Books like Roots

Roots by Alex Haley reads as epic, poignant. These 12 books share its genome — matched by how they actually read, not just their shelf label.

Every good-bye ain't gone

Itabari Njeri · 1990

Shares the escape + history thread

69% genome match

All That She Carried

Tiya Miles · 2021

Shares the escape + history thread

69% genome match

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

Maya Angelou · 1969

Shares the escape + history thread

69% genome match

A choice of weapons

Gordon Parks · 1966

Shares the escape thread

69% genome match

First They Killed My Father

Loung Ung · 2000

Shares the escape + history thread

69% genome match

Barracoon

Zora Neale Hurston · 2004

Shares the history thread

69% genome match

Nigger

Dick Gregory · 1965

Shares the escape thread

69% genome match

Survival Math

Mitchell Jackson · 2019

Shares the escape thread

69% genome match

Barefoot Gen Vol. 4, Barefoot Gen Vol. 5 (Splitting Works needed)

中沢 啓治 · 1978

Shares the escape + history thread

69% genome match

So far from the bamboo grove

Yoko Kawashima Watkins · 1986

Shares the escape + history thread

69% genome match

Anne Frank (Diary of Anne Frank / Excerpts from Anne Frank)

Frances Goodrich · 1989

Shares the escape + history thread

69% genome match

Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl

Harriet A. Jacobs · 1861

Shares the history thread

75% genome match