Loved Netflix’s East Of Eden? 9 Books To Read Next

We’ve already shared the (many) great books to read based on 2026’s TV and movie offerings, including Sense and Sensibility, The Odyssey, and yet another Dune instalment.

But back then, we missed what has turned out to be a mega-hit: Netflix’s adaptation of John Steinbeck’s novel East of Eden.

Though the show strays from the 1952 book in some ways, it’s still delighted critics and audiences alike.

Still, you might be wondering whether it’s really worth your time to read the 600-page classic after finishing the show – and whether there are any other titles you should pick up next, too.

Well, luckily, the cast and creators of Netflix’s East of Eden have given us a LOT of inspiration on that front (as has the book itself).

Zoe Kazan, who created, wrote, and executive produced the Netflix show, has a family tie to the story – she’s the granddaughter of Elia Kazan, who wrote the iconic 1955 East of Eden film starring James Dean.

Zoe also co-wrote 2018’s Wildlife, a film based on the 1990 novel from Pulitzer Prize-winning author Richard Ford.

The book, described as a “small marvel in its own right” by Esquire, is narrated by a 16-year-old Joe Brinston who is watching his family fall apart.

As with Cathy in East of Eden, Kazan’s version of the story gives Joe a little more of his own life – and like the Netflix miniseries, it makes a strong case for reading and watching the story together.

Oh look – another acclaimed-novel-Zoe-Kazan combo. After East of Eden, Neftlix has paired once more with Zoe to create an adaptation of 1985’s Lonesome Dove, which won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.

Fans of East of Eden will find themselves on similar (literal) ground in parts of the book, which takes place in the 19th-century American West. This “epic”, however, features “audacious cowboys on a perilous cattle drive,” per publisher Pan Macmillan.

Garth Davis, who directed the first four episodes of Netflix’s East of Eden, admittedly did not get much acclaim for his 2023 film Foe starring Saoirse Ronan and Paul Mescal. As of the time of writing, it has a fairly dismal critics’ score of 25% on review aggregation site Rotten Tomatoes.

However, not only did viewers like the film twice as much as the pros (its audience-generated “Popcornmeter” rating is a much more respectable 53%), but there’s good reason to give the book a read, too.

Psychological thriller Foe follows married couple Junior and Henrietta’s life on an isolated farm (sound familiar?). Sure, East of Eden doesn’t feature an uncanny robot replacement husband. But questions about who we really are in a marriage and whether we ever truly can know each other are just as pertinent in the I’m Thinking of Ending Things writer’s second title.

Ambitious and fairly well-off but “stuck”-feeling women have gotten some pretty good literary representation in the past. There’s Emma in Madame Bovary, Louise Lannier in Someone at a Distance, and, of course, Cathy Ames in East of Eden.

Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre, who directed three episodes of the Netflix adaptation, tackled yet another in her 2022 Lady Chatterley’s Lover film.

The book it’s based on was so scandalous on its 1920s release that it was banned until the ’60s in the UK (for what it’s worth, East of Eden has been banned from some schools as recently as 2023). It focuses on the passionate affair between an upper-class aristocratic wife and her working-class paramour.

By the way, with an 87% Rotten Tomatoes score, you’ll probably want to catch de Clermont-Tonnerre’s film version afterwards, too.

Florence Pugh is stunning as the on-screen version of Cathy Ames – and she’s about to take on another big-name title, too. The Dune actor is set to produce and star in an adaptation of Matt Haig’s bestselling 2020 book The Midnight Library, which has sold 15 million copies (Haig himself will executive produce).

The novel follows Nora Seed, who finds herself in a magical “library” outlining all her possible lives after a personal crisis. StudioCanal’s version of the story promises to act as a “love letter to life” and will start filming in early 2027.

Speaking of East of Eden cast members and their literary adaptations, Christopher Abbott, who played Adam Trask in the Netflix show, also starred in Hulu’s series based on Heller’s iconic Catch-22.

The book, which is on The Guardian’s list of 100 best novels, is a satirical anti-war novel set during World War II. It follows bombardier Captain John Yossarian and his attempts to keep his mind in an increasingly absurd environment.

(By the way, yes, the phrase does come from the book, though it was almost Catch-18.)

Alright, even I’ll admit this sounds so obvious it’s almost a stupid entry. But to be fair, not every brilliant adaptation necessitates reading the source material: for instance, though Elena Ferrante’s The Lost Daughter was excellent, I have to confess I didn’t feel reading it added much after watching Netflix’s also-brilliant Olivia Colman-fronted production.

And East of Eden is a 600-page-long commitment. I spent about two hours reading it daily to finish it within a work week.

Still, it is different enough from the series to enrich the experience of both. I don’t think it matters whether you start with the film or the novel: you’ll be impressed by how selective the TV show was in its inclusions, and the majesty of the source material itself, regardless.

This is the book that got me into Steinbeck in the first place (not coincidentally, it’s far shorter than East of Eden at around 110 pages). The heartbreaking, brilliantly condensed novella follows two migrant ranch workers, George Milton and Lennie Small, who are trying their best to keep their heads above water during the Great Depression.

It is not a happy or lighthearted read. Though it produces a subtle portrait of its troubled and troubling subjects, most of its “grey areas” form different shades of suffering. Like East of Eden, it looks at what we can control and what we can’t – and the latter pile seems much higher than the former by the end of the book.

I can think of some other ambitious novels, like Middlemarch, which follow the multi-generational stories of interconnected characters across the years. But to me, Steinbeck’s story is much closer to García Márquez’s masterpiece.

Like East of Eden, 100 Years of Solitude follows people who have moved to, and to some degree founded, a brand-new town. The Buendía family seem cursed, as perhaps the Trask family appear to be – but for both, it’s hard to work out just how many of these unpleasant prophecies are actually self-fulfilling.

There’s a magical feel to parts of East of Eden, and real magic in 100 Years of Solitude. Neither will leave you unscathed.