Literary Fiction

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1
Unnecessary Woman
Unnecessary Woman
Rabih Alameddine
An Unnecessary Woman centres on Aaliya Saleh, a seventy-two-year-old woman living alone in Beirut. Divorced and estranged from much of her family, Aaliya has spent decades translating literary works into Arabic for her own satisfaction, often without publishing or sharing them. Books provide her with companionship, intellectual freedom, and a refuge from the expectations of a society that frequently overlooks older women. As political tensions and personal memories intrude on her carefully ordered life, Aaliya reflects on her relationships, the civil war, and the choices that have shaped her existence. Her solitary routine is disrupted when an unexpected event threatens to expose the private world she has built around literature. Alameddine explores ageing, independence, cultural identity, and the importance of art, portraying a woman who finds meaning not through conventional success but through the life of the mind.
Lebanon 2014
2
The Book of Disappearance
The Book of Disappearance
Ibtisam Azem
The Book of Disappearance imagines a startling alternative reality: one morning, all Palestinians living within Israel suddenly vanish without explanation. The disappearance transforms the country, leaving behind empty homes, abandoned workplaces, and a society forced to confront the absence of a population whose presence has shaped its history and everyday life. At the centre of the novel is Alaa, a Palestinian journalist living in Tel Aviv, whose Israeli friend Ariel discovers Alaa’s abandoned diary and begins reading it. Through their intertwined perspectives, the novel explores memory, displacement, belonging, and the political tensions surrounding Palestinian identity. As Ariel searches for meaning in the disappearance, Alaa’s diary reveals the intimate experiences and historical wounds that official narratives often overlook. Blending speculative fiction with social and political commentary, Ibtisam Azem challenges readers to imagine how history, identity, and power might look if those who have been marginalised were suddenly impossible to ignore.
Palestine 2014
3
The Shadow of the Crescent Moon
The Shadow of the Crescent Moon
Fatima Bhutto
In Mir Ali, a small town in Pakistan’s tribal region near the Afghan border, three brothers gather for breakfast on a rain-soaked Friday morning. Their lives have been shaped by years of conflict, political oppression, and personal loss, but each has chosen a different path. Aman Erum, the eldest, has returned from America after pursuing wealth and opportunity abroad. Sikandar, a doctor, dedicates himself to treating the wounded while struggling with the grief that has devastated his family. Hayat, the youngest, remains committed to his father’s revolutionary ideals and dreams of liberating their town from oppression. As the brothers go about their day, their lives intersect with those of two women whose experiences reveal the devastating consequences of violence and the difficult choices people make to survive. Set against the backdrop of the war in Afghanistan and the conflict spilling into Pakistan, The Shadow of the Crescent Moon explores family loyalty, political resistance, love, and the struggle to preserve one’s humanity in a world consumed by violence.
Pakistan 2013
4
The Goldfinch
The Goldfinch
Donna Tartt
After a devastating accident kills his mother, thirteen-year-old Theo Decker finds himself clinging to a small, captivating painting that connects him to her. As he grows older, the artwork draws him into a world of wealth, deception, and the criminal art trade. Winner of the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, this sweeping novel explores grief, obsession, and the mysterious ways beauty can shape a life.
United States 2013
5
Gun Dealers’ Daughter
Gun Dealers’ Daughter
Gina Apostol
A privileged young woman. A revolutionary lover. A past she cannot fully remember. Growing up in a wealthy family in the Philippines under Ferdinand Marcos’s authoritarian rule, Soledad “Sol” Soliman has lived a sheltered life, far removed from her country’s poverty and political turmoil. But when she enters university in Manila, she falls in with radical student activists and becomes involved in a revolutionary movement. Torn between romantic desire and political conviction, Sol is drawn into a conspiracy with devastating consequences. Years later, living far from home, she attempts to reconstruct her fractured memories and confront the act that continues to haunt her. Blending psychological suspense with political history, Gina Apostol’s award-winning novel explores privilege, rebellion, and the uneasy relationship between personal memory and national history.
Philippines 2013
6
The Roof Beneath Their Feet
The Roof Beneath Their Feet
Geetanjali Shree
In a close-knit residential complex in India, the rooftops of Laburnum House offer a rare refuge from the expectations and restrictions of everyday life. Chachcho, trapped in a lonely marriage, finds companionship in Lalna, a woman abandoned by her husband whom she takes into her home. Their intense and unconventional bond soon becomes the subject of neighbourhood gossip, as their closeness challenges accepted ideas about marriage, female desire and respectability. Years later, following Chachcho’s death, Lalna returns, prompting Chachcho’s nephew, Bitva, to revisit family memories and question the story of his own origins. Moving between perspectives and shifting recollections, Geetanjali Shree creates an intricate portrait of women’s lives, hidden desires and the stories families tell to protect themselves. The rooftop becomes a powerful symbol of freedom—a space where women can escape the watchful eyes of society and imagine lives beyond its boundaries.
