When you think of Chicago, what comes to mind first? Perhaps the skyline, the food, or the sports teams. The beautiful lake, or Navy Pier. Or maybe it’s the bustling literary scene. From the stunning array of independent bookstores to places like The Newberry Library and American Writers Museum, Chicago has bookworms covered. As if that’s not enough, there’s a regular bevy of author talks and literary events, like the Printers Row Lit Fest.
I’ve spent a lot of happy time in Chicago over the years, including a stint during my college days. I haven’t visited in person since shortly before the pandemic began, but I’ve returned in my imagination many times in recent years, thanks in no small part to many of the wonderful Chicago books mentioned in this literary tourism list.
Whether these great Chicago reads call to mind memories of your own time in Chicago or you hope to travel there someday, I hope this list will make you even more excited about your next trip or provide an accessible and affordable means of escape via armchair travel.
To send you off on your literary adventure, I’m sharing twenty-three titles that I’ve read and loved or that are on my To Be Read list. (The number twenty-three is intentional; it’s Michael Jordan’s iconic jersey number.) There are plenty more books set in Chicago—and its suburbs—there’s no way to include them all here. That’s where you come in: we’d love to hear your recommendations in the comments section!
23 books set in Chicago
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The House on Mango Street
The Devil in the White City: A Saga of Magic and Murder at the Fair that Changed America
Becoming
A Raisin in the Sun
Neanderthal Seeks Human
Negroland: A Memoir
The Most Fun We Ever Had
Monsters: The 1985 Chicago Bears and the Wild Heart of Football
The Great Believers
Even Though I Knew the End
I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter
Dreams from My Father
Dear Mr. Knightley
Love at First
Alone with You in the Ether
MWF Seeking BFF: My Yearlong Search for a New Best Friend
Saving Ruby King
Native Son
Last Summer on State Street
Dark Matter
Marrying the Ketchups
Windfall
Hello Beautiful
Which books set in Chicago have you read and loved? Please tell us all about them in the comments section!
P.S. 17 recommended reads for those traveling to Hawai’i, 12 recommended reads for those traveling to Maine (or who want to), and more literary tourism.
47 comments
I’ve called Chicago home for the last 20 years and many of these are new to me. Thanks!
Jennifer Fields’ Atomic Love. That was a BOTM selection I really enjoyed.
I love Jennifer E. Smith. Have only ever read her adult book The Unsinkable Greta James. I need to try her young adult books.
I read The Most Fun We Ever Had. And Hello Beautiful, which I liked, but felt was a bit overhyped. Too much made of the Little Women reference.
Have always wanted to read The Devil In The White City.
I would also add the Time Traveler’s Wife to this list! Love, love, Chicago!
I was going to say that too! One of my all-time favourite reads, and really made me want to visit Chicago (which I still haven’t done).
Agreed! Time Traveler’s Wife was the first one I thought of!
Such a good addition!
I love literary tourism, especially when I’m traveling to the city or state! I’m heading to Hilton Head this summer for the first time, and I’ve got “The Secret Life of Bees” and “The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires” on my TBR for then.
Would take other recommendations!
I recommend Like a Complete Unknown by Anara Guard
For years I traveled to Chicago every June with my husband for the NeoCon furniture show. I always picked a book set there and then visited the sites. The Time Traveler’s Wife was rich in local setting. I also read Loving Frank and rode the train for the FL Wright tour. (I recommend even more TC Boule’s The Women.) On a Wright binge, I also suggest the YA novel The Wright Three.
You mentioned Devil in the White City. Not only is the Museum of Science and Industry, the only permanent building from the World’s Fair, a good place to visit, but Graceland Cemetery, the “architects’ cemetery” is an easy train ride, where the Palmers and Pinkerton are also buried.
Thanks for the hot tip!
I live in Chicago and was going to suggest Great Believers and Hello Beautiful but they’re already on the list :]
Some different sorts: Divergent series – post apocalyptic Chicago and Blue Balliet’s middle grade Chasing Vermeer series set mostly in Hyde Park.
Love Blue Balliet’s The Wright Three. My Girl Scout troop visited Chicago and we went to the Wright house, the bookstore, and the bakery in the book.
I grew up in Illinois and get back to Chicago as much as possible. I recommend Chicago by Brian Doyle and The Third Coast by Thomas Dyja. I love Exile in Bookville on Michigan. Unique selections and wonderful staff.
Jocelyn Green’s Windy City trilogy starts with Veiled in Smoke. Good historical fiction.
I have lived in Chicago and/or Oak Park my whole life. I have read most of these, and they are great suggestions. The Most Fun We’ve Ever Had is set on the block where I grew up!
Whoa!
Great recommendations! Also worth considering: Clark and Division by Naomi Hirahara, Then We Came to the End by Joshua Ferris, The Dean’s December by Saul Bellow, Crossing California by Adam Langer, Sara Paretsky’s mystery series, and Boss by Mike Royko.
I second Clark and Division – I loved it and wondered why it didn’t make the list – sigh, so many books, so little time. 🙂
Thirding “Clark and Division” and I was hoping somebody would mention Sara Paretsky’s crime novels! They give you such a good sense of the city. I have spent quite a bit of time in Chicago since my brother lives there (in Logan Square).
I’m an enthusiastic fourth vote for Clark and Division! Great novel. I just visited Chicago for the first time, and I loved it. Thanks for the great book list!
