Fraternal Fiction

The Guardian’s James Runcie ranks the top books of brotherly love—ranging from stories of brothers separated by war, torn apart in scandal, and drawn together by strong filial love. He calls Dostoyevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov the “gold standard of fraternal fiction,” with the three brothers each representing human archetypes of pleasure, reason, and faith. Also high on the list: The Sound and the Fury, which offers parallel monologues of three brothers in a passionate novel, which is, essentially “Virginia Woolf on drugs.” Then there’s Willy Loman, who mourns his brother in Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman, and the Four Clever Brothers by The Brothers Grimm, a tale of brothers who leave home, lead different lives, and then return.