. The Three Electroknights

By: Stanisław Lem

3.33

Format: 54 pages, Paperback

'What use to a being that lives beneath a sun are jewels of gas and silver stars of ice?' From a… read more

Similar categories in Stanisław Lem's The Three Electroknights book and Shirley Jackson's The Missing Girl

  • classics
  • short stories
  • fiction
  • 20th century
  • modern classics
Cover of Three Japanese Short Stories by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa

2. Three Japanese Short Stories

By: Ryūnosuke Akutagawa

3.28

Format: 50 pages, Paperback

'Oh the cruelty of time, that destroys all things!' Beguiling, strange and hair-raising tales fr… read more

Similar categories in Ryūnosuke Akutagawa's Three Japanese Short Stories book and Shirley Jackson's The Missing Girl

  • classics
  • short stories
  • fiction
  • 20th century
  • modern classics
"Heroes have always been monsters who crushed sentimentalism underfoot."

-Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, Three Japanese Short Stories

"Oh, but once one has returned to the land of one's birth – there is no place more constricting – one's surroundings no longer permit such freedom, and one can no longer simply transcend the demands o…"

-Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, Three Japanese Short Stories

"For her I would gladly ferry across the Sumida on the coldest winter day to buy her those sakura-mochi sweets from old Edo that she loved so much. But medicine? That is another matter. Not even on th…"

-Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, Three Japanese Short Stories

"No, nothing in this world is as oppressive and debilitating as blood ties. Any other relationship – be it friend, lover, wife; be it obligatory or constraining or difficult – is something one has con…"

-Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, Three Japanese Short Stories

Cover of The Vigilante by John Steinbeck

3. The Vigilante

By: John Steinbeck

3.50

Format: 55 pages, Paperback

'Everything was dead, everything unreal; the dark mob was made up of stiff lay-figures' One of A… read more

Similar categories in John Steinbeck's The Vigilante book and Shirley Jackson's The Missing Girl

  • classics
  • american
  • short stories
  • fiction
  • 20th century
  • horror
  • modern classics
Cover of The Breakthrough by Daphne du Maurier

4. The Breakthrough

By: Daphne du Maurier

3.59

Format: 64 pages, Paperback

Dispatch the maimed, the old, the weak, destroy the very world itself, for what is the point of lif… read more

Similar categories in Daphne du Maurier's The Breakthrough book and Shirley Jackson's The Missing Girl

  • classics
  • short stories
  • fiction
  • 20th century
  • mystery
  • horror
  • modern classics
"These involve programming it with a series of questions. The answers are then fed back into the computer, and are themselves used to modify the questions that follow."

-Daphne du Maurier, The Breakthrough

Cover of Daydream and Drunkenness of a Young Lady by Clarice Lispector

5. Daydream and Drunkenness of a Young Lady

By: Clarice Lispector

3.52

Format: 64 pages, Paperback

"The morning became a long, drawn-out afternoon that became depthless night dawning innocently thro… read more

Similar categories in Clarice Lispector's Daydream and Drunkenness of a Young Lady book and Shirley Jackson's The Missing Girl

  • classics
  • short stories
  • fiction
  • 20th century
  • modern classics
Cover of The Haunted Boy by Carson McCullers

6. The Haunted Boy

By: Carson McCullers

3.92

Format: 60 pages, Mass Market Paperback

His hand sought the adjacent flesh and sorrow paralleled desire in the immense complexity of love. … read more

Similar categories in Carson McCullers's The Haunted Boy book and Shirley Jackson's The Missing Girl

  • classics
  • american
  • short stories
  • fiction
  • 20th century
  • modern classics
Cover of The Black Ball by Ellison Ralph

7. The Black Ball

By: Ellison Ralph

3.79

Format: 53 pages, Paperback

'If he only knew what it was, he would fix it; he would kill this mean thing that made Mama feel so… read more

Similar categories in Ellison Ralph's The Black Ball book and Shirley Jackson's The Missing Girl

  • classics
  • american
  • short stories
  • fiction
  • 20th century
  • modern classics
Cover of The Gigolo by Françoise Sagan

8. The Gigolo

By: Françoise Sagan

3.61

Format: 64 pages, Paperback

'The sap had dried up; the sap, the incentive, the fever, the desire to do, to act, to act the fool… read more

