Books To Read if You Love Watching Succession
If you’ve ever broken some Gr-eggs to make Tom-elette, then this list is for you.
Succession is, in many ways, a perfect TV show. It delivers family drama, high-stakes business dealings, and dark, capitalist hellscape-fueled humor. However, the story is literally as old as time; it’s the “Prodigal Son” fable or King Lear told through a thinly-veiled fictitious family (who strongly resembles the Murdochs, but ignore that if you’re a lawyer) and updated for a modern audience. Produced by Adam McKay and Will Ferrell, it’s brilliantly acted by a cast of characters who take these well-worn archetypes to new depths. The players include Shiv, the overachieving and too-ambitious-for-her-own-good daughter, Kendall, the too-desperate-for-approval son, Roman, the idiot savant, and, Logan Roy, the patriarch and puppet master. The show is brought to life by settings straight out of Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous but made memorable by the satire and cynicism in how they’re presented. But if you’re a fan, you already know this.
Check out these reads for similar stories of family drama, inheritance-induced power struggles, and back-stabbing. Because there’s something delicious about the inevitable unraveling that comes from wanting too much.
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1
Add to BookshelfThe Heirs
by Susan Rieger
After their father’s death, Rupert Falkes’ five sons and widow must grapple with a contest for his estate, from a woman who claims to have had two children by their late father. This inevitably forces the characters to jockey for position and defend their right to his money. This, however, forces some to question: what even is an inheritance? What does it mean to take over someone’s legacy?
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2
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The Underwriting
by Michelle Miller
When it comes to wheeling and dealing, nothing comes close to the action in Silicon Valley, and IPOs that can make or break dreams, careers, and fortunes. The Underwriting is a look at the public (and private) lives of a group of ambitious hopefuls.
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$22.00Buy from Other Retailers:
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3
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Age of Vice
by Deepti Kapoor
Equal parts crime thriller and family saga, transporting readers from the dusty villages of Uttar Pradesh to the urban energy of New Delhi, Age of Vice is an intoxicating novel of gangsters and lovers, false friendships, forbidden romance, and the consequences of corruption.
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$20.00Buy from Other Retailers:
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4
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The Assistants
by Camille Perri
One of the most fascinating things about reading about people with money is watching what it does to them. It can lead to cringey judgment, greed begetting greed, and morals coming into question. This book tells the story of Tina Fontana, a faithful assistant to a powerful CEO, who, by a slight error in accounting, falls into a Robin Hood-esque scheme that tackles corporate greed and those C-Suite earners — with her own kickback, of course.
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5
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Sons and Daughters of Ease and Plenty
by Ramona Ausubel
Ramona Ausubel’s novel is full of humor and thoughtfulness and explores the story of Fern and Edgar — happily married, living a lush life on Martha’s Vineyard in the 1970s. An unforeseen event sends their fortunes in reverse and forces their family on a journey to examine their relationships with wealth, class, and mobility.
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6
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Trust (Pulitzer Prize Winner)
by Hernan Diaz
Even through the roar and effervescence of the 1920s, everyone in New York has heard of Benjamin and Helen Rask. Together, they have risen to the very top of a world of seemingly endless wealth. But at what cost have they acquired their immense fortune? This is the mystery at the center of Bonds, a successful 1937 novel. At once an immersive story and a brilliant literary puzzle, Trust engages the reader in a quest for the truth while confronting the deceptions that often live at the heart of personal relationships, the reality-warping force of capital, and the ease with which power can manipulate facts.
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7
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The Darlings
by Cristina Alger
According to The Wall Street Journal, this novel is a “Bonfire of the Vanities for our times.” This novel tells the story of Merrill Darling, the daughter of a billionaire. It’s told by someone who “knows her way around 21st-century wealth and power,” because the author herself is a former analyst at Goldman Sachs and the daughter of a financier. Cristina Alger draws on her unique insider’s perspective to give us an irresistible glimpse into the highest echelons of New York society in this fast-paced thriller of epic proportions.
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8
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Bright Lights, Big City
by Jay McInerney
No time period embodies the excess and unfiltered greed in America as much as the 1980s. And no city better exemplifies it than New York. This 1984 novel became a sensation and is worth a reread (or a first look) in the context of Succession.
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9
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The Brothers Karamazov
by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Dostoyevsky’s dark masterpiece evokes a world where the lines between innocence and corruption, good and evil, blur, and everyone’s faith in humanity is tested. Fyodor Pavlovich is a father to three sons whom he regards with dripping disdain and the plot is propelled by the relationship between the patriarch and his adult children. Sound familiar?
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$32.00Buy from Other Retailers:
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10
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Rich People Problems
by Kevin Kwan
When Nicholas Young hears that his grandmother, Su Yi, is on her deathbed, he rushes to be by her bedside — but he’s not alone. The entire Shang-Young clan has convened from all corners of the globe to stake a claim to their matriarch’s massive fortune. Kevin Kwan’s hilarious, gloriously wicked novel reveals the long-buried secrets of Asia’s most privileged families and their rich people problems.
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$18.00Buy from Other Retailers:
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11
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Unscripted
by James B Stewart and Rachel Abrams
In 2016, the fate of Paramount Global — the multibillion-dollar entertainment empire controlled by the Redstone family that includes Paramount, CBS, MTV, Nickelodeon, Showtime, and Simon & Schuster — hung precariously in the balance. Discover the shocking inside story of the struggle for power and control and the dysfunction, misconduct, and deceit that threatened the future of the company.
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12
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American Royals
by Katharine McGee
When we think of succession, we often think of the royal family and who will ascend to the throne. In this novel, author Katharine McGee imagines an alternate version of the modern world, one where the glittering age of monarchies has not yet faded — and where love is still powerful enough to change the course of history.
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$12.99Buy from Other Retailers:
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13
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King Lear
by William Shakespeare
Full of cruelty and betrayal, King Lear is the timeless story of a kingdom held in the thrall of an aging ruler’s descent into madness. Desperate for praise, he banishes those who would guide him with honesty and surrounds himself with sycophants — an action which leads to his ultimately tragic downfall.
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$11.00Buy from Other Retailers:
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14
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White Teeth
by Zadie Smith
Set against London’ s racial and cultural tapestry, and centering on two older men with late-in-life marriages and children, Zadie Smith’s glittering novel ventures across the former empire and into the past as it barrels toward the future. White Teeth revels in the ecstatic hodgepodge of modern life, flirting with disaster, confounding expectations, and embracing the comedy of daily existence.
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$18.00Buy from Other Retailers:
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15
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Fleishman Is in Trouble
by Taffy Brodesser-Akner
Main character Toby Fleishman (whose bumbling nature reminds us a bit of Cousin Greg) thought he knew what to expect when he and his wife of almost fifteen years separated … until she disappears. Fleishman Is in Trouble is a finely observed, timely exploration of marriage, divorce, and the bewildering dynamics of ambition.
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We That Are Young
by Preti Taneja
When a billionaire hotelier and political operator attempts to pit his three daughters against one another, a brutal struggle for primacy begins in this modern-day take on Shakespeare’s King Lear. Set in contemporary India, where rich men are gods while farmers starve and water is fast running out, We That Are Young is a story about power, status, and the love of a megalomaniac father.
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