Recommendations based on Empire of the Antsby Bernard Werber

* statistically, based on millions of data-points provided by fellow humans

  1. Perfume: The Story of a Murderer

    by Patrick Süskind
    A murder mystery set in 18th century France, exploring the depths of human obsession.

    An acclaimed bestseller and international sensation, Patrick Suskind's classic novel provokes a terrifying examination of what happens when one man's indulgence in his greatest passion—his sense of ... (Goodreads)

  2. The Old Man Who Read Love Stories

    by Luis Sepúlveda
    An old man's quest to find solace and peace in the stories he reads.

    In a remote river town deep in the Ecuadoran jungle, Antonio José Bolívar seeks refuge in amorous novels. But tourists and opportunists are making inroads into the area, and the balance of nature is ... (Goodreads)

  3. Chess Story

    by Stefan Zweig
    A chess master's attempt to regain his lost skill, and the psychological battle he faces.

    The narrator opens the story on a passenger liner traveling from New York to Buenos Aires. Driven to mental anguish as the result of total isolation by the Nazis , Dr B, a securities expert hiding ... (Wikipedia)

  4. Silk

    by Alessandro Baricco
    Adventure of a 19th century French trader who travels to Japan to find rare silkworm eggs.

    The novel tells the story of a French silkworm merchant-turned-smuggler named Hervé Joncour in 19th century France who travels to Japan for his town's supply of silkworms after a disease wipes out ... (Wikipedia)

  5. Antigone

    by Jean Anouilh
    Tragic story of a woman's courage to defy the law in pursuit of justice.

    Antigone was originally produced in Paris in 1942, when France was an occupied nation and part of Hitler's Europe. The play depicts an authoritarian regime and the play's central character, the young ... (Goodreads)

  6. The Unbearable Lightness of Being

    by Milan Kundera
    A story of love and loss in a politically turbulent Czechoslovakia.

    In The Unbearable Lightness of Being , Milan Kundera tells the story of a young woman in love with a man torn between his love for her and his incorrigible womanizing and one of his mistresses and ... (Goodreads)

  7. Journey to the Center of the Earth

    by Jules Verne
    Explorers embark on an incredible subterranean adventure, uncovering the secrets of a lost world.

    Designed to appeal to the book lover, the Macmillan Collector's Library is a series of beautifully bound pocket-sized gift editions of much loved classic titles. Bound in real cloth, printed on high ... (Barnes & Noble)

  8. Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea

    by Jules Verne
    A thrilling adventure beneath the depths of the sea, discovering a strange and wondrous world.

    During the year 1866, ships of various nationalities sight a mysterious sea monster , which, it is later suggested, might be a gigantic narwhal . The U.S. government assembles an expedition in New ... (Wikipedia)

  9. Life, the Universe and Everything

    by Douglas Adams
    An intergalactic quest to find the answer to the ultimate question of life.

    After being stranded on pre-historic Earth after the events in, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, , Arthur Dent is met by his old friend Ford Prefect , who drags him into a space-time eddy , ... (Wikipedia)

  10. The Red and the Black

    by Stendhal
    A young man's ambitious rise in 19th century French society, as he navigates through its politics and passions.

    In two volumes,, The Red and the Black: A Chronicle of the 19th Century, tells the story of Julien Sorel's life in France's rigid social structure restored after the disruptions of the French ... (Wikipedia)

  11. Pet Sematary

    by Stephen King
    A family's terrifying journey of life and death, as the line between the living and the dead blurs.

    Louis Creed, a doctor from Chicago , is appointed director of the University of Maine 's campus health service. He moves to a large house near the small town of Ludlow with his wife Rachel, their two ... (Wikipedia)

  12. Sophie's World

    by Jostein Gaarder
    A journey of philosophical discovery told through a young girl's exploration of the world.

    Sophie Amundsen is a 14-year-old girl who lives in Lillesand , Norway. The book begins with Sophie receiving two messages in her mailbox and a postcard addressed to Hilde Møller Knag. Afterwards, she ... (Wikipedia)

  13. Assassin's Apprentice

    by Robin Hobb
    A humble orphan discovers his true identity, rising through the ranks to become a powerful assassin.

    The novel covers the early life of FitzChivalry , a royal bastard living in Buckkeep Castle as he begins his training as an assassin and successfully safeguards the throne from his over-ambitious ... (Wikipedia)

  14. The Gadfly

    by Ethel Lilian Voynich
    A young man’s struggle to find his place in the world against his oppressive society.

    The Gadfly is a novel by Ethel Lilian Voynich, published in 1897, set in 1840s Italy under the dominance of Austria, a time of tumultuous revolt and uprisings. The story centers on the life of the ... (Goodreads)

  15. The Tommyknockers

    by Stephen King
    A small town is affected by a mysterious force after a buried alien spacecraft is discovered.

    While walking in the woods near the small town of Haven, Maine, Roberta "Bobbi" Anderson, a writer of Wild West -themed fiction, stumbles upon a metal object that turns out to be a protrusion of a ... (Wikipedia)

  16. The Restaurant at the End of the Universe

    by Douglas Adams
    Quirky sci-fi adventure following a group of time travelers seeking to save the future.