Living outside of Chicago, I LOVE this! Thank you, Anne, and I hope you can come and visit soon. Ditto Time Traveler’s Wife, one of my favorites!
Chicago resident here! Three Girls from Bronzeville by Dawn Turner is a fascinating memoir set in Chicago. For middle grade, I also enjoyed The First Rule of Punk by Celia Perez, and I love Chasing Vermeer and the other books by Blue Balliet – Powell’s Books (which features in the book) is a great used bookstore to check out!
My favorite Chicago book is Sin in the Second City by Karen Abbott!
Another book worth considering is ‘Maxwell Street: Survival in a Bazaar’ by Ira Berkow.
Renee Rosen has written historical fiction set in Chicago!
Yes…Windy City Blues (story about Chess Records and Chicago Blues Artists) is a great read and What the Lady Wants (story of Marshall Field).
One of my favorite books is set in Chicago: The Spoonbenders by Darryl Gregory. The story takes you from the 1960s to the ’90s and centers on the Amazing Telemachus Family. They’re well on their way to super-stardom when an on-stage mishap dooms their career. The family sort of splinters — until a series of unusual circumstances bring them back together. It’s sweet and funny and mashes up a little bit of sci-fi with the vibe of a 1930s screwball comedy. It’s frothy and has a lasting impact. Highly recommended.
Thanks for the recommendation!
Windy City Blues by Renée Rosen, which is historical fiction about the Chicago Blues scene, Chess Records, Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, Etta James, the Civil Rights Movement, etc. The audiobook version narrated by Robin Miles is also very good.
I go every year on my birthday weekend and take a dip in Lake Michigan and then walk the entire city (it seems) from end to end.
These are great books and thanks for the indie list. I will hunt a few of these down in August.
That sounds like a glorious tradition!
I’ve never been to Chicago, but I feel like I have, thru the V.I. Warshawski novels of Sara Paretsky! Everything I know about Chicago, I learned from this girl detective!
‘There Are No Children Here’ by Alex Kotlovitz
Perhaps not for this list, as I’d prefer to have travelers see the best of the city.
I live in Chicago, and two non-fiction recommendations I have that could be considered “downers” but will really help anyone understand some of the major difficulties of this city are “The South Side” by Natalie Y. Moore and “High Risers” by Ben Austen. And I strongly encourage anyone visiting Chicago to make a few stops to underrated gems on the south and west sides. Downtown, the north side, and the suburbs tend to get the most love from tourists, but there’s so much more that gets overlooked!
Hey Shaney. I’d love to hear what the underrated gems are on the south and west sides of Chicago. Can you share some of these favorite spots of yours? I prefer the road less traveled. 😉
Born in Chicago and went to college there, I love this list. I’d love to see similar ones for Denver, Nashville and more!
Most of my favorites have been mentioned but I don’t see Years of Grace. If you enjoy Edith Wharton novels, Margaret Ayer Barnes’s 1930s Pulitzer Prize winner is similar — a bildungsroman of a young, entitled woman in Chicago during the turn of the century. I loved it!
Now off to look up the Brian Doyle one that is new to me!
The Time Traveler’s Wife, as others have said. I also have discovered the Cass Raines series by Tracy Clark, about an ex-cop turned private investigator solving murders.
I grew up in the Chicago suburbs and came of age in the 90s, so I immediately got your “23” reference. I still enjoy books set in the area.
I really enjoyed “Wild Women and the Blues” by Denny Bryce. I also recently read a women’s fiction/romance set there – “The Comeback Summer” by Ali Brady.
So glad to see Dear Mr.Knightley on this list. I loved it and afterward read Daddy-Long Legs which I had never heard of and loved that too.
Sister Carrie by Theodore Dreiser for the Classics Crowd. He may have others set in Chicago, but Sister Carrie is the one I remember.
I grew up in Chicago and return often to visit friends. My historical fiction, Daughters of the Occupation (HarperCollins, 2022) is set in 1970’s Chicago— downtown and in a fictional suburb based on Rolling Meadows.
Great list!! My son is moving to Chicago this summer, so I’m excited to start reading!!
I read A Most Beautiful Thing: The True Story of America’s First All-Black High School Rowing Team, by Arshay Cooper, last year, which is set on the south side of Chicago. While not an easy read (the editing and writing could have used some work), it’s a powerful and engaging story.
I have a shelf in Goodreads entitled “Windy City”. Three authors- multiple books-I can recommend, Jen Lancaster- memoirs, Stacey Ballis- foodie fiction and Ronald H Balson historical legal mysteries.
Having grown up in rural central Illinois with parents who were tramsplants from Wisconsin, I don’t particularly *like* Chicago, so it’s not really on my literary tourism list, but I have read a few of these and enjoyed them despite the setting. 😉 It is a beautiful city, I just resent that when people think of Illinois, they only think of Chicago. There’s a LOT more state than that.
So many books set in Chicago!
A Dream of Kings, Nick the Greek, Twilight of the Ice, Ghost of the Sun, Pericles on 31st Street, and more Harry Mark Petrakis
Delilah Recovered by Amelia Dellos
White Collar Girl by Renee Rosen
The Henrietta and Inspector Howard Series by Michelle Cox
Austin Lunch by Constance M. Constant
this book just released: The Comeback Summer by Ali Brady