Books based on true stories
Books based on real events, told as memoir, reportage or history that reads like a novel. Trevor Noah's Born a Crime and Michelle Obama's Becoming tell their authors' own lives, Bryan Stevenson's Just Mercy follows his fight for people on death row, and Patrick Radden Keefe's Say Nothing and Empire of Pain investigate the Troubles and the family behind OxyContin. Maus tells a Holocaust survivor's story in comics.
Narrow it down in the finder →The best, according to readers
30 of 102 books and series on this topic — the finder shows them all
- 1Maus
9.09.0 / 10 - 2Know My Name
9.09.0 / 10 - 3Just Mercy
8.98.9 / 10 - 4Born a Crime
8.98.9 / 10 - 5I'm Glad My Mom Died
8.98.9 / 10 - 6Becoming
8.88.8 / 10 - 7Say Nothing
8.88.8 / 10 - 8Empire of Pain
8.88.8 / 10 - 9Shoe Dog
8.78.7 / 10 - 10Catch and Kill: Lies, Spies, and a Conspiracy to Protect Predators
8.78.7 / 10 - 11When Breath Becomes Air
8.68.6 / 10 - 12Gender Queer
8.68.6 / 10 - 13On Writing
8.58.5 / 10 - 14Bring Up the Bodies
8.58.5 / 10 - 15March Book One
8.58.5 / 10 - 16El Deafo
8.58.5 / 10 - 17From Hell
8.58.5 / 10 - 18Just Kids
8.48.4 / 10 - 19If This Is a Man
8.48.4 / 10 - 20Persepolis
8.48.4 / 10 - 2184, Charing Cross Road
8.48.4 / 10 - 22Roots: The Saga of an American Family
8.48.4 / 10 - 23Smile
8.48.4 / 10 - 24Wild Swans
8.48.4 / 10 - 25First They Killed My Father
8.48.4 / 10 - 26Steve Jobs
8.48.4 / 10 - 27Man's Search for Meaning
8.48.4 / 10 - 28Fun Home
8.48.4 / 10 - 29Nobody's Girl: A Memoir of Surviving Abuse and Fighting for Justice
8.48.4 / 10 - 30Crying in H Mart
8.38.3 / 10