Alternative Xmas reading — think downbeat stories, family dysfunction, holiday loneliness, seasonal depression, black comedy.
created by teddydee
last updated June, 2026
The Evenings: A Winter's Tale
Gerard Reve
The Catcher in the Rye
J.D. Salinger
The Dead
James Joyce
Christmas at Cold Comfort Farm
Stella Gibbons
On Leave
Daniel Anselme
Ending Up
Kingsley Amis
A Christmas Memory
Truman Capote
The Twelve Terrors of Christmas
John Updike
The Little Match Girl
Hans Christian Andersen
The Green Road
Anne Enright
Less Than Zero
Bret Easton Ellis
The Seafarer
Conor McPherson
Mr. Ives' Christmas
Oscar Hijuelos
Eileen
Ottessa Moshfegh
Sad Janet
Lucie Britsch
Mistletoe Malice
Kathleen Farrell
The Corrections
Jonathan Franzen
The Birds of the Air (Common Reader Editions)
Alice Thomas Ellis
The Inn at the Edge of the World
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