Books Like The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows’s The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society is the story of Juliet Ashton, a London writer in 1946 who receives a letter from a stranger on the island of Guernsey - and who, through a correspondence that grows into a family, discovers the story of the island’s occupation during the war and the literary society that was born to hide a pig. It is one of the most beloved books of its generation, and it works because it is built on the deepest of pleasures: letters, found family and the love of books. If you loved it, you already know what you are looking for: more novels told in letters, more bookish communities, more warm historical fiction about the people who survive and the books that hold them together. This guide gathers the best books like The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society.

Why The Guernsey Literary Society Works So Well#

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society works because it is told entirely in letters - and the form is the meaning. Juliet’s correspondence with Dawsey, the fisherman who writes to her about a book by Charles Lamb, opens into a whole world: the island, the occupation, the literary society that was invented to hide a pig from the Germans and became a real family. The letters let the reader fall in love with the characters one voice at a time - Isola’s eccentricity, Amelia’s kindness, Eben’s grief, the children’s resilience - and they let the war story unfold gently, the horror arriving through the ordinary details of survival. The novel’s genius is the combination: the lightness of the letters and the weight of the occupation, the comedy and the grief, the books and the people who read them.

The books that follow in its footsteps share that quality. They are built on the same engine: letters, found family, the love of books, and the war remembered gently. If you loved the way the Guernsey Literary Society made you feel, these are the books that will make you feel it again.

The Themes That Define the Genre#

Books like the Guernsey Literary Society cluster around a few themes, and knowing them helps you choose your next read:

The love of books. The signature theme: the books that connect the characters - the borrowed volumes, the shared reading, the society itself.

Letters and their intimacy. The genre’s form: the correspondence that builds the story - the voice, the trust, the love that grows on the page.

Found family. The genre’s heart: the community that gathers - the islanders, the society, the correspondents - and becomes a family.

The war remembered gently. The genre’s weight: the occupation, the loss, the endurance - told through ordinary lives and ordinary details.

The Best Books Like The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society#

84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff#

The closest cousin - and the true story that inspired the form: a New York writer’s twenty-year correspondence with a London bookseller, beginning with a request for secondhand books and growing into a deep, loving friendship. It is the essential bookish correspondence: the same letters, the same love of books, the same intimacy built on the page. It is clean, warm and utterly charming, and it is the single best next read for Guernsey fans.

The Jane Austen Society by Natalie Jenner#

The most bookish cousin: in the small English village of Chawton - where Jane Austen lived - a group of unlikely people gather after the war to save Austen’s legacy, and the novel unfolds their stories and their growing community. It has the Guernsey Literary Society’s bookish community and its postwar setting: the same love of books, the same found family, the same warm historical frame. It is clean and delightful, and it is the perfect pick for Guernsey fans.

Dear Mrs. Bird by A. J. Pearce#

The most wartime cousin: Emmy Lake, a young woman in wartime London, dreams of being a war correspondent but ends up working for a magazine’s advice column - and the novel unfolds her determination to help the women who write in, even when the column forbids it. It has the Guernsey Literary Society’s war and its plucky heroine with a lighter, funnier register: the same era, the same warmth, the same letters at the center. It is clean and charming, and it is the perfect pick for Guernsey fans.

The Guernsey Literary Society’s gothic cousin: The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield#

The most mysterious cousin: a reclusive novelist, dying, hires a young biographer to write her story - and the novel unfolds, in the novelist’s own telling, a dark and twisted family history. It has the Guernsey Literary Society’s bookish frame with a gothic, suspenseful register: the same love of books and stories, the same layers of telling. Note: it is darker than the Guernsey Literary Society, but the bookishness is the same.

The Guernsey Literary Society’s island cousin: The Island of Missing Trees by Elif Shafak#

The most contemporary cousin: on Cyprus, a fig tree bears witness to the love and the war that divided the island - and the novel unfolds, across generations, the story of the two lovers the tree sheltered. It has the Guernsey Literary Society’s island and its war with a more lyrical, contemporary register: the same island, the same division, the same endurance. Note: it is a more literary novel, but the island frame will be familiar to Guernsey fans.

