Freedom & Resistance

Voices of resistance, liberation, and the fight for justice.

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Second Nature

Ling Ling Huang

In the isolated community of the Veil, Bodie grows up surrounded by his many mothers and devoted to a female God. His world seems peaceful, governed by ancient traditions and strict expectations. But as Bodie develops romantic feelings for his closest friend, Aster, he begins to question the rules that shape their lives. When he approaches a mysterious ritual marking the transition to adulthood, unsettling truths emerge about the society he has always trusted. To protect himself and the people he loves, Bodie must confront the one thing his community forbids: escape. Haunting and thought-provoking, this speculative novel explores faith, desire, survival, and the dangers of unquestioned traditions.

United States 2027

Serious Music

Percival Everett

In 1918, Arthur Champion is a gifted young Black music scholar studying at the Oberlin Conservatory when a vindictive professor sends his life in an unexpected direction: he is drafted into the US Army and shipped to the trenches of the First World War. Surviving the horrors of the Somme, Arthur begins a remarkable journey through the jazz clubs of Paris and Harlem, eventually reaching the White House of President Woodrow Wilson. Along the way, he discovers the transformative power of his musical voice in a society determined to deny him ownership of his own talent. Blending dark humour with historical drama, Percival Everett examines racism, artistic freedom, and the struggle to claim one’s place in a world shaped by prejudice.

United States 2027

The Moth Reborn

The Moth Reborn

Samantha Shannon

The world has descended into chaos, and humanity can no longer deny that gods walk among them. After months abroad, clairvoyant Paige Mahoney is ready to reunite with Arcturus and continue their fight against the oppressive Republic of Scion. But an invitation to Iceland, where the Ranthen are choosing a new leader, ends in violence, forcing Paige and her allies into a dangerous flight across Europe. As she races to protect the revolution, Paige must uncover the truth about her own existence and the origins of clairvoyance. The sixth and penultimate instalment of The Bone Season series promises political intrigue, ancient revelations, and hard-won love.

United Kingdom 2027

Prison Memoir

Shahrnush Parsipur

What does it mean to remain free in a place designed to take away your freedom? In this unflinching memoir, Iranian writer Shahrnush Parsipur recounts her experiences of imprisonment under both the Shah’s regime and the Islamic Republic. Arrested four times, including a period of nearly five years in prison without formal charges, she witnesses the fear, cruelty, and ideological divisions that shape life behind bars. Yet her account is not simply a record of suffering. With remarkable candour, irony, and unexpected humour, Parsipur reflects on the absurdities of political repression, the lives of fellow prisoners, and her own struggle to understand the forces transforming her country. Combining personal testimony with sharp social observation, Prison Memoir offers a powerful portrait of a woman who refuses to surrender her independence of thought, even when the state attempts to silence her.

Huna

Abdelrahman ElGendy

At seventeen, Abdelrahman ElGendy is arrested during Egypt’s political upheaval and spends six years imprisoned alongside his father. Amid brutal conditions and an uncertain future, he turns to writing as an act of survival and resistance. Both an intimate memoir of family, friendship, and endurance and a powerful indictment of authoritarianism, Huna asks what it means to hold on to your humanity when the world tries to erase you.

Seven Heavens Away

Seven Heavens Away

In Jerusalem, where everyday life unfolds under the shadow of escalating violence, fifteen-year-old Aziz faces a loss that will change everything. After his friend Hassan is killed, Aziz is pulled between grief, loyalty, and the growing political anger surrounding him. His feelings for Dafna, a Jewish girl he works with, further complicate his friendships and force him to question the divisions shaping his world. As his family searches for a way to protect his future, Aziz must confront a difficult choice: how to hold on to love, compassion, and hope when the world seems determined to take them away.

Medusa's Laugh

Hélène Cixous

What if women could reclaim their freedom simply by telling their own stories? First published in 1975, Hélène Cixous’s Medusa’s Laugh is a landmark of feminist thought that challenges the patriarchal traditions shaping literature, language, and society. Drawing on the myth of Medusa, a woman transformed into a monster by the stories told about her, Cixous invites women to reject the identities imposed on them and rediscover their own voices. She introduces the concept of écriture féminine—a form of writing that breaks away from conventional, male-dominated structures and embraces the complexity of women’s bodies, desires, and experiences. Passionate, poetic, and deliberately provocative, this essay is both a literary manifesto and a call to action: women must write themselves into history rather than allow others to define them. Its central message remains powerful: self-expression can be an act of liberation.

