Society & Class

Examinations of class, power, and the structures we live within.

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Heart Lamp

Heart Lamp is a collection of twelve short stories portraying the lives of women and girls in Muslim communities in southern India. Through intimate family dramas, everyday conflicts, and moments of dark humor, Banu Mushtaq explores the effects of patriarchy, religious authority, caste discrimination, and social expectations on women’s lives. Her characters include mothers struggling to protect their children, girls confronting restrictive traditions, and women navigating relationships shaped by unequal power. Written with wit, compassion, and sharp social observation, the stories reveal both the injustices embedded in family and community life and the resilience of those who challenge them. Originally written in Kannada over more than three decades, the collection offers a nuanced portrait of contemporary Indian society. It won the 2025 International Booker Prize in Deepa Bhasthi’s English translation.

Perfection

Vincenzo Latronico

In Perfection, Anna and Tom are a young creative couple living in Berlin, where they enjoy a carefully curated lifestyle of remote work, minimalist interiors, cultural experiences, and seemingly effortless happiness. Surrounded by the aesthetics of contemporary urban life, they appear to have achieved the freedom and fulfillment they desire. Yet beneath their polished routines lies a growing sense of emptiness and dissatisfaction. Through precise, detached prose, Vincenzo Latronico examines the contradictions of digital nomadism, gentrification, consumer culture, and the pursuit of an ideal life shaped by social media. The novel offers a sharp portrait of a generation caught between the desire for authenticity and the pressure to make every aspect of life look perfect.

A Spell of Good Things

A Spell of Good Things

Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀

Set in contemporary Nigeria, A Spell of Good Things follows two young people from vastly different social backgrounds whose lives become entangled amid growing political tensions, family pressures, and personal struggles. Ẹniọlá is a sixteen-year-old boy whose family has fallen into poverty after his father loses his job as a teacher. Once accustomed to a more comfortable life, he now struggles to pay his school fees and preserve his dignity. He runs errands, works for a local tailor, and occasionally begs on the streets, all while holding on to his dreams of a better future. Wúràọlá, meanwhile, comes from a wealthy and influential family. A talented young doctor in her first year of practice, she is exhausted by the demands of her profession and trapped in an increasingly troubling relationship with Kúnlé, the son of a powerful politician. Although her privileged background offers financial security, it cannot protect her from the pressures and dangers of her personal life. When a local politician takes an interest in Ẹniọlá and violence erupts during a family celebration, the lives of the two young people become unexpectedly connected. Their stories unfold against a backdrop of political corruption, social inequality, and a society approaching a moment of crisis. Through these intersecting narratives, Adébáyọ̀ examines the relationship between wealth and power, the vulnerability of women, and the ways social class shapes people’s opportunities and choices. The novel reveals how the struggles of seemingly different individuals are connected by the structures surrounding them, offering a nuanced portrait of contemporary Nigerian society.

Land of Milk and Honey

Land of Milk and Honey

In a world choked by smog, where crops are disappearing and food is becoming scarce, an unnamed young chef accepts a job at an isolated mountain estate reserved for the wealthy elite. Behind its borders, the sky is clear, rare ingredients flourish, and extravagant meals offer a taste of a world that no longer exists. Working for a mysterious benefactor and his enigmatic daughter, the chef discovers unexpected pleasures, forbidden desires, and unsettling truths about the people determined to survive at any cost. Sensuous and quietly dystopian, C Pam Zhang’s novel explores the morality of privilege, the politics of appetite, and the question of who deserves pleasure when the world is falling apart.

United States 2024

Obligations to the Wounded

Obligations to the Wounded

Mubanga Kalimamukwento

In Obligations to the Wounded, Mubanga Kalimamukwento presents a collection of interconnected stories exploring the burdens, expectations, and contradictions that shape the lives of Zambian women and girls. Spanning different generations and geographical settings, the stories portray women negotiating the demands of family, religion, tradition, and community while struggling to preserve their individuality. Through formally inventive storytelling, Kalimamukwento explores subjects including intimate partner violence, migration, racial discrimination, the loss of language, sexuality, and the complicated relationships between mothers and daughters. Her characters inhabit worlds where inherited customs can offer a sense of belonging while simultaneously restricting personal freedom. Some seek escape; others attempt to reconcile their desires with the obligations imposed upon them. Moving between personal experiences and broader social questions, the collection examines what women owe their families and communities—and what they owe themselves. Kalimamukwento combines emotional sensitivity with sharp social observation, revealing how pain can be passed between generations but also how solidarity and self-determination can create possibilities for change. The result is a nuanced portrait of contemporary Zambian womanhood, including the experiences of Zambian women living abroad.

Arabilious: Anthology of Arab Futurism

Arabilious: Anthology of Arab Futurism

Arabilious: Anthology of Arab Futurism brings together nine science-fiction stories imagining alternative futures shaped by the cultures, histories, and social realities of the Arab world. Featuring writers from Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, and Syria, the collection challenges the dominance of Western perspectives in speculative fiction and presents visions of the future rooted in Arab experiences. The stories explore the consequences of emerging technologies, environmental crises, political conflict, and social inequality. Rather than imagining progress as a simple escape from the past, the contributors examine how traditions, collective identities, and historical memories continue to shape societies undergoing rapid change. The anthology includes Fadi Zaghmout’s A Jaha in the Metaverse, which reimagines the traditional Jordanian marriage-custom ceremony within a virtual world, using satire to question the persistence of patriarchal practices in an increasingly technological society. Together, these stories expand the possibilities of Arab science fiction, offering imaginative alternatives to the present while questioning who gets to envision the future. The collection combines speculative experimentation with cultural specificity, social criticism, and reflections on the legacy of colonialism.

