If you enjoy reading books by Can Xue then you might also like the following authors:
Franz Kafka creates stories filled with unsettling atmospheres, strange logic, and surreal situations. His works explore isolation, absurdity, and the powerful forces people struggle to understand.
In The Metamorphosis, Kafka tells the story of Gregor Samsa, who wakes up transformed into an insect and copes with the alienation from his family and society.
Fans of Can Xue's dreamlike and surreal narratives will appreciate Kafka’s ability to blend reality and bizarre situations.
Bruno Schulz's writing mixes imagination and reality, creating dreamlike stories rich with symbolism and vivid imagery. His style immerses readers in magical yet unsettling worlds, opening up narratives filled with strange connections.
His collection, The Street of Crocodiles, takes readers into a world marked by memory, dreams, and myth. If you enjoy Can Xue’s imaginative and surreal environments, Schulz’s memorable storytelling will captivate you.
Jorge Luis Borges crafts concise, imaginative, and labyrinthine stories which explore ideas of infinity, identity, and reality. His works challenge readers to reconsider what's possible, blending philosophical puzzles with engaging narratives.
Ficciones, one of Borges' best-known collections, features stories that intertwine literature, fantasy, and philosophy. Readers of Can Xue’s experimental and mind-expanding tales will find Borges similarly rewarding.
Yoko Ogawa creates haunting stories that invite readers into quietly disturbing worlds. Her writing style is precise yet subtle, often addressing themes of memory, disappearance, and isolation.
The Housekeeper and the Professor is a gentle yet powerful story about memory, math, and unlikely personal bonds. Fans of Can Xue's ambiguous, introspective narratives may also appreciate Ogawa's quietly unsettling and beautifully crafted works.
Samuel Beckett explores human existence through experimental narratives, dark humor, and minimalist settings. His works reflect on isolation, absurdity, and meaninglessness with striking clarity and wit.
In Waiting for Godot, two men wait endlessly for someone who never appears, humorously highlighting life's absurdities. Readers fascinated by Can Xue’s surreal and mysterious themes will enjoy Beckett’s unconventional storytelling and thought-provoking style.
Donald Barthelme writes experimental fiction full of surreal situations and absurd humor. His stories mix reality and fantasy, focusing on ordinary life presented in absurdist and playful ways.
For instance, his book Sixty Stories showcases short pieces that surprise readers with quirky scenes and imaginative narratives.
Leonora Carrington's writing often blends fantasy, mythology, and surreal imagery. Her imaginative style and dreamy storytelling explore themes of identity, transformation, and women's place in society.
A great example is her novel The Hearing Trumpet, where a whimsical quest leads an elderly woman into strange and magical adventures.
Kobo Abe creates literature characterized by unsettling and surreal atmospheres. His works explore themes like isolation, alienation, and the challenge of finding identity in an absurd world.
His novel The Woman in the Dunes tells the haunting story of a man trapped in a strange village in the sand dunes, where escape seems impossible.
Alain Robbe-Grillet's books explore reality through precise and detached description. He writes novels without clear plots, often challenging traditional ways of storytelling.
His novel Jealousy demonstrates this approach, focusing on obsessive observation and repetitive images to create an atmosphere of suspicion and mystery.
Nathalie Sarraute experiments with language and internal consciousness. She examines the subtle interactions and hidden tensions in human relationships.
Her book Tropisms offers a series of short, vivid glimpses into the quiet dramas unfolding in everyday interactions, capturing emotional undercurrents we rarely notice.
Robert Walser's stories are quiet puzzles. He writes with simple, gentle prose, but beneath the calm surface are strange, dream-like situations and subtle humor.
His novel Jakob von Gunten explores themes of authority, identity, and absurdity, telling the story of a young man's life in an odd, mysterious school. Walser often challenges our perception of normal life, much as Can Xue does in her own unconventional narratives.
Clarice Lispector writes with intense psychological depth, exploring the inner lives of her deeply introspective characters. Her writing often blurs boundaries between reality and the imagined, where ordinary moments become deeply profound.
In her novel The Passion According to G.H., a wealthy woman spirals into self-examination after an encounter with a cockroach leads to existential discovery.
Readers who like Can Xue's fiercely inventive, surreal perspectives will appreciate Lispector's immersive and surprising style.
Flann O'Brien combines humor and absurdity, creating stories that constantly turn reality and logic upside-down. His writing is playfully imaginative, frequently pointing out the oddity of literature itself.
His novel The Third Policeman involves a bizarre mystery featuring impossible events, odd philosophies, and eccentric characters. O'Brien's clever use of absurd beliefs and twisted logic can appeal to readers who enjoy the dreamlike uncertainty found in Can Xue's fiction.
Witold Gombrowicz explores human absurdity, identity, and social conventions through sharp humor and playful contradiction. His key themes are personal identity and the strangeness of human interactions.
In his novel Ferdydurke, a grown man finds himself back at school, forced to relive adolescence. Gombrowicz’s odd plots and ironic style have similarities to Can Xue's experimental approach to storytelling.
Angela Carter’s work blends dark fantasy and surreal scenarios, retelling old fairy tales in fresh, subversive ways. Her writing explores gender identity, transformation, and power dynamics through richly symbolic narratives.
The Bloody Chamber is one of her best-known works, a collection of twisted fairy-tale adaptations filled with dark imagination and striking symbolism. Carter's bold, experimental style will resonate with fans of Can Xue's boundary-breaking fiction.