Authors Like Arnon Grunberg

Reading List

Authors Like Arnon Grunberg

Arnon Grunberg was expelled from his Amsterdam grammar school at seventeen, ran a publishing house that went bust, and at twenty-three published Blauwe maandagen (1994), which won the prize for the best debut. Six years later he won the same prize again under the name Marek van der Jagt, and for a long time nobody knew it was him. Between novels such as Tirza (2006) he goes to live among the people he writes about — Dutch soldiers in Afghanistan, American troops in Iraq, the staff of hotels and psychiatric wards — collected in Kamermeisjes & soldaten (2009) and Slachters en psychiaters (2021). In June 2026 he became writer-in-residence at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. The ten below were chosen on two counts: each placed themselves among strangers or inside an institution for long stretches, and each writes about it without pretending to be neutral.

By Lisanne Swart · 10 authors · Novelist and reporter · Among strangers · Updated October 2026

Quick answer

If you love Arnon Grunberg, the closest match is Emmanuel Carrère: a novelist who also writes reportage and puts himself in the middle of it. For embedding with soldiers, read Sebastian Junger and Michael Herr; for a Dutch writer living among bankers, Joris Luyendijk; and for joining in to see from inside, Bill Buford and Günter Wallraff. Joan Didion gives the warning that comes with the method. Each entry below says where they went and how openly they write about themselves.

Every book by Arnon Grunberg →

Where to start if you loved Arnon Grunberg

If you want the closest match, read Emmanuel Carrère.

Limonov. A novelist follows a Russian provocateur through his life.

If you want the Dutch reporter's version, read Joris Luyendijk.

Swimming with Sharks. Two years among London's bankers.

If you liked his pieces with soldiers, read Sebastian Junger.

War. A year with a platoon in Afghanistan.

If you want the war classic, read Michael Herr.

Dispatches. Vietnam from among the soldiers.

If you want the same comedy of joining in, read Bill Buford.

Heat. A writer in a professional kitchen.

If you want more reporting like this

My list of the best investigative journalism books has the rest.

10 authors like Arnon Grunberg

01
Novelist and reporter · Closest match

Emmanuel Carrère

French · The Adversary (2000), Limonov (2011), V13 (2022)

The Adversary is about Jean-Claude Romand, who in 1993 killed his wife, his children and his parents after eighteen years of pretending to be a doctor at the World Health Organization. Carrère corresponded with him in prison and attended his trial, and left his own hesitation about writing the book inside it.

Among strangers:A murderer in prison, a Russian provocateur, a terrorism trial.

Not neutral:He is a character in every book.

Carrère is the writer most like Grunberg in Europe: a novelist who turned to non-fiction and never pretends to stand outside what he describes. Limonov and V13 show the same mix of curiosity, discomfort and irony.

— Lisanne

Every book by Emmanuel Carrère →

Authors like Emmanuel Carrère →

02
The Dutch reporter among the bankers

Joris Luyendijk

Dutch · People Like Us (2006), Swimming with Sharks (2015)

Luyendijk was a Middle East correspondent who wrote about what news reporting leaves out, then spent two years interviewing around two hundred people in the City of London for a Guardian blog that became Swimming with Sharks, about the culture of banking after the 2008 crash.

Among strangers:Two years interviewing around two hundred people in the City of London.

Not neutral:An outsider who says so on every page.

Luyendijk, like Grunberg, takes Dutch readers into worlds they will never enter and writes as a visitor who admits his limits. Swimming with Sharks is the closest Dutch counterpart to Grunberg's reportage.

— Lisanne

Every book by Joris Luyendijk →

03
The soldiers' side

Sebastian Junger

American · The Perfect Storm (1997), War (2010)

For War Junger made repeated trips over a year to an American platoon in the Korengal Valley in Afghanistan, one of the most dangerous postings of the war, and filmed the documentary Restrepo with Tim Hetherington there.

Among strangers:Repeated trips over a year to an American platoon in Afghanistan.

Not neutral:Open about his own fear and attachment.

Junger embedded with American soldiers in Afghanistan in the same years Grunberg went there with Dutch troops. War is the more sustained account; Grunberg's pieces are stranger and more ironic.

— Lisanne

Every book by Sebastian Junger →

Authors like Sebastian Junger →

04
Older than the genre · The war inside the writer

Michael Herr

American · Dispatches (1977)

Herr covered the Vietnam War for Esquire in 1967 and 1968, travelling with soldiers rather than reporting from the briefings. Dispatches is written in a fractured, hallucinatory first person; he later wrote the narration for Apocalypse Now and co-wrote Full Metal Jacket.

Among strangers:Two years with American soldiers in Vietnam.

Not neutral:A fractured first person that never pretends to calm.

Dispatches is the model for writing a war from among the soldiers with the writer's own state of mind in full view. Grunberg's embedded pieces belong to this line.

— Lisanne

Every book by Michael Herr →

Authors like Michael Herr →

05
Not Dutch · Into the institution

Günter Wallraff

German · Ganz unten (1985; in English Lowest of the Low)

Wallraff spent two years disguised as a Turkish labourer called Ali, taking the dirtiest and most dangerous jobs in West Germany, including at a steelworks and as a test subject for drugs. Ganz unten became one of the best-selling non-fiction books in post-war Germany and caused a national scandal.

Among strangers:Two years disguised as a Turkish labourer in West Germany.

Not neutral:An open campaigner, not an observer.