Similar categories in Françoise Sagan's The Gigolo book and Shirley Jackson's The Missing Girl

  • fiction
  • classics
  • modern classics
  • short stories
Cover of The Skeleton’s Holiday by Leonora Carrington

9. The Skeleton’s Holiday

By: Leonora Carrington

3.66

Format: 48 pages, Paperback

'Ring for your maid, and when she comes in we'll pounce upon her and tear off her face. I'll wear h… read more

Similar categories in Leonora Carrington's The Skeleton’s Holiday book and Shirley Jackson's The Missing Girl

  • classics
  • short stories
  • fiction
  • 20th century
  • horror
  • modern classics
"The hyena found it difficult to walk in my high-heeled shoes."

-Leonora Carrington, The Skeleton’s Holiday

"The skeleton was as happy as a madman whose straitjacket had been taken off."

-Leonora Carrington, The Skeleton’s Holiday

"Ring for your maid, and when she comes in we'll pounce upon her and tear off her face. I'll wear her face tonight instead of mine."

-Leonora Carrington, The Skeleton’s Holiday

"The skeleton's lodgings had an ancient head and modern feet. The ceiling was the sky, the floor the earth. It was painted white and decorated with snowballs in which a heart beat. He looked like a tr…"

-Leonora Carrington, The Skeleton’s Holiday

Cover of Food by Gertrude Stein

10. Food

By: Gertrude Stein

1.96

Format: 55 pages, Paperback

Sadder than salad. From apples to artichokes, these glittering, fragmented, painterly portraits … read more

Similar categories in Gertrude Stein's Food book and Shirley Jackson's The Missing Girl

  • classics
  • american
  • short stories
  • 20th century
  • modern classics
Cover of The Finger by William S. Burroughs

11. The Finger

By: William S. Burroughs

3.31

Format: 48 pages, Paperback

'He felt a sudden deep pity for the finger joint that lay there on the dresser, a few drops of bloo… read more

Similar categories in William S. Burroughs's The Finger book and Shirley Jackson's The Missing Girl

  • classics
  • the united states of america
  • short stories
  • fiction
  • modern classics
Cover of The Missing Girl by Shirley Jackson

12. The Missing Girl

By: Shirley Jackson

3.55

Format: 55 pages, Paperback

' "Of course, no one would want to say anything about a girl like this that's missing..." ' Mali… read more

Similar categories in Shirley Jackson's The Missing Girl book and Shirley Jackson's The Missing Girl

  • classics
  • american
  • the united states of america
  • short stories
  • 20th century
  • fiction
  • mystery
  • thriller
  • horror
  • modern classics
Cover of The Distance of the Moon by Italo Calvino

13. The Distance of the Moon

By: Italo Calvino

3.86

Format: 64 pages, Paperback

'Time is a catastrophe, perpetual and irreversible.' Science and fiction interweave delightfully… read more

Similar categories in Italo Calvino's The Distance of the Moon book and Shirley Jackson's The Missing Girl

  • fiction
  • classics
  • modern classics
  • short stories
"To explode or to implode – said Qfwfq – that is the question: whether 'tis nobler in the mind to expand one's energies in space without restraint, or to crush them into a dense inner concentration."

-Italo Calvino, The Distance of the Moon

"My return was sweet, my home refound, but my thoughts were filled only with grief at having lost her, and my eyes gazed at the Moon, for ever beyond my reach, as I sought her. And I saw her. She was …"

-Italo Calvino, The Distance of the Moon

Cover of I Have More Souls Than One by Fernando Pessoa

14. I Have More Souls Than One

By: Fernando Pessoa

3.96

Format: 64 pages, Paperback

'But no, she's abstract, is a birdOf sound in the air of air soaring,And her soul sings unencumbere… read more

Similar categories in Fernando Pessoa's I Have More Souls Than One book and Shirley Jackson's The Missing Girl

  • fiction
  • classics
  • modern classics
  • short stories
Cover of The Duke in His Domain by Truman Capote

15. The Duke in His Domain

By: Truman Capote

3.80

Format: 50 pages, Paperback

Now Brando looked at people with assurance, and with what can only be called a pitying expression, … read more