    Arthur Dent , Ford Prefect , Trillian , and Zaphod Beeblebrox leave the planet Magrathea on the Heart of Gold . A Vogon ship attacks them, and Arthur's attempt to have the ship's computer make him a ... (Wikipedia)

  17. Second Foundation

    by Isaac Asimov
    A quest to find the mysterious force controlling the fate of the galaxy.

    Part I is about The Mule 's search for the elusive Second Foundation, with the intent of destroying it. The executive council of the Second Foundation is aware of The Mule's intent and, in the words ... (Wikipedia)

  18. The Minority Report

    by Philip K. Dick
    A dystopian future where technology is used to predict and prevent crimes.

    In the world of The Minority Report, Commissioner John Anderton is the one to thank for the lack of crime. He is the originator of the Precrime System, which uses precogs—people with the power to see ... (Goodreads)

  19. The Master and Margarita

    by Mikhail Bulgakov
    A fantastical, satirical examination of Soviet life, intersecting with the supernatural.

    The novel has two settings. The first is Moscow during the 1930s, where Satan appears at Patriarch's Ponds as Professor Woland . He is accompanied by Koroviev, a grotesquely-dressed valet; Behemoth , ... (Wikipedia)

  20. Address Unknown

    by Kathrine Kressmann Taylor
    A powerful story of friendship and betrayal, set against the backdrop of the rise of Nazism.

    Martin, a gentile, returns with his family to Germany, exhilarated by the advances in the old country since the humiliation of the Great War. His business partner, Max, a Jew, remains in the States ... (Wikipedia)

  21. Leo Africanus

    by Amin Maalouf
    An epic historical novel, tracing the journey of a North African explorer and diplomat in the 16th century.

    "I, Hasan the son of Muhammad the weigh-master, I, Jean-Leon de Medici, circumcised at the hand of a barber and baptized at the hand of a pope, I am now called the African, but I am not from Africa, ... (Goodreads)

  22. Explorers on the Moon

    by Hergé
    Three friends journey to the Moon to uncover its secrets and find adventure.

    The first manned rocked, bound for the Moon, has just launched from the Sprodj Atomic Research Centre in Syldavia. On board are Tintin, Snowy, Captain Haddock, Professor Calculus, and the engineer ... (Goodreads)

  23. Identity

    by Milan Kundera
    A novel about discovering one's true identity by examining the complexities and contradictions of life.

    There are situations in which we fail for a moment to recognize the person we are with, in which the identity of the other is erased while we simultaneously doubt our own. This also happens with ... (Goodreads)

  24. The Island of Dr. Moreau

    by H.G. Wells
    A shipwrecked man's encounters with a mad scientist's experiments in animal-human hybridization.

    The Island of Doctor Moreau is the account of Edward Prendick, an Englishman with a scientific education who survives a shipwreck in the southern Pacific Ocean. A passing ship called Ipecacuanha ... (Wikipedia)

  25. Le Grand Meaulnes

    by Alain-Fournier
    A young man's journey of adventure, romance, and self-discovery.

    François Seurel, the 15-year-old narrator of the book, is the son of M. Seurel, who is the director of the mixed-ages school in a small village in the Sologne , a region of lakes and sandy forests in ... (Wikipedia)

  26. The Mysterious Island

    by Jules Verne
    A group of castaways survive and escape their strange island through ingenuity and exploration.

    During the American Civil War , five Northern prisoners of war escape during the Siege of Richmond, Virginia , by hijacking a hydrogen-filled observation balloon. The escapees are Cyrus Smith , a ... (Wikipedia)

  27. Les Liaisons dangereuses

    by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos
    An intricate game of love, lust and manipulation as two rival aristocrats scheme to outwit one another.

    The Vicomte de Valmont is determined to seduce the virtuous, married, and therefore inaccessible Madame de Tourvel, who is staying with Valmont's aunt while her husband is away on a court case. At ... (Wikipedia)

  28. The Overcoat

    by Nikolai Gogol
    A tale of a lowly bureaucrat's journey to reclaim his sense of self-worth.

    The story narrates the life and death of titular councillor Akaky Akakievich Bashmachkin (Russian: Акакий Акакиевич Башмачкин), an impoverished government clerk and copyist in the Russian capital of ... (Wikipedia)

  29. Cloud Atlas

    by David Mitchell
    A dynamic narrative spanning centuries, exploring the interconnectedness of humanity.

    The book consists of six nested stories; each is read or observed by a main character of the next, thus they progress in time through the central sixth story. The first five stories are each ... (Wikipedia)

  30. The Case of Charles Dexter Ward

    by H.P. Lovecraft
    A young man becomes obsessed with his ancestor's dark practices, leading to a descent into madness and the summoning of otherworldly beings.

    Charles Dexter Ward is a young man from a prominent Rhode Island family who has disappeared from a mental asylum. He had been incarcerated during a prolonged period of insanity, during which he ... (Wikipedia)