(picture from pinterest)

This article contains the top 5 psychological philosophical thrillers. These books will keep you hooked till the last page.

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT: 

Author: Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky

Crime and Punishment was first published in 1866; it is known to be one of the best psychological thrillers ever written. However, no mystery is involved in this book as crime novels usually are, at the very start of the book, one gets to know who the criminal is. This book contains very interesting aspects of human life and human nature.

As the name suggests, this book revolves around a crime followed by a punishment. The story is about a helpless poverty-stricken man who desperately needs money to attain financial stability. For that, he kills an old and ruthless pawnbroker, Alyona Ivanovna. He thinks this murder will benefit all as she is a bad person and once she’ll die she won’t be able to harm anyone so his crime won’t count as a crime and in fact, he is doing a good thing, the greater good. Moreover, the money that the pawnbroker confiscates from people will help him get rid of all the financial constraints.

After killing her, an inner transformation occurs, Rashkolnikov realizes that he, after all, was not a cold-hearted evil man he in fact is very tender and soft on the inside. He becomes sick with depression and alienates himself.

As the story progresses, he keeps fighting with his conscience and in the end, he loses this battle. He ends up surrendering himself and asks for the punishment he deserves so that his conscience will let him live in peace.

He ends up in Siberian prison; moreover, before his confession, he meets a girl named Sonya, a character of great importance. She helps him and supports him throughout the vicious process of psychological torture. She even visits him regularly in a Siberian prison and this is how positivity floods in through Raskolnikov and his rehabilitation process starts.

The Book of Disquiet:

Author:  Fernando Pessoa

It is a story of a man called Bernado Soares, an excruciatingly lonely, socially dysfunctional, and alienated man. he is an assistant bookkeeper in a bookstore in Lisbon. He is in self-isolation along with his anguished mind, fighting existential crises. He spends his entire life in an apartment with a window on the balcony. He goes to the same restaurant, same tobacco shop, and the same barber for 30 years. These people around him in their 70s which he finds out by visiting the shops.

 The character describes having difficulty in socializing and meeting people, he writes,

“Sometimes saying hello to someone intimidates me. My voice dries up, as if there were a strange audacity in having to say that word out loud.”

This book was published after his death when a chest full of pages was found in his room. The book, however, is unfinished with incomplete sentences, the author died while writing this book.

The character also was plagued by self-doubt, he wrote,

“Not only am I dissatisfied with the poems I write now; I also know that I will be dissatisfied with the poems I write in the future. So why do I keep writing? Because I still haven’t learned… I haven’t been able to give up my inclination to poetry and prose. I have to write as if I were carrying out a punishment. And the greatest punishment is to know that whatever I write will be futile, flawed and uncertain".

Recommended: Yes! If you're into psychological and philosophical reads then be ready to dive into the sea of intense feelings and his sufferings. 

The Stranger:

Author: Alber Camus

His works are famous for coupling absurdity with existential crises. A. Camus is a French writer and philosopher. His works are translated and are easily available. The stranger is a fictional read and the protagonist, Meursault, is French Algerian.

The book explores the themes of alienation, existentialism, and crime. Meursault is shown as a feelingless man who leaves his mother in an old age home, where she dies after 3 years. At her funeral, he shows no grief and remorse, instead smokes and drinks coffee and thinks about old age and death. 

The very next he starts hanging out with a girl called Marie, they watch movies, have fun and eventually develop a sexual relationship.

After a few weeks, he ends up killing the brother of his neighbor's ex-girlfriend and is sent to prison immediately.  

The book has two parts; post-murder and pre-murder phases. It is a very interesting novel and revolves around an emotionally detached person who loves no one and cares for no one. He either finds people annoying and irritating or interesting.