The House on Mango Street
Sandra Cisneros
A coming-of-age story set in Chicago's Hispanic quarter.
1984
Native Son
Richard Wright
A powerful novel about race and poverty on Chicago's South Side.
1940
Devil in the White City
Erik Larson
Parallel stories of the 1893 World’s Fair and a serial killer.
2003
Sister Carrie
Theodore Dreiser
Follows a young woman’s move to Chicago in search of success.
1900
The Time Traveler's Wife
Audrey Niffenegger
Love story set in Chicago between a man with a genetic time disorder and an artist.
2003
The Jungle
Upton Sinclair
Exposé of Chicago's meatpacking industry and immigrant struggles.
1906
Boss
Mike Royko
Biography of controversial Chicago mayor Richard J. Daley.
1971
The Adventures of Augie March
Saul Bellow
A big, picaresque coming-of-age odyssey of a Chicago kid hustling through Depression-era life.
1953
The Great Believers
Rebecca Makkai
Intertwined stories of friendship and loss spanning Chicago’s 1980s AIDS crisis and present-day fallout.
2018
Marrying the Ketchups
Jennifer Close
A warm, funny family saga orbiting a beloved Chicago restaurant and seismic life changes.
2022
Love Medicine
Louise Erdrich
A multigenerational tapestry of Ojibwe families—love, faith, and survival—told in luminous, linked stories.
1984
Chicago: A Novel
Brian Doyle
A young man's encounter with Chicago’s characters and rhythms.
2016
Chicago Poems
Carl Sandburg
Poetry capturing the grit and grandeur of early 20th-century Chicago.
1916
Division Street
Studs Terkel
Oral histories of Chicagoans from all walks of life.
1967