Explore the latest books of this year!
Bookbot

Anti-novels

This series delves into the depths of human existence, exploring themes of life's absurdity, the search for identity, and the inevitability of death. With an unflinching and often unsettling perspective on the world, these works defy traditional narrative structures. They offer readers an introspective journey through existential dilemmas, where language and style play as crucial a role as the plot itself.

Three Novels: Molloy, Malone Dies, the Unnamable
The Unnamable
Malone Dies
Molloy

Recommended Reading Order

  1. Molloy

    • 256 pages
    • 9 hours of reading

    'Molloy' is Samuel Beckett's best-known novel, and his first published work to be written in French. It brings a world into existence with finicking certainties, at the tip of whoever is holding the pencil, and trades larger uncertainties with the reader.

    Molloy1
    4.1
  2. Malone Dies

    • 176 pages
    • 7 hours of reading

    The aged and bedridden protagonist (Molloy / Moran / Malone) awaits death, telling stories about other personifiations of himself to pass the time.

    Malone Dies2
    4.0
  3. The Unnamable

    • 176 pages
    • 7 hours of reading

    The Unnamable - so named because he knows not who he may be - is from a nameless place. He speaks of previous selves ('all these Murphys, Molloys, and Malones...') as diversions from the need to stop speaking altogether.

    The Unnamable3
    4.1

Related books

  • Few works of contemporary literature are so universally acclaimed as central to our understanding of the human experience as Nobel Prize winner Samuel Beckett’s famous trilogy. Molloy, the first of these masterpieces, appeared in French in 1951. It was followed seven months later by Malone Dies and two years later by The Unnamable. All three have been rendered into English by the author.

    Three Novels: Molloy, Malone Dies, the Unnamable
    4.3