Four Novels About Chicago That Will Blow You Away

"Hearst Magazines and Yahoo may earn commission or revenue on some items through these links."

Oprah’s 102nd Book Club pick is practically a love letter to Chicago—it’s hard to read Wellness and not fall in love with the city yourself. Here, author Nathan Hill shares four other novels that will instantly transport you to the Second City.

The Time Traveler’s Wife, Audrey Niffenegger

This book has everything. A love story that will fill your heart and also make you weep. A brilliantly original science fiction conceit that is thoroughly imagined and rendered perfectly. And a Chicago setting full of real and recognizable places: the Lyric Opera, the Field Museum, the Newberry Library, Wrigley Field. Actually, if you squint and look at it from a great distance, it’s sort of similar to Wellness: a marriage story of dislodged time, in a city that’s always changing.

The House on Mango Street, Sandra Cisneros

My old copy of this book shows the creases and wear—not to mention the notes, stars, circles, underlines, various marginalia—of repeat readings. I love how the book captures that feeling you have when you’re a kid and the whole world is limited to a small circle around your house, a circle that feels both huge and claustrophobic at the same time. While the Mango Street setting is fictional, the neighborhood is a collage of real Chicago places, Bucktown and Humboldt Park among them.

The Middlesteins, by Jami Attenberg

I love books that can grapple thoughtfully with serious topics, but with a sense of humor. And Jami Attenberg has a great sense of humor. Set in the Chicago suburbs, this is one of the first novels I can recall that took on our cultural obsession with food, a topic I was obviously interested in—see Pwnage’s struggles with his new diet in my first book, The Nix, or Benjamin’s eating habits in Wellness.

Hello Beautiful, by Ann Napolitano

A gorgeous portrait of love, family, and the Chicago neighborhood of Pilsen, a working-class place on the city’s Lower West Side filled with immigrants and colorful murals. The book perfectly captures that intense and special bond between young sisters, and reminded me of my own two sisters, who would giggle outrageously during long car rides at whatever private jokes that existed exclusively between them. Oh, and the book just happens to be Oprah’s 100th Book Club pick.

You Might Also Like

• Watch Oprah Talk About Longevity with Dr. Peter Attia

• Why Are Americans So Bad at Getting Old?

• Yes, You Really Can Make Your Skin Cells Younger