The Guernsey Literary Society’s bookshop cousin: The Little Paris Bookshop by Nina George#

The most romantic cousin: Monsieur Perdu, a bookseller who calls himself a “literary apothecary,” prescribes novels for the ailments of the soul - and when his own heart is broken, he sets out on a journey down the Seine with a bookshop on a barge. It has the Guernsey Literary Society’s love of books with a more romantic, whimsical register: the same conviction that books heal, the same found family. It is clean and lovely, and it is the perfect pick for Guernsey fans.

The Guernsey Literary Society’s war cousin: The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah#

The most sweeping cousin: two sisters in occupied France during World War II - one who joins the Resistance, one who protects the children of the village - and the novel unfolds their separate acts of courage across the war. It has the Guernsey Literary Society’s occupation and its women with a much heavier, more sweeping register: the same war, the same endurance, the same sisters. Note: it is an emotional read with war content, but it is beloved.

How to Choose Your Next Read#

With so many excellent options, the choice comes down to what you loved most about the Guernsey Literary Society:

If you loved the letters, start with 84, Charing Cross Road - the essential bookish correspondence.

If you loved the bookish community, start with The Jane Austen Society - the same found family.

If you loved the war, start with Dear Mrs. Bird or The Nightingale - the lighter and the heavier versions.

If you loved the island, start with The Island of Missing Trees - the island frame, a contemporary register.

If you loved the love of books, start with The Little Paris Bookshop - the bookshop as healer.

The Conversation These Books Start#

Every book on this list is built for discussion, and the questions that worked for the Guernsey Literary Society work for them all: What would your literary society be named after - and who would be in it? What do letters give a story that narration cannot - and what do they give a friendship? What does the genre say about how books hold communities together - and what is the book that holds yours? What is the ordinary heroism of the people who survived the war - and how do these novels honor it? These are the questions the genre exists to ask, and they are the reason these books are so often shared, discussed and given as gifts. For the craft of the conversation itself, our family-friendly justice themes analysis extends the discussion into the war and its reckonings, and our meaningful character growth analysis for adults digs deeper into the characters’ arcs.

The Shelf Beyond the Essentials#

Beyond the essentials, a deeper shelf rewards the reader who wants more of the theme. For the letter novel: the epistolary tradition - from the classic novels of letters to the contemporary email and letter books - is the genre’s form, with the same intimacy and the same voices. For the bookish community: the novels of the reading groups, libraries and bookshops - from The Jane Austen Society to the novels of the book club - carry the Guernsey Literary Society’s community into other settings, with the same love of books. For the occupation story: the novels of the occupied islands and countries - from the Channel Islands to the wider European occupation - tell the same story of endurance in different settings. For the found family: the novels of the communities built in wartime - from the Blitz novels to the books of the evacuees - carry the found-family engine. Each of these extends the shelf, and each rewards the same bookish-warmth reading that the Guernsey Literary Society rewards.

The Community the Books Build#

The deepest gift of the genre - and the reason it is so beloved - is the community the books build. The Guernsey Literary Society was invented to hide a pig and became a family: the islanders who gathered around books, letters and survival. The books on this list share that gift - the reading group, the bookshop, the correspondence that becomes a community - and the genre’s argument is that books are not only stories but gatherings: the shared reading, the borrowed volumes, the letters that connect the lonely. That is why the genre is so often given as a gift and recommended to friends: it is not only a book about books, it is a book that builds the same community in the reader’s own life - the friend who reads it, the club that discusses it, the letter that gets written. It is the deepest pleasure the genre offers, and it never fades.

Conclusion#

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society is one of those books that makes you want to start a literary society of your own - and the books like it have the same gift. 84, Charing Cross Road, The Jane Austen Society, Dear Mrs. Bird, The Nightingale and the rest each take the same engine - the letters, the found family, the love of books, the war remembered gently - and turn it into a different novel with the same warmth and the same heart. Whatever you loved most about Juliet’s correspondence, there is a book on this list that gives it to you again. And when you finish it, you will probably do what Guernsey readers always do: close the book, write a letter to a friend, and recommend a book they have to read. For more recommendations and reading tools, explore the Guides section of our site.