India 2013
7
The Lowland
The Lowland
Jhumpa Lahiri
The Lowland tells the story of two brothers, Subhash and Udayan, who grow up together in Calcutta but choose dramatically different paths as adults. During the 1960s, Udayan becomes involved in the Naxalite movement, a radical communist uprising that challenges India’s political and social order. Subhash, by contrast, leaves for the United States to pursue an academic career. When political violence destroys Udayan’s future, Subhash returns to India and makes a decision that binds him to his brother’s family for decades. The consequences of this choice unfold across generations, affecting relationships, marriages, and the identity of Udayan’s daughter, Bela. Lahiri explores guilt, loyalty, political conviction, and the lasting consequences of family secrets, showing how a single act can shape the lives of people who were never responsible for it.
India 2013
8
Americanah
Americanah
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Americanah follows Ifemelu and Obinze, two young Nigerians whose love story unfolds across continents as they navigate migration, race, and the search for belonging. As a university student, Ifemelu moves to the United States, where she confronts the realities of being Black in a society that forces her to reconsider her identity. Through her experiences with relationships, work, and cultural differences, she develops a popular blog examining race and everyday life in America. Meanwhile, Obinze hopes to build a future in Britain but encounters a very different set of obstacles as an undocumented immigrant. Years later, Ifemelu returns to Nigeria, bringing with her a transformed understanding of home and the person she has become. As the two reconnect, they must confront the ways their experiences have changed them and consider whether their relationship can survive the passage of time. Blending romance with sharp social commentary, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie explores race, immigration, class, cultural identity, and the complex meaning of home in an interconnected world.
Nigeria 2013
9
Our Lady of the Nile
Our Lady of the Nile
Scholastique Mukasonga
High in the mountains of Rwanda, an elite Catholic boarding school for girls stands isolated above the Nile, promising its students education, respectability, and protection from the outside world. But beneath its orderly routines, the school reflects the growing ethnic tensions and prejudices shaping Rwandan society in the years before the 1994 genocide. Admission quotas restrict the number of Tutsi students, leaving girls such as Veronica and Virginia vulnerable to discrimination and hostility from their Hutu classmates. As Gloriosa, the daughter of a powerful politician, spreads increasingly dangerous nationalist ideas, friendships fracture and everyday rivalries become entangled with political violence. The school, overseen by Belgian nuns, becomes a microcosm of a society moving toward catastrophe. Through the experiences of its teenage students, Scholastique Mukasonga explores how prejudice is taught, how colonial legacies shape identity, and how violence can take root in ordinary life long before it erupts into tragedy.
Rwanda 2012
10
The Mountain and the Wall
The Mountain and the Wall
Alisa Ganieva
In The Mountain and the Wall, Shamil, a young journalist in Dagestan’s capital, Makhachkala, hears rumours that the Russian government intends to build a wall separating the Muslim regions of the North Caucasus from the rest of the country. As anxiety and unrest spread, Shamil finds himself confronting the political and religious divisions shaping his community. What begins as distant speculation gradually becomes an urgent personal and social crisis, forcing him to reconsider his own passivity. Ganieva portrays a region caught between competing ideologies, traditional beliefs, and the pressures of modern political life. Through Shamil’s experiences, the novel explores how intolerance and extremism can fracture communities and how ordinary people respond when the society around them begins to unravel.
Russia 2012
11
Salvage the Bones
Salvage the Bones
Jesmyn Ward
Set in rural Mississippi in the days leading up to Hurricane Katrina, Salvage the Bones follows fifteen-year-old Esch Batiste and her three brothers as they navigate poverty, family tensions, and the looming threat of a devastating storm. Living with their father in a neglected community, the siblings struggle to prepare for the hurricane while confronting their own emotional and personal challenges. Esch, who is pregnant and quietly in love with her brother’s friend, finds parallels between her experiences and the mythological story of Medea. As the storm approaches, the family must rely on one another to survive. Through vivid storytelling and lyrical prose, Jesmyn Ward explores the bonds of family, the resilience of marginalized communities, and the enduring power of love amid hardship. The novel portrays the devastating intersection of poverty, race, and environmental disaster while celebrating the strength of those who endure.
United States 2012
12
The Passion According to G.H.
The Passion According to G.H.
Clarice Lispector
In The Passion According to G.H., a wealthy sculptor in Rio de Janeiro experiences a profound existential crisis after entering her former maid’s room and encountering a cockroach. What begins as an ordinary domestic moment transforms into a disturbing confrontation with her identity, humanity, and understanding of existence. Through an intense stream of consciousness, Clarice Lispector explores the boundaries between self and other, human and animal, and the sacred and the material. As G.H.’s familiar sense of self begins to dissolve, she confronts the unsettling possibility that true understanding requires abandoning the illusions that define human identity. The novel is a challenging philosophical exploration of consciousness, transformation, and the search for meaning beyond conventional beliefs.
Brazil 2012