Similar categories in Truman Capote's The Duke in His Domain book and Shirley Jackson's The Missing Girl

  • classics
  • american
  • the united states of america
  • short stories
  • modern classics
Cover of The Great Hunger (Penguin Modern) by Patrick Kavanagh

16. The Great Hunger (Penguin Modern)

By: Patrick Kavanagh

3.48

Format: 64 pages, Paperback

'I have lived in important places, times When great events were decided . . .' By turns comical… read more

Similar categories in Patrick Kavanagh's The Great Hunger (Penguin Modern) book and Shirley Jackson's The Missing Girl

  • classics
  • short stories
  • fiction
  • 20th century
  • modern classics
Cover of The Legend of the Sleepers (Penguin Modern) by Danilo Kiš

17. The Legend of the Sleepers (Penguin Modern)

By: Danilo Kiš

2.93

Format: 64 pages, Paperback

'For once there had been false idols and asses' heads drawn on the walls...' Sleepers awake in … read more

Similar categories in Danilo Kiš's The Legend of the Sleepers (Penguin Modern) book and Shirley Jackson's The Missing Girl

  • classics
  • short stories
  • fiction
  • 20th century
  • modern classics
Cover of An Advertisement for Toothpaste (Penguin Modern) by Ryszard Kapuściński

18. An Advertisement for Toothpaste (Penguin Modern)

By: Ryszard Kapuściński

3.61

Format: 53 pages, Paperback

'Like rotting stakes in a forest clearing' The great journalist of conflict in the Third World … read more

Similar categories in Ryszard Kapuściński's An Advertisement for Toothpaste (Penguin Modern) book and Shirley Jackson's The Missing Girl

  • classics
  • modern classics
  • 20th century
  • short stories
Cover of Till September Petronella by Jean Rhys

19. Till September Petronella

By: Jean Rhys

3.39

Format: 53 pages, Paperback

'I knew he was imagining a really lovely girl—all curves, curls, heart and hidden claws' In stor… read more

Similar categories in Jean Rhys's Till September Petronella book and Shirley Jackson's The Missing Girl

  • classics
  • short stories
  • fiction
  • 20th century
  • modern classics
"We sat under the mango tree and I was holding his hand when he began to cry. Drops fell on my hand like the water from the dripstone in the filter in our yard. Then I began to cry too and when I felt…"

-Jean Rhys, Till September Petronella

Cover of Four Russian Short Stories by Gaito Gazdanov

20. Four Russian Short Stories

By: Gaito Gazdanov

3.35

Format: 56 pages, Paperback

In these stories, four writers—all exiles from revolutionary Russia—explore four deaths in a world … read more

Similar categories in Gaito Gazdanov's Four Russian Short Stories book and Shirley Jackson's The Missing Girl

  • classics
  • short stories
  • fiction
  • 20th century
  • modern classics
Cover of Glittering City by Cyprian Ekwensi

21. Glittering City

By: Cyprian Ekwensi

3.15

Format: 52 pages, Paperback

'"Forget all your fears now. Have a fling this night"' Untrustworthy, charming Fussy Joe spins s… read more

Similar categories in Cyprian Ekwensi's Glittering City book and Shirley Jackson's The Missing Girl

  • classics
  • short stories
  • fiction
  • 20th century
  • modern classics

18 Top fiction books like The Missing Girl by Shirley Jackson

Transform Your Habits

The Three Electroknights

Stanisław Lem

3.33

Transform Your Habits

Three Japanese Short Stories

Ryūnosuke Akutagawa

3.28

Transform Your Habits

The Vigilante

John Steinbeck

3.50

Transform Your Habits

The Breakthrough

Daphne du Maurier

3.59

View all the books

16 must-read fiction books like The Three Electroknights by Stanisław Lem

Transform Your Habits

The Veiled Woman (PENGUIN MODERN)

Anaïs Nin

3.48

Transform Your Habits

The Three Electroknights

Stanisław Lem

3.33

Transform Your Habits

Three Japanese Short Stories

Ryūnosuke Akutagawa

3.28

Transform Your Habits

The Vigilante

John Steinbeck

3.50

View all the books

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