Wallraff went undercover where Grunberg goes openly, but both take jobs inside institutions to see them from below. Wallraff wants to expose; Grunberg wants to understand, which is the difference worth noticing.

— Lisanne

Every book by Günter Wallraff →

Authors like Günter Wallraff →

06
Joining in

Bill Buford

American · Among the Thugs (1991), Heat (2006), Dirt (2020)

Buford travelled with English football hooligans for years while editing Granta, then joined a New York restaurant kitchen as an unpaid helper for Heat and moved his family to Lyon to train as a chef for Dirt.

Among strangers:Years with football hooligans, and kitchens in New York and Lyon.

Not neutral:His own clumsiness as the joke and the method.

Buford joins worlds as an amateur and writes himself as the least competent person in the room, which is Grunberg's posture in the hotels and psychiatric wards. Both are funny about it; both are serious underneath.

— Lisanne

Every book by Bill Buford →

Authors like Bill Buford →

07
Older than the genre · The participant

George Plimpton

American · Out of My League (1961), Paper Lion (1966)

Plimpton invented participatory journalism as a sport: he pitched against major-league hitters, trained as a quarterback with the Detroit Lions, boxed with Archie Moore and played goal for the Boston Bruins, then wrote about how badly it went. He was also the founding editor of The Paris Review.

Among strangers:Sports teams and professional athletes, as an amateur.

Not neutral:Self-deprecating to the point of comedy.

Plimpton made participation into a form, and Grunberg's reportage inherits the trick: the writer as outsider inside a closed world, admitting it.

— Lisanne

Every book by George Plimpton →

Authors like George Plimpton →

08
A year inside

Ted Conover

American · Rolling Nowhere (1984), Newjack (2000)

Conover rode freight trains with hobos for Rolling Nowhere and, after the New York prison system refused him access as a reporter, spent a year working as a corrections officer at Sing Sing for Newjack, which won the National Book Critics Circle Award.

Among strangers:A year as a prison guard at Sing Sing.

Not neutral:How the job changed him.

Conover takes a real job for a long time and pays attention to what it does to him, as Grunberg did among guards and nurses. Newjack is the American book closest to Slachters en psychiaters.

— Lisanne

Every book by Ted Conover →

Authors like Ted Conover →

09
The writer as character

Hunter S. Thompson

American · Hell's Angels (1966), Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1971)

For Hell's Angels Thompson rode with the motorcycle club for about a year, until some of its members beat him badly. He went on to make himself the central character of his journalism, a style he called gonzo.

Among strangers:About a year with the Hell's Angels.

Not neutral:He made himself the centre of his own reporting.

Thompson is the extreme version of what Grunberg does with restraint: the writer as the main character of the reportage. Reading him shows how much Grunberg holds back.

— Lisanne

Every book by Hunter S. Thompson →

Authors like Hunter S. Thompson →

10
The warning

Joan Didion

American · Slouching Towards Bethlehem (1968), The White Album (1979), The Year of Magical Thinking (2005)

Didion's essays on California in the 1960s and 1970s made a cool, exact first person into one of the defining voices of American non-fiction. The Year of Magical Thinking, about the year after her husband's death, won the National Book Award in 2005.

Among strangers:California in the 1960s, from the inside of its scenes.

Not neutral:“Writers are always selling somebody out”, as she put it.

Didion wrote that writers are always selling somebody out, which is the honest warning behind every method on this page. Grunberg, who writes about the people who let him in, lives with the same knowledge.

— Lisanne

Every book by Joan Didion →

Authors like Joan Didion →

Frequently asked questions about authors like Arnon Grunberg

Who should I read if I love Arnon Grunberg?

Emmanuel Carrère is the closest match: a novelist who also writes reportage and puts himself in the middle of it. Joris Luyendijk is the Dutch reporter among bankers, Sebastian Junger and Michael Herr wrote about war from among soldiers, Günter Wallraff, Bill Buford, George Plimpton and Ted Conover joined worlds from inside, Hunter S. Thompson made himself the main character, and Joan Didion wrote the warning that comes with the method.

What books are similar to Kamermeisjes & soldaten?

War by Sebastian Junger (2010), Newjack by Ted Conover (2000), Swimming with Sharks by Joris Luyendijk (2015) and Heat by Bill Buford (2006): each is a writer living for a while inside a world they do not belong to.

Who is Marek van der Jagt?

Marek van der Jagt is a pen name Arnon Grunberg used for two novels around 2000. The first won the prize for the best Dutch debut, the same prize Grunberg had won under his own name for Blauwe maandagen, and for some time nobody knew who the author was.

Which Arnon Grunberg books are in English?

Several of his novels have been translated, including Blue Mondays and Tirza. His reportage, collected in Kamermeisjes & soldaten and Slachters en psychiaters, is so far only in Dutch.

Where should I start with Arnon Grunberg?

Tirza (2006) if you want the novelist, or Kamermeisjes & soldaten (2009) if you want the reporter. My guide to all of Arnon Grunberg's books in order covers each one.

Nothing here was suggested by a machine. I picked these ten myself, and the reasons are on the page.

Written by Lisanne Swart, who has curated reading lists and author guides at lisanneswart.com since 2021. See more on her personal bookshelf.

More from the shelf

Author guide

Books Written by Arnon Grunberg

Novels and reportage, in order.

Reading list

Authors Like Emmanuel Carrère

More novelists who report.

Reading list

Authors Like Sebastian Junger

More writing from among soldiers.

Reading list

Best Investigative Journalism Books

Reporting that changed what we know.

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