Springtime in the Bones

Springtime in the Bones

Set in Salvador, Bahia, Springtime in the Bones follows Luísa, a successful advertising professional whose carefully constructed life is shattered by sexual assault and the breakdown of her marriage. Still emotionally attached to her former husband, Michel, who has embraced his attraction to men, Luísa finds herself confronting two profound losses: the love she cannot let go of and the sense of safety stolen from her. As she struggles with the aftermath of violence, grief gives way to an uncompromising desire for revenge against the men who attacked her. Told through a fragmented, nonlinear narrative, the novel moves between memories, philosophical reflections, dark humor, and moments of raw emotional intensity. Leilla creates a protagonist who refuses to remain a passive victim, instead exploring the uncomfortable relationship between trauma, anger, and the pursuit of justice. Through Luísa’s determination to reclaim control over her body and her life, the novel challenges conventional expectations of how survivors should respond to violence. Poetic, provocative, and formally experimental, it is a powerful exploration of female autonomy, desire, and the possibility of renewal after profound suffering.

The Trap

Fiona Kelly McGregor

Sydney, October 1942. As the Second World War transforms the city, blackouts, curfews, thriving black markets, and an influx of American servicemen create an atmosphere of opportunity and danger. Beneath the respectable surface of wartime society, nightclubs and underground bars offer refuge to people living outside conventional social norms. Among them is Ray Sayles, a nightclub manager whose encounter in the Domain, a public park in central Sydney, brings him to the attention of the police. Detectives Thomas Carney and William Grigg are conducting a campaign against homosexual men, using entrapment in public toilets to manufacture arrests. As Ray becomes caught in their scheme, a scandal begins to expose the corruption and hypocrisy of those entrusted with upholding the law. Journalists, lawyers, and influential establishment figures become entangled in a struggle over truth, reputation, and justice. Inspired by a real historical scandal, this compelling novel brings to life Sydney’s marginalised communities during wartime. Blending crime fiction with social history, McGregor examines institutional homophobia, police corruption, and the resilience of people forced to conceal their identities to survive. At its heart, The Trap asks who gets to define morality—and what happens when the law itself becomes an instrument of persecution.

First of December

First of December

Set during the final week before the emancipation of enslaved people in South Africa, First of December follows three individuals whose lives intersect on the eve of a historic turning point. Caroline Kendrick, an English bride living in the Cape Colony, finds herself trapped in an unhappy marriage and a place she despises. Her husband, James, is determined to build a successful future and restore his fortunes through an ambitious banking venture, even as his relationship with Caroline deteriorates. Meanwhile, an unnamed enslaved woman, devastated by the loss of her stillborn child, escapes and travels along the coast toward Cape Town, desperate to reunite with her lover before freedom is declared. As their journeys unfold, the characters confront loneliness, ambition, desperation, and the brutal inequalities of colonial society. Their personal struggles take place against the historical reality of emancipation, which formally took effect in the Cape Colony on 1 December 1838, following a period of compulsory apprenticeship for formerly enslaved people. With restrained prose and profound psychological insight, Jennings explores the distance between legal freedom and lived experience. The novel examines how historical change transforms individual lives while exposing the enduring power imbalances embedded in society.

South Africa 2026

Saoirse

Charleen Hurtubise

In 1999, Saoirse Byrne appears to have found the life she always dreamed of. Living on Ireland’s rugged Donegal coast, she shares a peaceful home with her partner, Daithí, and their two daughters. A talented artist, she pours her love for her family and her appreciation of the surrounding landscape into her paintings. But beneath this seemingly idyllic existence lies a secret: Saoirse has been living under a stolen identity since fleeing the United States as a teenager. She has crossed an ocean to escape a traumatic childhood and the dangerous people connected to her past, determined never to return to the life she left behind. When an exhibition in Dublin brings her unexpected acclaim, the attention threatens to expose the carefully constructed identity that has allowed her to survive. As memories of her troubled upbringing and the choices she made to escape resurface, Saoirse must confront the possibility that the past she has tried to bury could destroy the family and freedom she has worked so hard to build. Moving between Ireland and the United States, this suspenseful literary novel explores trauma, reinvention, the complexities of love, and the fragile boundary between survival and deception. It asks whether it is possible to escape one’s past—or whether true freedom requires facing it at last.

No Land to Stand On: Notes from Detention

No Land to Stand On: Notes from Detention

In this powerful memoir, Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil recounts his detention by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in March 2025 and the fight against his threatened deportation. A Columbia University graduate student and legal permanent resident, Khalil became a prominent voice in student protests against the war in Gaza. His arrest separated him from his pregnant wife and home in New York, transporting him to a detention facility in Louisiana, where he faced uncertainty about his future and the possibility of being forcibly removed from the country. Drawing on the diary he kept during his imprisonment, Khalil describes the psychological toll of detention, the precarious lives of fellow detainees, and the unexpected solidarity that develops among people deprived of their freedom. He also traces his family’s history of displacement—from Palestine to a refugee camp in Syria—and his own journey through Lebanon to the United States. Combining personal testimony with political reflection, this memoir examines exile, belonging, and the consequences of speaking out against injustice. It asks what freedom and security truly mean when a person’s right to remain at home can be challenged for exercising their right to protest.

Palestine United States 2026

About this theme

Books: 107
Countries: 45

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