Loneliness & Company

Loneliness & Company

In a near-future America where loneliness has supposedly been eliminated from society’s vocabulary, Lee expects her academic success to secure her a prestigious job at a leading technology corporation. Instead, she finds herself in a struggling, half-abandoned New York City, working for an obscure company with an unusual mission: training an artificial intelligence named Vicky to understand friendship. Initially, Lee approaches the task as a research problem, studying human interactions and observing the lively social life of her roommate, Veronika. But when she discovers that her employer is part of a secret government project designed to combat a mysterious resurgence of loneliness, her ambition takes over. Determined to produce results, Lee begins pursuing increasingly risky experiences to teach the algorithm what genuine human connection looks like. As her research becomes entangled with her own emotional life, she must confront the limits of technology and her understanding of intimacy. With wit and unsettling imagination, Dyroff explores isolation, ambition and the human need to belong in an increasingly technology-driven world.

United States 2024

Hyper

Hyper follows the Kermanj family, whose lives are shaped by migration, political upheaval, and the growing influence of global capitalism. After Rafiq Kermanj, a Kurdish communist activist, is forced to flee Tehran for London with his conservative wife and three children, the family struggles to adapt to life in exile. As the children grow up, each develops a different relationship with money and success. Siver escapes an unhappy marriage in Baghdad and raises her daughter in Dubai, Mohammed pursues a career in London’s financial sector, and Laika becomes immersed in the world of algorithmic trading near Wall Street. Their increasingly disconnected lives reveal how financial ambition can reshape personal relationships and cultural identity. Ismaïl examines the pressures of modern capitalism, the experience of statelessness, and the search for meaning in a world where economic success increasingly defines human worth.

In the Shadows of Love

In the Shadows of Love

In the Shadows of Love follows Mona Ahmed, a wealthy woman living in Lahore whose seemingly perfect life conceals years of heartbreak and unresolved secrets. Married to successful businessman Bilal, she enjoys financial comfort, a beautiful home, and a respected position in high society. Yet beneath this privileged exterior, Mona struggles with memories of a lost love and the emotional consequences of a past affair that continues to affect her marriage and family. To protect her reputation, Mona maintains the appearance of a devoted wife, hosting glamorous gatherings and fulfilling the expectations of Lahore’s elite social circles. Her carefully controlled life begins to unravel when an unexpected message brings the past back into the present. As buried secrets threaten to emerge, Mona must confront the consequences of her choices and the fragile foundations of her marriage. Set against the contrasting worlds of wealth, privilege, and social pressure in contemporary Pakistan, Awais Khan’s novel explores love, betrayal, forgiveness, and the price of maintaining appearances. It also examines how rigid social expectations can trap people in lives that look perfect from the outside but conceal profound emotional suffering.

Witness

What does it mean to witness someone else’s suffering—and what responsibility comes with seeing the truth? Set in contemporary New York City, Witness brings together ten stories about people caught between the desire to care for one another and the uncomfortable truths that make connection difficult. A young girl tries to navigate tensions within her family as the home she knows faces an uncertain future. A man struggles with memories he cannot escape. A woman living with the aftermath of violence searches for a way forward. Across these lives, ordinary encounters become moments of revelation, exposing the quiet decisions that can shape a family, a friendship, or an entire community. Jamel Brinkley writes about the spaces between people: the affection that survives disappointment, the secrets that fracture trust, and the moments when silence becomes its own kind of betrayal. His characters are neither wholly innocent nor easily condemned; they are human, complicated, and often uncertain about what doing the right thing actually requires. Tender, unsettling, and deeply observant, Witness explores grief, belonging, inequality, and the moral weight of looking away. It asks whether truly seeing another person is enough—or whether we must also find the courage to act.

United States 2023

Yellowface

Rebecca F. Kuang

How far would you go to become the writer you believe you deserve to be? June Hayward has spent years watching her university friend Athena Liu enjoy the literary success she desperately craves. When Athena dies unexpectedly, June steals her unpublished manuscript, makes a few changes, and publishes it under the ambiguous name Juniper Song. The novel becomes a sensation, bringing June fame, fortune, and the recognition she has always wanted. But as questions about authorship and cultural appropriation begin to surface, maintaining her carefully constructed identity becomes increasingly dangerous. With biting humour and escalating suspense, Yellowface exposes the darker side of the publishing industry, exploring racism, jealousy, literary ambition, and the ethics of telling stories that are not yours.

United States 2023

Venice Requiem

Khalid Lyamlahy

On a cold January day in 2017, a young Gambian refugee named Pateh Sabally drowns in Venice’s Grand Canal while tourists and passers-by watch. Some even hurl insults at him. Horrified by this tragedy, a young writer sets out to reconstruct Pateh’s final days and understand the circumstances that led to his death. Moving through Venice’s literary history, from Thomas Mann to Marcel Proust, the narrator confronts an uncomfortable question: what does it mean to celebrate beauty and culture while turning away from human suffering? Blending fiction, investigation, and literary reflection, Khalid Lyamlahy offers a powerful meditation on migration, racism, indifference, and the moral responsibility of witnessing another person’s pain. Venice Requiem is both a tribute to a forgotten life and an indictment of a society that too often fails to recognise the humanity of those on its margins.

About this theme

Books: 140
Countries: 54

Countries with this theme

Bosnia and Herzegovina

Congo, Democratic Republic

Côte d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast)

Dominican Republic