Person
Every book Noah Hawley recommended on podcasts
Key facts
- Noah Hawley has recommended or discussed 7 books on podcasts, as of June 3, 2026.
- Noah Hawley has talked about books on 3 podcasts, as of June 3, 2026.
- Those books came up in 3 episodes, as of June 3, 2026.
- The 3 books Noah Hawley has mentioned in the most episodes, not counting Noah Hawley's own, as of June 3, 2026: Catch-22, Memento and Slaughterhouse-Five.
- The latest episode with a book mention from Noah Hawley aired on June 3, 2026.
Updated
Across 3 podcasts. Every show Noah Hawley appears on, in one place — not just one.
Noah Hawley’s most recommended books
- Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
- Memento by Radek John
- Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
- White Noise by Don DeLillo
Noah Hawley is an American screenwriter, television producer, author and singer. He is best known for creating, chiefly writing and often directing the FX television series Fargo, Legion, and Alien: Earth. He also worked on the series Bones, The Unusuals, and My Generation. During podcast appearances on shows such as How I Write and SmartLess, Hawley discussed various literary and cinematic works that shaped his creative output. He mentioned his own novels A Conspiracy of Tall Men, The Good Father, and Anthem, discussing the questions, circumstances, and inspirations behind their creation, including revisiting the work of Kurt Vonnegut. Hawley also discussed Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five to illustrate unique narrative conceits, and he recalled a high school writing assignment focused on Joseph Heller's Catch-22 that served as a seminal influence on his development as a writer. Furthermore, he noted Don DeLillo's White Noise as an expansion of his concept of what a novel could achieve, and he cited the movie Memento as an example of structurally altering detective storytelling.
Books recommended by Noah Hawley
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Catch-22
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller is a landmark satirical novel set during World War II that explores bureaucratic absurdity and ironic paradoxes through the experiences of American bomber crews.
Discussed“One of the first writing assignments that I remember in high school was we were reading Catch 22, the Joseph Heller book”
Where to get it
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The good father
The Good Father by Noah Hawley is a contemporary novel that follows a medical doctor on his second marriage whose life is upended when his son from a previous marriage is arrested following the assassination of a presidential candidate.
Discussed“Um yeah so I wrote a book called The Good Father.”
Where to get it
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A Conspiracy of Tall Men
Discussed“And you know, and you know, my first novel, A Conspiracy of Tall Men, Such a good premise.”
Where to get it
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Anthem
Discussed“I mean, but Vonnegut is you know, I went back and reread a lot of Vonnegut before I was writing this last book, Anthem.”
Where to get it
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Memento
Memento is a critically acclaimed neo-noir psychological thriller film directed by Christopher Nolan, following a man with anterograde amnesia who attempts to find his wife's murderer.
Discussed“you're doing something both familiar and unfamiliar at the same time, you know, Memento, for example, a movie that is told backwards.”
Where to get it
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Slaughterhouse-Five
Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut is a classic anti-war novel that follows the life of Billy Pilgrim as he becomes unstuck in time and experiences the devastating Allied firebombing of Dresden during World War II.
Discussed“to write a book like Slaughterhouse-Five about his World War II experience, but but do it with the conceit that his main character has come unstuck in time”
Where to get it
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White Noise
White Noise by Don DeLillo is a seminal 1984 postmodern novel that chronicles contemporary consumerism, academic satire, and the omnipresence of mass media and pop culture.
Discussed“And and you know, White Noise was sort of the first novel that came out like '84 that was talking about consumerism and and pop culture”
Where to get it
Books Noah Hawley wrote
Appearances
| Episode | Podcast | Date | Books |
|---|---|---|---|
| Noah Hawley: How He Wrote Fargo | How I Write | How I Write | 2026-06-03 | 7 |
| Noah Hawley | SmartLess | 2025-12-01 | 1 |
| Inside The New York Times Book Review: ‘Before the Fall’ | The Book Review | 2016-06-03 | 1 |
Other mentions (1: passing, ad reads, own books)
“oh you know the first novel i published was called a conspiracy of tall men and it was about a professor of conspiracy theories whose wife is killed in a plane crash and he finally gets the conspiracy he's been looking for”